Knights Templar.

better chance of judging than those of the encampment , who had never seen any other body at work . He then gave the health of " The Treasurer , " Thos . Clanachan , one of the old Girvan Knights , without whose labour in past

years the encampment would not now be in existence . Drunk with enthusiasm . Sir Knight Clanachan replied , and a collection being made in aid of a distressed frater , this truly interesting meeting was brought to a close .

Reviews.

Reviews .

The . Israelites found in ihe Ang / o-Sttrons . By AVILLIAM CARI , ENTF . R , P . M . and P . Z . London : George Kenning , 198 , Fleet-street . Mr . Carpenter is truly a veteran and an indefatigable author . During a long and laborious life-time , he has been a constant contributor to

newsjiaper and periodical literature , and has edited and conducted some of our most advanced independent and popular journals ; and yet , at the same time , he has found opportunity to contribute to Biblical literature well nig h a score of volumes , several of them of great labour and

merit , and all of them evincing great painstaking and research . He has , indeed , given a whole libraty to the Biblical student . Now ripe in years , and apparently not satisfied with the retrosjiect of a life of so much labour and usefulness , he has caught the contagion and

enthusiasm of AVilson , Glover , and Hind , who have sought to impress on thc * Anglo-Saxon mind the idea , that the ten tribes of Israel have never been really lost , but that , during a long course of centuries , they have been sjiecially hidden away , as Israel , but at the same time protected

and developed by the Almighty Providence , whicii rules the world and regulates the history of man ; and that now , in the fulness of time , the veil being removed , we are , by infallible signs , to recognise those ten tribes , so long regarded as lost , in the stirring , pushing ,

prosjierous , dominant Anglo-Saxon race . Traces of this thought arc to be found in the works of some old writers , but it is only during the last few years that it has been brought out with clearness and positiveness , and enforced ujion us by successive students of the question , as a distinct

article of belief— " A truth so strange , twere bold to think it true ; " though , undoubtedly , it is a belief that will find willing acceptance among the Anglo-Saxon jieojile , whether in England , America , Germany , or elsewhere , if its advocates can only sujijiort their theory with anything like

jilausible argument . Those who have long been familiar with the Protestant Bible , have grown uj ) with a high esteem for the sjiccial jiriv ileges of the Israelitish jieojile , as depositors ol religious truth , and the chosen instruments ol the world ' s enlightenment ; and if they are now taught , on

what assumes to be the joint authority ol scripture and history , that they are the true descendants of that favoured jieojile , the doctrine will harmonise with the idea , that they have , in this modern era , a mission to mankind , somewhat analagous to that which was given to the Jews

in ancient times . It will be very easy and agreeable further to persuade themselves that the missions are not only analagous , but identical , and that they are sharers in the exalted privileges , and heirs of the jiromises "iveii to Israel . AVe

have been taught to believe in Abraham , and follow him as our spiritual father ; but if , in addition , we are to believe that we have Abraham for our natural father—our jirogenitor , according to the flesh—this must at least be ilatterinir to

the prejudices of our early religious training . AVhat a pedigree is ours , if we are to trace our descent direct from that venerable jiatriarch , who stood on the plains of Mamre , jileading , face to face with God , for the ajiostate and doomed citiesfrom Abraham , who was the friend of God , the father of the faithful , and the tyjie and model of

spiritual character ! AV e cannot wonder , if the few writers who have hitherto ventured on this topic , have been led away by a lol ' iy and contagious enthusiasm ; nor shall we wonder if their readers should yield themselves readily to the fascination uf this belief , and adopt it even with more decisiveness than their teachers .

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On entering upon the examination of this question , it is important to the student to clear his mind of nil identity between the Israelites , ( the ten tribes ) and the Jews , ( Judah and Benjamin ) . It is a common ojiinion , arising principally

from want of precision of thought , that the jews are the only remaining representatives of the once distinguished seed of Abraham , and that the promises of restoration to Palestine , and future aggrandisement , arc all to be realised in their experience , ancl in their ' s alone : in fact , that

the Ten Tribes arc lost for ever to the comity of nations . Our reading of prophecy does not bring us to this . So far , we are one with our author , as to believe there still remains a destiny for the ten scattered tribes , distinct from that of Judah , who have hitherto been so remarkabl y

preserved as a separate people , amid all their persecutions and wanderings . Mr . Carpenter thus expresses himself on this branch of the subject — "The sure word of prophecy depicts a glorious destiny for Israel , as the messengers or missionaries of God ' s grace

and mercy to mankind , through whom Judah is to be regenerated and restored , and the fulness of the gentiles to ] be brought in ; ' and if the identity ofthe Saxon race with the Israelites is shown to be highly probable , many passages of Scri pture and history , hitherto doubtful or perplexing , will become clear .

that the Jews ( Judah ) will be restored to their own land , is the general belief of few and Gentile , as the necessary fulfilment of the Divine promises given in the I lebaw jirojihesies ; but Mr . Carjienter maintains that Israel ( the Ten Tribes ) must likewise , and , indeed , musL

first be restored to their inheritance , in fulfilment of jiromises given by ( iod , and recorded by the same prophetic authorities . Tin ' s is the very basis of his arguments—Israel , as well as Judah , has been carried away ; and Israel as well as Judah must be restored . Anything less will

fall short of a complete fulfilment of prophecy , and no one who believes his Bible , can reconcile himself to the jiersuasion , that the Lord will be slack concerning his jiromises . In supjiort ol this view the jirojihet Amos is quoted : ¦— " 1 will sift tiie house of Israel among all nations like as

corn is silted 111 a sieve , yet shall not the least grain fall ujion the earth . Behold , . saith the Lord , I will bring again the captivity of m y people Israel , and thev shall build the waste cities and inhabit them , and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof ; they shall also make

gardens , and eat the fruit of them . . And 1 will jilant them ujion tlieir land , and they shall no more he pulled uji out of their land , which I have given them . " ( Amos ix . ) Air . Carjienter further argues that the promised land was given to the seed of Abraham " for

ever , as an " everlasting jiossession , " and , aceejiling these terms in tliier fullest significance , he contends that the land cannot be jiernianently alienated from the sons of Jacob and their descendants—a conclusion which would seem irresistible Irom the stand point indicated .

AVhere , then , is this ancient and interestiii " - jieojile to be found ? ft has been said they have been discovered in Russia , Tartarv , China , Jajian , Turkey , Afghanistan , Burmah , ' Malabar , and Abyssinia , the customs or traditions of small

communities leading to their identification with Israel . No doubt small numbers may have found their way to these several jilaces , but these small and scattered fragments of a jieojile that once was truly great , can never represent the national aggregate .

I laving thus juvjiared his readers , by a series of arguments , to show that the ten tribes ;; i not absorbed , or lost , as a nation , and that though carried away and unrecognised for centuries , they

are yet to be restored , according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God , Air . Carpenter jiroceeds to trace the history of the tribes , and to identify them with the Saxon race . Their dejiortation is thus described : —

"Tiie kingdom was first made tributary to Assyria , and the jirincijial inhabitants were transported to the river Kur , which mingles its waters with the Araxes , and empties itself into the Caspian Sea . After the lapse ofa few years , dc . rin " whicii the sufferings of the remaining people ,

Reviews.

occasioned by the siege of Samaria , appear to have been horrible in the extreme , Sargon carried away the rest of the tribes into Asshurthat is Assyria—and to Halah , to the river Habor , or Chebar , and to Gozan , north-west provinces of Assyria and Media . Thus , Ephraim , or the kingdom of Israel , was utterly extinguished , 722 n . c . "

It was , indeed , a complete national annihilation , as the writer of the Second Book of Kings says : " The Lord was very angry with Israel , and removed them out of His sight ; there was none left but the tribe of Judah , only . " Nor are we of those who believe that the Ten Tribes

returned with Judah , when she went up from the Babylonish captivity . A few may have done so , but there was no national return of the Ten Tribes to the land of tlieir forefathers . Indeed , Samaria , the capital , continued in the possession

ot Gentile people , who had been sent thither from the north-east , and who had united the worship of Jehovah with that of false Gods , and between whom and the Jews there ever existed a complete alienation . " The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans . "

As to the chief locale of Israel ' s captivity , our author , following Sir Isaac Newton and other authorities , places it on the east of thc Black Sea , in Georgia and Circassia , the inhabitants of which , as Herodotus states , practised circumcison . Philo describes the Jews as being very numerous in thc

East , under the empire of the Persians , and Josephus says that iu his time the Ten Tribes were in great multitudes beyond the Euphrates . The chajitcr devoted to this point is very interesting , but we cannot enlarge ou the discussion . Equally interesting is the chapter about

the Get ; v , or Goths , from whom the descent of the Anglo-Saxons is traced . Here the authority of Sharon Turner is jiressed into service . He says , " The most authentic facts that can now be gleaned from ancient history , and the most probable traditions that have been

jirescrved 111 Eurojie , concur 111 proving that it has been jicopled by three great streams of population from the East , who have foi lowed each other . ( 1 . ) The Kimmerian , Keltic or Celtic race . ( 2 . ) The Scythian , Gothic , ancl German tribes , Irom whom most of the modern nations of

continental Eurojie have descended . ( 3 ) . The Sclavonian and Sarmatian nations , who established themselves in Poland , Bohemia , Russia , and other vicinities . " " This able writer , " says Mr . Carpenter , " who has set aside many fanciful and fallacious

theories on the ori gin of the Saxon race , has show 11 that the Scythians or Goths drove their jiredecessors , the Celts , towards the northern and southern extremities of Eurojie , and not only reached the Rhine , but crossed it into France ; and from tlie branches of the latter stock , our own immediate ancestors , as

well as those of most of the celebrated nations of Eurojie , have unquestionabl y descended—as the Anglo-Saxons , lowland Scotch , Normans , Danes , Norwegians , Swedes , Germans , Dutch , Belgians , Lombards , and Swiss . Europe changed her inhabitants , as it were , the new race issuing irom the Danube , whence , as we have seen , they had made their descent on tbe Roman

Emjiire . ' To sum uji , in the language of Air . Carjienter himself , " The probabilities , 1 think , are very striking , that the Getee of Alicsia and Dacia were of the Ten Tribes who were carried by the Assyrians into ujijier Media and the countries between

the Casjiian Sea and the Euxine , and who thence jiursticd a westward course , along the shores ol the latter sea , peojiling the north of Germany and the Ciinbiian Chersoncsus ; and who , under the name of Goths , overran the western Roman Empire , the great branch of them being now known as Anglo-Saxons . "

Ihe whole theory rests on the soundness of these arguments , and we must recommend our readers carefull y to study them . There are , however , many collateral argument ' s on whicii Air . Carjienter , more or less relies , and whicii be urges with great skill , and in a manner that cannot fail both to p lease and to profit . Thus , a chapter on Israel ' s migration from the Eastlo the West , rccals to our recollection , many