name_. 4. They were to lose
their _language_. 5. They were to _possess_ the isles of the sea, coasts
of the earth, waste and desolate places, to inherit the portion of the
Gentiles, their seed, land, and cities. 6. They are to be great and
successful _colonisers_. 7. Before them other people are to _die out_.
8. They are to be a _head_ nation. 9. To be a _company_ of nations. 10.
To be _great_ in war on land or sea. 11. To be _lenders_ of money. 12.
To have a _monarchy_. 13. To be _keepers_ of the Sabbath. 14. To have
David's _throne_ and seed ruling over them. 15. They are to _possess_
Palestine, and invite their brethren of Judah to return. And thus I
might repeat some sixty positive marks and distinctions setting forth
Israel; and yet men wilfully persist in confounding them with the Jews,
or looking for this great and favoured people of the Lord among the
lowest of human kind, Indians, Africans, and so on.

SAMARITANS.

The Samaritans were not Jews or Israelites, strictly speaking. They of
course became Jewish in their customs and worship. Originally they were
Assyrians. When the nine Tribes were carried captive, they were brought
and put in their place. "And the King of Assyria brought men from
Babylon and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from
Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the
children of Israel" (2 Kings xvii. 24). The Jews and the Samaritans
never wholly mixed; one was always distasteful to the other. They never
were taken captive, and to this day they live in and about Mount Scychar,
numbering between three and four hundreds.

BENJAMIN.

The Tribe of Benjamin has a singular and special place in the history of
Israel and Judah. Neither the Old or New Testament can be well
understood unless one understands the place of this Tribe in Providence.
They were always counted one of the Ten Tribes, and reckoned with them in
the prophetic visions. They were only loaned to Judah about 800 years.
Read 1 Kings xi. They were to be a light for David in Jerusalem. God,
foreseeing that the Jews would reject Christ, kept back this one Tribe to
be in readiness to receive Him, and so they did. At the destruction of
Jerusalem they escaped, and after centuries of wanderings turn up as the
proud and haughty Normans. Finally they unite with the other Tribes
under William the Conqueror. A proper insight into the work and mission
of Benjamin will g