majority, _the poor_, will be especially guarded and
cared for. There will be no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad; no
unemployed, begging for a chance to earn a dry crust, and no workers
fighting for a fair share of the fruit of their sweat-wet toil. But there
are tenderer touches yet upon this canvas. Broken hearts will be healed
up, prison doors unhung, broken family circles complete again. It is to be
a time of great rejoicing by the common people. Yet all this will be
brought about, not immediately, but gradually, following the natural law
of growth; though the beginning will be marked by a great crisis, coming
suddenly.
The effect upon Israel _nationally_ is to be tremendous, sweepingly
reversing the conditions under which most of these predictions are made.
Israel is to become a Spirit-baptized nation, wholly swayed by the Spirit
of God, and that gracious sway never to be withdrawn. All judgments for
her sins are removed and all impurity thoroughly cleansed away. Possession
of their own land is assured. And the capital city is to become a _holy_
place from which, in common with the whole land, all impurity has been
cleansed away. All weakness and disability are gone, and full freedom from
the exactions of her former enemies to be enjoyed. Not only is Israel to
be at peace with all nations, but, far more, is to have the _leadership_
of the nations of the earth, and leadership of the highest sort--in a
world-wide spiritual movement, in the day when the Spirit of God is to be
poured out upon all flesh.
This leadership is to be a glorious and absolute supremacy among all the
nations of the earth. And yet this is not to be by man's method of
conquest, but of their own earnest accord all nations will come a-running
eagerly, voluntarily, with all their wealth and resources for the
upbuilding and service of Israel. In that time the Hebrew capital
Jerusalem will likewise be the capital of the earth.
No less radical and sweeping will be the changes in Israel _personally_,
individually. The people are to be _made over new within_. The modern word
for this sort of thing is regeneration. The old-fashioned word is a _new
heart--a new spirit_. The change is to be at the _core_; a change of the
sort. With this will come a marked spirit of devotion to God, and a
peculiar open-mindedness to the truth. There will be an absence of all
sickness and a decided increase in length of life and great increase in
numbers. There
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