only entirely wanting in evidence, but all analogy from the history of the Jews throughout the world goes to disprove the idea. Neither is there any evidence that they are amalgamated with the two tribes. On the contrary, there are numerous passages from unfulfilled prophecy which plainly intimate that the union of Judah with Israel is yet future. In a prophecy of Isaiah, which all commentators acknowledge to be future in its accomplishment, the ten tribes are repeatedly mentioned, in distinction from Judah, under the common appellations of Israel and Ephraim.—Isa., xi., 12, 13. See also Jer., iii., 18; Hos., i., 11; and Ezek., xxxvii., 16-22. In this passage from Ezekiel, which occurs immediately after the resurrection in the valley of dry bones, the prophet is told to take two sticks, representing Judah and Israel, and "join them one to another into one stick." He is then commanded to tell the children of Israel and of Judah, that thus would the Lord unite them into one nation, and to "say unto them, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all."

Now, whatever may be the precise import of these prophecies, general consent testifies that their accomplishment (and, consequently, the union of Judah and Israel) is yet future. Hence we infer that the ten tribes have at this time a separate exist

ence.

Where they are, and what is their condition, are questions which have long perplexed the learned and curious. So many untenable theories have been proposed, and so many pretended discoveries made; in a word, the ten tribes have been so often found and lost again, that any new treatise upon the subject will almost necessarily be received with distrust; so much has the whole subject come to savour of the visionary.

The subject is certainly one of peculiar difficulty, and much of incredulity will be encountered in its investigation. More than twenty-five centuries have thrown over it a veil of almost impenetrable darkness. Nearly a hundred generations have successively arisen and been swept away; empire after empire has been founded and demolished. War has devastated the earth; hierarchies and dynasties have alike fallen; and where, it may be asked, in all this mass of ruins, or amid the structures that have risen upon them, shall we seek for the captive daughters of Israel, who were led away weeping into the wilderness in an age when the greatest events cast but a faint shadow upon the

historian's page? What changes, social, civil, and religious, may not have passed over the lost tribes during these revolving ages!

But let us not too hastily infer that these changes, however great, have placed their identity beyond the reach of the clearest evidence. "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep ;" and we may find that He has been guarding his chosen people with a watchful eye, and will glorify himself in their present condition and future prospects, as really as he has done in their past history. In his past dealings with the people of Israel, he has manifested his character and attributes with a clearness that no power of eloquent description can equal.

But the most glorious display is connected with the future. "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead." This is what clothes our subject with such importance. A spiritual resurrection is connected with the conversion of God's ancient people; a resurrection, affecting not merely themselves, but the whole world. If their rejection has been the reconciling of the world, by opening a door of hope to the Gentiles, it is to "the world," most obviously, that their restoration will be " as life from the dead."

Who, then, can estimate the importance of their discovery and conversion? What life, what faith,

what energy would not be infused into the Church? With what joy would even the prospect of their speedy conversion be received, connected as it is with the most precious promises of God's Word; since it is clear, from the prophecies of Scripture, that this final ingathering of Israel will be the brightest harbinger of the latter day glory?

If it shall appear, then, that Israel is even now stretching out his hands to God; if the ten tribes are found professing allegiance to Messiah their king, and bearing his name; may it not well inspire in our minds the highest hopes and liveliest anticipations of future good; hopes and anticipations which we may well believe will soon ripen to a blessed fruition, when it shall appear that they are the special heirs of the most glorious promises that remain to be fulfilled in the history of our world? Let us turn, then, to the evidence of their heirship, and see what are the credentials they offer in proof that they are indeed what the Christian world have long and anxiously sought to discover-the lost tribes of Israel.

CHAPTER II.

Tradition of the Nestorian Christians that they are Descendants of Israel. That they came from Palestine.-Supported by the Testimony of Jews and Mohammedans.

TRADITION, in its general application, is any knowledge handed down from one generation to another by oral communication. If there is nothing in the character or circumstances of those on whose authority the tradition rests to affect its probability; if they were not actuated by interest or prejudice, or wanting in the means of knowledge as to what they relate, their tradition is to be received as direct testimony in matters of history. The more important the event, the more likely is it to be correctly transmitted by tradition to a remote posterity. Thus we find some account of the deluge, which destroyed the antediluvian world, among the most remote and barbarous nations of the earth; a circumstance that would go far to prove this great event, in the absence of all historical records. Indeed, this universal tradition, together with geological indications, is appealed to as an unanswerable argument with infidels, who deny the credibility of the Scriptures. Without recommending the example for imitation, it may be stated as another evidence of the importance attached to traditionary testimony, that the Coun