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Conclusion
1. It becomes us to be deeply affected with the
excommunication of the ancient people of God. In the
temporary rejection of those two branches of the Hebrew
nation, the truth is solemnly enforced, that the God of Zion
is a God of government; and that he will be known by the
judgments that he executeth. The casting out of the ten
tribes for their impious idolatries, is full of instruction.
The wonders God had done for them, and all their privileges
in the land of promise, could not save, when they rejected
the stated place of his worship, and united in the
abominations of the open enemies of God. They should be
excommunicated from the covenant, hurled from the promised
land, and abandoned to a state of savage wretchedness, for
two and a half millenaries. Their sin in those dark ages of
the old dispensation was no trifle. Its consequence is held
up as an awful warning to the world. It impresses the
following language; “Know thou and see that it is an evil
thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord.” To that
event people under evangelical privileges ought to turn
their eyes, and take the solemn warning. The God of Abraham
is a God of judgment; while blessed are all they that put
their trust in him.
The judgments of Heaven on the Jews were still more
dreadful. The Lord of that vineyard did indeed come in a day
when they looked not for him, and in an hour when they were
not aware; and did cut them asunder. He came and miserably
destroyed those husbandmen, and burned up their cities, as
he foretold. Upon their turning him off with hypocrisy and
will worship, and rejecting the Saviour, the denunciation,
“Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” was fulfilled
with unprecedented decision. Let all rejectors of Christ,
behold and tremble. The Jews were confident in a fancied
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security, to the last. But an impious confidence can never
save. It is but a dead calm before a fatal catastrophe. Such
presumptuous leaning upon the Lord, and saying, “Is not the
Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us;” was so far from
saving, that it was a sure precursor of perdition, and of
the coming of wrath upon them to the uttermost. Let gospel
rejectors beware. “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and
perish.” “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest
he fall.”
2. How evident and rich is the entail of the covenant
which will recover the two branches of the house of Israel!
Truly they are “a nation of line, line; ” (Isai. xviii. 2,
in the Hebrew, and margin of the great Bible.) Though they
be infidels, and rejected, and as touching the gospel are
enemies for our sakes; yet as touching the election, (the
entail of the covenant,) they are beloved for the fathers’
sakes; Rom. xi. 28.--This entail insures their ingrafting
again into their own olive tree, which shall be as life from
the dead to the nations. This is the infallible hold upon
them, which shall finally recover them again to Palestine,
and to the covenant of their God. It is upon this covenant
hold upon them, that the God of Abraham promises to take
away their stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a
heart of flesh; to sprinkle them with clean water, and to
make them clean;; to put his spirit within them and cause
them to walk in his statutes, and make them keep his
judgments and do them; Ezek. xxxvi. 24-27. It is upon this
entail, that God thus engages to bring them in under his new
covenant, or the Christian dispensation; that their children
shall be as aforetimes, and their congregations established
before him; and “that all who see them shall acknowledge
they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed;” “that they
are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring
with them.” It will then be understood, that though
blindness in part had happened to Israel, it was that the
gentiles might take their place, and only till the fulness
of the gentiles be come in; and then all Israel shall be
saved. The Jewish church will thence be a kind of capital
and model of the Christian world; see Isai. lx.
and many other promises of the same tenor.
The entail of the covenant may be expected thenceforth to
have its proper and perfect effect in the fulfilment of such
promises as the following, which relate to that period; “I
will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon
thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the
grass, as willows by the water courses;” Isai. xliv. 3, 4.
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“As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord.
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put
in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of
the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s
seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever;” Isai.
lix. 21. This will indeed bring a season of salvation to
man.
3. On reading the prophetic scriptures relative to the
restoration of the Hebrews, and the calls of Heaven to aid
in the event; the question becomes interesting. What is
first to be done relative to this restoration? The first
object, no doubt, must be, to christianize them, and wait
the leadings of Providence relative to any further event.
God will in due time, be (to all who are willing to wait on
him) his own interpreter; and to such he will make the path
of duty plain. In his own time and way, after his ancient
people shall be duly instructed, and taught the Christian
religion, God will open the door for the fulfilment of his
designs relative to any local restoration; and will bring
that part of them, whom he designs, to their ancient home.
All the Jews did not return to Palestine from their seventy
years captivity. Many chose to continue where they were
planted in the east. Something of the same may be realized
in the final restoration of Judah and Israel. A remnant
only of the ten tribes is to return. This is clearly
taught. Isai. x. 20-22: “And it shall come to pass in that
day that the remnant of Israel, and such as are
escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon
him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy
One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return,
even the remnant of Jacob, unto the Mighty God. For
though the people of Israel be as the sand of the sea; yet a
remnant of them shall return.” Here the number
restored is comparatively small; as Jer. iii. 14, upon the
same event; “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord;
for I am married unto you; and I will take you one of a
city (village) and two of a family, (tribe) and
will bring you to Zion.” One from an Indian village, and two
from a tribe, would indeed be a small remnant. This
proportion may here be proverbial; but certainly indicates
that but a small number compared with the whole will return.
A proportion of that nation will in due time be offered, to
return to the land of their fathers, where they may form a
kind of centre or capital to the cause of Christ on earth.
Relative to many particulars of the event, the holy oracles
are not express. They have strongly marked the outlines or
leading facts of the restoration; and the unrevealed
particulars, the events of Providence must unfold. That
great numbers will return, there seems
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not room to doubt. But the actual proposition to return,
will doubtless be a free-will offering of those whose hearts
God shall incline. The first duty must be to recover them to
the visible kingdom of Christ. To this our prayers, alms,
and all due exertions must devoutly tend.
4. Viewing the aborigines of America as the outcast tribes
of Israel; an interesting view is given of some prophetic
passages, which appear nearly connected with their
restoration.
In Isai. xl. 3, relative to this restoration of the ancient
people of God, we read; “The voice of him that crieth in the
wilderness; Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.” This received
a primary and typical fulfilment in the ministry of John the
Baptist, in the wilderness of Judea, to introduce Christ.
Hence the passage was applied to him. But it was to receive
its ultimate and most interesting fulfilment at a period
connected with the commencement of the Millennium, when “the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together;” as the subsequent text decides. It is
intimately connected with the restoration of the Hebrews; as
appears in its context. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, (a name
here put for all the Hebrew family, as it was their capital
in the days of David and Solomon,) and cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for
she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her
sins.” Here is the final Hebrew restoration, after the time
of their doubly long corrective rejection for their sins
shall have expired. The voice in the wilderness then
follows, as the great means of this restoration.
A wilderness has justly been considered as a symbol of a
region of moral darkness and spiritual death. It has been
considered as a symbol of the heathen world; and it is a
striking emblem of it. And the emblem receives strength from
the consideration, that it is in a sense literally true.
The voice, which restores Israel, is heard in the vast
wilderness of America, a literal wilderness of thousands of
miles, where the dry bones of the outcasts of Israel have
for thousands of years been scattered. The voice crying in
the wilderness has a special appropriation to these Hebrews.
As it had a kind of literal fulfilment in the preaching of
the forerunner John, for a short time in the wilderness of
Judea; so it is to have a kind of literal fulfilment, upon a
much greater scale, in the missions, which shall recover the
ten tribes from the vast wilderness of America.
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Of the same period and event, the same evangelical prophet
says, Isai. xxxv. 1. “The wilderness and the solitary place
shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and
blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice
even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be
given unto it, and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they
shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our
God.” In such passages, while the perdiction [sic] is to
have its mystical and full accomplishment in the conversion
of the heathen world to God, the prophetic eye evidently
rested with signal pleasure, on a literal restoration of his
long lost brethren, as involved in the event, and as
furnishing the ground of the figure. They will be literally,
and the fulness of the Gentiles mystically, restored and
brought to Zion. Is it not an uncommon thing for prophetic
passages to receive a kind of literal fulfilment; while yet
the passage most clearly looks in its ultimate and most
important sense to mystical fulfilment. Take the following
instances for illustration. In Isai. xxxv. 5--predicting the
blessed effects of the mission of Christ on earth--the
prophet says; “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, then shall the
lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall
sing.” This had a literal fulfilment in the miracles wrought
by our Lord on earth. And yet its mystical import upon the
souls of men is infinitely more interesting, and will be
extensively fulfilled in the introduction of the Millennium.
This stands connected with the wilderness and the solitary
place being glad; and the desert rejoicing and blossoming as
the rose; and is followed by the clause; “For in the
wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the
desert.” And as the one was prefaced by a literal fulfilment;
the other may be accompanied with a kind of literal
fulfilment.
Again; Zech. ix. 9; “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king cometh unto
thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding
upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” This
stands connected with the time, “when (verse 1) the eyes of
men, as all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord;”
and when (verse 10) the battle bow shall be cut off; and he
shall speak peace unto the heathen; and his dominion shall
be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends
of the earth.” It stands connected with the battle of the
great day, and the introduction of the Millennium; and is a
striking emblem of the means used by Christ, (in the
estimation of the scoffing infidel world,) to introduce his
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kingdom--”by the foolishness of preaching”-- “not by might,
nor by power; but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Yet even this must be preluded by a literal fulfilment, in
the riding of Christ into Jerusalem. See Matt. xxi. 1--Zech.
xi. 1. “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour
thy cedars.” This is to have its ultimate accomplishment in
the battle of the great day of God Almighty,” of which the
destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem was but a type.
But this too must be prefaced with a literal accomplishment.
Josephus, assuring us of the miraculous portents of the
destruction of Jerusalem, says; “About the sixth hour of the
night, the eastern gate of the temple was found to open
without human assistance.” “It was secured (he adds) by iron
bolts and bars that were let down into a large threshold
consisting of one entire stone.” The Jews considered this as
a manifestation that their divine protection was fled. “M.
Johanan, directing his speech to the temple, said; I know
thy destruction is at hand according to the prophecy of
Zechariah, “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, &c.” (Scott.)
Thus mystical texts often have a kind of literal fulfilment.
And accordingly the predictions of the restoration of
Israel, in the last days, while they deliver them from a
mystical wilderness of spiritual wretchedness, of ignorance
and moral death;--may at the same time redeem them from a
vast literal wilderness! And the prediction of the former
may be phrased from this very circumstance.
As the wilderness of Judea in a small degree rejoiced and
blossomed as the rose, when John the Baptist performed his
ministry in it; so the wilderness and solitary place of our
vast continent, containing the lost tribes of the house of
Israel, will, on a most enlarged scale, rejoice and blossom
as the rose, when the long lost tribes shall be found there,
and shall be gathered to Zion. The event in relation to
these ancient heirs of the covenant, stated in the last
verse of this chapter, will then receive a signal fulfilment;
“And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.” Upon this final restoration of his brethren, this
prophet exults in lofty strains. Several of the many of
these strains shall be here inserted. Isai. xlix. “Listen, O
isles, unto me; (or ye lands away over the sea) harken ye
people from afar. I will make all my mountains a way; and my
highway shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far;
and lo, these from the north, and from the west; and these
from the land of Sinim.--Sing. O
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heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted his
people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” Such texts
have a special allusion to the lost tribes of the house of
Israel. And their being called over mountains, and over
seas, from the west, and from afar, receives an emphasis
from the consideration of their being gathered from the vast
wilds of America.
With the prophet Hosea, the rejection and recovery of the
ten tribes are a great object. In chapter 2d, their
rejection, and the cause of it, are stated, and also a
promise of their return. God threatens to strip them naked,
and “make them as a wilderness.” “And I will visit upon her
the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them;”
i.e. to Baalim, her false gods. This visiting upon her her
idolatries was to be done in her subsequent outcast state,
in which God there says; “she is not my wife, neither am I
her husband.” But he says, v. 14-- “Therefore, behold, I
will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and
speak comfortably unto her.-- And I will give her her
vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of
hope; and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of
Egypt.” Here is Israel’s restoration; and it is from the
wilderness, where long they had been planted during the
period of their outcast state. In this wilderness God
eventually speaks comfortably to them, and restores them, as
he restored from Egypt. Here God gives them “they valley of
Achor for a door of hope.” The first encampment of the
Hebrews in the valley of Achor, was to them a pledge in
their eventual possession of the promised land, after the
Lord had there turned from the fierceness of his wrath;
Josh. vii. 26.
Upon the same event God says; Isai. xlii. 19, 20; “Behold, I
will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not
know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers
in the desert. The beasts of the field shall honour me; the
dragons and the owls; because I give water in the
wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my
people, to my chosen.” If such texts have a glorious,
general, mystical fulfilment in the conversion of pagan
lands; yet this does not preclude, but rather implies the
fact, that the people whose restoration is in them
particularly foretold, shall be recovered from a vast
wilderness; and their conversion shall be almost like the
conversion of dragons and owls of the desert. Rivers of
knowledge and grace shall in such wilds be open for God’s
chosen.
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It will then truly be fulfilled that God in comforting Zion,
will “make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of the Lord;” Isai. li. 3. Such passages will have a
degree of both literal and mystical fulfilment.
A signal beauty will then be discovered in such passages as
the following; Isai. xli. 14. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob,
and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord God,
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I will open rivers in
the high places, and fountains in the midst of vallies: I
will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land
springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar,
the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; and I
will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine, and the box
tree together, that they may see and know and understand
together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the
Holy One of Israel hath created it.” The view given of the
place of the long banishment of the ten tribes, gives a
lustre to such predictions of their restoration.--These will
have a striking fulfilment in the vast wilds of our
continent, when the glad tidings of salvation shall be
carried to the natives of these extensive dreary forests and
those regions of wretchedness and death shall become vocal
with the high praises of God, sung by his ancient Israel.
In Micah vii. is a prediction relative to Israel’s
restoration. Micah, as well as Isaiah, lived in the days of
Israel’s dispersion. He began his ministry about eighteen
years before this event; and continued it about twenty-five
years after the event. Though he was of Judah, Scott says,
“He addressed his messages both to Judah and Israel.” Of the
passage, verse 11-13, Bp. Lowth says, “The general
restoration of the Jews shall not be brought to pass till
after their land hath lain desolate for many ages.” Bp.
Newcomb says, of verses 14-17; “They may likewise have a
reference to the times of the future restitution.” Scott
says of the verses following, “They evidently related to
Christ, and the success of the gospel to the end of time;
and the future restoration of Israel.” In verse 12 the
application for this restoration is made to them “from sea
to sea; and from mountain to mountain.” The prophet then
prays for them, verse 14; that God would feed his people,
“the flock of his heritage, which dwell solitarily in the
wood;” that he would feed them in the midst of Carmel,
Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. Where are this
people to be found “from sea to sea; from mountain to
mountain; and in the wood?” This answers to nothing of
ancient date. But to the situation of Israel of modern date,
(if they be in the wilds of America) it well accords. Here
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they must indeed be sought “from sea to sea; from mountain
to mountain;” and “in the wood.” And this event is to be,
verse 13, “after that their land hath been desolate;” as
Scott renders it from the original. And this is to be in
fulfilment of “the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
which God had sworn from the days of old;” verse 20. God
then, as in verses 18, 19, pardons the transgression of the
remnant of his heritage, retains not his anger forever, but
turns again and has compassion on them, and casts all their
sins into the depth of the sea. All these expressions seem
to apply perfectly to the final restoration of Israel; but
not to any thing antecedent to that event. This branch of
Israel are to be found then, “dwelling solitarily in the
wood;” and are to be sought “from sea to sea; and from
mountain to mountain.”
5. If it be a fact that the native Americans are the tribes
of Israel, new evidence is hence furnished of the divinity
of our holy scriptures. A new field of evidence is here
opened from a race of men, “outcast” from all civil society
for a long course of centuries. Impressed on these wild
tenants of the forest, (these children of nature, without
books or letters, or any thing but savage tradition,)
striking characters are found of the truth of ancient
revelation.
The intelligent vindicator of the word of God has never
feared to meet the infidel on fair ground. His triumph has
not been less certain than that of David against Goliath.
But in the view taken of the natives of our continent, the
believer will find additional arguments, in which to
triumph. He will find more than “five smooth stones taken
out of the brook,” (1 Sam. xvi. 40.) each one of which is
sufficient to sink into the head of an impious Goliath,
challenging the God of Israel.
Let the unbeliever in revelations undertake to answer the
following questions.
Whence have the greater part of the American natives been
taught the being of one and only one God; when all other
heathen nations have lost all such knowledge, and believe in
many false gods?
Whence have the Indians, or most of them, been kept from
gross idolatry, which has covered the rest of the heathen
world? and to which all men have been so prone?
Whence have many of them been taught that the name of the
one God, the Great Spirit above, is Yohewah, Ale, Yah,
(Hebrew names of God,) who made all things, and to whom
alone worship is due?
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Who taught any of them that God, at first, made one man from
earth; formed him well; and breathed him into life? and that
God made good and bad spirits; the latter of whom have a
prince over them?
Whence came the idea among the untutored savages, that
Yohewah was once the covenant God of their nation; and the
rest of the world were out of covenant with him,--the
accursed people? God was the God of Israel, and of no other
nation during their commonwealth. “I entered into covenant
with thee, and thou becamest mine.”
Whence their ideas that their ancestors once had the book of
God; and then were happy; but that they lost it; and then
became miserable; but that they will have this book again at
some time?
Whence their notion that their fathers once had the spirit
of God to work miracles, and to foretel future events?
Whence the general Indian tradition of offering their first
ripe fruits. See Exod. xxii. 29; and xxiii. 19. Lev. ii. 14;
and xxiii. 10, 11.
Who taught the untutored savages to have a temple of Yohewah;
a holy of holies in it, into which no common people may
enter, or look?
Who taught him a succession of high priests? that this
priest must be inducted into office by purifications, and
anointing? that he must appear in an appropriate habiliment,
the form of which descended from their fathers of remote
antiquity?
Whence their custom of this priest’s making a yearly
atonement, in or near the holy apartment of their temple?
Lev. xxiii. 27, and vi. 30.
Whence their three annual feasts, which well accord to the
three great feasts in Israel? Exod. xxiii. 14 and on.
Whence came their peculiar feast, in which a bone of the
sacrifice may not be broken; and all that is prepared must
be eaten; or burned before the next morning sun? and eaten
with bitter vegetables. Exod. xii. 8, 10, 46.
Whence a custom of their males appearing three times
annually before God at the temple? Exod. xxiii. 17, Deut.
xvi. 16.
Who taught wild savages of the desert to maintain places of
refuge from the avenger of blood; “old, beloved, white
towns?” Joshua chap. xx.
Who taught them to keep and venerate a sacred ark,
containing their most sacred things; to be borne against
their enemies by one purified by strict rites?-- That no one
but the sanctified keeper might
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look into this ark; and the enemy feeling the same reverence
for it, as the friends? Exod. xxv. 10, and on. 1 Sam. vi.
19. 2 Sam. xi. 11.
Whence came the deep and extensive impression among these
savage tribes that the hollow of the thigh of no animal may
be eaten? Gen. xxxii. 32.
Let the infidel inform how these savages (so long excluded
from all intercourse with the religious or civilized world)
came by the right of circumcision? and some of them an idea
of a Jubilee?
Whence their idea of an old divine speech; that they must
imitate their virtuous ancestors, enforced by “flourishing
upon a land flowing with milk and honey?”
Whence their notion of the ancient flood? and of the
longevity of the ancients? also of the confusion of the
language of man at building a high place? evidently meaning
the scene at Babel.
How came these wild human herds of the desert by various
Hebrew words and phrases; and such phrases as accord with no
other language on earth? See the table furnished, page 90.
Who taught them to sing, Halleluyah, Yohewah, Yah, Shilu
Yohewah; and to make the sacred use they do of the
syllables, which compose the names of God? singing them in
their religious dances, and in their customs; thus ascribing
all the praise to Yohewah? I ask not, who taught them the
spirit or holiness of such religious forms? For probably
they have little or no intelligent meaning. But whence have
they brought down these traditional forms?
How came their reckoning of time so well to accord with that
of ancient Israel?
Whence their tradition of twelve men, in preparing for a
feast similar to the ancient feast of tabernacles; taking
twelve poles, forming their booths; and their altar of
twelve stones, on which no tool may pass; and here offering
their twelve sacrifices? and some tribes proceeding by the
number ten instead of twelve? indicating their tradition of
the twelve tribes; and their subsequent ten, after the
revolt.
Whence came their tradition of purifying themselves with
bitter vegetables? also fasting, and purifying themselves
when going to war, as did Israel.
Who taught them that at death their beloved people sleep,
and go to their fathers?
Whence their custom of washing and anointing their dead; and
some of them of hiring mourners to bewail them; and of
singing round the corpse (before they bury it) the syllables
of Yah, Yohewah?
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How came they by their tradition answering to the ancient
Jewish separations of women? Lev. xii. 1-6, also a tradition
of taking their shoes from their feet, on solemn occasions?
Exod. iii 5. Deut. xxv. 9.
Whence were some of them taught in deep mourning to lay
their hand on their mouth, and their mouth in the dust?
And whence came their tradition of their ancient father with
his twelve sons, ruling over others? and the mal-conduct of
these twelve sons; till they lost their pre-eminence?
Let it be remembered, it is not pretended that all the
savages are in the practice of all these traditions. They
are not. But it is contended that the whole of these things
have been found among their different tribes in our
continent, within a hundred years. A fragment of these
Hebrew traditions has been found among one tribe; and
another fragment among another; and some of the most
striking of these traditions have been found among various
and very distant tribes; as has appeared in the recital from
various authors, traders and travellers.
Let the unbeliever in revelation set himself to account for
these events. No account can be given of them, but that they
were derived from ancient revelation in Israel. And hence in
the outcast state of the ten tribes of Israel, (in their
huge valley of dry bones, in this vast new world,) we find
presented a volume of new evidence of the divinity of the
Old Testament, and hence of the New; for the latter rests on
the former, as a building rests on its foundation. If the
one is divine, the other is divine; for both form a perfect
whole.
We are assured by the chief apostle to the Gentiles, that
the restoration of the ancient people of God in the last
days, when “all Israel shall be saved,” shall be to the
nations “as life from the dead;” Rom. xi. 15. Its new and
demonstrative evidence of the glorious truth of revelation,
will confound infidelity itself; and fill the world with
light and glory. These Indian traditions may be viewed as
beginning to exhibit to the world their quota of this new
evidence.
In our subject, we find a powerful evidence of the truth of
revelation, extending through a wild continent, in savage
traditions; which traditions must have been brought down
from 725 years before the Christian era.
The preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, for
eighteen centuries, has been justly viewed as a kind of
standing miracle in support of the truth of revelation. But
the arguments furnished from
[beginning of page 209]
the preservation and traditions of the ten tribes, in the
wilds of America from a much longer period, must be viewed
as furnishing, if possible, a more commanding testimony. And
it is precisely such evidence as must have been expected in
the long outcast tribes of Israel, whenever they should come
to light; and just such evidence as must rationally be
expected to bring them to the knowledge of the civilized
world.
6. The people addressed by the prophet Isaiah, (be they
America, or Britain, or who they may,) are highly honoured
of God. They are a “land shadowing with wings.” God is
abundantly represented as shadowing his people with his
wings. “Hide me under the shadow of thy wings.” “The
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings.” To Israel as brought from Egypt, God said; “I bare
you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” Wings,
and especially eagles’ wings, are much used in the holy
oracles, to denote special aid, and that of the most
dignified kind. Of the children of God it is said; “They
that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be
weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
And if the ancient tribes of the Lord are to be recovered at
last by an agency well denoted by a “land shadowing with
wings;” this rich prophetic imagery is certainly very
honourable to the nation addressed; as the business assigned
them is also very honourable. And probably no other nation
on earth can, from its national character, the excellency of
its government, and its local situation, lay so good a claim
to this inspired characteristic. The American Eagle is a
term well known in the civilized world. And no other nation
has so good a right to this honour.
7. May the people addressed by the prophet Isaiah, awake to
a diligent performance of the duty assigned them. Here is a
rich opportunity of being workers together with God in a
business, which will excite the attention of heaven and
earth. “All the inhabitants of the earth, see ye when he
lifteth up the ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth
the trumpet, hear ye.” The ancient restorations of Israel
were remarkable. Nations that stood in their way sank, as
under a deluge;--as Egypt. Babylon, Amalek, and many others
could testify. The Ammonites and Moabites were branded with
infamy, “because they met not Israel with bread and water
when they came forth out of Egypt.”
[beginning of page 210]
And the final restoration of Israel is to exceed all
antecedent restorations. “It shall no more be said, The Lord
liveth who brought up Israel from Egypt; but, The Lord
liveth who brought them from all the countries whither I
have driven them.” Divine judgments then, may be
proportionably greater against all who withstand the final
restoration. “I will undo all that afflict thee.” Wo will be
to them, who shall have the unbelief or temerity to place
themselves before the wheels of divine providence when
Christ shall ride forth in the chariot of salvation to bring
the dispersed Jews, and outcast Israel to himself. God will
arise, and his enemies will be scattered. As smoke is driven
away; and as the wax melteth before the fire; so God will
drive away and melt the enemies of his ancient people. He
will ride in the heavens by the name Jah. And while his
friends rejoice, his enemies shall tremble at his presence.
God will go before his people, and march through the
wilderness. The earth, it is said, shall shake; and the
heavens shall drop at his presence. Though his long banished
people have lain among the pots; yet now shall they be as
the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold. The mountains and hills shall leap at the
presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.
And God will wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy
scalp of them that oppose his march, when he shall again
bring from Bashan, and recover his banished again from the
depth of the sea. Their foot shall be dipped in the blood of
their enemies; and men shall again see the stately march of
the God of Zion; and shall bless the Lord, even the Lord
from the fountains of Israel. Little Benjamin, and his ruler
(or chief) shall be there, with the princes of Judah and
their counsel. God will command his strength. He will rebuke
the armies of the spearmen, with the bulls and calves of
their mighty coalition. He will scatter those who delight in
war, till every one shall submit himself with pieces of
silver.
May the suppliants of God in the west, in the land
shadowing with wings, be hid in that day of the Lord’s
anger. May they be found in the chambers of his protection,
until the indignation be overpast; faithfully obeying the
direction to bring his present of the people scattered and
peeled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the
Mount Zion.
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