The Asiatic, and especially the Israelitish countries, with North and South America--homes of God's people, ancient and modern, now inhabited by the children of Japheth--these I think, may be properly regarded as among "the tents of Shem." As it Was, So it Shall Be.--Noah's period had a twofold significance. Pointing backward as well as forward, it symbolized both the Beginning and the End. The reminiscent pointing has already been indicated. The prophetic import is made plain by the words of the Savior, when weeping over Jerusalem and predicting the downfall of the Jewish commonwealth, an event also typical of the final destruction of the wicked: "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." In Noah's day "a veil of darkness" covered the earth. A like condition is to characterize the Last Day, thus foretokened. [17] The disaster that overwhelmed the Antediluvians, destroying the wicked with water, is to have as its sequel a more fearful calamity, in which the unrighteous will be consumed by fire from Heaven. And as unexpectedly as came the regenerating Flood wherein our planet was once immersed, will come the purifying Flame that shall cleanse it from all iniquity and prepare it for eternal glory. Footnotes 1. Gen. 5:27. 2. Moses 8:2-9. 3. Gen. 1:2, 9. 4. Hist. Ch. Vol. 3, p. 386. 5. Moses 8:17, 30; Gen. 6:3, 3. 6. Ib. 8:12; Gen. 10:21. 7. I Peter 3:20. 8. Gen. 9:19. 9. Ib. 9:22-27. 10. Ib. 4:15; Moses 7:8, 2. 11. Abr. 1:26. 12. I Nephi 13:12-19. 13. The word "Gentile," as used in "Mormon" writings, is not a term of reproach. It comes from "Gentilis," meaning of "of a nation," and is used in sacred history to designate the nations not of Israel. The Latter-day Saints themselves, are Gentiles in part; for while they claim lineal descent from the Hebrew patriarchs, it is mostly through Ephraim, who "mixed himself among the people" (Hosea 7:8)--that is, among the peoples that have furnished proselytes to "Mormonism." As a result of that racial mixture, they also are of Japheth's blood. 14. Isa. 40:22; 54:2; 33:20. 15. The delivery of the Holy Land from the Turks dates from December 11, 1917, when General Allenby, at the head of a British army, entered and took possession of the City of Jerusalem. Subsequently Herbert Samuel, an English Jew, was made Governor of Palestine by the British Government. 16. Abr. 2:10. 17. Matt. 24:37-39. 18. Moses 7:26, ARTICLE SEVENTEEN. Abraham and the House of Israel. The Lord's Lineage.--The House of Israel was established in order that the God of Israel, who became the Savior of the World, might have a proper lineage through which to come, and a worthy medium whereby to promote His great and benevolent designs toward the human family.