The writer might fill a chapter in illustrating the wrongs which the Indians have suffered from people in our land; in noting their reduced and deplorable situation; in pleading the cause of humanity in their behalf; and in appealing to the magnanimous feelings of the people of our nation. He might adduce many evangelical motives the most commanding, to enforce the duty of saving the remnant of the natives of our continent from extinction, and from wretchedness. The duty of sending them the gospel, and of being at any expense to teach them Christianity and the blessings of civilized life, is great and urgent on every principle of humanity and general benevolence. And this duty peculiarly attaches itself to the people, who are now in possession of the former inheritance of those natives; and from to many of whom that people have received insufferable injuries. This subject must occur with force to the mind of every well informed American. And it is devoutly to be hoped that far greater attention will henceforth be paid to it by all among us who make any pretence to humanity, not to say piety.

But the object of this chapter is to examine and illustrate an interesting portion of ancient prophetic writing, which is thought to embrace this very concern.

An address is found in the eighteenth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, which is apprehended to be of deep interest to America. It is

1. Some of the greatest and best of divines have thought it would be strange, if nothing should be found in the prophetic scriptures having a special allusion to our western world, which by propitious Heaven was destined to act so distinguishing a part, both in the religious and political world, in the last days. They have felt as though it might be presumed that some special allusions would be had in some of the prophetic writings to so distinguishing a community of Zion, and of men. Under this impression, Mr. Edwards apprehended this passage of Isaiah might allude to America; “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west.” Almost all other parts of the world are noted in prophecy. It certainly then is not incredible that our land should be manifestly noted.

2. The address in the eighteenth of Isaiah to be contemplated, is clearly an address to some people of these last days; and concerning events intimately connected with the battle of that great day of God, which is now future and not far distant, and is to introduce the Millennium. This is evident in verses 5 and 6; which will be noted.

3. The address then cannot have been to any ancient people or nation. This appears with certainty, from their being cotemporary with the events of that great battle, and the restoration of the Jews. The call then must be to a people of the last days; a nation now on

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earth; and a nation to be peculiarly instrumental in the restoration of the Hebrews in the last days. For this is the very object of the address; to go and collect the ancient people of God; because “in that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, (the very people of the ancient covenant in manifest descriptions repeatedly given) to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion.” This duty of the restoration assigned is in the address connected with the tremendous scenes of judgment, which shall subvert anti-christian Europe, and her adjutors hostile to the church; as may be seen.

4. The address then seems manifestly to a nation that may seem to have leisure for the important business assigned; while the old and eastern parts of the world (engaged in anti-christian hostilities) shall be found in the effervescence of revolutions, and in those struggles which precede dissolution. This consideration seems clearly to fix the address to a people distinct, and distant from the immediate turmoils of the old anti-christian lands; and hence probably to our own nation; perhaps including Britain.

5. Should it be proved a fact, that the aborigines of our continent are the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel; it would heighten the probability to a moral certainty, that we are the people especially addressed, and called upon to restore them; or bring them to the knowledge of the gospel, and to do with them whatever the God of Abraham designs shall be done

The great and generous Christian people, who occupy much of the land of those natives, and who are on the ground of their continent, and hence are the best prepared to meliorate their condition, and bring them to the knowledge and order of the God of Israel, must of course be the people to whom this work is assigned. This one consideration would do much toward the decision of our question, Who is the nation addressed?

6. Various things are found in the predictions of the restoration of God’s ancient people, which strikingly accord with the idea of a great branch of them being recovered from this land, and by the agency of the people of our states. A few of these shall be noted.

In the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Jeremiah, the prophet treats of the united restoration of Judah and Israel. These chapters were written about one hundred and twenty years after the expulsion of the ten tribes. And in relation to the ten tribes, they have never yet had even a primary accomplishment or any degree of fulfilment. The

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restoration there predicted is to be in “the latter days;” chap. xxx. 24; and at the time near the battle of the great day; see verses 6-8, 23, 24. Much of the substance of these chapters is appropriated to the ten tribes of Israel; though Judah is expressly to be restored with them. Of the former, (having then been outcast for an hundred and twenty years,) God says; chap. xxxi. 20; “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, (or expelled him from Canaan,) I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” The next verse invites and predicts his final restoration. These yearnings of the divine compassion for Ephraim (one noted name of the ten tribes) are the immediate precursor of his restoration. “I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Set them up way-marks, make thee high heaps, set thine heart toward the high-way--turn again, O virgin of Israel; turn again to these thy cities.” “I will again be the God of all the families of Israel; and they shall be my people.” “For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” “Fear thou not, O my servant, Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel; for lo, I will save thee from afar.” “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth.” In this country “afar” off, these “coasts of the earth,” they had been in an outcast state. “Because they called thee an outcast, saying; “This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” (For more than 2000 years none sought after the ten tribes.) These ideas strikingly accord with their having been outcasts from the known world, in America. This might with singular propriety be called the land afar off, and the coasts of the earth.

In the same connexion, when God promises to gather them “from the coasts of the earth,” and says, “they shall come with weeping and with supplication; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born;” he adds; “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 the shepherd doth his flock.” “Isles afar off!” “Isles in the Hebrew language, signify any lands, ever so extensive, away over great waters. Where can these “isles afar off,” (these “coasts of the earth,” here addressed by God

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in relation to the restoration of his outcast yet beloved Ephraim,) where can they be so naturally found as in America?

In Jer. xvi. 14, 15, 16. God is predicting the restoration of Israel in the last days. “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 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.” Here is the greatness of their restoration. In the next verse follows the manner of it. “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” Here is a most striking description of Israel’s being recovered from a great wilderness like the sea; and from the hills, mountains, and rocks of the vast wilds of America. The description seems well to accord with their being sought in a savage state among such wilds, mountains and rocks, as the wilds of our continent present; especially the Rocky mountains, in the western regions of North America. The first missionaries fish them from the plains of the continent. Afterward missionary hunters are sent to rocky mountains and hills, more remote and savage. This prediction accords probably with no other country and its inhabitants so well, as with the wilds and natives of America. The coincidence with these seems perfect.

In other prophets the same things are found. In Isai. xliii. God promises this same restoration of Israel. “But now, thus saith the Lord, that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel; Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west: I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” “Thus saith the Lord, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” In Isai. xi. is this wonderful restoration. Ephraim and Judah are both restored, the one from his “dispersed,” the other from his “outcast” state; and their mutual

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envies are forever healed. And the places from which they are recovered are noted; among which are “the isles of the sea;” or lands away over the sea, and “the four corners of the earth.” Certainly then, from America! This surely is one of the four corners of the earth. Of such a land away over sea, it is predicted, Isai. lx. 9; “Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, (or a power expert in navigation,) to bring my sons from far.”

In Zechariah’s prophecy is the same thing. This prophet was sent to encourage in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple soon after the return from Babylon. As this return was to exhibit a primary fulfilment of the many prophecies of the restoration of the Hebrews, which are clearly to have their ultimate accomplishment in their restoration just anterior to the Millennium; so Zechariah clearly predicted the latter event, and said various things peculiar to it. Chap. ii. 6; “Ho, ho, come forth and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord.” This must allude to the great dispersion of Judah, and outcast state of Israel, which strewed them over the face of the earth; and could not have been fulfilled in the Babylonish captivity, which did not disperse them to all points of the compass. Verse 8; “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations, which spoiled you.” This must be the same with the various predictions which speak of the battle of the great day as a display of God’s glory; and which speak of a subsequent going forth of missionaries (probably Jewish) to convert the nations where the Hebrews had resided. See Isai. lxvi. 18-21, &c. Verses 10, 11; “Sing and rejoice, O daughters of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee.”--Many nations were not joined to the Jews upon their return from Babylon. Nothing of this prediction then took place. It predicted an event still future, to be accomplished upon the restoration of the Hebrews to Palestine. The prophet then says, verse 13; “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” This verse perfectly accords with the numerous predictions of the battle of the great day, nearly associated with the final restoration of the Jews. But it received not its fulfilment in the days of Zechariah.

In chapter viii. are predictions of the same final restoration of that people. After predicting God’s great jealousy and fury in behalf