Staunton Spectator, And General Advertiser

RETURN OF THE JEWS TO THE HOLY LAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

Sir: For the information of such of your readers as sympathise with the Jews in their present dispersion, and who desire their restoration to the land of their fathers, I herewith send you extracts from a German newspaper, which "betoken a movement among the continental Jews in relation to the late crisis in Syria," as the editor remarks:

"We have a country, the inheritance of our fathers, finer, more fruitful, better situated for commerce, than many of the most celebrated portions of the globe." Environed by the deep delved Taurus, the lively shores of the Euphrates, the lofty steppes of Arabia, and the rocky Sinai, our country extends along the shores of the Mediterranean; crowned by the towering cedars of Lebanon, the source of a hundred rivulets and brooks, which spread fruitfulness over shady dales, and confer wealth on the contented inhabitants. A glorious land! situate at the furthest extremity of the sea which connects three quarters of the globe, over which the Phœnicians, our brethren, sent their numerous fleets to the shores of Albion and the rich coasts of Lithuania, near to both the Red sea and Persian gulf; the perpetual courses of the traffic of the world, on the way from Persia and India to the Caspian and Black Sea, the central country of the commerce between the east and the west.

"Every country has its peculiarity—every people their own nature. Syria, with its extensive surrounding plains unfavorable to regular cultivation, is a land of transit, of communication, of caravans. No people on the earth have lived so true to their calling from the first, as we have done. We are a trading people, born for the country where little food is necessary, and this is furnished by Nature almost spontaneously to the temperate inhabitants, but not for the heavy soils of the ruder north,

"In no country of the earth are our brethren so numerous as in Syria; in none do they live in as dense masses, so independent of the surrounding inhabitants; in none do they persevere so steadfastly in their faith in the promise of the fathers, as on the beautiful shores of the Orontes. In Damascus alone live near 60,000.

"The Arab has maintained his language and his original country: on the Nile, in the deserts, as far as Sinai, and beyond the Jordan, he feeds his flocks. In the elevated plains of Asia Minor the Turcoman has conquered for himself a second country, the birthplace of the Osman; but Syria and Palestine are depopulated. For centuries the battle field between the sons of Altai and of the Arabian wilderness, the inhabitants of the West and the half nomadic Persians, none have been able to establish themselves and maintain their nationality; no nation can claim the name of Syrian. A chaotic mixture of all the tribes and tongues, remnants of migrations from the north and south, they disturb one another in the possession of the glorious land where our fathers for so many centuries emptied the cup of joy and wo, where every clod is drenched with the blood of our heroes when their bodies were buried under the ruins of Jerusalem.

"The power of our enemies is gone, the angel of discord has long since mown down their mighty host, and yet ye do not bestir yourselves, people of Jehovah! What hinders? Nothing but your own supineness.

"Think you that Mehemet Ali or the Sultan in Stamboul will not be convinced that it would be better for him to be the protector of a peaceful and wealthy people, than, with infinite loss of men and money, to contend against the ever-repeated, mutually provoked insurrections of the Turks and Arabs, of whom neither the one nor the other are able to give prosperity to the country?

"Our probation was long, in all countries, from the North Pole to the South. There is no trade, no art, which we have not practised, no science in which we cannot show splendid examples. Where will you find better proclaimers of civilization to the wild tribes of the East?

"People of Jehovah, raise yourselves from your thousand years' slumber! Rally round leaders; have really the will; a Moses will not be wanting. The rights of nations will never grow old; take possession of the land of your fathers; build a third time the temple of Zion, greater and more magnificent than ever. Trust in the Lord, who has led you safely through the vale of misery thousands of years. He, also, will not forsake you in your last conflict."

These extracts show that the Jews are exhorting one another to return to and take possession of their fatherland, now that their God is 'drying up the waters of the great river Euphrates, to 'prepare a way' for them, by the combined forces of Turkey acting against the Egyptians, as predicted in Daniel xi., 40-43, Rev. xvi., 12.

For this is the year ordained of God for reinstating the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in their own land, no more to be dispossessed of it by the Gentiles. (Jer. xxi. 14,15.) And, when returning, God will give them the tabernacle, and "the ark, and the altar of incense, which he commanded Jeremiah to hide in a hollow cave in Mount Nebo, when their ancestors were going into captivity in Babylon. For then the Lord shall show them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was shown unto Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honorably sanctified.' See 2 Mac. ii., 1-8.

From the subjoined calculation, drawn from scriptural data, it is obviously proved that the year 1840 terminated the 2,300 days,' or years, ordained by God for giving the Jews over to the Gentiles, by them to be trodden under foot for their transgression of the daily sacrifice.' (Dan. viii., 13, 14; Luke xxi., 20-34.) We may therefore expect the Jews to 'be received unto mercy' in their own land, this present year 1841, and to commence re-building their cities and the temple as in former years, as predicted in Jer. xxxi., 31-40. Ez. xxxvi., 24-38, xxxvii, and as spoken of by themselves in the extracts I send you.

And then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,' as predicted in Dan. viii., 14, (some say in 1843.)

According to Dan. ix., 24, those 2,300 days, or years, began 70 weeks, or 490 years, before the death and resurrection of Christ,

From these 490 years deduct the natural life of Christ, 34 years.

And it proves that those 2,300 days or years began B. C. 456 years.

To these -456 years add 1840 years and 4 years for the error of the vulgar era, in all 1844 years, 1,844 years.

And you have the number of the days, or years, of the vision. 2,300 years.

This subject receives additional force and interest from the following extract from a Liverpool publication of December last:

"With such anxiety are the Jews regarded by the different Cabinets of Europe that it is upon this issue—Who shall possess the land which God gave to their forefathers?—that the question of peace or war now depends, and their return to Palestine, under the guaranty of the Allied Powers, has been suggested as the most effectual mode of preserving peace among the nations. The dry bones are beginning to shake, and appearances bring the words of the Psalmist to our minds:-

Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come, for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof."

If these observations be found to accord with Divine Revelation, the present position of the Jews not only presents a most interesting object for contemplation, but must also lead every serious inquirer to admire the watchfulness of Jehovah over this ancient people during the lapse of so many ages, and at the same time to awaken the attention of professing Christians to the great events that must yet precede, and shall follow, their restoration to the land of their fathers, recorded in Ez. xxxvi, xxxvii., xxxviii., xxxix. Luke xxi., 24-23; Rom. xi.