_Israel's Journey Northward--Esdras and Modern Revelation
Compared--The Testimony of Jesus to the Nephites--Ephraim to be
Gathered from all Countries--The Coasts of the Earth--The Ancestors of
the Latter-day Saints_.
Having considered the causes that led the outcasts of Israel to
determine to seek a home in a new and uninhabited land, we may be
excused if we endeavor to follow them in fancy in their journey
northward. We have no way of accurately estimating their numbers, but
if the posterity of all those who were carried into captivity started
on this perilous journey, they must have formed a mighty host.
Necessarily they moved slowly. They were encumbered with the aged and
infirm, the young and the helpless, with flocks and herds, and weighed
down with provisions and household utensils. Roads had to be made,
bridges built, and the course marked out and decided by their
leaders.[A] Inasmuch as they had turned to the Lord and were seeking a
new home wherein they could the better serve Him, they were doubtless
guided by inspired leaders, who, by Urim and Thummim, or through
dreams and visions, pointed out the paths ahead. Perhaps, as in the
days of the deliverance from Egypt, a pillar of cloud by day and of
fire by night guided their footsteps; no matter the means, the end was
accomplished, and slowly and gradually they neared the frozen regions
of the Arctic zone. The distance in a direct line from the conjectured
crossing of the Euphrates to the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, would be
about 2,800 miles, or a seven months' journey, averaging fifteen miles
a day. But according to Esdras, one year and a half was consumed in
the journey, which is an evidence that they were encumbered with
families and cattle, who could only travel slowly and for whom many
resting places had to be found where they could recuperate. It is
highly probable that, like modern Israel in its journey westward to
the valleys of Ephraim, they planted temporary colonies by the way.
Where the weary rested and crops were raised for future use.
The length of the journey had its advantages as well as its drawbacks.
The slow rate at which they traveled enabled them to become
acclimatized to the rigors of the frigid zone. We must recollect that
we are dealing with a people cradled in the burning sands of Egypt,
and who, for many generations, had dwelt in one of the most balmy and
genial climates on this globe. Their temporary sojourn in the bleaker
regions near the Caspian Sea had partially prepared them for that
which was to come, but it required time to give them the capability to
endure the rigors of a northern climate, as they were, by ancestry and
location, distinctively children of the sunny south.
[Footnote A: Jesus distinctly states to the Nephites, that these
tribes were led "by the Father out of the land."]
No doubt, as the hosts of Israel advanced, the change in the climate,
the difference in the length of the days and nights, the altered
appearance of the face of the country, and the newness, to them, of
many of its animal and vegetable productions, struck them with
amazement, perhaps with terror, causing some of the weak-kneed to
falter and tarry by the way. These defections probably increased as
the changes became more apparent and the toils of the journey grew
more severe. But what must have been their sensations when they came
in view of the limitless Arctic Ocean, if the climatic conditions were
the same as those which exist today; of which, however, there is
perhaps some reason to doubt. No matter whether they drew nigh unto it
in winter or in summer, the prospect must have been appalling to the
bravest heart not sustained by the strongest and most undeviating
faith in the promises of Jehovah. Supposing they reached the northern
confines of the European continent in summer, they were in a land
where the snow is almost perpetual, and scarcely else but mosses grow.
Before them was a troubled ocean of unknown width, every step they
advanced took them further north into greater extremes of cold. Well
might they question, if so little is here produced for the food of man
and beast, how will it be yet further northward? Must we perish of
hunger? If, on the other hand, they approach the frozen shores of this
unexplored waste of waters in the gloom of the long night of an Arctic
winter, with the intense cold freezing to their very blood, their
feelings of dread must have been yet more intense. No wonder if some
turned aside, declared they would go no further, and gradually
wandered back through northern Europe to more congenial climes. Again
it may be asked, how did this unnumbered host cross this frigid ocean
to their present hiding place? On this point both history and
revelation are silent. The Arctic Ocean was no narrow neck of the
great waters like the Red Sea, with the mountains of the opposite
shore full in view. No, it spread out before them eternally--north,
east and west, with no inviting shore in sight beyond. Yet despite all
this, they did cross it, but how, we know not--perhaps on the ice of
winter, perhaps the Lord threw up a highway or divided the waters as
he did aforetime, that they passed through dry shod. But we must abide
His time, when this and other secrets of their history shall be
revealed.
Since penning the foregoing ideas, we have been informed that certain
ancient Scandinavian legends entirely agree with our theory. We
understand that these legends state that the Ten Tribes, in their
journey northward, erected at various points, on prominent mountain
heights and such like, monuments or heaps of stones, so that if they
determined to return they might have some guides on the road back to
the Euphrates. These same traditions state that colonies of the very
young and infirm, as well as of the wayward and rebellious, were left
by the wayside, and from these colonies the fathers of the Norsemen
sprang. These legends, in time became crystalized, and make their
appearance as verities in the traditional histories of the nations of
northern Europe.
Esdras says that he was shown that they abode in this north country
until the latter time, when they were to come forth again, a great
multitude, to add to the glory of Messiah's kingdom. This statement
agrees with the word of modern revelation to which we now draw
attention.
More than half a century ago the Lord, through Joseph Smith, in
speaking of the lost Ten Tribes, says: (Doc. and Cov., Revelation
called the Appendix). "They who are in the north countries shall come
in remembrance before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear His
voice, and shall no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the
rocks and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway
shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep.[B] Their enemies
shall become a prey unto them, and in the barren deserts there shall
come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no
longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich
treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants. And the
boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence.
And they shall fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by
the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim."
[Footnote B: Query-The Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans.]
It is very evident from the above quotation that Ephraim, or at least
a large portion of that tribe, had at some period of his history,
separated from the rest of the tribes of Israel, and at the time of
this restitution was to dwell in a land far from the north country in
which the residue were hidden. These tribes are to have the frozen
barriers of the north melted, so that the ice shall flow down, then a
highway is to be cast up for them, in the midst of the great deep,
next they cross barren deserts and a thirsty land and eventually
arrive with their rich treasures at the home of Ephraim, the first
born of God of the house of Israel, to be crowned with glory at his
hands.
We must now draw the attention of our readers to certain extracts from
the Book of Mormon, which show that at the time of our Savior's visit
to this continent, Ephraim and the Ten Tribes dwelt neither on this
land nor on the land of Jerusalem. Jesus says: "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, I have other sheep which are not of this land nor in the
land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land, round about
whither I have been to minister. But they of whom I speak have not as
yet heard my voice, neither have I at any time manifested myself unto
them; but I have received a commandment of the Father that I should go
unto them and they shall be numbered among my sheep, and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd, therefore I go to show myself unto them.
And I command you that ye shall write these sayings, after I am gone,
that if it be so that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me,
and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name that
they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the
other tribes that they know not of, that these sayings which ye shall
write shall be kept, and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that
through the fullness of the Gentiles the remnant of their seed who
shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth, because of their
unbelief, may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer. And
then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and
then will I fulfill the covenant which the Father hath made unto all
the people of the house of Israel." (III. Nephi, chap. xvi.)
The statement of Jesus above cited, that the Ten Tribes did not dwell
in the land of Jerusalem _either in any parts of that land round
about_, effectually disposes of the theory of Josephus and others,
that they dwelt near the river Euphrates. The reason why the Jews had
lost sight of their brethren of the house of Israel is explained by
Jesus in the same chapter of the Book of Mormon as that from which the
above quotation is taken. He states: "The other tribes hath the Father
separated from them [the Jews]; and it is because of their iniquity
that they knew not of them."
Some have imagined that it was unscriptural to look for Israel except
in three places: The scattered Jews in all the world, the Lamanites on
this continent, and the Ten Tribes in Azareth. But we claim that we
have abundant reason from scripture to expect to find the seed of
Joseph as well as that of Judah in every nation under heaven. The
prophecies recorded in the Old Testament expressly state that Israel,
especially Ephraim, was to be scattered among all people.
How completely they were to be scattered is shown by the following
prophecies:
Hosea (xiii: 3) in rebuking Ephraim's idolatry in the name of the
Lord, says:
"Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew
that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven by the whirlwind out of
the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney."
Amos (ix: 8, 9) states:
"Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom [of Israel],
and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I
will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For, lo,
I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations,
like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall
upon the earth."
Could any scattering be more complete?
We are directly told that the Lord will bring His sons (Ephraim still
being His first-born) from afar and His daughters from the ends of the
earth. It is further said that He will gather His Israel--not from the
north alone--but from the north and from the south, from the east and
from the west, and bring them to Zion; and that He (the Lord) will
gather them from all countries (not America nor the polar regions
only, but all countries) in which He had scattered them; among other
places from the coasts of the earth. How apt a description is this
last sentence of the lands from which the great bulk of modern Israel
have been gathered. From the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, from the
coasts of the North and Baltic Seas, they have come to Zion by tens of
thousands.
President Brigham Young stated in the discourse quoted in a previous
chapter, that ninety-nine out of every hundred of the Elders of the
Church of Jesus Christ were of the blood of Israel. The people whom he
was addressing were men of various nationalities, but by far the
greater portion of them were descendants of those races that in the
fourth and succeeding centuries of the Christian era swarmed in
myriads out of that mother of nations, Scandinavia, and filled central
and western Europe with a new civilization; the people, in fact, who
overthrew the great Roman empire and laid the foundation of the
majority of the nations of modern Europe. It was to the descendants of
the Goths, the Danes, the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons, the Normans,
the Franks, that he was talking, and in our next chapter we shall
bring forward some of the historical arguments used by Gentile writers
to prove the Israelitish descent of these races, more particularly of
that dominant one known today as the Anglo-Saxon. We do not this
because we think the word of God's servants requires proving by
Gentile evidence, but because it is a satisfaction to many minds, not
only to know that a thing is so, but to be able to give a reason, or
advance an argument to demonstrate _why_ it is so.