The Lost Tribes.—These are the famous "lost tribes," concerning whom very little is known. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who wrote during the first century after Christ, says that the ten tribes were then beyond the Euphrates, the "river" referred to by Ahijah in his prophecy. Esdras, in the Apocrypha, declares that those tribes went a journey of a year and a half into the north country.
The Cairns of Scandinavia.—Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, returning from Scandinavia, have told of rude monuments—cairns or piles of stones—in that northern region, concerning which tradition says that they were erected many centuries ago by a migrating people. Whether or not these were the tribes of the Assyrian captivity, it is interesting to reflect that it was an Israelitish custom to raise such monuments in commemorating events, especially the migratory movements of the nation.
Other Ancient Monuments.—If it be objected that monuments erected by the Ten Tribes, 721 B. C., could not have lasted down to this day, how will the objector account for the perfectly preserved monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and other ancient empires, whose remains have been uncovered by modern archaeology? Such a theory will not stagger the faith of the Latter-day Saints, when they recollect that the ruins of Adam's altar are still to be seen in the State of Missouri, where they were identified by the Prophet Joseph Smith, A. D. 1838.
To Return from the North.—At all events, it is from "the north country" that the ten tribes are to return, according to ancient and modern prophecy; and it is also a fact that from Scandinavia and the nations of Northern Europe has come much of the blood of Israel—the blood of Ephraim now within the pale of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Are the Ten Tribes Intact?—A much mooted question among our people, particularly since the discovery of the North Pole, where theorists have insisted upon locating the ten tribes, is whether or not those tribes have lost their identity. The fact that no such people were found at the pole by Peary and other explorers, shatters the exact location theory; but does it dispose of the main issue—the supposed existence of the ten tribes as a distinct people, somewhere "in the land of the north?" Such a supposition might be well founded, and yet much of the blood of Ephraim be among certain northern nations. Some of the pilgrims might easily have "mixed" with peoples encountered on the way, while journeying to their ultimate destination. Beyond this suggestion, I have no theory to advance. A tradition of the Church has assigned to John the Revelator the mission of leading the ten tribes from the land of the north.—(D. and C. 77:14.)
The Babylonian Captivity.—After the predictions of Amos, Hosea, and others, in relation to the kingdom of Israel, came the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, foretelling the fate of the kingdom of Judah. This kingdom, about 585 B. C., was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews were carried into captivity.
Lehi and His Colony.—Just before that disaster, Lehi and his colony left Jerusalem, and crossed over to this land—America—which, by them and by Mulek's colony that came later, was peopled with the descendants of Joseph and of Judah, both of whom are represented, in a degenerate state, by the American Indians.
Israelitish Characteristics.—Look at the features of the Indian. Are they not Jewish? Quite as strikingly so as that many of his customs and traditions are Israelitish. Who, than the savage Lamanite, better understands the Mosaic law of retaliation—"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"? Nor does he care whose eye or whose tooth it is, whether that of the person who injured him, or one of the latter's tribe or nation. He is too much of an Israelite to object to proxies and substitutes.
Jerusalem Rebuilt.—The Babylonian captivity lasted seventy years. Some of the Jews, under the permissive edict of Cyrus, then returned and rebuilt their city and temple. Only a remnant came back, however, a colony of fifty thousand, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua. The rest remained in their scattered condition. The Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem were those to whose descendants Christ came, and predicted, after their rejection of him, that their "house" should be "left unto them desolate" (Matt. 23:37, 38).
Twelve Tribes Scattered.—Before the Savior's time, however, the prophets Ezekiel and Zachariah,—the former in exile among the Babylonians, the latter at Jerusalem after the restoration by Cyrus,—had added their predictions to those already uttered relating to the dispersion of Israel. That the fated nation was pretty well dispersed in the days of the apostles, is evident from the Epistle of James, who addresses himself "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad."