of their real origin. They have many Jewish names among them, and above all their general physiognomy is strongly indicative of an Israelitish descent. The Ileyat (or nomadic) por

tion of this tribe now mostly profess Mohammedanism, but a part of them, together with the Garaus, who acknowledge themselves to be an offshoot of the Kalhurs, and most of the other tribes of the neighborhood, are still of the Ali Illahee persuasion, a faith which bears evident marks of Judaism, and is singularly amalgamated with Sabean, Christian and Mohammedan legends. The Spanish Jew Benjamin, of Tudela, seems to have considered the whole of these Ali Illahees as Jews, and it is possible that in his time their faith may have been less corrupt. Khuftan may have been borrowed from Hafttan, who were seven spiritual guides who lived in the early ages of Islam, and each worshipped as a deity, is an object of adoration in some particular part of Koordistan." It is possible that the Kalhurs are descendants of apostate Israelites, but quite as probable of the ancient Chaldeans, as they assert, and as their physiognomy would indicate, quite as much as that they are Jews. It is possible that in the twelfth century the mass of the people in the mountains, speaking vaguely, were worshippers of the Hafttan, and hence the name Khuftan; but it is highly improbable that the traveller should call them Jews. There were real Jews in the mountains in large numbers, and these he meant.

Soon after the record of Benjamin of Tudela came the terrible invasions of Genghis Khan, followed by the more terrible massacres of Timourlang. The Jewish communities as of old struggled through the storm of carnage and blood, like ships that have passed through a hurricane, shattered and pitiful wrecks, but still afloat. The 50,000 Jews of Hamadan, for example, were reduced to a few hundred, with synagogues and houses in ruins, and the tomb of Esther defaced and nearly demolished. Among the wars, oppressions and changes of dynasties from that time till the present the Jews have partially rallied in places, again to decline. Not the least enemy of their prosperity has been their own internal dissensions. Many times have they been convulsed by false Messiahs who have stirred them to revolt, and led them to defeat and disaster.

How much their numbers have been diminished by emigration there is no means of determining, but certainly the large Jewish

population around the Caspian and eastward must have flowed from this region as its fountain head. Under the Parthian and Moghul empires there were special opportunities and the inducements of trade for such emigration to Tartary, Thibet and China, and under the latter empires many of the colonies in eastern Russia may have been founded. But it is hardly conceivable that any great emigration has taken place without some notice in the many records of the period or the traditions of the people. Such a history for the last fifteen centuries accounts for their present numbers. The great communities that flourished in the first centuries of the Christian era have been reduced to mere relics.

A parallel case is seen in the Chaldean (or Nestorian) Christians of the same region. There is strong reason to consider them the descendants of the ancient Semitic inhabitants of Assyria and Chaldea, the proud race which carried the Jews. into captivity. "The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, fair of branches, with a shadowing shroud and of a high station, and his top was among the thick boughs. Nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty." Ez. xxxi. 3 and 8. To suppose that the race once so powerful is entirely extinct, would make it a strange exception in this part of Asia, for descendants of the ancient Persians, Koords, Armenians and Arabs are still numerous. To suppose that the present Chaldean Christians are entirely of Jewish origin leaves the still greater problem to account for the mightier people, the Assyrians. These Christians have dwelt from time immemorial on the plains of Nineveh and in the territories of ancient Assyria and Babylonia. Their language is Semitic and so is the language engraved on the tablets, cylinders, bricks and other remains of Assyrian cities. When this language has been so thoroughly studied as to warrant close comparison and deduction, it will probably appear that the present dialect of the modern Christians is derived more from the speech of Nineveh than from that of Aram. Another proof of the ethnic character of the race and its identity with the present Chaldean Christians is found in physiognomy and physical characteristics as revealed in the sculptures.

The physiognomy of the Assyrians, as they appear upon the monuments, is strongly Semitic, closely resembling the Jews, and still more closely the Chaldean Christians and mountain

Nestorians. Says the eminent historian of Assyria: "While the Oriental Jew has a spare form and weak muscular development, the Assyrian, like the modern Chaldean, is robust, broad shouldered and large limbed. The great brawny limbs are too large for beauty; but they indicate a physical power which we may well believe to have belonged to this nation,-the Romans of Asia, the resolute and sturdy people which succeeded in imposing its yoke upon all its neighbors." That race, dominant in Western Asia for many centuries, is now reduced to the pitiful remnant of 200,000 peasants and shepherds. Since they have embraced Christianity their history is very analogous to that of the Jews. Both retained the language of the old Assyrians; both enjoyed for a period comparative prosperity; both under Mohammedanism have declined, and since the massacres of Timourlang have maintained but a feeble existence. The descendants of conqueror and conquered have for ages lived side by side, sharing the same vicissitudes and persecutions, yet strongly antagonistic to each other. Wonderful has been the past history of each, and wonderful will be their future in that brighter day which is dawning upon the East.

The conclusions in regard to the Ten Tribes may be briefly summed up as follows:

1. That the apostate Israelites were lost among the idolaters of the Assyrian Empire at the time of their apostacy.

2. That the true Israelites under Persian rule became identified with the captivity of Judah, and the nationality of the Ten Tribes was extinct.

3. That these Jews, embracing, since the time of Cyrus, the faithful of both Judah and Israel, greatly increased in numbers, were reinforced by emigrants from Palestine, and have sent off colonies to all the East, throughout Persia, Tartary and Thibet; but there is no scriptural or historical basis for the idea that the "Ten Tribes" are living as a body in some obscure region, or are found in any one nation.

4. That some at least of the communities of Jews still living in the land of their original exile, are lineal descendants of the Ten Tribes; and considering the history of these Jews, their present numbers of fifty or sixty thousand souls in Persia and Assyria, and several thousand more in Babylonia, they sufficiently solve the problem.

ART. VIII.-TULLOCH'S RATIONAL THEOLOGY.

By Prof. E. H. GILLETT, D.D., New York.

RATIONAL THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By John Tulloch, D.D., Principal of St. Mary's College, in the University of St. Andrews. In two vols. 8vo. pp. 463, 500. Scribner, Welford & Armstrong, New York.

In the study of what may be called the Broad Church element of English Christianity in the Seventeenth Century, Principal Tulloch has fallen upon a congenial subject for his investigations, and he has handled it with marked ability. He has brought forward into clearer light than that in which they have hitherto been seen, some of the most independent and noteworthy thinkers, preachers and scholars of their time. The names of some of these, like Chillingworth, Jeremy Taylor, Cudworth and Henry More, are familiar enough to theological scholars, and have long been so, but there are others, like Dr. Whichcote, John Smith, and other of the Cambridge Platonists, of whom the world has heard little, and whose merit has been buried in an obscurity which Dr. Tulloch has done his best to remove.

The position of these men can be understood only by a reference to the views and relations of the religious parties of the time. Dr. Tulloch represents them as repelled alike by the two extremes with which the age brought them into contact. He goes back to the Synod of Dort, and sets before us the theological conflict of which that Synod was the scene, and to which must be traced the rise of Arminianism in England. Here we meet with the famous Alexander Hales, of Eton, not a member of the Synod, but a spectator and reporter of its proceedings. He carries back with him to England an admiration for Episcopius, and a keen sense of he injustice with which the remonstrants were treated, and thenceforth, we presume, whether the expression in so many words fell from his lips, or not, he bids good night to John Calvin. His writings indicate remarkable largeness and liberality of thought for his age, and he evidently commands the highest admiration of Dr. Tulloch.

Of Lord Falkland, on whom Lord Clarendon has lavished his warmest eulogy, we have a glowing sketch. Although a layman, he was well read in theology, and in his hospitable mansion, men like Chillingworth found sympathy and a hearty welcome. His char..cter commands our respect, and his early fate-a victim to what many will regard as a mistaken loyalty-excites commiseration. His position in relation to Church questions, was much the same with that of Chi.lingworth and

Taylor. He was no extremist, and only by the force of circumstances was he brought to espouse a party in the State. On Church questions he was an Episcopalian, but held moderate views. In Parliament he was indisposed to act with Laud and the High Church on the one side, or with the Puritans on the other.

Here, then, we discern the grounds upon which the "Rational Theology" which Dr. Tulloch delineates planted itself. It was a theology developed under peculiar conditions. It was a combination of reactions from two opposite extremes. It could neither acquiesce in the dogmatical puritanism of the Westminster Assembly on the one hand, nor the intolerant assumptions and bigoted exclusiveness of High Church on the other. It was repelled in almost equal measure by Presbyterian rigidity and Prelatic tything of "mint, anise and This is seen alike in Chillingworth's "Religion of Protestants" and in Jeremy Taylor's" Liberty of Prophesying." Chillingworth indeed had passed through a peculiar experience. Loyal to his convictions of truth, and by the logical necessities of his mental constitution compelled to search out the solid foundations of belief, his inability to satisfy himself with the results of his own thinking left him a prey to Jesuit arts. Entrapped in the meshes of their sophistry, he sought the guidance of infallibility in the Roman Catholic Church, and for a short time became a resident at the seminary of Douay. Rome probably never had a more sincere convert, but a very short experience satisfied him of his mistake. Resenting, so far as his calm and impassive nature could resent, the imposition that had been practiced on his reason, and making himself a thorough master of the relative position of both parties in the conflict, he set himself to the task of producing that memorable work, which, considered as an argument, is one of the most exhaustive and complete in the whole range of literature. He was under the necessity of asserting the just claims of reason. The claims of an infallible Church had been urged on the grounds of reason and could be judged on earth only at the bar of reason. So that in the entire course of his argument, Chillingworth was really the advocate of a Rational Christianity.

It is obvious, however, that he speaks not in the interest of a party, and although the freedom of his thinking was resented by some of the narrower minds of the Puritan class, we can scarce make him the representative of any theological school. He stands as it were by himself, and is by no means in his mental development a produ t to characterize the c.n ury. It is an unnatural and forced association when Laud, a though his patron, is brought into any sort of th.ological juxtaposition with him.