THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1374, 30 March 1878, Page 5

THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL.

Mr W. L. Reos, M.H.R., delivered a lecture on the 22nd in Knox Church, on the subject of " The Lost Tribes of IsraeL" There was an attendance of between 300 and 400 persons ; admission was free, and a collection in aid of the Benevolent Asylum realised the sum of Ll4 ssloi&

The lecture occupied about an hour and threequarters in delivery, and we can here merely attempt to give an eutline of the argument by which the lecturer supported the theory recently advanced that the Ten Tribes of Israel and the English —or rather Anglo-Saxon — people are one and the same. The prophecies of the Old Testament are, and have been, ■wrongly read as promises to the Christian Church, instead of as promises to a special nation of people. They were promises to the descendants of Abraham, repeated over and over again, to the effect that those descendants were to be innumerable, to be governed by kings, to be powerful and wealthy above all nations. Eventually Abraham's descendants were split into two sections — one composed of the two tribes of Judah, the other of the ten tribes of IsraeL This was a fact not sufficiently aoted, and it was lost sight of that the promises # made to those two sections were utterly diverse. A distinction wtw always absolutely drawn between the two. Israel was to become a united people, under a king, and strong and powerful Judah was to be dispersed, without a governor, amid the contempt of all the nations of the earth. The 65th chap* ter of Isaiah was an excellent summary of what was to befall the two separate families. The history of the two went on until in 720 B.C. Shalminezer took the ten tribes of Israel captive, and exiled them beyond the Euphrates, as it waa Btated in Kings iL, " until this day." One hundred and forty years afterwards the two tribes of Judah were carried into & totally different captivity, the Babylonish captivity, and their history could be traced back again to Jerusalem, and so forth, until now they were the wanderers on the face of the earth as was prophesied concerning them. Not so with the tribes of IsraeL They were blotted out of history. But if the Bible be true, they are yet to appear, and, having coalesced with the tribes of Judah, are to form the greatest nation on earth. But they are yet to be found. Sharon Turner, in his history of the AngloSaxon race, traces that race back to a region beyond the Euphrates. All across the Crimea are traces of their migration, tombs with Hebrew characters and ornaments. They could be traced through Europe till they finally settled in England. The prophecies all say the tribes of Israel will go under a different name, and speak a different tongue, but always will be found under kingly rule, and chief among nations. Many of the customs of Hebrews were customs of the Anglo-Saxons ; many words in the language were identical; and there were many other evidences of similarity. The truth of prophecy was never understood until after it was fulfilled. A book bad lecently been written in England, which bad an

immense sale, to prove that if the tribes of Israel were in existence, they were the English people. Israel was to girdle the earth, and inhabit the coasts thereof, and the English were carrying that out to the letter. The hopes, prospects, aspirations, and position foretold for Israel were those of England at the present day. It might be called a fanciful theory, but it was said to be capable of proof that the Queen of England was a lineal descendant of King David. The prophet Jeremiah disappeared in 580 B.C. The deaths of the other prophets were mentioned, but not that of Jeremian. About the same time history said a prophet came to Ireland with a portion of the tribe of Dan, bringing with him a royal princess. They landed at Tara, a Hebrew word meaning " thetables i of the law." The princess married an Irish chief. Among the things the prophet brought with him was what tradition stated to be Jacob's Pillow, a stone now used as the coronation stone in Westminster Abbey. From the princess descended the line of kings of Scotland. There were good grounds for belittvincr the prophet to have been Jeremiah. The tomb of the Princess was now in Tara, and it was now proposed to open that tomb. Freemasons expected to find the Ark of the Covenant within it, and who knew what evidence it would afford of the truth of prophecy. The question was asked, if the thing waa proved— if the lost tribes were the Anglo-Saxon people — where was the gsod ? Would it be nothing to feel the destinies of the earth committed to our hands ? The language of the whole world would yet be English ; it was only a question of time when the world would be one great England. If the theory was correct, then was given to the English people the control of the knowledge, the happiness, the liberties, and the religion of the whole world. He looked forward to the time when, in fulfilment of God's prophecies, the AngloSaxon race should possess the earth, and peace should reign unbroken and universal.