An interesting inquiry relates to the ten tribes, which were scattered abroad at the Babylonish captivity, and which never returned to the holy land. Are they in existence? If they are, where are they to be found?—Some suppose that they are entirely lost among the nations. Others, that they are still in existence, because their entire extinction would be inconsistent with the promise of God, and render impossible the fulfilment of prophecy. But where are they to be found? Some suppose that they are the Jews in China; who have a tradition that their ancestors settled that country 100 years before Christ. Sir William Jones supposed that they were the nations of the Afghans in Persia, who had generally mingled with the Mahometans. Dr. Buchanan thought he found them among the black Jews near Cochin, who had copies of the books of the Old Testament written before the captivity, but none after. Manassas Ben Israel, in a work styled "The Hope of Israel," attempted to prove that the American Indians are the descendants of the ten tribes. This was also the opinion of Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians, and has been since strongly advocated by Mr. Adair, for many years a trader among the Indians, by the Hon. Ellias Boudinot and the Rev. Ethan Smith. These writers flatter themselves that they can find among the Indians something like the Hebrew festivals, fasts and religious rites, the Jewish prophets, priests and cities of, refuge; the basis of the Hebrew language; many Hebrew words; something of the theocracy or divine government of Israel; the doctrine or the divine unity; the Jewish division into tribes; phylacteries or ancient Hebrew writings and various traditions unaccountable on any supposition but this, that they descended from Israel. If these Indians are indeed the posterity of Abraham, it is a most wonderful preservation of his seed, and an astonishing loss of character and civilzation. But God will remember and own them. Many of them have through the labours of Eliot, Brainerd, and other men, been converted to God. May thousands more know the true God, and Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World.

The preservation of the Jews through eighteen hundred years of awful suffering and disgrace, "a reproach and a by-word" among all nations, "a bush burning with fire, yet not consumed," in a most wonderful fulfilment of prophecy, and of course affords incontestible evidence of the truth of the Bible. He who can contemplate it and be an infidel, must renounce all claim to a candid and considerate mind.