The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-10 00:00:00

DR. CUMMING.

LECTURE ON PROPHECY, BY

Yesterday afternoon, at the Free-trade Hall, Manchester,
Dr. Cumming deliv red a lecture to a crowded audience, the
subject being " The Destiny and Mission of England in the
Prophetic Record." The Rev. JAMES BAItDSLEY, who pre-
sided, said that the visit of the lecturer to Manchester was
in
some way connected with the British Reformation So-
ciety, which had been formed in this country to counteract
the principles and operations of the Church of Rome. The
society had stationed two missionaries in Manchester,. and
had granted to the city the sum of £220 during
thepast
year. He regretted that the income of the society from
Manchester for the same period had only been £l2O,
anomaly which he hoped they would - an
strive to remove.
(Hear, hear.)
Dr. CUMMING commenced by saying he attributed the
interest evinced in the lecture to the two sermons he had
delivered in the old monastic church of the Oratoire, in the
Rue Rivoli, Paris, which had been placed at his disposal by
the French National Church, with a feeling of sisterhood
which all must admire in the descendants of the illustrious
Huguenots. The subject of one of those sermons was the
same as he had now chosen, and it excited a great deal of
interest both amongst those who were polite enough to
tell him that they desired to see the eagles of France shake
their feathers in the winds of England, and amongst those
who were proud to know that when the said eagles came
there was mettle enough in the Volunteers of England alone
to meet and repel the attack. (Cheers.) That sermon had
been commented upon by the French papers, by those of
our own metropolis, and no doubt by the papers of this
city, and thus had attained a notoriety. After the lecture
in Paris, he was accosted by a gentleman who from his
softness of tone and plausibility of manner he recognised
as one of the celebrated brotherhood of Ignatius Loyola.
This gentleman expressed a very significant opinion with
regard to the Pope. He said if he were introduced to
Ferretti (the original name of the Pope) he would shake
hands with him, for a more benevolent and kind-hearted
man never lived; if he were introduced not to Ferretti but
to Pio Nono, the holy father, the pontiff, the vicar of Christ,
he would kneel down and with all his heart kiss his foot, as
a reverence due to so august and exalted a personage ; but
if he were introduced to the sovereign of the States of the
Church, to the temporal ruler of the Marches, the Romagna,
and Civita Vecchia, he would give him a black eye. (Laugh-
ter.) This was intensely Romish, and showed the exquisite
dialectic subtlety which could divide the same personage
into three pieces, to be so differently treated. He (the
lecturer) disclaimed any pretensions to being a prophet or
the son of a prophet. Ho tried to forthtell what the in-
spired prophets had written, and did not pretend to fore-
tell, which it would require him to be an inspired prophet
to do. He always spoke of the great doctrines of Christi-
anity with unflinching dogmatism; but when speaking of
unfulfilled prophecy he spoke with the utmost reticence,
modesty, and reserve, as of a subject on which he might be
wrong. There was a glorious issue for this great land. He
believed that England was not to go down amidst the wreck
of nations; that she was to be the Israel and Judea of
Europe itself, and that God had too great a design for
her to accomplish—too sublime a mission to fulfil—
ever to allow the "first isle of the ocean " to perish
amid the awful convulsions which had now begun to agitate
and terribly to shake the nations of the earth. No one
could look abroad without seeing that we were rapidly drift-
ing into some new and unexperienced circumstances and
situations. The state of Rome at present, as described by
the Times correspondent, was a literal fulfilment of the pro-
phecy that " judgment shall sit to the end ;" and that of
St. Paul, " I will consume it by my spirit." The whole of
the city was going to ruin. He did not believe that the
Popedom was to cease. The screams of the Pope for assis-
tance were piercing ; his entreaties to those he had been
wont to curse were eloquent and affecting ; he appealed
to their selfishness and to their religion ; he heard
the echo of his appeal, but rarely received an answer.
Why was all this? The Popedom was not now to be
destroyed; it was being "consumed," and at the close
it would be utterly destroyed by the brightness of the Re-
deemer's personal arrival. He grounded the immediate
subject of his lecture on the 18th chapter of Isaiah; and
deduced therefrom that the nation spoken of as " scattered
and peeled," was the Jewish nation. If asked to cast a
glance over the area of Europe along the centuries that,
like the corridors of a grand cathedral, were lost in the
mist and midnight of the past, what other nation
would they select ? This nation was to be reinstated
in their own land. For this they were a nation scat-
tered over every country, and held in mechanical solu-
tion amongst the Gentiles, but not in chemical, solu-
tion ; they were insulated, disintegrated, and distinct.
Russia and France were to be the great "resistants to the
accomplishment of the great promise of the restoration of
the Jews to Palestine; but a nation which he identified
as England, and which was described in the chapter as
"shadowing with wings," Bm. was to present the offering
to the Lord of Hosts in due season, and to be blest and
owned of him because of so doing. The description of
Tarshish, and the words of the 20th verse of the 66th chap-
ter of Isaiah, strengthen this impression. At the close of
this economy which was rapidly rushing to its eve, and was
perhaps nearer than some of them-would dare to presume
to predict, the Jews were to be restored to their own land.
This was to occur in the fulness of the times. Let them
mark the controversy that was gathering round Syria.
Napoleon, that powerful and sagacious ruler, had a taste for
annexation, and he would desire to annex Syria as a counter-
balance to our Indian possessions. There were 250,000
adherents of the Greek Church who were looking to the
Czar as their head. These two powers were now in the
neighbourhood of Syria, and whoever held that country
possessed the key to all the East. England would never
consent that either France or Russia should have it. If he
could reach the ear of statesmen he would tell them that
the issue of the complication and the settlement of the
" situation" was to hoist the signal for God's ancient people
to go home. As soon as the " sick man" died—and he was
dying fast—England should say there shall be in the East
and Syria, as in the West a Belgium, a neutral nation
established, and thus the complication would be solved.
In doing this she would only be fulfilling prophecy. He
did not say that prophecy should be the rule of practice.
Punch had said that he (Dr. Cumming) believed the world
was coming to an end in 1867, and yet had taken the
lease of a house:for 21 years. (Laughter.) This was true ;
but the well-known caricaturist had omitted to state the
fact that the house could be given up at every seven years.
(Laughter.) When he (Dr. Cumming) wanted to know
his duty, he looked for the Divine commands ; when he
wanted to know his prospects he consulted prophecy. The
holiest place was the post of duty. The Bible and the Pro-
testant liberties of England were her mainstay, and he be-
lieved she would endure as a lighthouse for the guidance of
other nations, and to accomplish the glorious destiny which
he believed was indicated in prophecy. (Cheers.)
The proceedings closed with the singing of the doxology.