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ceeded by a wide wasting desolation: (Luke xix. 43, 44:) that it was a reviving in bondage, for the days did arrive in which the sceptre departed from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet, and Shiloh came.*

We have only now to inquire, What is the present duty of the Church of Christ, in connexion with this

doctrine?

of

Her duty is clear, to promote God's purposes mercy and of truth to Israel. And how may this be done? Here the Lord not only furnishes by precept his will concerning us, but gives his own example in confirmation of the precept. We will go to one deeply interesting period of his eventful history, in order to obtain what we seek. Observe him, not many hours before he entered into his unspeakable passion, when the Father was about to lay upon him the accumulated guilt of a world of sinners; when he was about to be baptized with that baptism of fire upon which his heart was so intent, that he said, "How am I straitened until it be accomplished!" See him ascend an eminence from which "he beheld the city," and what words do we hear from his gracious lips? "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace.

* Gen. xlix. 10.

"" Here is

love: here is pity: here is compassion; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth spake. But draw nearer to that man of sorrows, and what do you see? You see the big tear rolling down his careworn cheek testifying to the grief which swelled his bosom; for those tears were shed for a people just about to fill up the measure of their iniquity by killing him, the Prince of Life. Proceed in this eventful history, and go with me to the consummation on Calvary: when the very face of nature was shrouded with a noonday darkness, sad testimony to the state of his benighted soul, from which all sensible comfort was withdrawn, because it pleased the Father to put to grief the son of his love, and to make "him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' What gracious words proceeded out of his lips? "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And, for the fruit of this intercessory prayer, we look to the day of Pentecost, when three thousand souls, of those who had been his betrayers and murderers, were added to the Church of such as should be saved!

He is still the Shepherd of Israel, and David knew the value of that title when he said, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Full of comfort is the assurance thus conveyed to the

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heart of his sheep. In the season of weakness. Christ is "the Sheep for the slaughter," or "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." But in his season of power he is "the Great Shepherd of the sheep," when, as touching his people Israel, "he will bear them and carry them as in the days of old."

Here, then, is the Church's duty exhibited in the brightest colours. Here she beholds her example, and it becomes her to go and do likewise. Would she feel as Christ felt, she must love Abraham's seed. Would she do as Christ did, she must labour for their good. She has enjoyed the children's bread, and been fattening upon it for ages, whilst the children of the kingdom have been left to starve. To you, then, whom I now address, the way of duty is clear. Make the claims of Israel plain to those who know them not, and press upon those who know them the duty of acting up to that knowledge.

Here the office of the preacher ceases. It is ours to proclaim the will of God as revealed in his Word. It is his to command the blessing. May that blessing be now largely given, that the ministration of this service may redound to the Divine glory, and the good of his people Israel, through Jesus Christ my Lord, my God!

THE FIRST RESTORATION

NOTE A.

WHEN engaged in preaching the sermon, of which the foregoing is the substance, I stated that the place from which these Jews came was "the north of China." The error arose from the following circumstance, that I had not read the statement since its first appearance in the year 1838, and quoted what was then stated from memory. I subjoin a copy of the account to which I then referred, which cannot fail to interest every Christian reader :

THE TEN LOST TRIBES.

"The following paragraph, which lately appeared in a German paper, under the head of Leipsic, is calculated to lead to some interesting inquiries.

"After having seen, for some years past, merchants from Tiflis, Persia, and Armenia, among the visitors at our fair, we have had for the first time two traders from Bucharia with shawls, which are there manufactured of the finest wool of the goats of Thibet and Cashmere by the Jewish families, who form a third part of the population. In Bucharia, formerly the capital of Sogdiana, the Jews have been very numerous ever since the Babylonian captivity, and are there as remarkable for their industry and manufactures as they are in England for their money transactions. It was not till last year that the Russian Government succeeded in extending its diplomatic missions far into Bucharia. The above traders exchanged their shawls for coarse and fine woollen cloths of such colours as are most esteemed in the East."

"Much interest has been excited by the information which this paragraph conveys, and which is equally novel and important. In none of the geographical works which we have consulted do we find the least hint as to the existence in Bucharia of such a body of Jews as that here mentioned, amounting to one-third of the whole population; but, as the fact can no longer be doubted, the next point of inquiry is, Whence have they proceeded, and how have they come to establish themselves in a region so remote from their original

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country? This question, we think, can only be answered by supposing that these persons are the descendants of the longlost ten tribes, concerning the fate of which, theologians, historians, and antiquaries, have been alike puzzled; and, however wild this hypothesis may at first sight appear, there are not wanting circumstances to render it far from being improbable. In the 17th chapter of the 2d book of Kings, it is said, 'In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away unto Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;' and in the subsequent verses, as well as in the writings of the prophets, it is said, that the Lord then put away Israel out of his sight, and carried them away into the land of Assyria unto this day.' In the Apocrypha, 2d Esdras 13, it is said that the ten tribes were carried beyond the river Euphrates, and so they were brought into another land, when they took counsel together, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt; that they entered in at the narrow passages of the river Euphrates, when the springs of the flood were stayed, and went through the country a great journey, even of a year and a half:' and it is added, that 'there they will remain until the latter time, when they will come forth again.' The country beyond Bucharia was unknown to the ancients, and it is, we believe, generally admitted that the river Gozan, mentioned in the Book of Kings, is the same as the Ganges, which takes its rise in those countries in which the Jews reside of whom the Leipsic account speaks. The distance which these two Jewish merchants must have travelled cannot, therefore, be less than three thousand miles; and there can be little doubt that the Jews, whom they represent as a third part of the population of the country, are descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, settled by the river Gozan.

"The great plain of central Asia, forming four principal sides, viz., Little Bucharia, Thibet, Monguls, and Mantcheons,

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