Lost Israel Found
In the Anglo-Saxon Race
PREFACE
I have conceived it might be well to inform the reader of this
little volume of the manner in which I was first led to the investigation of the
subject treated of in this work.
In the fall of 1882 I was preparing a lecture on the Great Pyramid
of Geezeh, in Egypt.; and in doing so, I was perusing that great work, Our
Inheritance, by Prof. P. Smyth, Astronomer Royal to Scotland. Marking such
things as seemed adapted to my lecture, I saw, occasionally, things that I did
not need, which I passed over without any particular examination. At one time I
saw the term "Anglo-Saxon," but as I had no use for that, I passed on
without any examination whatever.
At length, having gone through with the
perusal of that great work, and having arranged my notes somewhat, the thought
occurred to me --What, what did I see about Anglo-Saxons? I could not
tell, nor where to find it. I therefore began turning back, scanning every page,
if possibly I might find it. At length after a long search I found the place,
and read' "The Anglo-Saxon bring the identical descendants of the Lost Ten
Tribes of Israel"! so and so. What! what'. I said, what under the sun does
the man mean? Is he crazy? or am I dreaming? Again and again I read the
sentence, but to no benefit; I could make nothing of it. At length, having
arranged the materials for my lecture to. my liking, I wrote to Prof. P. Smyth,
saying:
"My Dear Sir:
I have been perusing your great work on the Pyramid, with a
great deal of interest, and a great deal of profit, too, sir; but I came to a
sentence [quoting the same] that completely upset me; as the sailors say, 'threw
me on my beam's end.' Now, sir, I want to know if there is any possible evidence
of such a thing?"
Well, in a short time, I received a most charming letter from the
Professor, together with a package of tracts--monographs, every one on this
identical subject--not written by himself: These I began at once to explore, and
that, too, with no ordinary eagerness. But ere I had completed the reading of
the package, I no longer needed to inquire, "Is there any possible evidence of
that thing?" for the evidence now burst upon me with such divine effulgence as
well-nigh utterly to overwhelm me with its dazzling radiance. Amazement filled
my mind! Why had I never seen this before?
And now was borne ill upon my inner soul, as by a divine
injunction, "This gospel go thou and proclaim, till from on high thou art
called home;" and I have not been disobedient to this heavenly vision. Not
that there was any perceptible manifestation, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus,
but the evidence of the identity of the Anglo-Saxons with the lost tribes of
Israel became as convincing to me as the manifestation made to Saul, that
Jesus Christ was he whom Saul was then persecuting; and from that time to this,
I have endeavored to execute my commission to the utmost of my ability.
Now the inquiry is often raised, "How is it that the truths of the
ten tribes of Israel have been so long concealed? Why have they never been known
before?" The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is, "Even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." It was in the divine plan that
Israel (ten-tribed) should be lost, and that a veil should cover all eyes; that
they should not see when reading the prophets, so as to apprehend the full
meaning of the prophecy.
Hence, who does not know that it has been the commonly
received doctrine, that the Jews only were to be returned to Jerusalem? and that
this came from their mode of reading the prophecies? For who, of all the
commentators on the prophecies can be named, that has not classed all the
prophetic utterances as addressed to the Jews only. Everything is addressed to
the Jew's. The Jews alone are to receive, not only all the curses, but all the
blessings as well.
Indeed, I myself knew no distinction upon this subject, until
by investigation in reading the prophets under a classified schedule, placing
each and every prophecy under its own appropriate heading, did I learn that the
distinction between Israel and Judah was kept up from the time of the formation
of the two kingdoms under Rehoboam -- the one named the Kingdom of Israel, of
ten tribes, with Jeroboam as their king, and the other named the Kingdom of
Judah, with Rehoboam as king. From this time on, the prophecy is addressed to
each separately. And there were the two captivities, entirely distinct one from
the other; one was always called the Kingdom, or the House of Israel--meaning
always ten-tribed of. Israel--and the other always the Kingdom, or House of
Judah. Why this has not always been observed is indeed a marvel.
Hear what Dr. Lyman Abbott says in the last Christian Union
(Feb. 11, 1886) on the Sunday - School lesson: "In all ages of the Christian
Church, the restoration of the Jew's has served, and rightly, as a historical
prophecy. I do not enter here into ally discussion of the question whether there
is to come in the future a second restoration of the Jews to their native land.
The question is one in which I have never been able to take much interest, and
in which I have, perhaps, for that reason never obtained much light."
What better reason could possibly be given why Dr. Abbott should
"never have obtained, much light" :No, he says, "he never could take much
interest in the question." Neither has any other man who supposed that all these
predictions related to the Jews only. But once let the Doctor get his eyes open
to the true reading of the prophecies--that not only Judah, but Ephraim also,
are both of them "two of a family and one of a tribe," to be brought by God
himself and thus planted in the land given to their fathers -- planted there
from which they shall nevermore be rooted up, and where they shall be no more
two nations, but one nation, and they shall have one King over them, even "my
servant David," for thus saith the Lord -- and he will no longer complain of the
want of interest, or of the want of light.
E. P. Ingersol.
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