The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-17
Jews AND THE BIBLE
nROPHECIEs or OLD TESTAMENT
HORNE OUT By HISTORY.
JEWISH
NATION.
MONUMENTAL WITNESS TO DIVINI-
TY OF BIBLE, SAYS DIR. Nc
CORkLE.

predictions of Jewish Prophets
Uuioue-Other Seers Spoke Because
NJ Trend of Events, or Mere
" Preached-HOly Men of Old Nov
Cd by the Holy GhOst-Duty of the
christian to show the jews That
ReIigion of Christ Is Religion of
Iove-sermOn Heard by Large Con-
gregatiOn.
Rev. w. P. McCorlxle preached at
tho First Presbyterian Church last
night on the Jewish nation a witness
+o the inspiration of their scriptures.
DesDite the very cold weather large
congregation was present and heard
the sermon with interest.
DR.. McCorkle took for his tiki
palm cxlvii. 20: God hath not dealt
80 with any nation" and part of
Acts iii, IS: "Those things which God
before had showed by the mouth of
all his prophets he hath so full
filed"
"The lew" he said, has been the
standing miracle of the Christian
Church in all ages, and witness to
the Christian Scriptures under all dis
npnsations. For thirty-five centuries
the history of this ancient and noble
neople has been in all it's phases,
whether of gloom or glory, an exact
and literal fuifillment of ancient proph-
ecies. Holy men of old spake as they
we're moved by the Holy Ghost and in
their utterances they professed to be
looking through the glass of futurity.
The lapse of ages has brought within
the field of our vision the scenes which
they described. Events now transpir-
ing and facts recorded in the. annals
of the past, alike present the reality
of visions recorded upon the deathless
page of holy writ thousands of years
ago.
Predictions of the Prophets.
These predictions of the Jewish
prophets concerning the future desti-
ny of their own nation are unique.
Such a fate was never proDhesied for
any nation by it's seers, and such a
fate in all it's dire horrors, has never
fallen to the lot of any other people.
Neither in blessings nor in judgments,
nor in specific revelations of their fu-
ture. has God dealt so with any ma
t!On.
when the poet sings,
Woe to the land, to Fastening ills a
prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men
decay
he is not prophesying, but simply
preaching in rhyme. He has for his
guide the general principle that right
eousness exalted a nation, while sin
is a curse to any people, and besides
this the history of all the ages to just
ify his prediction. When certain men,
few years prior to the late war be-
tween the states, predicted that fear
full struggle, and it's general results
ThlNr KArrt I. -
events transpiring before their own
eyes, and it required no extraordinary
mental vision to foresee the inevitable
sequence of events. But the pFedic-
tons made by Jewish prophets. were
SO many and so peculiar that they
cannot be accounted for on the ground
that they were the predictions of ordi-
nary human foresight, or mere coin
cldences between guesses and their
fufllment
In contemplating the verifcation
OF prophesies 50 numerous, so peculiar,
and so unlikely in their nature we are
compelled to ask with jeremiah, Who
Is he that saith, and it cometh to pass,
ana the Lord hath not commanded it p
1t is easier to accept the doctrine of
inspiration than to believe such CO. in
cldences possible without the agency of
experimenting providence, Vindicat-
ing the word of Jehovah's prophets.
To-day the Jew stands, a monumental
witness to the divinity of the book
which foretold his doom in the past,
and foretells his glory in the ages that
are at hand"
A Few of Them
Mr.. McCorkle enumerated ga few out
OF scores of specific predictions
FIRST he said, "the apostasy of the
Jewish nation from their pristine faith
SId Snd their rejection of their promised
Messlah were both foretold Said
Moses, The Lord shall smite thee with
madness and blindness and astonish-
ment OF heart, and thou shalt grope at
monday, as the blind gropeth in dark
ness Joshua predicted that they
would serve other gods and trans
gress the covenant. In all the splen-
DOR Of the golden age of the Jewish
commonwealth, when their holy city
was the glory of all lands their SOW
efeign the wisest who ever occupied
lnrone, and their nation second to
none in wealth and importance, when
gne mysterious shekinal glory, the Wis
Iole manifestation of the divine pres
ence, was still beaming in their tenn
We' mat predicted apostasy began.
solomon, at first saint, as well as
sage, an enlightened statesman and
an accomplished scholar, a poet, an
orator and man of science, led the
way. Pursuing the path too common
N- NAO5G WHO nave uHdHllIeu wealth.
at their command, he became, first, a
sehsualist, and then a sceptic, and then
an aRostate. Israel speedily followed
MS example. Jeroboam found it easy
20 convert ten tribes to idolatry, and
we efforts of the few righteous kings
oi judah were only sufficient to bring
aoout an occasional temporary revival
ol national piety. Their greatest proph-
- leit himself alone, when in all the
"a qon there were found but 1000 who
naa not bowed the knee to Baal, and
lhe ministry of his successors was for
me most part a ministry of denuncia-
uon' which, instead of rousing the peo-
ple 20 repentance, seemed rather to in
lensity their hatred of pure
teuglon and their stubborn at
I3cament to idolatry. They prosecuted
thelr prophets. and went madly toward
rhelr doom. Thus did they manifest
FEARFUL blindness, and transgress their
national covenant with Jehovah as the
prophets had foretold.
Isaiah's Prophecy.
Looking forward to the time when
zoo would be manifest in the flesh.
l7alah cried, Who hath believed our
iepofJ and TO whom is the arm of
'1o Lord revealed This SD chapter
w ms prophecy Is a prophetic account
vi me character. the sunerings, the
lection and the death of the Sinless
we who should pour out his soul an
VII ,Fns for the sins of his people. He