Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: * * * and David, my servant, shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. * * * Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [15] The fulfillment of these predictions has been the hope of scattered Israel, and from time to time societies have been formed to keep alive such hope as the promises inspired. It may be thought that said Jewish societies have accomplished but little. But really that little was much. They nourished in secret and through ages of darkness that spark of hope, the fire of which, when touched by the breath of God shall burst forth into a flame that not all the world shall be able to stay. These efforts in the past have made possible a larger movement which is now attracting the attention of the world, known as the "Zionite Movement." In reality this is but the federation of all Jewish societies that have had for their purpose the realization of the hopes of scattered Israel. The Zionite movement proper, however, may be said to have arisen within very recent years, since it was in 1896 that it held its first general conference. This at Basel, Switzerland, in August 1896. Since then its conferences have been held annually and have steadily increased both in interest and the number of delegates representing various Jewish societies until now (1905) it takes on the appearance of one of the world's great movements. It is not so much a religious movement as a racial one; for prominent Jews of all shades of both political and religious opinions have participated in it. After saying through so many centuries at the feast of the Pass Over, "May we celebrate the next Pass Over in Jerusalem," the thought seemed to have occurred to some Jewish minds that if that hope was ever to be realized some practical steps must be taken looking to the actual achievement of the possibility--hence the "Zionite Movement." The keynotes of that movement are heard in the following utterances of some of the Jewish leaders in explanation of it: