The separation of America from the Old Country must have been as deeply imbedded in the councils of Divine Providence as the earlier separation of the twain -Ephraim and Manasseh, and the tribes their fellowswas from that of Judah (2 Chron. x. and xi. 4); for of all the incidents in modern history "this thing" preeminently seems to have "been done of God." Indeed it is tacitly thus recognized. Parkin (in The Century, Dec. 1888) acknowledges this general sentiment of our Race as follows:

"The bifurcation of Anglo-Saxon national life which was caused by the American Revolution is now, after a hundred years, fully recognized as the most important political event in modern history;" and continuing his prognostications as to the philosophy of the world's future, he says in the same article:

"The best guarantee of permanent peace that the world could have would be the consolidation of a great oceanic empire, the interest of whose members would lie chiefly in safe commercial intercourse. For filling such a place in the world, Great Britain's position is absolutely unique among the nations of history. She holds the chief key to the commerce of the east in the passes of the Mediterranean and the Red seas. She commands an alternative route by the Cape of Good Hope. Across Canada she has yet a third, giving her for many purposes a still closer connection with the extreme East than do the other two."

In this connection, if we, of America, who, as before stated, buckle this Girdle of Anglo-Saxon Peoples together, "unite" fraternally-in all, offensively and defensively, that this implies!-with Great Britain, the great ocean empire would be strong indeed. The Race could lie down in peace, and who would dare to rouse it

up? It could dictate disarmament around the earth, and fearlessly set the grand example, and its ancient Royal Scottish motto (Gen. xlix. 9.),

"Nemo me impune lacessit,"

would be sufficient to the peaceful end in view. "The argument for unity," says Mr. Parkin, "may be carried to still higher ground. A strong impulse has unquestionably been given to national effort and earnestness both in Great Britain and the United States, by the prevailing conviction that Anglo-Saxon civilization is a thing distinct in itself, and with a mission in the world.

Working out on separate and yet parallel lines the great problems of liberty and of civil and religious progress, the United States and Great Britain have the strongest reasons for sympathizing with each other's efforts to consolidate and perfect the national machinery by which their aims are to be accomplished. Great Britain now understands and respects the motives which actuated the resolute and successful struggle of the American people against disruption. A nation which suffered and sacrificed so much for unity as did the United States can assuredly understand and sympathize with the strong desire for national consolidation which is now spreading throughout the British Empire."

And spreading, too, throughout the length and breadth of our own land; for, as already noted, in the current series of the "Yale Military Lectures," which have been quite widely published, it has been pointed out that:

"While we may not be concerned in the balance of power upon the old continent, we certainly are on this, and we cannot ignore the fact that the broader AngloSaxon interests are ours quite as much as if we dwelt upon the borders of the English Channel. They are

wider than the British Isles, and belt the earth from East to West, and bind it North and South; and so sure as 'blood is thicker than water,' and the world's balance of power is the real matter at final issue, this country will be inevitably involved in those future settlements which relate to the conditions of universal peace and general disarmament, and which must follow in the wake of such a conflict as is now upon the very eve of breaking out" abroad.

But there is a TRIPLE ALLIANCE in store for days of the near future before which one now somewhat famous in the annals of diplomacy will pale to insignificance !

For there is one other Power that is equally interested with England and America in this terrestrial consummation, to wit, Germany. For if, as Identities, too numerous to recite here, seem to indicate, she is ASSYRIA in modern garb (Isa. xix.), and if we, of half-Egyptian parentage,--(if we be "Manasseh "),-are also, in our separated and forgetful state, the great EGYPT of the latter days, and if England in a special sense be this ISRAEL, then these three great powers are equally concerned in events so weighty, and may lend to them their human aid, and speed the day of their fulfilment, for: "In that day shall Israel be the third

With Egypt and with Assyria,

Even a blessing in the midst of the Land;
Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying,

Blessed be Egypt my PEOPLE,

And Assyria the WORK of My hands,

And Israel mine INHERITANCE." (Isa. xix. 24, 25.)

VIII.

THE SCEPTRE AND THE BIRTHRIGHT.

It was just after the foregoing scene that Jacob called in all of his sons and said: "Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you IN THE LAST DAYS."

Scripture is progressively fulfilled. Again and again it repeats itself, each time more broadly and more pointedly. All down the ages the growth of history towards the utterances of "Israel" on his death-bed have been noted, and still they broaden, and still nearer are we to the latter days.

It is with "Joseph" and with "Judah," as the particular representatives of the two "kingdoms" into which, at the death of Solomon, the several tribes were divided, that we have most directly now to deal. With the one or the other of these two respective kingdom-leaders all of the other tribes are parcelled out, and have been long associated (Ezek. xxxvii. 15-28).

Like as Judah became the general term by which the kingdom set up at Jerusalem, under Rehoboam, became known in later history, so Ephraim, now made the elder son of Joseph (or at least his tribal representative) by the blessing, became the general one for that of the ten-tribed section, founded and set up, as a kingdom, by Jeroboam at Samaria. Throughout all subsequent Scriptures, and all Hebrew writings, this distinction is so explicitly maintained that to confuse it is to wander

hopelessly from the paths that lead these peoples down to later, or to present, times.

THE EXORDIUM.

"Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise;
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;
Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
Judah is a lion's whelp-From the prey, my son, thou
art gone up:

He stoopeth down, he croucheth as a lion-and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet,

Until Shiloh come-And unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Binding his foal unto the vine-and his ass's colt unto the choice vine;

He washed his garments in wine,-and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

His eyes shall be red with wine,-and his teeth white with milk.

Joseph is a fruitful bough,—Even a fruitful bough by a well;

Whose branches run over the wall:

The archers have sorely grieved him-and shot at him and hated him: