The Two Treaties; Or, Hope for Jerusalem

Written in the anxious, hopeful aftermath of the Crimean War, this 1860s address by Anglican clergyman Edward Hoare interprets the great treaties reshaping Europe through the lens of biblical prophecy. Hoare sees in theTreaty of Paris and its aftermath evidence that the Ottoman Empire's long dominion over the Holy Land is faltering, and he traces these political upheavals with mounting excitement: here, he argues, are the signs foretold in Scripture. The decline of Turkish power in Jerusalem, the opening of doors for European involvement in Palestine, the stirrings of international attention toward the region, these are not merely geopolitical shifts but divine signals. Hoare's central hope is that a new administration in the Holy Land might pave the way for the Jewish people to return to their ancestral homeland, a prospect he ties directly to expectations of Christ's second coming. This is Victorian eschatology at its most earnest: a work of genuine prophetic interpretation that reads current events as sacred drama unfolding. For readers interested in the history of Christian Zionism, Victorian religious thought, or the surprisingly influential 19th-century movement to read world politics through biblical prophecy, Hoare's treatise offers a fascinating window into how believers once understood the present as a hinge of salvation history.