The New York herald., 1870-01-23
King David's Handful Of Corn In the
Earth Upon the Top of the
Mountains"
And the Millennium of at. John the
Divine.
A London Old Fogy ON the Sunday Dis
courses OF the Herald.
TFrom the London Spectator !


edition Of the NEW YORK HERALD viii sell better
with prophecy than without one, especially II the
prophecy be short, sensational and eminently New
Gordon Bennett has taken care TO provide
raa1 ,Sr the .,Iop prophecies n winch introduce his
scrlbefs. But we may be quite sure inat Mr..
Gordon Bennett is not among the prophets in the
when ne came TO Samuel In Naioth, IN Ramah, lying
down naked all that day ana all that night" pro-
sense Go an ae
prophet OF the NEW YORK HERALD IL naked enough;
but 1t Is not the nakedness OF humiliation, but the
nakodneS6 OF self-exatatOn which anmateS his
prophecy. DR.. Watts has told US what he felt,
When with pleasing wonder stand,
, And all my frame survey;
and the prophet Of the NEW YORK HERALD-speak.
inR OF course more IN the name OF New York than
IN that Of his own individual personality us
the same He Is overwhelmed with wonder, love
ana praise. He Is satisfied that New YORK win be
the New jerusalem "the holy city coming down from
Sr Su al s'e en- p s a. bride
that point, being compelled to admit that nat
new New York, NOT the existing 'i New 1s'
York. which Is to be the New Jerusalem, 50 tn i ne
surrenders all the advantage OF It's existing title
admitting that its newness IS at present newness
OF evi rather than OF good. and must be exchanged
holds tha New YORK is destined 70 be the New Jeru
salem on grounds OF the most naked materiasm
1.e. New Yorksm. After the opening OF the inter.
oceanic highway OF the Darlen canal New York
WIN become the great commercial, political, intel
lectual and religious centre OF the Rlobe;' and
as for the moral purlfication which he half
apoogetically admits to be necessary, why that OF
course, Is a subordinate matter, which must follow
geographical considerations, and not control them.
Tne great reason for predicting that New York to
be the New Jerusalem that 1t is well placed Tor
Its oceanic communication; but this at first sight ls
ratner q difficulty, as the New Jerusalem certainly
Was not to have that advantage 1t Deing expressly
staIed In the passage referred to by tins HERALD OF
however, is q mater Ol no importance to an in
tiepld New York prophet. He explains that
sea routes are to be so much shorter than
Seioremthat De they are @ to be bridged over
rien canals, and continental railroads and land and
ocean cables, steamships ana newspapersn are the
annnlIate the sea, Of which, doubt, the most DO.
tent or all Will be the great HERALD Of these events
which cannot but be Constituted the Official journal
OF tins New Jerusalem-tne only dificuty belng
that 1t is expressly stated that tnere shall in no
wise enter into 1t anything that deneth, nor
whatsoever worketh abomnation or maketh
lle'-whicn Will certainly compel the NEW
YORK HERALD to become very new lndeeu-nay, to
we wonder that the prophet Of the NEW YORK
HERALD dd not remember one very powerful con.
Of as Of
the New Jerusalem, just when 'the time was aJ
hand.n the following command was to apply:-"He
that IS UNJUST let him be unjust still, ana he which
ID filthy let hlm be filthy stllln-a command which
would seem To be almost more literally observed Just
Old or new, and which may point, perhaps, to ITS
superior claim over other cities to fulfil the cond
In his second sunday prophecy the prophet OF the
NEW YORK HERALD explains the application OF the
words of the Psalmist "Tnere shall be handful
OF corn IN the earth upon the top OF the mounains
the fruit tnereor shall shake like Lebanon anu they
OF The city snail flourish like grass the eartn ana
science In its application 10 the good or mankindn -
which Is to be rich in fruits OF uuty and conredera-
tion-to produce "a fusion OF all the nations
Of the earth-Indlans, chinese, negroes and
all-in q common brotherhood and under
ia
the railroad, the steamship and the telegraph Will DO
n" The doctrine OF universal equality Is embo-
died, says the prOpheG, "in the fourteenth III.
teenth amendments or the constitution OF the United
States, and is the very corner stone OF General
thirty centuries, the handful OF corn referred to by
KING David is we may say, with the top-dressng OF
ver IKE eana neea % s ss kH IKE
David Is to General Jackson, to whom in another
part Of his prophecy, the prophet refers as having
evinced the same sort OF 'sterllng character, as
David in mis- later years. when his days OF "fllbus-
tering and Tree love" were over The top dressng'
OF General Grant has been undoubtedly very severe
dressing TO the southern StaIes but by way OF mul.
Jiplyng "the handful OF cora on the top OF the
mountain which the writer OF the seventy-second
Psalm clearly took as an image Of agricultural pros
Derty fear that for the present Vt least General
GRANTS top dressing has not been peculiarly sue
eesslul
This wonderful prophet connects with his inter.
probation OF this verse Of the psalm question, an
Interpretation OF passage from the Apocalypse
solely on the ground as far as we can see that ihe
two could by no possibility have anything to do with
each other. HIS second passage Is this:-"And saw
An angel come down from heaven, having the key
OF the bottOmless pit and great chain Ill his nand.
And he LAID hold on the dragon that Old serpent
which is the devil and satan, ana bound MN u
thousand years. And cast him into the pottomlesg
pit, and set q seal upon hun that he should
deceive the nations more VII the thousand years
should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed
for season." The fulniment Of tins prophecy Is to
DC, strange to say, the work OF the eectrlc teie.
wTc all over the globe is The chain that VIII Dlnd
that old serpent. which Is the Devll Tor at least
fhn1Sn Snrldu no lf I'm Accnr ntps
Press Mr.. Reuter-, NJ. Havas and the rest,
are we suppose the constituents VINO dele
gate the angel IN question TO this responsible
TASK, and who-no doubt In order to break tho
change 10 nations who are BY this time SO well
accustomed 10 be deceived-takc care TO deceive
truth with considerable alloy Of serpentlne decep-
ii0n lest we should be blinded by the sudden blaze.
But why for only "a Thousand years a. eastl" Are
all the chains OF all the telegraphs to snap then for
q season, so that 'that old serpent which is the
Devlln shall be loosed9 On this the New York pro-
phet Is entirely silent. Surely the Old serpent mas
not bought the unexpired remalnder-ri2ht in the
very chains by which ne IS TO De bound, after 99J
years. lease Is up? An electric telegraph company,
with the Devil just released from Involuntary So
j0urn Of thousand years IN the bottomless pit as
Chairman, were indeed an imago OF terror to make
shrink
Yel alter all, much as one is disposed to treat the
SUNDAY 81 o ne mec NEW SaS YoEk MsK IN @
amusement and contempt, what IS really formidable
about Is thisthat this sort Of sun ths confused
and sensational exaggeraton OF the industrial arts
INTO mighty spiritual powers Is nothing put pOpu-
lar caricature OF tendency deeply rooted only
IN New Workers, bnt IN EDglisnmen. We are always
hearing this nonsense In one form or another
though when Mr.. Dickens talks 1t, he talks 1t clev.
eriy, and with u certain amount oil reticence and
dexterlty, and when the NEW YORK HERALD
talks 1t for the sake OF its Sunday readers
1t takes The form OF STARK Manhattansm.
We should not be At all surprised il the
prophet In the NEW YORK HERALD has really Decn
writing something as near to what he Is pleased ~
cali his convlction 1s any man write VINO thinks
1t q religion TO feel decidedly awestfuck at that
string 0l big, abstract woros-unversal peace, the
miracles OF science the humiliation OF space, the
brotherhood OF humanity, the equilibrium OF untver
sal justice, and the like-and who intcrprets that
muddy awe as natural piety. We don't suppose
indeed, that the prophet or the NEW YORK HERALD
really does expect TO see New York become the New
Jerusalem which is TO be lighted neither by
sun nor moon, but by n glory which 1t would be
irrevcrent even 10 mention IN such con-
text Most likely ne has NO sort OF even navy hope
that the wall which the angel measured ian hundred
and iortyiour cubits according TO the measure OF a
man. that Is OF the angel" VIII turn out to be Wall
street. Stiil we sincerely believe that-trash and
almost basphemous trash, as the man writes he
writes something almost near to his true religion
as he can go-a. e., n he can be said TO know what
the words mean-nay, that he has q serious sort OF
mn