116 GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH. Isa. xli. 11-13. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isa. liv. 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord. Micah v. 8, 9. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. Deut. xxxiii. 27. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. . . . Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. An American writer in the Phrenological Journal makes the following statement : 66 'Among the several epigrammatic sentences uttered by General Grant, and which have passed into history, was one in reference to the English soldier. I do not doubt that when he said it he had in his eye that peculiar gait of his veterans, with which he had seen them so often march to victory. It was in a brief address, I believe, at Gibraltar. He said that he had seen most of the soldiers of the Continent, that he liked the German soldiers, that the Spanish soldiers needed only good officers to make them superior; but he had seen nothing to compare with the English. "There is,' said he, 'something about them not found in any other soldier; it may be their Anglo-Saxon blood, they have the swing of conquest.' -(Public Opinion, November 25th, 1882.) We may here note that some have considered the scarlet uniform characteristic of British soldiery, and referred to as the "thin red line" by war correspondents, was foretold in Nahum ii. 3, "The valiant men are in scarlet." It is not the "swing of conquest" of General Grant, nor the "moral force" of Monsieur Max O'Rell, that gives us the victory, but it is the Lord our God who fighteth for us. THE HERITAGE OF THE HEATHEN. 117 Let our readers peruse the story of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Peninsular war, the Indian mutiny, and, in short, all the great battles and campaigns of Britain throughout the world, and they will be compelled to say, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be all the glory and praise. "O Britain, trust the Lord thy foes in vain Had they prevailed, darkness had closed our days, But we are saved, and live: let songs arise, And Britain bless the God that built the skies."-WATTS. 27. In possession of the Heathen. Ps. xviii. 43-45. Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me the strangers shall submit themselves (or yield feigned obedience) unto me. Ps. cxi. 6. He hath showed His people the power of His works, that He may give them the heritage of the heathen. Isa. liv. 3. Isa. xlix. 23. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles. They [the Gentiles] shall bow down to thee with their faces toward the earth, &c. Isa. lxi. 6. Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles; and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. Ps. ii. 8. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.* "On peace being restored after the quelling of the great Indian mutiny, Queen Victoria took the millions of India under her gracious protection (by transferring the immediate sovereignty from the Company to the crown), and promised to govern them according to those beneficent maxims which have always distinguished British rule."-(Leth. Hist. of India.) See list of British possessions under heading 15, “A Company of Nations" for Heathen Lands under British Rule. Section 36, should be referred to as a commentary on this section. * The meaning of this verse appears to us to have been misunderstood by most commentators, owing to the insertion of the word thee, not in the original: it means, "Ask from me (0 Christ), and I will give the heathennations (or Gentiles) (to) thy inheritance (viz. to Israel, vide Deut. ix. 26, 29; xxxii. 9; Kings viii. 51, 53; Ps. xxviii. 9; Isa. xix. 25) and (to) thy possession the ends of the earth (viz., Britain. See section 21). ( 118 ) CHAPTER XIII. Scriptural Evidence. 28. The Sabbath was ordained to be a Sign for ever. Ex. xxxi. 13, 16, 17: (13) Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever. (Ex. xxiii. 12; Deut. v. 12-14.) Ezek. xx. 12. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Lev. xxvi. 2. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary I am the Lord. Isa. lviii. 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. "A serious encounter took place about midnight on Saturday between a crowd of people and the railway officials and police at Strome Ferry, the western terminus of the Highland Railway. The disturbance arose out of an attempt made by the people to prevent the 'desecration of the Sabbath.' It was intended to despatch by special train some fish which had arrived at midnight to catch the limited mail at Inverness for London. On the fishing steamer's lights being seen a crowd of about 150 people, armed with clubs and sticks, turned out and prevented the fish from being landed. The railway authorities sought the aid of the police; but their joint REMEMBER THE SABBATH TO KEEP IT HOLY. 119 forces were insufficient to disperse the mob, who remained masters of the situation and prevented the despatch of the fish."-St. James's Budget, June 8th, 1883. See Chapter of Objections Answered, p. 65. The Sunday Society held its ninth annual meeting, on the 17th May 1884, at Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, when the President, the Duke of Westminster, "said that in his view England and English men OWED MORE THAN COULD WELL BE DESCRIBED TO THE INSTITU TION OF THE SABBATH, and MUCH TO THE manner in which it had been generally kept as a holy day in this country. On the whole the day was well and reverently kept by the upper classes, by the middle classes, and also by a great proportion of the working classes, all of whom would resent the conversion of the great day of rest into a day of work, or even wholly of pleasure." Lord Bramwell stated that "rational proper amusement on Sunday was permitted UNTIL ABOUT THE TIME OF THE COMMONWEALTH. In the time of James I., a book of sports was published under royal authority, in which certain games were described as being lawful and legitimate on Sunday. Up to the period mentioned, Sunday was observed pretty much in the same way in which it was now observed abroad" (Times, Weekly Edition, May 23, 1884). Read pp. 55-59 in connection with this quotation. So, according to Lord Bramwell, the way the Sabbath is observed abroad is by "rational proper amusement.' The present observance of the Sabbath, he informs us, dates from about the time of the Commonwealth, thus synchronising with the beginning of Britain's national prosperity, when Britain "delighted herself in the Lord," "rode upon the high places of the earth," and was fed with the heritage of Jacob," as was foretold by the prophet Isaiah. Truly the Sabbath is a sign between God and the children of Israel for ever, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. May God save our beloved land from the designs of men who know not the law of the Lord, however well intentioned may be their attempts to introduce into England a Continental Sabbath. The author of "John Bull and his Island," in chapter xxvi., bears testimony to the observance of the Lord's day in England thus: "If you would keep an impression of London that nothing would efface from your memory, come and see it on a Sunday; and, if possible, let it be one Sunday when there is a good east wind blowing. "All the shops are closed; not a creature stirring; miles of deserted-looking streets everywhere; the grey houses and the grey sky seem to meet and mingle. Around and above, look where you will, the same sad tint encircles you and strikes chill 120 THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. to the marrow of your bones. It gives you (Frenchmen) cold shivers. "Now you see a sight that the English say excites the envy of the whole world; the English nation going to church or chapel. Each one carries his books in his hand : a Bible, a prayer-book, and a hymn-book." "In France, blind beggars play the flute. In England, they read aloud from a Bible printed in raised characters, over which they pass their fingers (vide Section 36). "You will see the walls of all waiting-rooms covered with sheets of Scriptural texts printed in large type. . . . Turn which way you will, BIBLE here, Bible there, Bible eveRYWHERE.” George Augustus Sala in his "America Revisited," p. 126, testifies to the strict observance of the Sabbath in America. "Let me remark, once for all, that the observance of the Sabbath in some parts of the United States is a SUBSTANTIAL, STRINGENT, INFLEXIBLE, BUT DOUBTLESS BENEFICENT REALITY. It is more than Scotch in its severity. We all know how vastly serviceable to the cause of morality and virtue the strict observance of the Seventh Day has been to our brethren beyond the Tweed, and how proper Sabbath-keeping statutes make them a model people in the way of ethics and abstinence from intoxicating liquors. Similarly righteous respect for the sanctity of the Sunday has evidently been productive among the Americans of that rapidly growing temperance, frugality, and law-abidingness, and that surprising development in political purity and commercial probity, which no foreign visitor to their country can fail to observe as being eminently characteristic of the nation. 66 "Baltimore is not behindhand in the Spartan strictness of its Sabbatarianism. I was wicked enough to wish to get shaved; and the barber informed me that it would be AGAINST THE LAW OF THE STATE for him to shave me then and there. "But on Sunday, and during the whole of the Sabbath, from midnight till midnight, the law of the state inexorably closes, not only the dram-shop, but the hotel-bar. You can obtain nothing whatever that is potable either in or out of church-time." 29. To put down the Slave Trade and Punish the Oppressor. Isa. lviii. 6. Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and TO LET THE OPPRESSED GO FREE, and THAT YE BREAK EVERY YOKE. Jer. xxxiv. 15, 17. And ye were now turned, and had done |