« The sprouting of the fig tree may have been but a casual remark, but we incline to think that it was not. The peculiar circumstance narrated of our Lord’s curse upon a fig tree which bore no fruit, and which withered away directly (Matt. 21:19, 20) inclines us to believe that the fig tree in this prophecy may be understood to signify the Jewish nation. If so, it is being signally fulfilled ; for not only are thousands of Israelites returning to Palestine, but the Zionist movement, started recently, has assumed such proportions as to justify a Convention of representatives from all parts of the world to meet in Switzerland to put in practical shape the proposal for the reorganization of a Jewish state in Palestine. These buds will thrive, but will bear no perfect fruit before October 1914—the full end of “Gentile Times.ˮ » — Livre : Millennial dawn, volume IV, The day of vengeance, first edition of 1897, page 604 § 1.