The Thorn Tree; Being a History of Thorn Worship of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, But More Especially of the Lost Tribes and House of David

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter I. In the First Book of Moses, called Genesis, (which signifies in the Greek, "generation," or "creation," and the Hebrew title of which is, "In the beginning,") we read as follows: --Ver. 1.--" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Ver. 2.--"And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." So far the Sacred Volume. Have we, then, any tradition in connexion with our subject which will bear this out? We have; and it comes from a remote part of the earth, from a highly-civilised people, to whom the loadstone, &c., were known ages before they were known to Europeans. If we turn, then, to "Picard's Ceremonies of Idolatrous People," vol. iv., p. 291, we there read respecting the Chinese religion: --"We must not close this long article without acquainting our readers with their manner of expressing the idea which they entertain of the origin of nature. "At the beginning of the creation, the chaos floated, as a fish skims along the surface of a river; from whence arose something like a Thorn or Prickle, which, being capable of motion and variation, became a soul or spirit." How this Thorn tradition got into China we do not know. It certainly was not taken there by the early Catholic missionaries. It may have been a legend of the Jews resident there, or it may have been primeval, being carried there by early descendants of Noah, for the Chinese have a tradition of a flood, as have all other nations; and are not they "these from the land of Sinim," in Isa. xlix. 12, who, like all idolaters, have not the Shibboleth? The next portion of Genesis we will endeavour to illustrate is the subject of man's creation and his fall, and we...