as the Two Tribes have been from the Ten Tribes for about two thousand eight hundred years, are not to be separate dispensations of Providence, but concurrent parts of one grand event. When we come to examine certain circumstances which the Scriptures disclose concerning this event, we shall discern reasons for concluding that it is one which from its commencement to its accomplishment will occupy many years. It is possible, therefore, and it appears to be intimated in the Sacred Writings, that the progress of restoration may not proceed in its two branches by steps exactly parallel and contemporaneous. But the consummation will be one. "But now saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have redeemed thee: I have called thee by thy name, for thou art Mine. Fear not; for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from the West. I will say to the North, Give up, and to the South, Keep not back: Bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by My Name: for I have created him for My glory." Isaiah, xliii. 1. 5-7. "In those days the House of Judah shall walk with the House of Israel; and they shall come together out of the land of the North to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." Jerem. iii. 18. "Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one Head, and they shall come up out of the land" (of their captivity); "for great shall be the day of Jezreel." Hosea, i. 11. The future and perpetual re-union of the Twelve Tribes into one nation is declared in the most impressive manner, first emblematically, then in direct explanation, by Ezekiel. "The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

Moreover, thou Son of Man, take thee one stick; and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the House of Israel, his companions; and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so they shall be My people, and I will be their God. And David My servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one Shepherd: they shall also walk in My judgements, and observe My statutes to do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their

children's children for ever: and My servant David shall be their Prince for ever." xxxvii. 15-25.

Amidst the obscurity which for the wisest reasons is thrown over the course of unfulfilled prophecy, and therefore of the restoration of Israel, gleams of light, disclosing circumstances aweful in their nature, and very extensive in their bearings and consequences, are occasionally granted. Of these circumstances one of the most momentous is the unequalled concussion and distress of nations, particularly of the nations of the Roman world, by which the re-establishment of the Twelve Tribes shall be introduced and accompanied. The angel sent to communicate to Daniel the predictions recorded in the three last chapters of the book, thus declares the special object of his mission: "Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days." Dan. x. 14. Having stated continuously the series of his communications to the eve of the restoration of Israel, he adds, xii. i.: "At that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered." Respecting the tremendousness of these visitations of the kingdoms of the earth, visitations under which the Israelites themselves are to endure their full measure of suffering, other prophets unite their testimony: and Palestine is pointed out as the locality in which some of the most memorable inflictions of Divine judgement shall be displayed. "Therefore wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the For My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour out upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the

prey.

earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent." Zephan. iii. 8, 9. "For, behold, in those days, and at that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem; I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people, and for My heritage Israel.” Joel, iii. 1, 2.; and the subject is pursued from the ninth verse to the end of the chapter. "And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel, and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord, We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now and see, whether a man doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail; and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble: but he shall be saved out of it." Jerem. xxx. 4-7. The same topics are expanded throughout the entire chapter. Ezekiel also predicts the searching trials by which the returning Israelites shall be sifted and purified. “I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people; and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me: I will bring them forth

even

out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." xx. 34-38. The three concluding chapters of the prophet Zechariah describe with great energy a siege to be experienced by the city of Jerusalem when repossessed by a body of returned Jews: the assailants are a combination of many different peoples: they succeed so far as to make themselves masters of one half of the city: when "the Lord," with most aweful manifestations of His pre sence, "shall go forth and fight against those nations," "to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." The thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel describe a final invasion of Palestine, after the restoration of the Twelve Tribes, by a vast confederation formed by a potentate of the north, denominated "Gog of the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal," (or, as Archbishop Newcome with the Septuagint and other antient and modern authorities renders the passage, " prince of Rhos, Meshech, and Tubal ",") together with the forces of the north-western regions of Asia, comprehending also Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia: a confederation crushed on the mountains of Israel with incalculable slaughter by the immediate power of God.

In different prophecies it is declared that the hand of God will be stretched out in working miracles for the support and protection of the Twelve Tribes in the process of their restoration: and even in miraculous interpositions which by their magnitude shall throw as it were a shade over those wonders which were wrought when Israel was rescued from Egypt and con'ducted into Canaan. "Remember ye not the former * See his Translation of Ezekiel, p. 143., and the note on the word "Rhos."