The history of these two representative characters is worth your careful
study. The whole of the circumstances of Jacob blessing them must be
accepted as Divinely directed. Manasseh was to be a great people, and so
I believe he is. In the United States I find this promise literally
fulfilled. This is the Key to the settlement of this land; to the
agitations of the Pilgrims and Puritans in England. The mission, work,
and place of the United States may be found in the prophecies relating to
this Tribe. Let anyone examine the great seal of the United States, and
study its design, and surprise will fill the mind that facts, Providence,
and prophecies do so wonderfully agree. Take the obverse side. Here you
have an eagle with outstretched wings; the bird is perfect, not double
headed and deformed, as in other cases where the eagle has been or is the
national bird. The striped escutcheon on its breast, in its beak a
scroll, inscribed with a motto, “_E pluribus Unum_”—one out of many, as
Manasseh was, and as the country is building up a grand nationality and
oneness out of all nations nearly. Over the head of the eagle there is a
_glory_—the parting of clouds by light; in the opening appear 13 stars,
forming a constellation argent, on an azure field. In the dexter or
right talon is an olive branch, a symbol of peace; in the sinister or
left talon is a bundle of 13 arrows. But it is on the reverse side of
the great seal that we have a wonder. Here we have an unfinished
Pyramid; a portion of the top is gone, exactly the same as the Great
Pyramid in Egypt is at this day—anticipating this very day (Isa. xix.
19): “In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord. And it shall be
for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of
Egypt.” Now it is somewhat singular that the Congress of 1782 should
have adopted so remarkable a sign, one that would witness to God and tell
of their origin. The reverse side is the under side, and shows from
whence the nation came, and on what it is built. In the zenith—that is,
above the top of the Pyramid—is a triangle surrounded by a glory; and in
the centre is an all-seeing eye. Over the eye we have _Annuit Cœptis_,
which means, “_He prospers our beginning_.” On the base of the Pyramid
we have in letters, 1776, and underneath the following motto—“_Novus ordo
seclorum_,” meaning a “New era in the ages.” The suggestion of the items
upon the great seal was from Sir John Prestwich, Bart., an Englishman.
He gave the suggestions to the American Minister, John Adams, and thus
the same were conveyed to Congress and adopted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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