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 the) 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.
