The appearing of Moses in Kirtland Temple and his restoring the keys for the gathering of Israel, marks the inauguration of a mighty work within the work of God, in this dispensation, and gives a reality to many of the predictions of the ancient prophets. To fully comprehend this great work it will be necessary to call the attention of the student to the Israelites, and a brief outline of their history.

1. Who Are Israel.—The children of Israel are the descendants of Abraham through the loins of Isaac and Jacob, taking their name, however, from the last-named patriarch, whose name was changed by an angel of the Lord from Jacob to Israel, which means a prince of God. Unto Jacob by four wives were born twelve sons—the heads of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joseph, Jacob's son by his wife Rachel, being his father's favorite son, was hated by his brethren, and without the father's knowledge was sold to merchants, who carried him into Egypt. His cruel brethren rent his clothing and stained it in blood, then taking it to their father represented that his son had been destroyed by a wild beast. The Lord was with Joseph in Egypt, and gave him favor in the eyes of the rulers of that land, until he became second in authority in the kingdom. Having been warned in a dream of an approaching famine, some years before it took place, he laid up in store an abundance of corn, so that while famine distressed surrounding countries there was plenty in Egypt, and thither the sons of Israel went to purchase food. Joseph revealed his identity to his brethren, became reconciled to them, and sent for his father and all attached to his household—about seventy souls in all—to come to him and take up their abode in Egypt. This the aged patriarch did, and ended his days there.

2. Israel Enslaved.—Some time after Joseph's death, there arose a king who knew him not, and observing that the Israelites were likely to become more numerous than the Egyptians—since they did not murder their offspring either before or at birth, as many among the Egyptians did—this monarch enslaved them and placed task masters over them, and by oppression and the destruction of their male offspring sought to prevent their increase. Finally the Lord raised up Moses and delivered them from bondage amid a splendid display of his Almighty power, and eventually settled them in the land of Canaan—the land he had promised unto Abraham as an inheritance—where they became a mighty nation. [See note 1, end of section.]

3. Revolt of the Ten Tribes.—As a nation the Israelites reached the zenith of their splendor under the reign of David and his son Solomon. At the death of the latter, 975 B. C., the kingdom was divided. Ten tribes revolted against the oppression of Solomon's successor, his son Rehoboam, and formed the kingdom of Israel, choosing for their king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, one of Solomon's servants. The new king—a man of great valor—established his capital at Shechem [Shek-em], but fifty years afterwards it was removed to Samaria.

4. The Captivity of Israel—The Lost Tribes.—This kingdom of Israel continued its existence for about two hundred and fifty years. In that time the people may be said to have departed wholly from the paths of righteousness, becoming drunken, licentious and idolatrous. So the Lord gave them up and Shalmaneser, a noted Assyrian king, made war upon them, utterly overcame them and led them captives into Assyria. From thence the Lord led many of them away into the northern country, where, no man knoweth, and hence they are denominated the Lost Tribes. Our reason for saying they were led away into the north is to be found in the fact that many predictions of the prophets plainly declare that they shall come from the land of the north, a great company, etc.;^[154] and it must be manifest that they cannot come from the land of the north unless they are there. Messiah, when he visited the Nephites after his resurrection, plainly told them that the other tribes of the house of Israel—meaning the ten tribes—the Lord had led away out of the land;^[155] and he also announced his intention of visiting them, and commanded the Nephites to make a record of it that a knowledge of the existence of these "other tribes" might be made known unto the Gentiles when the Nephite records should be revealed to them. These "other tribes," Messiah spoke of, he declared not to be of the land of America, nor the land of Jerusalem, "neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister."^[156]

5. The Apocryphal writer Esdras, in relating one of his visions describes one of the great characters that figured in those visions as calling unto himself a peaceful people. "Those," said the angel sent to interpret the vision, "are the tribes which were carried away captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas (Hosea) the king, whom Salmanaser, the king of the Assyrians, took captive, and crossed them beyond the river; so were they brought into another land. But they took counsel to themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth unto a further country where never man dwelt, that they there might keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered in at the narrow passage of the River Euphrates. For the Most High then showed them signs, and stayed the springs of the flood till they were passed over. For through the country there was great journey, even of a year and a half, and the same region is called Arsareth (or Ararah). Then dwelt they there until the latter time, and when they come forth again, the Most High shall hold still the springs of the river again, that they may go through; therefore sawest thou the multitude peaceable."^[157]

6. Whatever doubt may be entertained respecting the writings of Esdras, it cannot be denied that in respect to the Ten Tribes and what became of them he is in harmony with the statement made by Jesus to the Nephites, viz: that the Lord had led them away out of the land. The Most High, according to Esdras, showing them signs by staying the springs of the flood of the Euphrates, as he will do when the time comes for them to return.^[158] He is also in harmony with the prophets who predict the return of Israel in the last days from the land in which they have been hidden by the Lord.^[159] [See note 2, end of section.]

7. The Samaritans.—The country inhabited by the kingdom of Israel—the north half of Palestine—was taken possession of by people sent from Babylon, Persia and other countries by the Assyrian king, and these strangers, intermarrying with the few Israelites remaining in the land, after the main body of the people had been led away into captivity, became the mixed people called Samaritans, so heartily despised by the Jews.

8. The Kingdom of Judah.—In the civil dissensions which divided the Israelites at the death of Solomon, the tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to Judah, and may be said to have almost lost its identity in the kingdom which with Judah it formed after the revolt of the ten tribes. It was a stormy career that the kingdom of Judah experienced after the said revolt. It was subject in turn to the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. In consequence of treachery to the last named power, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, about 586 B. C.,^[160] besieged Jerusalem, reduced the city to the utmost extremity, captured the king, put out his eyes and led him and most of the Jews captive to Babylon. The walls of the city were thrown down, the temple rifled of its sacred vessels and the city left desolate to be inhabited by strangers. The captivity of the Jews in Babylon lasted about seventy years.^[161] The Babylonians in the meantime had been overcome of the Persians, under Cyrus the Great, who in the first year of his reign permitted the Jews to return and rebuild the city and its walls.

9. The Jews, however, never wholly regained their independence; being located between Syria and Egypt, their country was held in subjection as a province to one or the other of them according as now one and now the other was successful in the unhappy wars which broke out between those nations. Finally Palestine became a province of Rome, but the people were allowed the freedom to worship God according to the teachings of Moses and their prophets. This was their condition at the birth and during the lifetime of Messiah.^[162]

10. About forty years after the crucifixion of the Christ, the Jews foolishly rebelled against the Roman authority, which brought on a terrible war. During the siege of Jerusalem, which lasted six months, over one million of the wretched inhabitants, according to Josephus, perished of the famine. The remainder were either driven into exile or sold into slavery. The city was razed to the ground, the temple destroyed, and in their eager search for gold the Romans tore up the very foundation, and ploughed up the site, so that literally there was not left one stone to stand upon another that was not thrown down.^[163] Since the destruction of their city and the overthrow of their nation, the Jews have been scattered among all nations, despised, hated, oppressed, until all the evil that was prophesied of by Moses^[164] concerning them—when they should turn away from God and his law—came upon them. [See note 3, end of section.]

11. Miscellaneous Dispersions.—Besides the tribes of Israel that were thus dispersed, there were families of various tribes whom the Lord led away at different times into distant lands. Such as the family of Lehi of the tribe of Manasseh; and that of Ishmael of the tribe of Ephraim, both of which families, together with one Zoram—of what tribe he was is not known—the Lord led to the continent of America. The Lord also led to the same land a colony that departed from Jerusalem immediately after its destruction by king Nebuchadnezzar, in the sixth century B. C., among whom was one Mulek, one of the sons of King Zedekiah, whose people founded the city of Zarahemla, and afterwards united with the Nephites.

12. The Blood of Israel Sprinkled Among all Nations.—The Jews since the destruction of their city and nation by the Romans, have been scattered among all nations, but they have succeeded in a remarkable manner in preserving their identity as a distinct people. Still it is not to be doubted that there are instances where Jews have married and intermarried with the Gentiles among whom they lived, until they lost their identity, and thus the blood of Israel, unrecognized, is in the veins of many supposed to be Gentiles.

13. The tribes of Israel sent into Babylon, Assyria and the surrounding countries in like manner inter-mingled their blood with the people of those nations. Moreover, there are good reasons to believe that in that exodus of the ten tribes from Assyria to the north, many became discouraged and stopped by the way. Others unable to prosecute the journey also abandoned the expedition, and these that thus halted, uniting and intermarrying with the original inhabitants of the land, constituted those prolific races that over-ran the western division of the Roman Empire.

14. In this manner the blood of Israel has been sprinkled almost among all the nations of the earth, until the word of the Lord which says, "I will sift the house of Israel among all nations,"^[165] has been literally fulfilled.

15. The Gathering of Israel.—Notwithstanding Israel and Judah have thus been scattered, their temple destroyed and their chief city trodden down of the Gentiles, the remnant of this favored people of God, according to the promises of the Lord, are to be gathered together again and established upon the lands promised to their forefathers. The keys necessary for the inauguration of this work were given to the Prophet Joseph by Moses on the occasion of his appearing to him and to Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple, and the work has begun. I think it proper here to give some of the passages of scripture which promise the gathering of Israel.

16. From the Bible.—Hear the word of the Lord, O, ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.^[166]

Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.^[167]

And it shall come to pass in that day^[168] that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathos, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. * * * And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.^[169]

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: and I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind. * * * At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. * * * In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.^[170]

17. From the Book of Mormon.—But behold thus saith the Lord God: when the day cometh that they [the Jews—see context] shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance.^[171]

18. From the Doctrine and Covenants.—And the Lord, even the Savior, shall stand in the midst of his people, and shall reign over all flesh. And 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. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them, and in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools or 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 there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim; and they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the Everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows. And they also of the tribe of Judah, after their pain, shall be sanctified in holiness before the Lord to dwell in his presence day and night, for ever and for ever.^[172] [See note 4, end of section.]

19. The Preparatory Work to the Return of the Ten Tribes.—This is enough in a general way upon the return of the Ten Tribes from the north and the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. Yet there is another part of this work of gathering Israel that calls for our attention. We have described the manner in which the blood of Israel has been sprinkled among the Gentile nations. The people in whose veins that blood runs must be gathered as well as the Jews and the Ten Tribes; for the promise of gathering extends to all the children of Israel, in all the countries whither they have been scattered. Moreover, it would seem that the Ten Tribes are to come to Zion and sing in the heights thereof, and there be crowned with glory by the hands of the servants of the Lord, the children of Ephraim.^[173] The gathering of Israel scattered among the Gentile nations will have made considerable progress, and Zion will be built up before the Ten Tribes will be brought from the north. This work of gathering Israel from among the Gentile nations is the work that the Church of Christ is now engaged in. The Lord has revealed the location of Zion;^[174] it has been dedicated for the gathering together of his people Israel. Even the temple site is known and dedicated, and the sure word of God given that the temple shall be built in this generation.^[175] The enemies of the church drove the Saints away form the consecrated land, it is true;^[176] but their absence will only be temporary; the time will come when they will return and fulfill all that the Lord hath decreed in relation to Zion and its redemption.

20. Meantime they are building up stakes of Zion in the Rocky Mountain valleys, and in this way are fulfilling predictions of the ancient prophets. Isaiah hath it written, that "In the last days the house of the Lord shall be established in the tops of the mountains; * * * and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."^[177]

21. It is remarkable how minutely the Latter-day Saints are fulfilling the terms of this prophecy:

I. They are building the temples of God in the tops of the mountains, so that the house of the Lord is truly where Isaiah saw it would be.

II. The Saints engaged in this work are people gathered from nearly all the nations under heaven, so that all nations are flowing unto the house of the Lord in the top of the mountains. [See note 5, end of section.]

III. The people who receive the gospel in foreign lands joyfully say to their relatives and friends, "Come ye, and let us go up to the house of the Lord, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths."

22. The manner in which the Saints are gathered, one here and one there, one from this city and one from another, fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah, who, in speaking of this great gathering of Israel, represents the Lord as saying: "I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."^[178]

23. The student should be informed how it is we know the Saints are of the house of Israel. First, they fulfill the terms of the prophecies written about the gathering of Israel by the ancient prophets, as seen above; second, the patriarchs of the church, ordained and set apart to that calling by the apostles, in giving blessings to the Saints declare them to be of the house of Israel, and mainly of the tribe of Ephraim. [See note 6, end of section.]

24. Object of Gathering.—Another object of this gathering of the people of God from among the Gentile nations—which with their wickedness, spiritual blindness, and confusion constitute Babylon—is that they may not partake of the sins of Babylon, and that they might escape the judgments and plagues decreed by God against the wickedness thereof. The Apostle John prophesies of this. In those visions given to him on the Isle of Patmos, showing him things that would take place in the future, he heard a voice from heaven saying: "Come out of her [that is out of Babylon], my people; that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. * * * Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning, and famine; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."^[179] The Saints are gathering out of Babylon that they may escape these threatened judgments. NOTES.

1. Settlement of Israel in Canaan.—Of the twelve tribes of Israel, nine and a half were located to the west and two and a half to the east of the Jordan. In this region they had been led by Joshua, Moses being only permitted to catch a distant glimpse of the promised land. After the death of Joshua, followed the period of Judges, which lasted about five centuries. The last of the judges was Samuel, who, when the people demanded a king, anointed Saul, 1095, B.C.—Anderson's Gen. Hist.

2. The Departure of the Ten Tribes for the North—They [the ten tribes] determined to go to a country "where never man dwelt," that they might be free from all contaminating influences. That country could only be found in the north. Asia was already the seat of a comparatively ancient civilizations; Egypt flourished in northern Africa; and southern Europe was rapidly filling with the future rulers of the world. They had, therefore, no choice but to turn their faces northward. The first portion of their journey was not, however, north; according to the account of Esdras, they appear to have at first moved in the direction of their old home, and it is possible that they originally started with the intention of returning thereto, or probably in order to deceive the Assyrians, they started as if to return to Canaan, and when they crossed the Euphrates, and were out of danger from the hosts of the Medes and Persians, then they turned their journeying feet toward the polar star. Esdras states that they entered in at the narrow passage of the river Euphrates, the Lord staying the springs of the flood until they were passed over. The point on the river Euphrates at which they crossed would necessarily be in its upper portion, as lower down would be too far south for their purpose. The upper course of the Euphrates lies among lofty mountains near the village of Pastas; it plunges through a gorge formed by precipices more than a thousand feet in height and so narrow that it is bridged at the top; it shortly afterwards enters the plain of Mesopotamia. How accurately this portion of the river answers to the description of Esdras of the "Narrows," where the Israelites crossed!—Reynolds' Are we of Israel? pp. 26-27.

3. Final Overthrow of Judah.—According to Josephus (De Bell. Jud. vi: 9, 3) 1,100,000 men fell in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and 79,000 were captured in the whole war. Of the latter number, the greater part was distributed among the provinces, to be butchered in the amphitheaters or cast to wild beasts; others were doomed to work as public slaves in Egypt; only those under the ages of seventeen were sold into private bondage. An equally dreadful destruction fell upon the remains of the nation, which had once more assembled in Judea, under the reign of Hadrian (A. D. 133), which Dion Cassius concisely relates. By these two savage wars the Jewish population must have been effectually extirpated from the Holy Land itself, a result which did not follow from the Babylonian captivity. Afterwards a dreary period of fifteen hundred years' oppression crushed in Europe all who bore the name of Israel, and Christian nations have visited on their head a crime [the crucifixion of Messiah] perpetrated by a few thousand inhabitants of Jerusalem, who were not the real forefathers of the European Jews. Nor in the east has their lot been much more cheering. With a few partial exceptions, they have ever since been a despised, an oppressed and naturally a degraded people; though from them have spread light and truth to the distant nations of the earth.—Biblical Literature (Kitto) vol. I, p. 39.

4. Return of the Ten Tribes from the North.—Away in yonder north countries, where, I do not know, but away in those regions are ten tribes of the house of Israel. How do you know they are in the north country? Because the Bible has told us that in the latter days they should come out of the north country, and if they were not in the north country they could not come from there. Jeremiah says in his thirty-first chapter—"Behold I will bring them from the north, the blind and the lame with them, and the woman with child; they shall come, a great company out of the north countries." Where will they go to? Will they go immediately to Palestine, where they formerly had their inheritance. No. Jeremiah tells us where they will go, he tells there is to be a place called Zion before these tribes come out of the north countries, and when they come with a great company, the blind and the lame with them, and the Lord God leads them with supplication and with tears and with prayers, bringing them forth from those dreary, desolate, cold arctic regions; when that day shall come, there shall be a Zion prepared to receive these ten tribes, before they finally go back to Palestine. Is there anything in the scriptures about this? Yes. In the same chapter of Jeremiah we read that, "they shall come and sing in the height of Zion." Zion, then, will have to be built up before they come; Zion will have to be reared somewhere and prepared to receive them; and it will be a holy place, and it will be a holy people who will build up Zion, so much so that the Lord will bring these ten tribes into the height of Zion, into the midst of it.—Orson Pratt—Journal of Discourses, vol. 18, p. 22, 23.

5. All Nations Flowing Unto the House of the Lord.—One of the features in the celebration of Pioneer Day—24th of July, the anniversary of the day the company of Pioneers entered Salt Lake Valley, 1847—in Salt Lake City, 1880, was to have represented the various nationalities composing the population of Utah. A man and a woman of each nation from which people had been gathered by the proclamation of the gospel were selected as the representatives, each pair bearing the national colors of their country. They occupied a platform in the Tabernacle during the services, and after a historical sketch of the introduction of the gospel in the various nations was read by Orson Pratt, the representatives of the nations arose and President John Taylor said: "I wish to state to the congregation that the Lord commanded his servants to go forth to all the world to preach the gospel to every creature. We have not yet been to all the world, but here are twenty-five nations represented today, and we have thus far fulfilled our mission."

6. The Latter-day Saints of Israel.—The set time was come for God to gather Israel, and for his work to commence upon the face of the whole earth, and the elders who have arisen in this church and kingdom are actually of Israel. Take the elders who are in the house [the old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City], and you can scarcely find one out of a hundred but what is of the house of Israel. * * * Will we go to the Gentile nations to preach the gospel? Yes, and gather out the Israelites wherever they are mixed among the nations of the earth. * * * Ephraim has become mixed with all the nations of the earth, and it is Ephraim that is gathering together. It is Ephraim that I have been searching for all the days of my preaching, and that is the blood which ran in my veins when I embraced the gospel. If there are any of the other tribes of Israel mixed with the Gentiles we are also searching after them.—Brigham Young. From a Discourse preached April 8th, 1855.

REVIEW.

1. What great work did the visit of Moses to the Kirtland Temple inaugurate?

2. Who are Israel?

3. Give a sketch of the history of Israel to the revolt of the ten tribes.

4. How came the ten tribes to revolt?

5. Give an account of the fall of the kingdom of Israel.

6. Why are the ten tribes called the "lost tribes?"

7. What evidence have you that they are in the north?

8. Give the evidence to be found in the words of Jesus to the Nephites. 9. What statement does the Apocryphal writer Esdras make respecting the ten tribes? (Note 2.)

10. Who were the Samaritans?

11. What tribes formed the kingdom of Judah?

12. Give an outline of the history of Judah to the birth of Messiah.

13. What befell Judah about thirty years after the crucifixion of Messiah? (Note 3.)

14. What can you say of miscellaneous dispersions?

15. How came the blood of Israel sprinkled among all nations?

16. What promises are made to scattered Israel?

17. Quote the several passages from the Bible which predict the gathering of Israel.

18. Quote the passages from the Book of Mormon.

19. What progress has been made in the preparatory work of the ten tribes? (Note 4.)

20. What progress has been made in the preparatory work?

21. What prophecies are the Saints minutely fulfilling in gathering together in the mountains? (Note 5.)

22. How do we know that the Latter-day Saints are of Israel? (Note 6.)

23. For what object are the Saints gathering from Babylon?