PREFACE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR

The work here presented is a reprint of the London Third Edition. We commend the Lectures to the careful reading of all, believing that whatever may be the conclusion at which you may arrive, you cannot investigate the subject without profit; and we are confident you must be interested in the topics brought forward.

We have read nothing, of human production, with so much interest for years, as these Lectures. The prophecies concerning Ephraim, whom God declares to be his "first born," are, that "His seed shall become a multitude of nations;" and shall "grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth;" or, as it is in the Hebrew, shall "grow as fishes do increase" - sending off shoals, or colonies : see Gen. 48:16-19. Has this prophecy failed? Is it to be counted a conditional prophecy? The latter idea we regard as an unwarrantable assumption. If the prophecy has failed, so may all others, If it has not failed, where is the "multitude of nations?" Mr. Wilson attempts to show us: with what success the reader can judge when he has read his argument. We confess we had no conception of the strength of evidence in favor of such a theory till we read his work. We do not vouch for the truth of his theory, but if it be correct it will do more to unlock prophecy, and settle difficult portions of it, than any other that we ever read; it will do more to wake up interest in the Bible, and to break down infidelity, than any other, and all other theories that have been broached since the Christian era: that is our opinion.

If the view maintained in Mr. Wilson's Lectures be true, it is a subject of deep interest to us all; for, in that case, the inhabitants of tile United States are a part of the "lost tribes of Israel," and the literal posterity of Jacob; and particularly are the Anglo-Saxons of the posterity of Ephraim, the youngest son of Joseph, of whom it is said, "His horns (or power,) are like the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth;" Deut. 31:17. His grand characteristic was to be that of advance and progression; before whom no other people could stand. Such ever has been and still is the prominent trait of character manifested by the Anglo-Saxon race. The rapid progress and increase of this race is matter of wonder and astonishment to all; and that the God of providence has some design in causing them and their institutions to spread abroad, compassing the globe, seems to be the impression of all reflecting men, without ever once having suspected their real origin, and the prophecies that are on record in relation to them.

Preface to the First London Edition. Page 6
Preface to the Third London Edition. Page 7

With these remarks of Mr. Wilson we now present the work to the American public, and especially to the attention of all students of prophecy. Our aim in doing it is to increase light on the Scriptures, and raise an additional barrier against that infidel spirit that has already set "in like a flood," but against which, we doubt not, "the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard."

Go to John Wilson, 1840. Our Israelitish Origin

• Table of Contents of Lectures
  
• Preface to American Edition, 1851
  
• Preface to First Edition, 1840
  
• Preface to Third Edition, 1844
  
• Reply to Bickersteth's Objections, 1840
  
• Queries [to the reader] on the subject of Our Israelitish Origin