519
AN GAODHAL.
A GREETING.
In presenting the initial number of
the 5th volume of THE GÆL to our rea¬
ders we hope we will not be consider¬
ed presumptious in claiming for the
Irish Language Movement the manly,
self-respecting, self-asserting, change
which has, perceptibly, taken place in
the Irish character. Remember that
it has been the invariable rule of all
conquering nations to destroy the lang¬
uage of the conquered and to substitute
for it their own. Why? Because the
language of a people is the essence of
their nationality and no nation is
wholly conquered while its language
remains intact.
Philo-Celts [and in this we include
all lovers of the language and and all its
lovers will exert to preserve it, for the
tree is known by its fruit] — you have
struck the right chord — persevere and
the power of man cannot stem the im¬
petuosity of the torrent of National
sentiment which your patriotic labors
inspire.
Less than five years ago, when you
lent your means and your co-operation
to the foundation of this little journal
in your national language, the Arnolds
of your nationality gibed and jeered at
what they were pleased to term your
inane, innate, folly, and prophesied for
your little journal a short-lived exist¬
ence; but, like the false prophets of
old, they have been confounded; and
will be still more confounded when, by
your continued patriotic exertions,
your little GÆL will not only exist as
a monthly journal, full of life and vi¬
gor, but will exist as a weekly journal,
through whose columns Irishmen may
read the news of the week under the
stamp of their national speech, unsul¬
lied by the four breath of envy, malice
or ill-will
Let the watch-word, "Land and
Language," be energetically continued
until every Irishman, who desires it, is
settled on a farm of land, and until the
language is taught in every school in
Ireland. Frown down those lending
themselves to creating divisions.
GAEL GLAS on the PROPHECIES,
(Sixth Letter.)
Jan. 18. 1886.
To the Editor of the GAEL:
Dear Sir, — In this letter I undertake to
furnish your readers with a summary of my views
concerning the different kingdoms which, accord¬
ing to the Holy Scriptures, were to arise in the
world until the supposed end of time. But in this
connection, while attempting to elucidate the fut¬
ure, I insist upon being favored with a good deal
of scope and latitude in dealing with a subject that
has hitherto successfully baffled the keenest saga¬
city of the most penetrating minds. And as my
subject will not well admit of rhetorical flourish,
and as I do not wish to obscure it with figurative
allusions, I will exhibit a plain statement of facts
in accordance with that very humble and inadi¬
quate degree of wisdom and ability with which
God has gifted me.
According to the prophet Daniel, the great alle¬
gorical empires, kingdoms or governments which
were to arise until the end of the world were to be
seven in number; and from his mystical discription
of them I understand them to be — beginning with
that prophet's time — the Babylonian, Medo-Per¬
sian, Grecian and Roman empires. The fifth em¬
pire was to be of stone; and this is the Catholic
church or kingdom of God, which was to fall upon
the feet of the great imagine of pagan power that
finally stood at Rome and which Christian king¬
dom was destined to grow into a great mountain
and fill the whole earth.
Long after the establishment of the kingdom of
stone, and contemporary with it for a certain per¬
iod of time, was to arise the kingdom of the Little
Horn or of Antichrist; while the seventh empire
is alluded to as the kingdom of the Son of man,
or in other words that of the “People of the
saints," of' whose regime there shall be no end. All
prophetic knowledge seems to be bounded by a
wall of fire in regard to the state of things which
will prevail after the last period when the saints
of the Most High have obtained the whole king¬
dom. According to the Apocalypse there were to be
ten great empires or kingdoms from the beginning
to the time of the consummation.
Before the days of the Apostles five of these had
fallen, namely, the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the
Chaldean, the Medo-Persian and the Grecian;
while the sixth then remained in existence, which
was the Roman empire. After the fall of this last
monarchy there was to arise the great empire
which was to be that of Antichrist. Subsequent¬
ly to the development of the Antichristian monar¬
chy and towards the end thereof was to arise the
eight kingdom actuated by the same animus as
the last mentioned sovereignty — this is the Turk¬
ish empire. After the eighth was to arise a pow¬
erful kingdom which is designated as that of the
