THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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governmental relations. It is the reign of law in every faculty of the human mind, and in every department of human society. All that we have known before about the Kingdom we have found in the Bible. From this book we read of the first inception of the idea, and the historical fact of a nation founded to realize it.in their government and personal life. This was the Israelitish nation, and it was founded under the direct influence of Jehovah, who promised that it should be a “ holy nation.” Its history is one of extreme interest, and has a singular fascination for the devout and spiritual mind, and yet, so strangely have its history and prophecies been ignored, that Christians generally are almost ignorant of its annals, and wholly ignorant of its import as a factor in the evolution of the race.
They miss entirely the purpose and intention of the book; and this notwithstanding their faith in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and notwithstanding that they think their whole claim to eternal life lies in its pages.
Moses, during the memorable forty days that he was in the mountain with Jehovah, received the instructions which he afterward incorporated in what is known as the Mosaic law, which today stands superior to any other system of laws among ancient or modern nations. For this law was not only the expression of the will and wisdom of Jehovah, but of the internal necessities of the people. It was suited to the people of that child age. But we have come now to a more mature age, when, instead of commands as to children, we need a scientific statement of the laws of the mind, as well as of the physical laws. Law is the mode of action of internal forces. It is never imposed on man against his nature, but in accordance with, and as a part of, the fundamental principles of his nature. Indeed, when Moses finished the delivery ■of the law, he gave this as its binding force and reason. It was so natural that they needed no teacher, even from the heavens, to teach them how to obey.
Indeed it is now well known that their history and wanderings have been traced by unmistakable signs until their identity with the Anglo-Saxon race, of which we are a part, is fairly well established.
This brainy, energetic, practical, but spiritual people, then, are the veritable “ lost tribes ” of Israel. I do not propose, however, to enter into the details of this account. I only wish to trace the line of history to show our ancestry from whom we receive •our inheritance of mental and spiritual power. This race is best adapted to the work ■of completing a true social and governmental order, based upon scientific principles. In their characters and in their prophecies were the most complete types and symbols of the new order, which is the final outgrowth of our historic ages. All these symbols and types find their key in the nature of man.
Each tribe was marked by distinct characteristics, and each stood for a basic truth and fundamental part of society. This was why God chose them to lead in the development of the Divine principles of life.
The Jews, whom we know as a distinct people today, have come to consider themselves, and to be considered, as the only representatives on earth of this historic people. But the Jewish people comprise only a small portion of the nation of Israel, being the descendants of only two out of the twelve tribes. Ten of the tribes revolted and, choosing a king, set up an independent nation.
This was known as the House or Kingdom of Israel, but was also called Ephraim, because this half tribe led in the revolt. The tribes who remained loyal to Solomon’s son were known as the Kingdom of Judah, from which come the Jews. After a few hundred years of almost incessant warfare between these divided nations, the Israelites were captured by the King of Assyria and carried away into captivity, from which they have never returned. From that time they have been known by the descendants of Judah, and all readers of their history, as the “ lost tribes.” But the burden of the ancient prophecies is the restoration of these two nations under the tribal order, and of their becoming reunited to form one nation again under one King David “ whom I will raise up.”
At a culminating period in the age of this people came or was sent Jesus. He