The remnant found, or, The place of Israel's hiding discovered ...
,-\\\E-UNIVER% ®v t* & <& fc I <=»*r T; o = ^ ^» V S •fe w o UlfTJtilfT. ' r^- .CC =r Q= T«E REMNANT FOUND; OR, THE PLACE OF ISKAEL'S HIDING DISCOVERED. BEING A SUMMARY OF PROOFS, SHOWING THAT THE JEWS OF DAGHISTAN ON THE CASPIAN SEA ARE THE REMNANT OF THE TEN TRIBES. THE RESULT OF PERSONAL INVESTIGATION DURING A MISSIONARY TOUR OF EIGHT MONTHS IN GEORGIA, BY PERMISSION OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, IN THE YEARS 1837 AND 1838. BY THE REV. JACOB SAMUEL, &KNIOR MISSIONARY TO THE JEWS FOR INDIA, PERSIA, AND ARABIA. AUTHOR OF A " HEBREW SERMON ON THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES," AND " A JOURNAL OF FIVE MONTHS' RESIDENCE IN COCHIN." Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the coasts of the earth : I am a Father to Israel, And Ephraim is my first-born:! LONDON: J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 1841. LONDON ; PRINTED BY IBOTSON AND PAJ,.MKJl, SAVOY STKRET. TO ROBERT WOODROW, ESQ., OF GLASGOW, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, AS A TOKEN OF KEGARD AND ESTEEM, AS WELL AS OF GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PAST FAVOURS, BY THE AUTHOR. London, December 1840. CONTENTS. Introduction - ... Puge vii The Kingdom of Israel - - - 1 The Dispersion of the Ten Tribes - - 5 The Dispersion (continued) - - - 15 Conjectures concerning  - . - 64 Fast days - - . - 65 The Sabbath - .... 67 Funerals  Priesthood - Prayers - Scriptures, Literature, &c. - - 90 Mode of saluting the stranger An Account of the Jews in Imiriti - - 100 APPENDIX. British Society for promoting the spiritual welfare of the Jews throughout India, Persia, and Arabia, in aid of the Indian Association established in Bombay - 1 1 9 INTRODUCTION. THE subject of the return of the Jewish people to the favour of the God of their fathers is one of deep and surpassing interest and moment. The eye of faith, looking into the depth of the divine records, perceives this peculiar people, under the cloud of a frowning Providence, prepared in the fulness of time to be led forward and planted in the Lord their Righteousness, for a name and a praise in every land: (Isaiah Ixii. 7.) It beholds them, not as the subjects of the divine hatred, but the objects of God's com- passionate love : (Isaiah xlix. 15, 16.) It dis- tinctly perceives that a regard for, and scrip- tural interest in this people, are co-ordinate with the progress of evangelical truth and personal at- tainment in the divine life ; that neglect of them is Viri INTRODUCTION, an evidence of a sickly, as persecution is a con- clusive testimony of a spurious and apostate Christianity. In all the churches of the Reformation, we find an awakening interest to the condition and pros- pects of the ancient people of God one of the most striking religious characteristics of the day : yet the Jewish mission being confessedly one of the most difficult labours of the Christian church, and one which, in the estimation of those great and good men who have been moved by the Holy Ghost to send after the lost sheep of the house of Israel, notwithstanding the exertions which have been made during the last forty years to lift up the testimony of Jesus amongst them, has never been taken up on a scale commensurate to its importance, or according to that plan likely to bring down the unalloyed blessing of the Great Head of the Church, in that fulness with which he is both able and willing to crown the labours of his faithful people. •With respect to the manner in which the an- cient people of God are to be approached, to con- ciliate their esteem, to overcome their prejudices, to gain their confidence, and to lead them dispas- sionately to examine the credentials of the Chris- tian faith, experience proves, that not doctrinal Christianity merely, but the manifestation of INTRODUCTION. IX Jesus in the members of his body, accompanying the word of truth, is the simple, effectual testi- mony to the mind and spirit of the Jew. Christi- anity, if it be anything, is a living principle. Its tendency is to implant and nourish those gra- cious affections, which they who are strangers to its truth, and radically unmoved by its power, shall nevertheless behold and acknowledge in the saints to the glory of God. But, alas ! not only upon the head of apostate Christianity does the guilt lie of putting stumbling-blocks in the way of the people ; (Isaiah ixii. 10 ;) but upon those whose faith is purer, and whose pro- fession is fairer, a heavy responsibility rests, for requiring what God has not required, and with- holding what God has freely given. The labours of Christians amongst the Jews during the last forty years have tended, in many respects, to deepen the prejudice of that people against the Christian faith. And when we for a moment reflect that, under that sacred name, Israel in his dispersion has been most awfully in- jured and afflicted, need we wonder that the Jewish prejudice is strong, fixed, and determined ? Even by those whose motives it were not charity to doubt, how acutely and irritatingly lias the Jew been wounded, and in the tenderest place ! The godly zeal which has impelled the servant INTRODUCTION. of Christ to speak the words of truth and love to the Jew, has been alloyed by a violation of one of the strictest and most sacred principles of the law of Christ, which enjoins, " Let not the right hand know what the left doeth" The precincts of the domestic circle, to which in confidence the chris- tian missionary has been admitted, has been be- trayed frequently by partial, always by coloured statements, and scarcely a conversation tran- spires but it is dragged forward and circulated through Christendom, in a manner repugnant alike to the principles and spirit of the Gospel, to feed a diseased and depraved appetite in the church, which requires these stimulants to impel it to do its duty. It is not my wish to dwell upon those principles and proceedings with which I have no sympathy, or to point out many evils which have tended to present Christianity to the Jews as a sectarian system. I would simply invite attention to a PLAN, the foundations of which have been laid in deep and laborious experience, with a knowledge of the character and genius of Judaism, and which, through successive years, has been approved by the most signal marks of the divine favour. The INDIAN MISSION to the Jews, in the countries which have not been included in any plan of mis- sionary labour until the present, presents a field INTRODUCTION. XI the fairest that can be imagined for a simple, faithful testimony of the Gospel to the scattered remnant inhabiting the deeply interesting lands in question. From the Bay of Bengal to the Cas- pian Sea, from the Caspian to the Red Sea, in- cluding the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, and the countries adjacent, up to Bokharra, there are more than ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND JEWS, in whose synagogues I preached the word of life, and amongst whom, commissioned by the British and Foreign Bible Society, an ex- tensive distribution of the holy Scriptures was made, although for the attempt former Mis- sionaries were compelled to evacuate the field, and fly for their lives. The following work I have considered the O most available mode (amidst the pressure of the religious concerns committed to my charge by the Association established in Bombay) of lay- ing before the Christian public the nature and ob- jects of " the Complete History of Judaism, as at " present existing in various and remote quarters " as well as in Europe," which I have pre- pared ; and which now requires but a few months of leisure to complete for the press. As, however, some delay was unavoidable to obtain that degree of accuracy requisite for a work of so very complicated and yet so desirable Xll / INTRODUCTION. a character, it seemed advisable to publish this treatise as a precursor to the larger one. In the larger work will be found an extensive view of the historical circumstances relating to the ap- proaching fulfilment of the prophecies concerning the future welfare of the Jews as a nation ; a full narrative of the discovery of the localities inhabited by the TEN TRIBES, together with ob- servations on the civil and religious state of that very important portion of our people, as well as on the other Jewish communities, of which we already possess an inadequate knowledge. To have ascertained the existence of the Ten Tribes, as a collected mass of people, has been the peculiar happiness of the writer, who, in these pages, desires to impart his information to the public. It is now manifest, that the longlost people were not among the multitudes who perished by the ruthless swords of Genghis Khan and his conquer- ing family ; and that they have not been scattered to the four winds of heaven, like the sands of the African Syrtes that are driven before the over- whelming blast ; but that these tribes of our con- sanguinity have been kept faithfully together as a people separate to God. These circumstances are no longer theoretical, for they now assume the character of ascertained facts. I shall not, therefore, recollecting the INTRODUCTION. Xlll successful result of the Persian mission, and the great hopes founded on this discovery of Israel, regret those years of toil, spent in the investiga- tion throughout every quarter of the East as well as of Europe. On the contrary, my visit to the countries inhabited by the Ten Tribes, or such of them as have outlived the disasters and political agitations which our people have experienced since they emigrated from the land of their captivity, has become a subject of pleasing recollection, not- withstanding the sorrows and sicknesses which usually accompany laborious missionary efforts, It is now proved that God did preserve a great portion of his elect children by removing them to the foot of the lofty Caucasus, and settling them on the shores of the Caspian. (Ezekiel xi. 16.) " Thus saith the Lord God ; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanc- tuary in the countries where they shall come." (Micah ii. 12.) " I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee : I will surely gather the rem- nant of Israel ; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of the fold." They shared not the fate of Judah and Benjamin at the overthrow of the Holy City by Vespasian's army, when the sepulchre of the Saviour came into the power of the Romans. XIV • INTRODUCTION. It had long- been a problem, whither the re- maining Israelites of the Ten Tribes betook them- selves when they were last emancipated by their Persian, Median, and Babylonian masters. An- tiquarians, learned in the sacred lore of the Scriptures, have long desired to recognise among the various classes of Jews in exile throughout the earth, the real representatives of the ancient people ; it mattered not whether the Jews known to Europeans were afflicted by an abject poverty, or enjoyed the comforts of envied riches, the identity of any great portion of them as incon- testably the elect people of God would ever have been hailed with the utmost joy ; and certainly by none more cordially than by the dispersed Jews of Europe. Yet the mystery admitted not of a solution that could be acknowledged by all the various claimants to that glorious appellation ; and consequently the people, frittered away into so many minor divisions, became more despised by the Gentile nations than they would have been, if any great body of people could have been gene- rally recognised as ISRAEL. By the discovery of this REMNANT of the Ten Tribes, Israel will regain a name among the nations, and the consideration due to an ancient people, approved though chastened by the Most High. The Hebrew character had been so much dis- guised in consequence of the ills to which the INTRODUCTION. XV Jews had been subjected, as well at the hand ; of their Father as at that of man, that it was no wonder if it could not be perfectly recognised. Their rabbis and religious governors were as well educated as most men of any creed ; they sedulously laboured to preserve the an- cient institutions, to maintain the national cus- toms, to comply, together with the congrega- tion, in all the holy observances, to keep the fasts and feasts, hand down the traditions, and contribute by precept and example to identify their people as the faithful servants of the God of the Hebrews. The appellatives of German, English, Spanish, French, Polish, or Russian Greek and Armenian Jews confused too seriously all the distinctive marks of the ancient nation, and all the recognisable attributes of their cha- racteristic separation from the nations of the earth. These Israelites became too much blended with the divers nations among whom they dwelt, which is sufficiently proved by the fact, that there was and still is a great dissimilarity between any one of the above recited communities of European Jews and all the others. They had, moreover, become chiefly commercial in their pursuits ; and it is known that the ancient elect of God were either martial, or addicted to agriculture. They had generally lost the power of conversing, when travelling or in their usual habitations, in He- XVI INTRODUCTION. brew, so that our ancient tongue was no longer a spoken language, in any degree of purity. Hebrew in matters of religion was a written language, and formed the study of the rabbis, and those learned in our law and ceremo- nies ; but with the people, there arose a de- grading intermixture of all the vernacular tongues of modern Europe, as their only means of com- munication upon the objects of ordinary life ; so that the Jew from a distant land understood with difficulty the speech of him who was resident in the country that was visited on affairs of com- merce. German, I believe, forms the chief alloy in the vernacular of the Jews, and is the best understood mixed mode of speech by all classes of our brethren. The Jews, indeed, continue in many places to wear long beards ; everywhere they assemble in synagogues ; have rabbis and priests, with other officers appointed by the congregations ; possess some privileges of self-government, although the rulers and governments of the lands in which they have settled in their long exile, deny them the civil rights of recognised citizens in a suffi- ciently generous degree. It would be wise of the powers of the earth to do away with this injustice, and to show a more liberal policy towards a people who contribute so much to the convenience of the fiscal concerns of the various governments which INTRODUCTION. XV11 they so peaceably obey. No insurrections or re- bellions are recorded against them, but they every- where have gained the reputation of good and loyal subjects ; therefore they should not re- main unrewarded. They are ingenious and indus- trious,— "The labourer is worthy of his hire." Yet they suffer from nations to whom they are so useful, and have ever suffered great persecutions, and great abuse and contumely. If they have been persecuted ; if in England, in the times of Richard I. and King John, they have been tortured before a slow fire to extract from them their gold ; if in France they were falsely belied and all massacred, that their gold might be confiscated, — the infamy of the calumnies against them being at the same time known ; if they have been banished from many kingdoms, such as Spain, &c. ; now is the " appointed time" to render justice to them, and make them some retribution for all the evil that has been inflicted on them. It will be proved in the details, that notwith- standing all the difficulties in properly identifying this people, the Jews are still everywhere to be considered as the children of Israel; and that, however disguised by the irresistible effect of their multiplied persecutions they may be, the European and other Jews will form themselves into a grea' XV111 INTRODUCTION. nation, when they know of the actual discovery of the long- lost remnant from Samaria. Blessed, therefore, be the name of the Most High, who has faithfully kept his holy word, preserved his peo- ple of Israel, and multiplied the seed of Abraham, according to his gracious promises : — " And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the ut- most parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee, and the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it ; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers." — Deut. xxx. 1 — 5. The discovery of the Remnant is of consequence in the present posture of both religious and poli- INTRODUCTION. XIX tical interests, for it removes every discourage- ment, rebuts the odious shafts of sarcasm and of contempt, and reinstates our people in the eyes of the Christian world. It will infallibly give the Jews a greater confidence among themselves, and very possibly will be the immediate incitement towards the commencement of that movement of the elect people towards their home, that land of which Jacob and Judah are the true heirs, which has been promised unto them in Holy Writ. " And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains : and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." — Isaiah Ixv. 9. It is not my present purpose to make many ob- servations on what shall ensue when the Israel- ites do re-occupy Jerusalem ; yet a few words may be added on that particular subject, which has engrossed the attention of Christian prelates and divines more, perhaps, than any other of the scriptural prophecies ; viz. the Millennium. Of the nature of this Millennium I shall simply state my opinion, that it is mystical; yet it is assured by Scripture. Undoubtedly it will be a golden age, when justice, charity, and faith shall hold undivided sway, and when the Governor shall be Christ Jesus, the Messiah. Micah iv.-6— 8 — " In that day, saith the Lord, c 2 XX INTRODUCTION. will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted : and I will make her that halteth a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation : and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion, from henceforth, even for ever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion ; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem." Certainly the disposition manifested by many Protestant communities has been praiseworthy and truly Christian in past times ; they have not hesitated to spread the genuine doctrines of the New Testament, and they have gone among the heathen without the aid of any executive power to punish those whom they could not convert. But now a clearer dawn breaks upon the religious horizon ; there are prognostications that the ruling- power of the Almighty is in more immediate ac- tion, the kingdom of heaven is more sensibly at hand, that the Millennium may be expected with more proximate certainty than in the long cen- turies that have elapsed since John and the great Saviour, of whom he was the harbinger, proclaimed the " Kingdom" to the nations of the Roman em- pire, and to the people of the land of JudaBa. The present is possibly not a blind generation INTRODUCTION. XXI of the Jews; they have, and I myself individually have long professed to have, a just perception of the times that are coming. The breath of heaven is in the dayspring of the East. The winds of salvation rise beneath the coming sun and the new dawn. Do not think that Jacob, who received the blessing that by birthright belonged to Esau, will choose to yield it up to the disciples of the great preacher Paul, as the moment approaches wherein Jacob shall vindicate his inheritance. (Isaiah xlviii. 20.) " With a voice of singing de- clare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth ; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his ser- vant Jacob." Who are the rivals of Jacob ? The fierce Ishmaelites, and all the posterity of Agar, begin to feel that Mahomet has been an insuffi- cient prophet in the eastern world. The Mus- sulman power is abridged and controlled ; the Ot- tomans quail and turn themselves towards the Christians, lest they themselves should be sub- merged in the strife of political ambition ; the Hebrews will not consent to be the last in the race of salvation ; they already listen, and many of them read the New Testament. The fulness of the Revelation is about to be recognised, and Christians must not be lukewarm and re- XX11 INTRODUCTION. miss in their high vocation. Think not that O if Ishmael has failed to make good his claim to be the heir of Abraham, the Gentiles are to ap- pear in the great day as the representatives of Isaac. The posterity of Isaac represent the elder children of the house of God ; and although the Gentile shall accompany Jacob, he is not to have precedence of him. As I have endeavoured to show that the Jews exist in a national body, although they have not yet returned to Judsea, I shall proceed to speak of the probability of their restoration, and of the comparative facility of the surrender of Jerusalem to their tribes. I have said that the descendants of the Ten Tribes are forthcoming, and are ani- mated by a sufficient spirit ; that they retain a nationality, and are possessed of great wealth. Let us then entertain a belief that the Almighty hand is again ready to reconduct them. " And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light ; to go by day and night : He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." (Exodus xiii. 21, 22.) As the commands of God are not to be dis- obeyed, and a prompt obedience is due to his parental voice, their recall will be speedy, and INTRODUCTION. XX111 their restoration sudden ; whenever God shall cry, Go ye and occupy your city of Sion and the land of promise. Isaiah xxx. 19. " The people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem : thou shalt weep no more." Jerusalem has long worn the attire of the widow ; she has mourned, and ashes have covered the brow of Sion. How soon may not the song of joy be renewed, and the voice of the bride- groom be once more heard ! Jerusalem herself claims Jacob in the freshness of renewed youth, as the heir ; she has long been a place of motley occupants ; the surrounding territory has for cen- turies been a waste under the Moslem and the Turk, the Saracen and the Arab, the star of whose ascendency has set ; whilst a star in the East betokening the advance of civilisation, the proba- bility of agricultural renovation in wide-spread fields, now arid for want of cultivation — this bril- liant star, as that seen by the magi who re- paired to the cradle in the manger at Bethlehem, is but a figurative harbinger of the promised return of Jesus, when he shall be acknowledged as the Messiah. I am not now addressing myself to Jews ; I speak to Christians, and write in favour of the Jews. I inquire then of Christians, celebrated for candour, reason, and biblical learning, is XXIV INTRODUCTION. there not an imperative necessity in the consti- tution of ecclesiastical affairs, according to the very essence of Christianity, that the promise of the restoration of the Israelites should be fulfilled ? Has not the Lord promised this ? And will he not fulfil his high behest ? Cer- tainly the Hebrew nation will be led to their Holy City, and to the site of the beautiful sanc- tuary built by king Solomon ; they will assemble upon Mount Moriah, and will crown the rock of Sion with their multitudes. " Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them : And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers." (Jeremiah xvi. 14, 15.) Hosea iii. 4, 5. "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without tera- phim : afterward shall the children of Israel re- turn, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his good- ness in the latter days." INTRODUCTION. XXV This people shall revisit the sepulchres of their forefathers in the valley of Jehosaphat. The dark ages of their long oppression and servitude are fast elapsing ; and that which is ordained may take place in our time. Christians, it is then essentially needful that you be unremitting in your endeavours to effect the return of the Jews. The miseries of a wicked world, that are not to endure sempiternally, have yet to last until the fulfilment of all things ; until that moment when God shall vouchsafe to ratify his holy promise to the children of Israel by their restoration to their inheritance. Wealth they possess more than sufficient to purchase their land of the ruler of Egypt. But the great pur- chase of Jerusalem is not to be made merely by the trash of gold and silver, but by their turning to their heavenly Father with repentance of all that is recorded of them in the page of history, and by their bowing before the holy name of Jesus. Do not let us for a moment think that the Jews are not a patriotic race. Demand of them, if you will, whether they do not fully expect that the children of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, shall re-enter Jerusalem in triumph, and enjoy the possessions of their forefathers in peace and security. They will answer affirmatively ; and XXV'i INTRODUCTION. they expect the Messiah, as did Simeon, who, having- long awaited the advent, exclaimed when he beheld the infant Jesus, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." That the glorious Saviour should become a sacrifice, and be led like a lamb to the slaughter, was ordained ; and all that then took place, and afterwards came to pass, was a matter of prophecy. The announcements, ay, the menaces of both the greater and the lesser prophets, were exactly ful- filled ; they were so minutely identified in their completion with respect to the Jewish people, that this precision of their fulfilment constitutes an important branch of God's own miracles, which have been recognised as such by all the Christians that have descended in countless multitudes into the tomb, as well as all living Christians, and form a chief evidence of the truth of the Christian dispensation ; equally assuring us also that the remaining predictions of Holy Writ shall be ac- complished. Of these the chief is the restoration of the Jews ; and we firmly believe in the same ; so also do the Jews. United in the expectation with us of so great a promise, think ye that they will never unite amongst themselves in purpose ? I assert that Jews and Christians, the elect of the children of God, and the chosen of the Gentiles INTRODUCTION. XXV11 are on the best terms of friendship. Conciliation has proved the offspring of civilisation. Present unto them their Messiah by the brilliant and irrefragable evidences of the Gospel ; and may be, they will accept of your proofs, and will join with John, the beloved of our Saviour, and with us, in the exclamation, so replete with a sanctified spirit, that concludes the Book of Revelation, " Come. Lord Jesus." This new prospect of the accomplishment of what is so devoutly to be wished, is a result of the zealous labours of the faithful. It is an im- portant feature also of the present face of affairs, that the successful labourer in the vineyard, in so far as the recent discovery of the stock of Abraham, which has for ages vegetated in the nearly unexplored regions of Georgia or Circassia, and on the less known shores of the Caspian sea, was himself a Jew who had em- barked in the service of the Captain of our salvation. To him it has been a high privilege to have been the envoy to the lost tribes of Israel, and to have carried into effect the views of the Indian Association on that point. Caspian, that the other remnants of the de- scendants of Abraham cannot equally boast of. The route pursued on returning from exploring the Caucasus to Bagdad is probably the route that the Jews will pursue in their progress to- wards Judea ; having to cross the great river Phoat, which is to be dried up for their passage, according to the prophecies. " In returning and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and in con- fidence shall be your strength ; and ye would not." (Isaiah xxx. 15.) " And they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jeru- salem." (Isaiah xxvii. 13.) In conclusion, it is hoped that the public will pardon the apparent delay which has occurred in committing these Eastern Researches to the press, being assured that the writer has been by no means idle in the sacred cause, from the day in J which he first took it in hand till the present. In the year (A. D. 1837) when he set out for Georgia, the most active personal investigation was instituted, to obtain local proofs of the result of eighteen years previous study and meditation on the history of the Jews, all which have re- quired to be digested into proper form, previous to being presented to the public. As it was only INTRODUCTION XXIX on the very scene of the biblical events that so much could have been gained in the way of posi- tive information, it was found needful to repair in person to all those regions that surround the ancient territories of the Jews, and to trace their establishments in many countries to which they had resorted after their dispersion. And finally, the present mission to England, from the Christian brethren in India, for the purpose of advocating these great interests, has accumulated such manifold duties, and so harassing a share of public business on the writer, that he must plead with the indulgent public for some allowance as to the time consumed in the preparation, and for the mode of executing so considerable a task. A mere author might probably have perfected such a work in a more rhetorical and more elegant o style ; but that was not the thing needful. Being: aware that facts in all their naked truth, o y devoid of extraneous embellishments, are ex- pected in a work of this description, such facts and deductions, therefore, irresistible by their truth and consistency, it is trusted will only be found in these pages. The writer's wish is, to impress devout readers with all that zeal for the welfare of the Jews that he has himself endea- voured to testify ; and having once put upon record, in a faithful and simple narrative, all that XXX INTRODUCTION. he has learned with regard to those very in- teresting matters, he avows himself ready and prepared to persevere in these labours, to lay aside all thoughts of personal comfort, and to do his duty to his brethren, both Christians and Jews, in that sphere of life to which it has pleased God to call him ; not desirous of seeking a home or resting-place from the severity of toil, until the the infirmities o*f age shall come and leave only the solace of travelling over in imagination and silent reflection the past active scenes of public life. May then the attention of the friends of Israel be attracted to the long-lost Remnant scat- tered beyond the Great River, to prepare them by the testimony of the Gospel for that event which is rapidly approaching, when the Deliverer shall appear out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, — " when the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel." THE REMNANT FOUND ; OR, ISRAEL DISCOVERED. THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. THE Jews were elected and separated from the rest of mankind to be the peculiar people of God, and to be a blessing to all mankind. Their his- tory is a record of the strivings of the Spirit of God to imbue them, and the nations from the midst of whom they were taken, with a know- ledge of JEHOVAH, his attributes, his power, and his will ; to prepare a miserable and ruined world for that exhibition of grace and glory, which was to follow in the redemption of all things by Jesus Christ, and the establishment 2 THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. of the kingdom of God upon earth in the ftp pointed season. The history of Judah and Israel, distinguished in the word of God as " JUDAH, and the children of Israel, his companions," and " Joseph, the stick of EPHRAIM, and all the house of Israel, his companions," (Ezek, xxxvii. 16,) is an interest- ing and deeply humbling one ; — humbling, be- cause of the fatal mistake of those unto whom the word of God came, who certainly were des- tined for great honour and glory ; and interesting because of the extensive purposes of God towards the human race through the seed of Abraham, who seemed to be ignorant that the grace of God was destined for the benefit and advantage of all mankind. The sin of David and the apostasy of Solomon soon manifested their bitter fruits ; and that kingdom which seemed settled in their house in its entireness, was rent in twain. In the reign of their successor Rehoboam, the rebel tribes affirmed to that fatal principle, which, in these days it is almost treason to gainsay, (the right of the people to govern themselves,) which was fol- lowed with such fatal consequences. " What portion have we in David ? neither have we THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. 3 inheritance in the son of Jesse : to your tents, O Israel ; now see to thine own house, David !" (1 Kings xii. 16.) In A. M. 3029, the revolt took place, and the KINGDOM OF ISRAEL, esta- blished by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, continued two hundred and fifty-four years under nineteen wicked sovereigns, of nine different families. Notwithstanding the faithful warnings of the pro- phets, the Ten Tribes continued obstinate in their iniquity, and particularly in worshipping the calves in Dan and Bethel. And after every means were resorted to, to win them back to their allegiance to the God of their fathers, the predic- tion was pronounced, and carried into effect, that EPHRAIM SHOULD NO LONGER CONTINUE AS A NATION, AND THAT THE LAND OF THEIR ENEMIES SHOULD CONSUME THEM, (Isaiah vii. 8.) " The God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, (even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan." (1 Chron. v. 26.) This was the first deportation of the rebellious tribes, which consisted of those dwelling on the east of Jordan. About forty B 2 4 THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. years afterwards, the kingdom of Israel, thus weakened and distressed, was completely broken up and destroyed. In A. M. 3283, Shalmaneser and Esar-haddon, his grandson, carried off the re- maining seven and a half tribes, planting them in the same places whither their brethren had been carried before them ; " and," it is added, " IN THE CITIES OF THE MfiDES." (2 Kings xviii. no Strictly speaking, there were three deporta- tions of these tribes : 1st. Of the two and a half tribes, on the other side of Jordan, by Pul and Tilgath-pilneser. 2nd, Of the bulk of the seven and a half tribes, by Shalmaneser. 