22. The manner in which the Saints are gathered, one here and one there, one from this city and one from another, fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah, who, in speaking of this great gathering of Israel, represents the Lord as saying: "I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." [178] 23. The student should be informed how it is we know the Saints are of the house of Israel. First, they fulfill the terms of the prophecies written about the gathering of Israel by the ancient prophets, as seen above; second, the patriarchs of the church, ordained and set apart to that calling by the apostles, in giving blessings to the Saints declare them to be of the house of Israel, and mainly of the tribe of Ephraim. [See note 6, end of section.] 24. Object of Gathering.--Another object of this gathering of the people of God from among the Gentile nations--which with their wickedness, spiritual blindness, and confusion constitute Babylon--is that they may not partake of the sins of Babylon, and that they might escape the judgments and plagues decreed by God against the wickedness thereof. The Apostle John prophesies of this. In those visions given to him on the Isle of Patmos, showing him things that would take place in the future, he heard a voice from heaven saying: "Come out of her [that is out of Babylon], my people; that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. * * * Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning, and famine; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." [179] The Saints are gathering out of Babylon that they may escape these threatened judgments. {373} NOTES. 1. Settlement of Israel in Canaan.--Of the twelve tribes of Israel, nine and a half were located to the west and two and a half to the east of the Jordan. In this region they had been led by Joshua, Moses being only permitted to catch a distant glimpse of the promised land. After the death of Joshua, followed the period of Judges, which lasted about five centuries. The last of the judges was Samuel, who, when the people demanded a king, anointed Saul, 1095, B.C.--Anderson's Gen. Hist.