Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/14

2 terrestrial Paradise, had been announced uninter- ruptedly from age to age ; and the nation specially chosen to be the depository of this promise had spread the hope abroad among men for centuries before its fulfilment ; such was, under Providence, the result of the great revolutions which agitated the Jews, and dispersed them over all Asia and the world at large. In the year 719 (b. c), Salmanassar, King of the Assyrians, seized upon Samaria, and transported the inhabitants into the most remote village of Media. In 676 (b.c), Assaharaddon dispersed the remnant of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel over Persia, Media, and the distant provinces of the East.

At length, in 606, began the captivity of Babylon, when Nebuchadnezzar carried away the greater part of the Jewish nation, and among them the princes, priests, and even prophets into his own dominions, which at that time extended as far as Media.

The Israelites of the ten tribes met in the sorrowful days of their captivity, and by the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept together when they remem- bered Sion. Dispersed afterwards over the whole East, they proceeded in numerous caravans to Persia, India, Thibet, and even China. In our own time there have been found, in all these countries, traces of the ancient migrations of the Jewish people.

Thus as early as the seventh century before the Christian era, the captivity of the Jews had had the effect of disseminating the books, the doctrines, and the prophecies of that people among all the inhabitants of Asia, as if to rc-animate the ancient faith, and restore to men their hopes of a Eedeemer. The biblical tra- ditions accompanied the children of Israel throughout