Lord said unto Saul, "Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites." Saul did not fully obey and in consequence was himself rejected of God; and lost his kingdom. His excuse, that he had saved some things to sacrifice unto the Lord, did not avail him. He was told, "To obey is better than sacrifice."2 They were finally destroyed by the Simeonites. The last of the race that appears in history is Haman, who perished like his fathers in conflict with the Jews. The word of the Lord concerning the Amalekites has been fulfilled.

The Ethiopians, or Cushites, were the descendants of Cush the eldest son of Ham. They first settled in a district called Chusistan, south of Babylon and west of Persia; afterwards they extended into Arabia, and thence into Abyssinia south of Egypt. The wife of Moses was an Ethiopian or Cushite of Arabia.5

Some think that Phut, another son of Ham, removed to India, and became the father of the famous sect of Buddha; he himself being the divine Buddha.

The descendants of Ham early took the lead in arms, in architecture, and in the priesthood of the nations that forsook God. They not only established their religious system in Assyria, India, and Africa, but extended it into Greece, and introduced the religion and the priesthood of the Druids, which once prevailed over the north of Europe and in the British Isles. As priests and warriors, the children of Ham thus became the early nobility or highest caste in all those countries.

Ham is still represented by the inhabitants of one of the largest continents on the earth. Kept distinct for thousands of years, unlike the descendants of Shem and Japhet, the mass of the children of Ham made no progress in civilization or religion; and they are at the present day the most abject

1 1 Sam. xv. 18.

3 1 Chron. iv. 43.

2 71 Sam. xv. 22.

5 Numb. xii. 1.

Esther vii. 10.

and degraded of the children of Adam. They are not only taken as slaves to other nations, but they make slaves of one another; and worse still, they are the slaves of the most revolting and cruel superstitions. Within a few years the light of Christianity has again commenced dawning on the coasts of Africa: and through explorations recently made in the interior, previously almost inaccessible, the Lord appears to be opening a way for the Gospel, and through it for the elevation of the long degraded children of Ham. The time now appears to be near at hand when "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God."1

1 Psalms lxviii. 31.

CHAPTER XXXII.

JAPHET AND HIS DESCENDANTS.

OUR thousand years ago a promise was made to Japhet

FOUR

coupled with a prediction: "God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." We have already noticed the fulfillment of the latter part of this prophecy. Japhet has long held rule over the children of Ham. The fulfillment of the first part has been steadily progressing for two thousand years. From Japhet sprang the two greatest of the ancient empires; the Grecian and the Roman. The sons of Japhet have spread from Northern Asia over the continents of Europe and America, and are now constantly enlarging their borders. His very name Japhet means enlargement.

The other part of the prophecy is also being fulfilled. Japhet has been brought into the church, which was for so long a period only to be found in the tents of Shem; and the present generation are seeing the literal fulfillment of the prophecy, in such cases as the English children of Japhet now occupying India and the great islands of the Pacific, habitations of the children of Shem.

In the many nations said to be descended from Japhet, may be noticed affinities in mind, disposition and manners; and similarity may also be perceived in the construction of the words and idioms of their languages.

The sons of Japhet whose names are recorded, are "Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meschech and Tiras." He

Gen. ix. 27.

2 Gen. x. 2.

had, doubtless, many others, but these were probably mentioned, as being heads of nations.

1

From GOMER, the eldest, we are descended. He is spoken of by Josephus as the father of the Celta, the first inhabitants of Germany, France, Spain, Gaul and Great Britain. Three of his sons are mentioned. Of these ASHKENAZ is supposed to be the Ascanius, who, according to Greek tradition, was the ancestor of the Phrygians, and after whom the Euxine, at first the Axine, sea was called. TOGARMAH is thought to be the ancestor of the Turks, who came from the north of Armenia. Ezekiel refers to the "house of Togarmah of the north quarters: " and again, of their being traders "with horses, and horsemen and mules," for which the Turks have been famous. Of the other sons of Japhet, MAGOG is considered the father of the Scythian nations; MADAI, of the Medes; TIRAS, of the Thracians; and KITTIM, of the Macedonians; JAVAN, plainly settled in Greece; that country being called by his name simplified, Iun, in the Hebrew Scriptures. His name is also preserved in the Ionian sea and the Ionian dialect of the Greeks. The name of Elishah, one of the sons of Javan, is also connected with Greece; Hellas, little differing from the Hebrew Elisha, was the name by which that country was called by its own inhabitants. TUBAL and MESCHECH, the other sons of Japhet, are supposed to have gone north; the latter giving name to Moesia, and both remembered in the names of Tobolsk and Muscovy.

The descendants of Japhet, like those of the other sons of Noah, while spreading over the earth, carried with them traditions of their first great ancestor; each nation making their history begin with the first king or first man in the world. One colony of the Greeks was called Argyves, from the ark or ship Argos: sometimes they were called Pelasgi, from Pelasgus, another name for Noah or Deucalion.

1 Ezek. xxxviii. 6; xxvii. 14.

For a long period, the sciences, literature and civilization of the world were confined to the small portion of its surface lying in or near the spot where the worship and word of God were retained. As men separated themselves from that spot, they became more and more savage as the circle extended. In time the nations of the East bestowed the name of barbarians upon all strangers; the Chinese still considering all foreigners as such. For a long time the soil of Greece was cold and marshy; the people, being scattered in little tribes, were rude and barbarous. At the dawning of Attic civilization, Cecrops, an Egyptian, built a town on the site where afterwards the citadel of Athens rose in magnificence. He introduced morals and judicial regulations; and the country became an asylum for the persecuted. Festivals, compacts and laws thence extended their beneficial influence. These, with the introduction of letters into Greece, laid the foundation of an empire which overran the world, and of a literature which yet holds a foremost place in it.

For nearly twenty centuries after the prediction was uttered, the children of Japhet were little known or heard of. The word of God, however, was sure. Dwelling in the remote plains of Europe and Northern Asia, they were acquiring that vigor and strength which fitted them for enlargement. Founding the Grecian and Roman empires, for the last two thousand years they have been the dominant race of the world. Their onward progress has been greatly accelerated in later ages by the impetus which it has received from the enlightening and civilizing influences of the gospel, which, hitherto, has been almost exclusively enjoyed by the descendants of Japhet. Having already a foothold in almost every part of the world, Japhet is yet "being enlarged."