The Land of the North—Jeremiah, Ether and Esdras\' Testimonies—The course of the Israelites Northward—The Jordan, the Don, the Danube, etc.—The Land of Maesia and Dacia—The Getae—Zalmoxes.

Having traced the Ten Tribes to Media, the next question is, what has become of them, for they are not to be found in that land today. Many attempts have, at various times, been made to discover the Ten Tribes of Israel as a distinct community, but all have failed. Josephus (Antiquities xi) believed that in his day they dwelt in large multitudes somewhere beyond the Euphrates, in Asareth, but Asareth was an unknown land to him. Rabbinical traditions and fables, committed to writing in the middle ages, assert the same fact, with many wonderful amplifications. The imaginations of certain Christian writers have sought them in the neighborhood of their last recorded habitation. Jewish features have been traced in the Affghan tribes; statements are made occasionally of Jewish colonies in China, Thibet and Hindostan (the Beni-Israel), while the Black Jews, of Malabar, claim affinity with Israel. But none of these people would, in any but the slightest degree, fill the place accorded in the prophecies to Ephraim and his fellows.

The fact that James the Apostle opens his epistle with the following words, has been adduced as an argument that the condition of the Ten Tribes was known to the early Christians: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad, greeting." But it would rather convey the idea to our mind that the epistle was addressed to those of the houses of Israel and Judah, who, for the various reasons before cited, and which by that time had multiplied, had wandered into Egypt, Greece, Rome and other parts of the earth, and not to those whom God had hidden to fulfill more completely His promises to the Patriarchs.

We have before stated that the Latter-day Saints believe that the Ten Tribes still exist, and that their home is in the far north. That they still exist is absolutely necessary to fulfill the unfailing promises of Jehovah to Israel, and to all mankind. The presence of the remnants of Judah, in every land today, is an uncontrovertable testimony that the covenant made with Abraham has not been abrogated or annulled. The vitality of the Jewish race is proverbial, and can we reasonably expect that when one branch of a tree shows such native strength, that the other branches will not be proportionately vital? Is it not more consistent to believe that, as the Jewish race under the curse of the Almighty and suffering centuries of persecution, still survives, so is it with the rest of Jacob\'s seed, rather than that they, ages ago, were blotted out of earthly existence?

The belief that the Latter-day Saints hold that these tribes are residents of the northern regions of the earth, is sustained by a cloud of scriptural witnesses of ancient and modern days, to whom we now appeal. Our first witness shall be the Prophet Jeremiah. In the third chapter of his prophecies we find the Lord rebuking both Israel and Judah for their treachery and backsliding, yet still proclaiming His long-suffering and mercy to His covenant people. He then gives command to the Prophet, saying:

"Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, return thou, backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and\' I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger forever. * * * In those days [the latter 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 this land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers."

Again, in speaking of the mighty works accompanying the final glorious restoration of the house of Jacob, the same prophet declares:

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jeremiah xxiii). Again it is written (Jeremiah xxxi): "For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say, O, Lord save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth * * * I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.

We will turn for a moment from the Asiatic to the American continent. There we find Ether, the Jaredite, about 600 years B. C., prophesying of the latter days: "And then also cometh the Jerusalem of old; and the inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who were scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the north countries and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which God made with their father Abraham."

But the most definite word on this subject given by any of the ancient writers of the Asiatic continent is contained in Esdras, a book of the Apocrypha (II Esdras xiii). Therein is given a dream and its interpretation showing forth the works and the power of the Son of God. It is to Him and His gathering of the people together that the Prophet refers. The verses more particularly bearing on our subject read as follows:

39. "And whereas thou sawest that He gathered another peaceable people unto Him.
40. "Those are the Ten Tribes which were carried away captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas the king whom Salmanaser the king of the Assyrians took captive, and crossed them beyond the river; so were they brought into another land.
41. "But they took this counsel to themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth unto a further country where never man dwelt,
42. "That they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land.
43. "And they entered in at the narrow passages of the River Euphrates.
44. "For the Most High then showed them sig............