.

CHAPTER III.

THE WEEK IN HISTORY.

SCRIPTURE THE CHART OF HISTORY.-PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS AS TO HISTORIC AND PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.- THE AGE OF THE HUMAN RACE. -OLD TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY.-THE HEBREW AND THE SEPTUAGINT CHRONOLOGY COMPARED.- HOW ARE WE TO INTERPRET THE SYMBOLIC PERIODS OF PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY?-EXPOSITION AND DEFENCE OF THE YEAR-DATE SYSTEM.-MORAL FEATURES DISTINGUISHING THE THREE GREAT DISPENSATIONS-THE PATRIARCHAL-THE JEWISH-THE CHRISTIAN.-CHRONOLOGICAL MEASURES OF THESE DISPENSATIONS.-THE PERIOD OF "SEVEN TIMES"SHOWN TO BE THE DURATION OF THE LAST OR GENTILE DISPENSATION, AND ALSO OF THE TWO EARLIER.

The Bible is the only book in the World that gives us a view of human history as a whole, that carries us from the lost Paradise of Eden, to the restored Paradise of the Apocalypse, traces the course of the human race through every stage of its intermediate existence on earth, and on beyond the limits of time, into the boundless regions of eternity.

In it, and in it alone therefore, are we likely to find the key, if key there be, to the periodicity of history,-the underlying principle bringing the labyrinth of inharmonious periods and chronological irregularities Which the annals of the human race at first sight present, into harmony with each other, and with the periods of nature and revealed religion.

The histories of Scripture reach back to the farthest past, and its prophecies extend to the most distant future; taken together, as they are presented in the Bible, the two afford a panoramic view of the whole course of events,, from the creation and fall of man, to the final judgment, and the inauguration of the new heavens and the new earth.

The Bible is therefore the chart of all history, and it gives us, not events only, but their moral character, tracing the motives that influenced the various actors in the drama, as well as the results of their action. Events are shown in connection with their causes and their effects, and the judgment of God as to their character is revealed. Without the Bible, history would be a spectacle of "rivers flowing from unknown sources, to unknown seas;" but under its guidance we can trace the complex currents to their springs, and see the end, from the beginning.

The entire story of mankind as presented in Scripture being composed of two parts, the historic and the prophetic, it is clear that the periods into which the history of man as a whole is divided, cannot be discerned, without taking both historic and prophetic chronology into account, and as both are subjects on which different views have been entertained, our examination of the periodicity of human history as a whole, must be preceded by a careful though necessarily brief investigation, of the questions connected with these controverted points.

1. What, according to Scripture, is the age of the human race? in other words,-how long is it since the creation?

2. What periods are intended by the expressions of time used in Daniel and the Apocalypse in defining the duration of events which were future when predicted by these prophets?

These questions we must now therefore consider, taking first that of

OLD TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY.

The highest point of antiquity to which authentic profane history carries us, is the occupation of Babylon by an army of Medes in 2233 BC, that is about 250 years after the flood.

For our knowledge of the dates and durations of all previous events, we are indebted exclusively to the Hebrew Scriptures, and very full and explicit are the chronological data of this remote period, which the Bible supplies. "The history contained in the Hebrew Scriptures presents a remarkable and pleasing contrast to the early accounts of the Greeks. In the latter, we trace with difficulty a few obscure facts, preserved to us by the poets, who transmitted, with all the embellishments of poetry and fable, what they had received from oral tradition. In the annals of the Hebrew nation, we have authentic narratives, written by cotemporaries, under the guidance of inspiration. What they have delivered to us, comes accordingly under a double sanction. They were aided by Divine inspiration in recording facts, upon which as mere human witnesses, their evidence would be valid."

The length of the lives of the early patriarchs, often bordering on a thousand years, made oral tradition a comparatively safe guide: but one link intervened between Adam and Noah, from whom the story of antediluvian events would be handed down in the line of Shem to Abraham and Moses. This latter, though not an eyewitness of many of the facts he narrated, is yet an authentic reporter; and in the subsequent history of Israel, from the Exodus to the rebuilding of the temple, the writers were, strictly speaking, witnesses.

The chronology of the Pentateuch is gathered, not from dates, as in ordinary history, but from accurate genealogical records; it is measured and marked out, not by centuries, but by generations. The brief chronology of the antediluvian world, is all contained in the fifth of Genesis; the age of the human race at the time of the flood, that is to say, the interval that had elapsed between the creation and the deluge, is ascertained by adding together the ages of the patriarchs at the birth of the sons, in whom the line from Adam to Noah is traced. These were not invariably the eldest sons; Seth, the second link in the chain, was we know the third son of Adam, and the figures given make it very improbable that either Enos, Enoch, or Lamech, were eldest sons. Younger sons, are often throughout Scripture the heirs of promise, as witness Shem and Abram, Jacob, and Judah, David, and Solomon. "That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural." Barren wives caused to become joyful mothers, and younger sons chosen to be heirs of promise, often intimated in the older economy, that purpose of God unfolded in the New, to bring life . out of death, and to substitute for the first and natural -order of things, a second and spiritual order; to replace by a new creation, under the headship of a second Adam-the Lord from heaven-that creation which fell in the first Adam..

An examination of the fifth of Genesis will show that the flood, dating from the creation, took place in the year 1656 A.M., which was the 6oo th year of Noah’s life.

The correctness of this date however, as well as of that of the birth of Abram (which is derived in a similar way from the postdiluvian generations), has been called in question, because there exist important variations between the Hebrew Bible, and some of its most ancient versions, as regards these very genealogical statements. The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint version into Greek, some other ancient translations, and the writings of Josephus, make many of the generations, both before and after the flood, longer than they are represented in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in our authorized version which follows the Hebrew. Nor is the discrepancy a trivial one; the Septuagint places the birth of Abram, thirteen hundred years later than does the Hebrew Pentateuch, making the present age of the human family to be between seven and eight thousand years, instead of about six thousand years.

It is evident therefore that in our consideration, of the measures of the dispensations into which human history has been divided, it will not do to overlook this great chronological question and controversy. We must ascertain which of these rival chronologies is the true one, since a difference bearing so large a proportion to the whole duration of history, must be material to our inquiry.

The writings of Josephus favour the longer system; but as they mainly follow the Septuagint, their evidence is not of independent importance. The Samaritan Pentateuch has been proved unreliable in other respects, and cannot therefore be accepted as an authority on this point. The real issue lies between the chronology of the Hebrew Pentateuch and the Greek translation of it, made BC 280, at Alexandria in Egypt, by order of Ptolemy Soter, for the great Alexandrian Library. This ancient version, commonly called the Septuagint, or translation of "the seventy," was in common use among the’ Jews in our Lord’s time, and was universally employed by the fathers of the early church, who entertained for it, an almost superstitious reverence, and even considered it as inspired. Absurd fables about its origin (the true story of which is, as regards its details, lost in obscurity) were invented, to give colour to this ’notion, and the reverence which existed for it was so great, that its chronology seems to have been generally accepted, save by Jerome, Origen, and a few others, whose familiarity with the original Hebrew led them to reject it.

Now it is especially to be noted, that the difference between the two, is unquestionably, from its very nature, an intentional alteration. It is not the effect of accident, but the result of deliberate design. An entire century is, twelve times over, added to the age of the patriarch, at the time of the birth of the son, in whom the genealogy continues; while the same period is deducted from the residue of the life, so as to leave the whole unchanged. The Hebrew Bible for instance states, that Adam was 130 years old at the birth of Seth, that he lived 800 years after, and died at 930. The Septuagint on the contrary gives him as 230 at the time of Seth’s birth, says he lived only 700 years after, but agrees that he died at 930. The following table presents ’the discrepancy both as to its nature, and as to its amount; it will be observed that it affects the lives of six antediluvian, and, six post-diluvian patriarchs

Hebrew. - Septuagint. Adam 130 230 Seth 105 205 Enos 90 190 Cainan 70 170 Mahalaleel 65 165 Enoch 65 165 Arphaxad 35 135 Salah 30 130 Eber 34 134 Peleg 30 130 Reu 32 132 Serug 30 130

Nothing hut design can account for this uniform and repeated alteration; it is too systematic to be the result of accident, and is clearly an intentional and deliberate corruption in one document or the other; an increase or decrease of these periods, made with some ulterior object in view.

It has been a warmly disputed point among chronologers, which of the two was most likely to be correct, whether the Jews had falsified the Hebrew, or whether the seventy Egyptian translators, are to be credited with having distorted in this manner the chronology of the Septuagint.

Many arguments have been adduced on either side of the controversy, which space forbids our reproducing here. Not only Josephus, but most of the Fathers adopted the chronology of the Septuagint, as was natural, seeing it was the version with which they were familiar, while very few of them were acquainted with the Hebrew. Jerome, who made the Vulgate translation into Latin, however, and Origen, and some others, adhered to the Hebrew. The revival of learning which preceded and accompanied the Reformation, led to a more extensive use of the Hebrew original, and more deference was thenceforth shown to the Hebrew chronology. Archbishop Usher’s great chronological work, published in the middle of the seventeenth century, recognised the Hebrew dates as the true; in 1834 the profoundly learned work of Mr. Fynes Clinton showed that the judgment of this most accurate and discriminating scholar was in favour of the Hebrew chronology: and in 1847, Browne’s "Ordo Saeclorum" followed, and threw its weight into the same scale. Thus the upholders of the Septuagint version are found principally among those who were unfamiliar with the Hebrew, and a large proportion, if not the majority of those who have most fully examined and compared the two, believe the Hebrew to be the true text.

But common sense without learning seems almost sufficient to settle the question. The Hebrew is the original, and dates from the time of Moses; the Septuagint is a mere Egyptian translation, dating from BC. 286. Which is most likely to be correct?

The Jews held their own sacred writings in profound and indeed superstitious veneration; they worshipped the letter, and would have been the last people in the world to tamper with it. The Egyptians had no such reverence for the Old Testament, and would not have hesitated to corrupt the text, supposing any sufficient motive made the doing so seem desirable.

It is hard to assign any motive which could have induced the Jews to alter the genealogies of their Pentateuch. It has been suggested indeed that they did so in the hope of invalidating the claims of Jesus of Nazareth to be their Messiah. But such a change in the chronology of their early history could in no wise have done this. Had it been possible for them to have lengthened or shortened the chronology of the period between their restoration from Babylon, and the first advent, such a step would indeed have had an important bearing on the question. But to prolong the days before the birth of Abraham, could apparently serve no such purpose.

On the other hand it is by no means difficult to conjecture why its Egyptian authors, whether Jewish or Gentile, may have falsified the original, which by the king’s command they were to reproduce in Greek. "The Chaldeans and Egyptians, whose histories were about that time published by Berosus and Manetho, laid claim to a remote antiquity. Hence the translators of the Pentateuch might be led to augment the amount of the generations, by the centenary additions, and by the interpolation of a second Cainan, in order to carry back the epoch of the creation and the flood, to a period more conformable with the high pretensions-of the Egyptians and the Chaldeans."

The arguments alleged in favour of the longer chronology prove, when closely examined, to tell even more strongly in favour of the shorter; and it must be remembered that while differing from the Hebrew as- to the age of the patriarchs, at the birth of their sons, the Septuagint agrees with it, as to the age ultimately attained by each; a strong confirmation of the authentic character of the chronology of the Pentateuch. There is no valid reason for assuming that the inspired original has been corrupted, and that the Greek translation deserves more confidence. On the contrary the former must be regarded as possessing on every ground the strongest claim to our belief, and the chronology given in our authorized version, may be relied on as correct.

There is no other disputed point in Biblical chronology that involves any material difference, or renders questionable any considerable interval. The whole period from Adam to Christ may be traced step by step from Scripture statements. We meet indeed two breaks in the chain, two brief chasms, which no ingenuity can bridge over. They have been allowed to occur in the wisdom of God, for some good and sufficient reason, and the result is that it is impossible for any one to accurately ascertain to within a few years, the age of the world, the exact period that has elapsed since the creation of Adam.

1.We are not informed what was the duration of the government of Joshua and the elders, and of the interregnum or anarchy which followed. The interval between the death of Moses and servitude under the Midianites, can from Scripture statements be calculated with tolerable certainty, but not with actual precision. The years assigned to it must rest more or less on conjecture, not on testimony; it is the period spoken of in #Josh 24:31. "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over lived Joshua, which had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel." Joshua was probably about the same age as Caleb, forty at the time of the spies; he wandered with Israel in the wilderness for thirty-eight years subsequently, before he took command of their armies on the death of Moses. He was therefore about seventy-eight when his government began, and he was 110 at his death (#Josh 24:29), so that the above expression, "all the days of Joshua," must apparently include about thirty-two years; it is impossible to fix the period more closely, and it may well vary ten years in either direction. Clinton puts it at twenty-seven years.

2.The second chasm occurs between the death of Samson, and the election of Saul, and was occupied by the governments of Eli and Samuel. Josephus makes this interval fifty-two years. Clinton, for reasons which appear satisfactory, considers that the nearest approximation to the truth which scripture statements permit, is thirty-two years.

We have not space to enlarge on the point, as our object in alluding here to these chronological chasms, is less to investigate their limits, than to show that those limits are very narrow. From forty to sixty years comprises, in all probability, the range of the uncertain, in the whole extent of Bible chronology. The various statements of Scripture given in the subjoined table leave little doubt that the creation took place about 4138 BC. instead of 4004, as is commonly supposed. But any attempt to fix with greater accuracy than this, the actual age of the world, is futile, as no scriptural data exist by which the precise year of the creation can be ascertained.*

We accept then as about the nearest possible approach to truth, and as probably a very near approach indeed, the following dates given by Mr. Fynes Clinton

Deluge 1656 A.M. Birth of Abram. 2008 Call of Abram 2083 Exodus 2513 Death of Moses 2553 First servitude [2580] Death of Eli [3010] Election of Saul [3042] Accession of David [3082] Solomon [3122] Rehoboam [3162] Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem.[3552] Temple burnt The Nativity [4138]

PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.

We turn now from the past to the future, to gather from the inspired Word of God, its prophetic revelations of the chronology of the closing events of the history of the world.

From the earliest days, statements of time have been an important element in Divine predictions. The hundred and twenty years that should elapse before the flood, the four hundred years’ affliction of Abraham’s seed, the forty years in the wilderness, the seventy years of the Babylonish captivity, all these and many other periods were announced beforehand to Israel. And similarly in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ foretold the period during which He would bow to the power of the grave, saying "the third day He shall rise again." These and other predictions, given simply to reveal the future, are accompanied by plain, literal, statements of time, such as those just quoted. But there is, as we have seen, another series of predictions, in which a double object may be distinctly traced, to reveal and yet to conceal the future.

The glory of God is declared by every prophecy. His foreknowledge is one of his highest attributes. His people are comforted, and their faith is strengthened, when they find, that the experiences through which they are passing, the troubles that are befalling them, or the difficulties that they encounter, have been foreseen and foretold by their God. But there are some things which it is better for God’s people not to know beforehand; as for instance the true length of the present period of the absence of Christ from his church. Divine wisdom and love judged it best, as we have seen to conceal from the early church the foreordained duration of this Christian age, and to allow every generation of Christians to live in the expectation of the speedy return of their Lord. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." He of course knew that over eighteen centuries would elapse before the second coming of Christ, and could very easily have revealed this in plain words to the church. He did not do so, as is proved by the fact that the early generations of Christians expected the return of Christ in their own day. If then God, for the guidance of his people especially during its later stages, wished to reveal the events of this period, without revealing its duration, He must needs adopt a style of prediction, which would reveal while concealing, and conceal while revealing, the truth.

This is exactly what He has done. The revelations granted to Daniel and John, relating to the events of this dispensation. are not couched in ordinary language, or made in plain terms, which admit of no second meaning. They are embodied in mysterious symbolic forms, which require to be translated before they can be understood. They are not incomprehensible; very far from that I Incomprehensible prophecy could answer no conceivable object. But prophecy which would be obscure for a time, and clear only after the lapse of ages, would answer the object supposed above, of concealing from one generation that which it would not be desirable for it to know, while revealing it to a succeeding one, to which the knowledge was indispensable. Now as statements of time occur, in connection with these symbolic prophecies, as well as in connection with plain predictions, the question arises, are these statements to be taken, in a literal, or in a figurative sense? Does a day mean a day, or does it in these prophecies, mean a year? Does a year mean a year, or does it mean 360 years. Does "a thousand two hundred and threescore days" mean a period of three and a half years, or does it mean a period of 1260 of our years?

It is evident that a consideration of the periodicity of history in its widest extent, including the revealed future of man, as well as his past requires a previous investigation of this question, since it is necessarily vital to the subject. Before we can discern their mutual proportions and relations, we must understand what all the periods with which we have to deal, really are. We must no more omit future periods than past ones, and must know the true length of the former, as well as of the latter. We must take all the portions of the dissected map into account, before we can even form a hypothesis as to its true configuration and dimensions, or discern the plan on which it has been divided. We must bear in mind for instance not only that the patriarchal and Jewish ages have preceded our own, but that Scripture foretells a millennial age to succeed it. We must be aware not merely that the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, but that the dominion of a certain power symbolised by " the little horn" was fixed at "time times and half a time," and we must know what period is meant by this strange unusual description. In a word, we must not only take into account the prophecies of Daniel and John, but we must seek by patient investigation to ascertain the sense in which their chronological statements are to he understood.

A moment’s reflection will show the great importance of this investigation, not only to our present subject, but to a right understanding of the prophecies themselves.

The duration assigned to the events and powers represented by these symbols, must evidently determine to a large extent, our opinion as to what the symbols themselves signify. The "little horn" is to exercise dominion for "time times and the dividing of time," three years and a half. Now if this be literal years, the power predicted may be an individual, a personal Antichrist, as the Futurists assert; but if on the other hand, it be symbolic language, signifying a period extending over twelve centuries, then the power predicted must needs be some dynasty of rulers, some succession of potentates, seeing no one man could live during so long a period. The chronology of these prophecies once made clear, research into their meaning becomes comparatively simple. On every account then the subject demands the earnest attention of those who desire to understand the oracles of God; and even if it be not so attractive as some others, it must not be lightly passed over. We may say of it? what Mr. Birks says of his exposition of the two later visions of Daniel, "from the nature of the details of which it is composed, it may perhaps fail to interest general readers. But those who study it will find themselves repaid by a more deep and lively sense than ever, of the actual Providence of the Almighty in this fallen world. Why have we, in the word of God itself, so many genealogies and lists of names, of offerings of princes, of journeys in the wilderness, and other passages, that seem dry and barren, but to teach us, that we must stoop o details and individual names, if we would rightly understand the condescension of our God, and the reality of his special oversight of the children of men? Those who are soon weary of these details, must pay the cost of their own impatient spirit, by a more loose, unreal and slippery faith. The tree of faith must throw out ten thousand little roots, into the lowly soil of prophetic history, if it is to grow and expand into that noble confidence of hope, which no storms of temptation can uproot or destroy." Here we have to deal with numbers and periods instead of with names, but these are perhaps even more unattractive to most people, as involving the mental effort of calculation; but we venture to assert that those who take the trouble to follow the investigation of this chapter, Bible in hand, will not fail to be at the close more profoundly convinced than ever before, of the inspiration of the sacred volume, of the all-embracing providence and foreknowledge of God, and of the near approach of the "end of the age."

On the judgment which we form as to the true meaning of the statements of time in symbolic chronological prophecy, depends also, we believe, to a great extent, the liveliness of our expectation of the Lord’s speedy return. "That entire rejection of prophetic chronology which follows of course, on the denial of the year-day system of interpretation, is most of all to be deplored from its deadly and paralysing influence on the great hope of the church. No delusion can be greater than to expect, by excluding all reference to times and dates, to awaken Christians to a more lively expectation of their Lord’s second coming. For in truth without reference to such dates, in an open or disguised form, not one solid reason can be given, why the church may not still have to wait two or three thousand years, before the promise is fulfilled. The declaration ’the time is at hand,’ was true and pertinent when the event was eighteen centuries removed. It and similar general promises, form no barrier to the supposition, that eighteen centuries more may still have to intervene. Every sign of the times, is either too vague to direct us, or in proportion as it becomes distinct, assumes practically all the characters of a numerical date, and becomes exposed to the same objections. The prophetic times indeed, when separated from the context, and viewed in themselves only, are a dry and worthless skeleton, but when taken in connection with the related events, clothed with historical facts, and joined with those spiritual affections, which should attend the study of God’s providence, like the bones in the human frame, they give strength to what was feeble, and union to what was disjointed, and form and beauty and order, to the whole outline and substance of these sacred and Divine prophecies."

The questions, then, which we have to investigate are these. How are we to understand the statements of times and periods, which occur in the visions of Daniel and John? Are we to take them as literal, or as symbolic? And if the latter, on what principle are we to translate them into plain language? Is there a key to the hieroglyphic numbers? and if so, what is it? It must be borne in mind we are not speaking of prophetic numbers and periods in general, but exclusively of those which occur in the above named books, and which relate mainly to the events of this dispensation.

The times and periods in question are the following

IN DANIEL.

1. That of the domination of the "little horn" Dan. #Dan 7:24.

2. That of the desolation of the "sanctuary " #Dan 8:8.

3. The interval between the restoration from Babylon, and "Messiah the Prince" #Dan 9:24.

4. Time, times, and a half; #Dan 12:8-9.

5. A period of 1290 days.

6. A period of 1335 days. #Dan 12:12.

IN THE APOCALYPSE

1. The ten days’ tribulation of the church at Smyrna, #Rev 2:10
2. The duration of the scorpion torment #Rev 9:3
3. The career of the Euphratean horsemen #Rev 9:15
4. The time of the down-treading of the Holy City #Rev 11:2
5. That of the prophesying of the two witnesses #Rev 11:3
6. The time they lay unburied #Rev 11:9
7. The sojourn of the woman in the wilderness #Rev 12:6-14
8. The period of the domination of the beast #Rev 13:6

We believe that in all the above fourteen instances, the period of time mentioned is a symbol of another and a larger period, and we now proceed to give our reasons for this opinion.

If a geographer wish to represent the entire surface of our globe, on a sheet of paper, it is clear that he must do so on a miniature scale, and that the difference between the reality and the miniature must be enormous. He fixes his scale, 100 or 1000 miles to an inch. as the case may be, and if his delineation is to be correct, to that scale he must adhere throughout. He must not reduce the latitude a little and the longitude more, or diminish the seas in one proportion and the continents in another; such a proceeding would destroy all the resemblance and utility of a map. If the drawing were a portrait, it would produce still more incongruous results. What possible resemblance to the original could be traced in a portrait, which should reduce to miniature all the features’ but one, and leave that one life-size? All must be reduced, or enlarged, in proportion.

The ancients in their hieroglyphic delineations observed this law of proportionate reduction. These were in fact miniature representations of the events and characters of history, and a certain uniform scale was adhered to in every hieroglyphic record. Apparent violations of the law of proportion, are in reality, the contrary. When for instance we see a Pharaoh represented as ten times as big as the slaves or captives in his train, it is still a proportionate representation, because the idea to be conveyed by the hieroglyph is not the literal size of the individual, but his relative social importance. Pharaoh was ten times more important than his slaves, a ten times greater man, in that sense.

Now the symbolic prophecies of Daniel and John are of this character, they are verbal descriptions of hieroglyphs seen by the prophet; and these hieroglyphs were themselves, divinely designed miniature representations of future events. We read, the description of what Daniel and John saw; and they saw, not certain events (as the rise and fall of empires), but miniature symbols or. hieroglyphs of certain events. These were exhibited to them, by Him who knows the end from the beginning, and who wished to reveal to them and to others through them, long series of great events, to happen in ages to come on a wide theatre, and to interest and affect the entire human race. For obvious reasons, this had to be done in a very narrow compass, and in a mysterious though comprehensible form; a form which "the wise" only should understand, and that only after the lapse of ages. To do it, while observing these conditions, Divine wisdom selected as the most suitable medium, the universal language of symbols, the language that needs no intervention of sounds to make it significant; the language that represents ideas not words; things not their names, which appeals to the eye rather than to the ear, and which is equally comprehensible by every nation, people and tongue. As these hieroglyphs are historic, chronology is necessarily one of their most important features, and as duration cannot be expressed by symbolic devices, the time of the vision is given in words.

Now would it not be to impeach Divine wisdom, to suppose that God has, in these miniature symbols, violated the laws of proportionate reduction, in a way which the feeble intelligence of his creatures would forbid them to do? To suppose that He who-endows the architect and the artist with wisdom to make their drawings to scale, has Himself adhered to no scale, and that without giving us any intimation of the fact, He has in these symbols, presented some features in miniature, and some as large as life? These prophetic hieroglyphs are from God, they are therefore perfect; they are miniatures; every feature is therefore on a reduced scale, and among the rest, their chronology.

The chronological emblem has to be conveyed to the mind through the ear, instead of like the rest, through the eye; a beast may image an empire; a horn may represent a dynasty, but on the duration of the empire or the dynasty, these symbols give no light.

It requires words to express a period of time, but the period so expressed, may be as much a symbol of some other period, as the beast or the horn are symbols of some other thing. The reality of Antichrist was for wise reasons, veiled for a time, under the symbol of the "little horn," the reality of the duration of his dominion, was for the same reasons veiled under the symbol of "time, times, and the dividing of time." We have to compare Scripture with Scripture, and Scripture with history, to learn the meaning of the "little horn," and we must do the same to learn the meaning of the "time, times, ’and a half," for the one is as symbolic as the other.

The next question is, on what scale are these hieroglyphs constructed? What for instance is the proportion between the wild beast of #Dan 7:7, and the Roman Empire, of which it is the universally acknowledged symbol?

Evidently the reduction is on as enormous a scale as when our world is represented by a globe a foot in diameter. Reason then compels us to conclude that in the chronology of the wild beast, an equally enormous reduction will be found. Otherwise there would exist on the face of this prophecy, that incongruous mixture of some miniature and some life-sized features, that we dare not attribute to inspiration. The statement of time must, like the prophecy in which it occurs, be a symbolic miniature, intended to convey a reality immensely greater than itself. We do not assert that the words in which these Statements of time are made, are symbolic: that a "day" means anything but a day, or a "year," anything but a year, but that the ideas of time conveyed to the mind, by these words, are symbols, intended to suggest other ideas of time, just as much as the ideas conveyed by the other parts of the hieroglyphs, are intended to suggest something different from themselves.

If this be granted, the next question is, does Scripture prescribe any scale by which these miniature numbers are to be enlarged? For in order to be of any use, chronological revelations must be accurate. If we desire to ascertain from a map the distance between any two given points, we take the apparent space in a pair of compasses, and measuring it against the scale at the side of the map, we perceive the actual distance. So with a chart of history, every inch may represent a century, and be divided into a hundred parts to represent years. A short line of definite length, then accurately expresses the duration of an empire, or the life of an individual, because we can compare the length of that line with the scale, and thus learn the real period. Without such a scale or key, map and chart would be equally useless, the one would give us no idea of actual dimension or distance, nor would the other inform us, as to actual duration.

The above named prophetic periods, are, it will be observed, described under the five main divisions of time, ” hours," "days," "weeks," "months," and "years." There are mentioned 3 days, 10 days, 1260 days, and 1335 days; a half-week, a week, seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and seventy weeks; five months and forty-two months; a "day, month, and year," and "time, times, and a half."

It is evident that in order to be intelligible, these measures of time must all be interpreted on one scale. What scale is it? Is it the grand Divine scale of "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years"? or is it an hour for a day? or a day for a month? or day for a year? or what is it?

The great answer to this important query is found in the fact, that one of these periods has been fulfilled; and therefore supplies the key to all the rest. The seventy weeks of Daniel ix. elapsed between the decree of Artaxerxes, and the advent of Messiah. That period was actually 490 years, the prophecy announced it as 490 days, or "seventy weeks," and we are therefore led to conclude, that in all the above analogous pages, where time is predicted in miniature and in mystery, in harmony with the miniature and mysterious nature of the symbols by which the prophecy is conveyed, a year is represented by a day, seven years by a week, thirty years by a month, 360 years by a "year," and so on.

This principle once admitted; the chronology of these prophecies becomes simple and accurate, and available for our present study of the periodicity of human history. The plan of times and seasons governing both past and future events is seen to be perfect, and marvellous in its comprehensiveness; in its harmony with other Scripture and with nature; and in its significance.

But if this system be rejected, the chronology of prophecy becomes a strangely unmeaning thing, and these magnificent harmonies entirely disappear. Chaos reigns where order reigned, and we look in vain for indications of Divine wisdom, in the plan of the ordering of the ages.

And yet, strange to say, this natural, simple, scriptural, "year-day system," of interpreting the mysterious dates connected with the symbolic prophecies, has been strongly opposed by Futurists, who maintain that statements of time should be taken as literally in Daniel and John as in Genesis and Exodus-be regarded as having precisely the same force, when connected with a mass of miniature symbols, as when associated with the plainest literal predictions.

This system of interpretation originated, as we before mentioned, with Bossuet and other Jesuit writers, who, anxious to turn off from the Papacy the tremendous arguments against it, furnished by the application to it of the predictions of God’s word about Antichrist, and Babylon, were driven to propose some alternative. They could not admit that the dynasty of the Popes had fulfilled the prophecies respecting the "man of sin," or that the Roman Catholic Church was, as the Reformers boldly asserted, "BABYLON THE GREAT ;" yet it was clear, on other power and system that had ever existed, so well answered the description. Lest this fact should strike the minds of men, they maintained that all these prophecies were still unfulfilled; and insisted upon the duty of literal interpretation, especially of the prophetic times. The fact that it has been held and taught by reformers and martyrs, who resisted unto blood the errors of Popery, and that it has been opposed by the champions of that corrupt and evil system, is itself a plea for the truth of the year-day interpretation. The solid and unanswerable arguments in its favour, adduced by the great Protestant expositors, gave currency to it, in spite of Jesuit opposition, and the system of prophetic interpretation with which it is connected, was soon so generally held in the Reformed Churches, as to be commonly known as the "Protestant" view.

During the last half century Futurist views have however gained ground even among Protestants; and in a good deal of current prophetic exposition, they are quietly assumed; and dogmatically taught to many who have never studied the subject, or clearly understood what the Protestant view is. We believe the Futurist view to be an erroneous and mischievous one; it precludes any adequate conception of the majestic range of the predictions of Scripture, it deprives the church of the guidance of Divine prophecy, as to the character and doom of the great Apostasy; and of the stimulus to faith and hope, afforded by the true interpretation. We must therefore be excused for dwelling a little more at length on the subject, which is not only important in itself but fundamental to our present inquiry into the periodicity of history.

An exhaustive and masterly treatise on the year-day system, from the pen of the Rev. T. R. Birks (Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Moral Philosophy), appeared about thirty years ago, in his work entitled "First Elements of Sacred Prophecy," a work which it is now difficult to procure. To the arguments and reasoning adduced by this cautious and candid writer, little can be added. Every student of the prophetic word, who wishes to arrive at the truth on the subject, should carefully ponder this elaborate and thorough examination of it. Recast, so as to adapt it to the present day, the reproduction of this work would be of immense service to the church. We give some extracts, and a brief summary of the general scope of the argument.

"The year-day theory," says Professor Birks, "’ may be summed up in these maxims

1. That the church after the ascension of Christ was in tended of God to be kept in the lively expectation of his speedy return in glory.

2. That in the Divine counsels a long period, of nearly two thousand years, was to intervene between the first and the second advent; and to be marked by a dispensation of grace to the Gentiles.

3. That in order to strengthen the faith and hope of the church under the long delay, a large part of the whole interval was prophetically announced, but in such a manner that its true length might not be understood, until its own close seemed to be drawing near.

4. That in the symbolic prophecies of Daniel and St. John, other "times" were revealed along with this, and included under one common maxim of interpretation.

5. That the periods thus figuratively revealed are exclusively those of Daniel and St. John, which relate to the general history of the church, between the time of the prophet and the second advent.

6. That in these predictions each day represents a natural year, as in the vision of Ezekiel; that a month denotes thirty, and a "time" or year, three hundred and sixty years.

The first of these maxims is plain ’from the statements of Scripture, and the second from the actual history of the world. The third is, on a priori grounds, a natural and reasonable inference from the two former, and is the true basis of the year-day theory viewed in its final cause. The three following present the theory itself under its true limits. Perhaps no simpler method could be suggested in which such a partial and half-veiled revelation could be made, than that which the Holy Spirit is thus supposed to adopt, resting as it does on a plain analogy of natural times.

Now the mere statement of these axioms removes at once several main difficulties which have been used to perplex and embarrass the inquiry.

First it has been urged, that this larger interpretation of the prophetic times is inconsistent with the repeated commands of our Saviour, that the church should always be watching for his return. How could this be possible, it is asked, if it were revealed from the first, that 1260 years must elapse before that advent should arrive?

This objection disappears in a moment, when the fads and the hypothesis are simply compared together. The very reason for which the times are asserted to have been given in this unusual form is, that they might not be understood too early, when they would have interfered with the earnestness of continual expectation. The only way to sustain this objection is to assume that the fact of such a revelation being given, made it the duty of the church to understand at once its true meaning. Two duties would then seem to contradict each other,-the obligation of continual watchfulness, and the duty of understanding the message, that more than twelve centuries would intervene before the advent. But the contradiction is not real . . . there could be no obligation to understand the times from the first.

2.Again it has often been argued, that the mystical interpretation would compel us to lengthen the millennium to 360,000 years. But the principle on which the theory has just now been founded, removes this objection also. The millennium is not included in that time of waiting, which made it desirable to conceal the times under a symbolic veil. . . . It has been further objected that the year-day interpretation was totally unknown for twelve centuries. This was a natural and necessary consequence of the principle on which it depends. Instead therefore of being a valid objection, it forms a remarkable presumption in favour of its truth. In fact this exposition appeared first, at the very time when it must have appeared, if the principles on which it is founded had a real existence." As a presumption in favour of the mystical meaning of these dates, it must be observed, that they either occur in the midst of the symbols, or else "bear plain marks of a singular, uncommon, and peculiar phraseology, or are prefaced by word importing concealment." In the case of several of them, the unit of time being left undefined, "days" is not more literal than "years." The fact also that they occur exclusively in two books of symbolical and mysterious character, suggests the idea, that they have a covert and mystical meaning; especially when we recall the words of our Lord, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons." It should also be borne in mind, that these dates (with the exception of the seventy weeks of Daniel, which has been fulfilled, on the scale of a year to a day) all pertain to the times of the Christian dispensation. Peter tells us that it was not for the prophets themselves, but for the Christian church that these "times" were revealed. (#Dan 12, #1Pet 1:10-12,) Now the Christian dispensation throughout is one of antitypical realities, instead of one of types and shadows and symbols, and it is harmonious with its character to suppose, that there is a typical analogy between the "day" of these predictions, and the "year" of their fulfilment.

Another strong presumption in favour of the same view arises, from the singular impressiveness and solemnity which accompanies the announcement of these periods, a special and almost awful solemnity, which is hard to explain, if the periods be -the brief ones apparently suggested by the expressions used. "They are not given in passing, nor as matters of subordinate importance; . . . it is in connection with one of these dates that our Lord receives the title of ’the Wonderful Numberer.’ . . . The time, times and ’a half’ are twice revealed to Daniel, in two visions at an interval of twenty years; in the second of these the words are introduced with peculiar solemnity. Two saints are exhibited as speakers; one of them inquires the duration of the predicted wonders, the reply is given by our Lord Himself; with all the solemnity of a direct appeal to God. ’I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when He lifted up his hand to heaven and sware by Him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for time and times and the dividing of a time.’ No words could well be more expressive of deep mystery, and of the special importance to the church of the period thus revealed." That there was a mystery in these numbers was recognised in the church long before its true nature could be guessed. The strange and unusual adjuncts forbad expositors to rest in the simple literal meaning of the language employed. The Jews themselves supposed the time times and a half "to have a century for its unit, and denote three hundred and fifty years."

When we turn from presumption, to direct evidence in favour of the year-day system, the prophecy of the seventy weeks occupies the first place, and is indeed by itself an almost conclusive argument in its support. The only way in which its force can be evaded) is by saying that the word employed in the original (shabua) is ambiguous, meaning a hebdomad or seven, not necessarily of days; that the event has shown that in this case it meant years, and that consequently the passage affords no ground for the year-day view. The answer to this is simple and conclusive. It is perfectly true that the original word does not define the unit, and might mean seven of any measure of time; but it is also a fact, that in Scripture, where it occurs about ten times, it is invariably used to denote seven days; we are therefore bound to suppose it is used in the same sense in Dan. ix., and thus the argument retains all its force. Seventy sevens of days was the symbol employed to denote seventy sevens of years.

And that this important passage affords the true key to the scale on which all these miniature symbols ought to be enlarged, appears the more likely when we consider two other passages in which God Himself declares that He adopts this scale. The first is the sentence on Israel in the desert: "after the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years." The twelve men who searched the land were representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel; they were not symbols of them, but they were types-representatives-a few men representing a great many. So the forty days during which they searched the land, are made typical of the forty years, during which they should wander in the wilderness..

Now here, it is not as in Daniel, the fulfilment which proves the prediction to have been on this scale; but the scale is fixed and adopted by God before the event.

And it is the same in #Ezek 4:4, where the prophet is commanded to enact a type, to become himself a living emblem of the house of Israel, by lying first on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, and then on his right side for forty days. Ezekiel here, like the spies before, was a type or representative of the nation; his recumbent position, a type of their degradation and debasement by national sin, and the period during which he was to maintain that position, divinely fixed beforehand, represented the period to be completed prior to the end of the judgment which was to fall on that nation. And as Ezekiel was a small emblem of a large nation, so the days were a brief emblem of a long period. "I have appointed thee a day for a year, a day for a year." In each of these periods a day, in the enacted prophetic type, represented a year in the subsequent history. When therefore in Daniel and the Apocalypse, we find a variety of enacted prophetic symbols of subsequent history, associated with the announcement of periods in days, why should we doubt, that the same scale is to be applied for their enlargement and adaptation to the reality? The word of God furnishes no single instance of the employment of any other.

Besides these three clear Old Testament instances of the employment of a year-day scale, there is one New Testament incident, in which it is almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that our Lord Jesus Christ adopts the same symbolic phraseology, and that for the identical reason for which it is employed in prophecy,-to reveal while concealing, and to conceal while revealing, the future.

It is in his message to Herod, when informed by the Pharisees of that monarch’s intention to kill Him. "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem."

There is a peculiar precision in this twice-repeated statement -of time, which forbids the thought that it was a mere indefinite substitute for "a little longer;" as if He had said, "I must continue a little longer my works of mercy." He twice over mentions a definite period of three days. But a much longer period than three literal days elapsed between the utterance of these words and the death and resurrection of Christ, so the expression cannot be taken literally. It is an admitted fact on the other hand, that the ministry of Christ lasted three complete years, the - period which elapsed between that first passover at which He cleansed the temple at the commencement of his public ministry, and that fourth passover, which He eat with his disciples the night before He suffered. The sentence in question, would therefore exactly describe the appointed duration of his ministry, on the year-day principle and would point out his Divine foreknowledge of the time when He was to be delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Gentiles, crucified, and raised again, or "perfected." It was as though, hearing of

Herod’s crafty intentions to kill Him, He had sent him word, "You have no power against me, till I reach the time and the place predetermined for my death and resurrection. My ministry must last for three years, and terminate as it began, at the passover at Jerusalem."

There are thus three plain cases in the Old Testament, and one scarcely less clear in the New, in which the year-day system is divinely employed, and we have consequently substantial scriptural grounds on which to base it. And in addition to these presumptions in its favour, and to these scriptural instances of its employment, it must be observed that each of the above-mentioned fourteen prophetic statements of time, which the Protestant system interprets on this year-day scale, affords internal evidence when carefully examined, that it is not intended to be interpreted literally.

1. The leading one—the "time, times, and dividing of a time," is, to begin with, a most peculiar form of expression by which to designate a brief period of three and a half years. "If the short reckoning were the true one, no reason can be given why the times should not be expressed in the most customary form. On the other hand, the year-day theory requires that a shorter term should be merely suggested, in such a way as to hinder us from resting in the typical phrase, as the true meaning. Now such exactly is the term before us. It doubtless suggests to the mind by comparison with other texts, three years and a half. But it is not the usual or literal expression for that period. Twice alone does that interval occur elsewhere (#Luke 6:25, #Jas 5:7), and in both it is expressed by the natural phrase, three years and six months. The same is true in every similar case. Paul abode at Corinth "one year and six months" (#Acts 18:2), David reigned in Hebron "seven years and six months" (#2Sam 2:2). He was with the Philistines "a year and four months" (#1Sam 27:7). The form in which the periods of time are expressed, is thus invariably the same.

And hence though three years and a half are suggested to the mind by this phrase, there is nothing in the words which fixes it to this sense. This has not in truth any more claim to be the literal meaning than one thousand two hundred and sixty years.

2.-But secondly, the fundamental term, a time implies, rather than excludes, the wider sense. The natural series of words of time, consists of a day, a week, a month, and a year. The first three are retained in the prophetic calendar; but the last of them is replaced by this general expression-a time-which takes the lead of all the others. It occurs in the first of these dates, and in two or rather three others on which the rest chiefly depend. Now this substitution could not be without meaning. It leaves the analogy among the different periods unbroken; but at the same time, it sets loose this fundamental period, so as to be at liberty even by the common rules of language, to receive a larger signification.

This argument becomes much stronger, when we consider the actual use of the same term in other passages. It is of frequent recurrence in the Old Testament, and is employed to denote periods of various lengths, and even extending to many years. It meets us first in the narrative of the creation: "Let them (the sun and moon) be for signs and, for seasons," where it is distinguished alike from days and years. It is frequently used to denote the appointed time of all the feasts of the law. (#Lev 23:2, #Lev 23:4, #Lev 23:37, #Lev 23:44; #Num 9:2-3, #Num 9:7, #Num 9:13, #Num 10:10, #Num 15:3.) It is employed with regard to the fall of Pharaoh Hophra, and the restoration of Israel. "Pharaoh hath passed the time appointed" (#Jer 46:17). - "The time to favour Zion, the set time is come" (#Ps 102:13). "The vision (of the coming of Christ) is yet for an appointed time" (#Hab 2). In these and several other passages -an extensive interval is clearly implied: and the fundamental idea is one, which has no respect to the length or shortness of the period, but simply to its fixed and determinate character. It is plain how completely these two marks, that it is at once indefinite, and determinate, make it a suitable term to form the basis of a prophetic chronology, on the year-day system.. The different terms used to denote the same period, are a further proof that it cannot denote three natural years and a half. The same interval occurs seven times over. Twice it is mentioned as ’time, times, and a dividing of a time’; once as ’time, times, and a half’; twice as ’forty and two months’; and twice as ’twelve hundred and sixty days.’, A comparison of these passages will show that they all relate to the same period. Yet the expression is varied in this remarkable manner, and in all these variations is never once expressed by the natural and literal phrase. How can ,we explain this remarkable feature, but by supposing it to indicate a mysterious and hidden sense? The Holy Spirit seems in a manner to exhaust all the phrases by which the interval could be expressed, excluding always that one form, which would be used of course in ordinary writing, and which is used invariably in Scripture on other occasions, to denote the literal period. The variation is most significant if we accept the year-day system, but quite inexplicable on the other view.

Two arguments in favour of the extended view of these dates, may be drawn from the history of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its fulfilment, one connected with the word "times," the other dependent on the typical character of the monarch. Nebuchadnezzar beheld in vision a lofty tree, interpreted to denote the king himself; he heard a watcher, even a Holy one, proclaim a remarkable sentence on the tree, that it should be hewn down and stripped. "Let his heart be changed from a man’s heart, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him, and let seven times pass over him." This sentence on the tree, was fulfilled in the period of the insanity of the king, which though nowhere stated to have lasted seven years, is by general consent allowed to have done so. Now at first sight this seems to afford an argument against the year-day interpretation, for here "seven times" clearly denoted seven literal years; on closer examination, however, it will be found to do the reverse. The expression "time" does not, as we have seen, imply any particular period; any definite season, a day, a week, a month, a year, or a century, would be equally well expressed by it. The conclusion that the king’s insanity lasted seven years, is not based therefore on the force of the word, but on the context and the nature of the case. We cannot suppose that seven days, weeks, or even months, would have sufficed to teach the monarch the great lesson he had to learn and teach to others; the duration of his life excludes the thought that seven centuries, or seven of any longer measure of time, were meant, and all things considered, seven real years, seems the only period that can have been intended. But when the same expression "times" occurs in connection with an empire whose’ duration is 2000 years, every reason which has led us to conclude that in the case of the individual king it meant years of days, now leads us to conclude that in the case of the empire it means years of years. If an insanity of seven weeks would seem an event unworthy of such solemn prediction, or of such a prominent place in the life of an individual, how much more so, an apostasy of three and a half years, in the history of an empire which extends over twenty centuries.

But Nebuchadnezzar was a typical, representative man. Not only was he the golden head of the great fourfold image, but he stands as its representative, as the representative of the long succession of Gentile rulers, who were to succeed him, till the coming of the Son of man. The two characteristic marks of these Gentile rulers have been idolatry and persecution of God’s saints; these two things are represented as characterizing Nebuchadnezzar. His image making, and image worshipping, typified the idolatry (Pagan and Papal), which has been so indelibly stamped on all the four great empires; his "burning fiery furnace" for the faithful witnesses, typified the persecution which has been inflicted on the people of God, by each of the four great ruling empires in turn, especially by the modern spiritual Babylon. These two characters of idolatrous debasement and fierce cruelty, are those which render the symbol of wild beasts, suitable to represent these empires; and thus Nebuchadnezzar too is presented as a beast; his degradation to a bestial condition, typified the moral degradation of the Gentile kingdoms, through idolatry, pride, and self-exaltation; his restoration to reason, prefigured the yet future day when the empires of earth shall own that "the heavens do rule." Now, over this typical man, passed a period of insanity, which was doubtless equally typical; and which is the only clue we have to the appointed duration of the "times of the Gentiles," for neither in connection with the fourfold image, or with the four wild beasts, have we any hint of the length of this interval.

But the image, the king himself, and the wild beasts, are three types of one and the same thing under different aspects; and thus the duration of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity becomes typical of the duration of the times of the Gentiles, the times during which supreme power in the earth, is by God committed to Gentile rulers, instead of to the seed of David. Now these "times" have already lasted more than 2400 years since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and thus we see that the seven years of days, during which the king was insane, were intended to prefigure seven years of years (2520 years) during which the moral and spiritual degradation and debasement of the kingdoms of this world, dating from himself are destined to endure. Now the oft-repeated interval of "time times and a half" "forty-two months," "1260 days," all refer to the second half of this period,; and must therefore be fulfilled on the same scale as the whole period. They are part; not of the type, but of the antitype, and they must be interpreted not on the scale of the type, but on the scale of the antitype, that is on the scale of a day for a year.

This inference is strengthened by one further remark. If the whole interval from Nebuchadnezzar’s reign be divided into two equal portions, . . . the latter half falls exclusively within the times of the fourth or Roman empire, and soon after the time when its division into separate kingdoms was first completed. This is a pointed coincidence with the broader features of the prophecy, for in the vision also the "time times and a half" are all included in the period which follows after the ten horns have arisen.

The vision of Daniel viii. gives the prophetic date of two thousand three hundred days as the duration of the restored daily sacrifice, and of the subsequent desolations.

Now if we take this literally, it makes a period of between six and seven years, analogous to nothing else in Scripture, and incomprehensible in connection with the question to which it is an answer. Besides, if this were the time intended it would have been far more natural to have described it in years than in days. No motive of concealment could exist, to require a veil of mystery; nor indeed is any veil of mystery used, for it is a simple question of arithmetical reduction to resolve these days into years. That it is not to be taken literally, however, is proved by the constant usage of Scripture. Not a passage can be found in the Bible in which a period exceeding a yeas is stated in days-and only two, in which a period exceeding two months is so mentioned (except of course those in which these symbolic dates occur).

But the word days is not used; the real form of the expression indicates more mystery, and suggests on critical grounds, the idea that no unit of time is given at all, and, that consequently "days" is no more literal than years. "Unto evenings and mornings, or unto evening morning, two thousand three hundred." That a long period is intended appears, from the angel’s words, "shut up the vision, for it shall be for many days." Now six or seven years is but a brief period in our estimation, how much less in an angel’s? Gabriel would not thus have spoken of so short an interval. But if the period intended were twenty-three centuries, his words have an appropriate dignity. If we interpret this date on the year-day principle, it reaches from the time of Daniel to the future restoration of Israel, and is a clear and satisfactory answer to the double question.* It marks the duration of the restored daily sacrifice, and of the subsequent desolation; the five centuries between Cyrus and Titus during which Jewish sacrifices were daily offered in the restored temple being its first portion; while the second and longer portion comprehends the final destruction of the city and temple, the treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles, and the dispersion of her people; and stretches onward to the future advent when the sanctuary shall be finally cleansed. The period being so long, and the greater part of it being occupied by this gospel dispensation, its length is purposely veiled, under an enigmatical yet deeply significant form of expression, and was evidently not intended to be understood at first. "Shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days." It included a declaration of the long duration of that economy of grace to the Gentiles, whose occurrence at all, was for five hundred years afterwards, a hidden mystery. "The mystery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men . . . that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gospel." Here is a reason for the enigmatical form of the chronological announcement; they who take it literally and refer it to a distant future, make a mystery without a meaning.

"The strangeness of the expression being once proved, our choice lies between a mystery which means nothing, and a mystery which has a plain and definite cause in God’s providence, and a key not less plain and definite, and three times repeated in God’s holy word. Who would hesitate which alternative to choose?"

It is the same with three dates given in #Dan 12; they form one group, the last two being merely extensions of the great period "time, times, and a half;" and they must of course be interpreted on the same principle. The interval covered by this last prophecy (which begins with chapter xi.), clearly extends from the time then present, to the resurrection; it commences with, "Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia," and reaches on in unbroken sequence, to that time when "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." A solemn importance is thrown around the announcement of the times, "I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." Now it seems incongruous to suppose that this singularly impressive oath applies to a brief period, not one six-hundredth part of the whole interval revealed.

We turn now to the book of Revelation, to discover whether its testimony confirms the evidence afforded by the prophecies of Daniel, that the principle on which these sacred dates are to be interpreted, is that of a year for a day.

As to the ten days’ persecution of the church at Smyrna, a literal fulfilment is unknown to history, though this is of course no proof that it did not take place. But if Smyrna be only one phase; moral and chronological, of the whole Christian Church, that of the closing days of Paganism, prior to the entrance of gross corruption, as seems probable, the ten years of Diocletian’s last great persecution, would evidently be meant by the expression. The passage does not however tell strongly either way, though it is almost absurd to sup that persecution of ten literal days would be made a subject of prophetic revelation at all.

In the case of the locust woe (#Rev 9:5), the miniature symbol again demands a miniature period, and the one selected is that of the ordinary ravages of locusts, but it evidently requires the year-day system to make it commensurate with the events predicted to take place during its course. In the case of the Euphratean horsemen, the very peculiarity of the phrase (#Rev 9:15) suggests as before a mystic meaning. Why, if the period intended were literal, should an hour be mentioned at all? and why should the ordinary way of mentioning the larger period first, be completely reversed? But an improved reading (given by Matthiei and found in seven or eight of the best manuscripts) would give the words thus, "the angels prepared for that hour and that day, were loosed both a month and a year," i.e., 390 days. Now this was the exact period during which Ezekiel was commanded to lie on his side , to represent the 390 years of the judgment of Israel.. Mr Birks truly remarks, "this has not the air of a casual resemblance it is rather an express mark supplied to us by the Holy Spirit, and directing us to the true key by which to interpret these prophetic periods." The 390 years was in each case marked as one of stubborn unrepenting idolatry, closed by decisive overthrow and judgment, and the period occurs nowhere else in Scripture.

The forty-two months of the treading down of the holy city (#Rev 11:2), if taken literally, seems strangely unmeaning. Jerusalem has already been trodden down of the Gentiles 1800 years, and it will, as we know from our Lord’s own words, continue to be so till the close of the times of the Gentiles. In what sense can this period be defined by "forty and two months"? And why if the Period designed, were really as brief a one, as that in which the heavens were shut up by Elias (alluded to in the passage), why was not the same expression used to designate it, "three years and six months"?

That the "three days and a half" during which the witnesses lie unburied (#Rev 11:9) is symbolic, is proved by the fact that "we have about thirty passages in Scripture where three days are mentioned to define an interval, and four where four days occur; but nowhere else is the fraction of a day introduced into such a measurement of time. . . . If the Holy Spirit had intended natural days only, would He have used a preciseness in the statement of time, which is nowhere else employed in nearly forty examples, not even in that most important of all facts, the resurrection of our Lord "?

The previous remarks as to the congruity of miniature dates with miniature symbols, and as to the mystery indicated by the unusual phraseology, apply equally to the two chronological periods in Rev. xii. The sun-clad star-crowned woman is evidently a symbol of the true or spiritual Israel, and her flight into the wilderness, where she is nourished for x 260 days, of some period of the church’s history. Now the natural Israel of old fled also from the persecution of a tyrant king, into the wilderness, where they were nourished with bread from heaven, and water from the rock; and we know their’ wilderness history to have been typical to the highest degree. There is not a point in the type, for which we cannot perceive a corresponding antitype, and it is natural to expect some analogy in the periods of the two sojourns in the wilderness. Now the duration of Israel’s wanderings in the desert, was unquestionably fixed and announced by God, on the year-day principle; "after the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years." Can we escape the conviction that the same principle is to be applied to the 1260 days here specified, as marking the abode of the antitypical Israel in the wilderness?

The period of the domination of "the beast" is fixed (#Rev 13:5) as "forty and two months." This is the last of the mystic dates we have to consider. It must be compared with the explanation (#Rev 17:9-11):-" The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings ; five have fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet .come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space ; and the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." The argument in favour of the year-day interpretation yielded by this passage is of the following character :-Prior to the days of John, five forms of government had succeeded each other in Rome. These were the five fallen heads; a sixth was then in being, a seventh was to follow, and occupy a short space, and the beast who was to continue forty and two months was to be the eighth. Thus the whole interval from AD. 96, the date of the Apocalypse, to the still future destruction of the beast, is divided into three parts,-the remainder of the sixth head, the "short space" of the seventh, and the forty-two months of the eighth head, or "the beast."

Now since the first is only a remainder, and the second expressly predicted as short, we should naturally expect the third to be the longest in duration. The whole interval is already nearly 1800 years: how, then, is it possible to suppose this third to be only three years and a half? The second must, of course, in that case be still less, and the fractional first part would have to be extended over 1770 years! On the year-day principle all is harmonious: the forty-two months of the beast occupy 260 years out of the whole period, leaving 516 years to be divided between the fraction of the sixth, and the "short space" of the seventh head.

Mr. Birks thus sums up his masterly argument, of which the foregoing is a mere outline :-" The year-day theory rests on a surprising combination of scriptural arguments, some of which, it is true, are indirect, and some doubtful; but the great majority are full, clear, and unambiguous. First of all there are four or five distinct presumptions of a general kind, that the dates have some secret meaning. There are, then, three plain and certain, and one more disputable passage, which supply an express rule of interpretation, and a key at once simple and comprehensive, the direct appointment of God Himself When we further proceed to examine the passages in detail, we find that every one, without exception, yields some peculiar argument, in support of this same view; and several of them furnish us with two or three distinct proofs. And besides all these internal evidences for the system, it is found to have a basis in the heavenly revolutions themselves, and to be confirmed by its manifest harmony with the most exact elements of natural science."

Thus we have shown,

1. THAT THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HEBREW BIBLE IS OUR ONLY RELIABLE GUIDE, AS TO THE PERIODS OF REMOTE ANTIQUITY; and that the two gaps which occur in it, between the death of Moses, and the accession of Saul, have necessarily very brief limits, and cannot affect the question of the age of the world, to a greater extent than about fifty or sixty years.

2. And we have proved, as far as the point admits of proof

THAT THE PERIODS OF SYMBOLIC CHRONOLOGICAL PROPHECY, ARE TO BE INTERPRETED ON THE YEAR-DAY SYSTEM.

We are consequently in a position to consider the periodicity of history as a whole, taking into account the times foretold as in their day future, by Daniel and John, as well as those recorded as past, by other holy men of old.

We now proceed to examine these periods, to trace their mutual relations, and their relations to other series of periods, and to show the Divine plan and system which underlies them, connecting them on the one hand with the periods of vital phenomena, and on the other with those of the whole magnificent solar system.

In pursuing this investigation, it must be borne in mind that the great end of all human history, like the great end of the existence of every human being, is a moral one. Existence to the entire race, like life to each individual, is a state of probation and education. The great objects of God, in his dealings with man from age to age, seem to have been, to reveal to him and to the universe, his true character and condition as a fallen being; while at the same time unveiling his own glorious, righteous, and gracious attributes, making known his purposes, and bringing forth his salvation.

Ignore this moral purpose of God, and human history becomes inexplicable, its chronology reducible to no system, and its study comparatively profitless and vain. Recognise it, and the whole outline and movement of the great drama, are at once intelligible, the plan underlying its periods is clear, and its study becomes fraught with lessons of the deepest and most solemn importance.

The true plan of history can therefore be found only in the Bible. The birth of humanity, its growth and maturity, its fall and its restoration, are all to be best traced in the Holy Word of God; and the key to its chronology and periodicity is also here. In vain do those who neglect the scriptures seek to understand aright, either man’s past or his future.

The main divisions of history which we shall now proceed to present, will be found therefore to have a character more moral and dispensational, than political. Many of the greatest political events in the world’s history will have to pass under our review, but we shall regard them as occupying a place of subordinate, and not of paramount importance. The central line, to which all political events have more or less reference, will be seen to be THE HISTORY OF THE TYPICAL AND OF THE ANTITYPICAL ISRAELS,-THE JEWISH NATION AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Bible history and prophecy range themselves around these, just as Bible geography ranges itself around Jerusalem and the Holy Land; and the reason is obvious.

The natural and spiritual seed of Abraham are the line of promise, the peculiar people of God, in and through whom alone, mankind is to be saved and blessed. "In thee, and in thy seed, shall all nations of the earth be blessed."

As in each of the realms into which we have already glanced, so here in the realm of history, we shall find everything adapted to the great Divine septiform system. In a marvellous, hidden, and intricate manner, THE WEEK measures the periods of history, both great and small. Patient and accurate attention to the statements of Scripture is needful in order to trace out the arrangement of its periods, for it is purposely disguised and concealed, so as to elude the observation of the - superficial reader. A comprehension of the biblical system of times and seasons, is calculated to fill the mind with awe and admiration, and to draw forth fresh worship of the omniscient God, who orders all things after the counsel of his own will, and knows the end, from the beginning.

There is, in the various particulars we shall have to pass in review, a cumulative force; peculiarities observed in a few periods, or even in many, would be insufficient to prove the existence of plan and system, but when a vast multitude of events, and innumerable periods of the most various and apparently incongruous dimensions, ranging in duration from hours to millenaries, are found to fall into order and harmony, at the touch of a single wand, on the application of a single principle, then it will surely be clear to a candid mind, that history has been intentionally ordered on that principle; and when, further, that principle is seen to be the same that regulates the phenomena of the organic and inorganic creations, and the same that is consistently adopted in Holy Scripture, the conclusion is as inevitable, as it is elevating and sanctifying, that it is the Almighty Maker of all worlds, the sole Lord and Giver of life, the Author of the sacred volume, who so orders it, who is the Ruler of all events, the Disposer of all times and seasons. Our times are in his hands, and the times of all earthly empires, and kingdoms, and dynasties; and in due time his own kingdom shall overthrow all other dominion, and stand for ever. "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it, for it shall surely come, it shall not tarry."

"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up his deep designs, And works his sovereign will.

His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will he the flower."

The grand primary division of all human history, whether viewed from the moral, or from the chronological stand-point, is into three main, comprehensive, and long-enduring dispensations.

Scripture presents us with,- I. THE PATRIARCHAL AGE,

II. THE JEWISH DISPENSATION, and

III. THE "TIMES OF THE GENTILES," and with these great periods only; prior to the "Times of the Restitution of all things," or the Millennial Age.

The limits of the first or Patriarchal Age, are defined by the Apostle Paul in the 5th of Romans; "death reigned from Adam to Moses."

The second, or Jewish Dispensation, dating from the Divine act of dividing the nations of the earth, and assigning a preeminence and a sacred character to the family of Shem, included the entire history of the Jewish people and their fathers, and evidences of benevolent design, spoke to man of the wisdom, power, and goodness of his Creator.

But man had no ears to hear its silent testimony, no eye to take in its expressive teachings, no heart to feel its sweet and melting influences. He saw indeed the sun, moon, and stars, he beheld them with admiration and awe, but instead of look-’ing through nature up to nature’s God, he worshipped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed for ever. He did not like to retain God in his knowledge; he did not glorify Him as God; he was not thankful; he did not understand, as he should have done, the nature and character of the invisible Creator, from "the things which are made ;" he became vain, dark, foolish, utterly corrupt, and filled with a reprobate mind. In all this he was without excuse, for not only was nature a revelation of "eternal power and Godhead," which should have rendered impossible to intelligent beings, the degrading sin of idolatry, but God had added to this outward witness, an inward witness to Himself and his will, in the voice of conscience. Man had been made a law to himself; and left to follow or transgress the law thus written by the’ finger of God on the tables of his heart. The moral law within and the material universe without, were the double testimony to duty and to God, granted during the patriarchal age. In spite of both, men universally became idolaters; worshippers, not only of the brightest and grandest natural objects, such as the heavenly bodies, but of the lowest and most degraded, such as birds and beasts and creeping things, stocks and stones and Inanimate images. A reflex degradation was one punishment of this great sin; the idolater was given up by God to the lowest and vilest immorality. The heathen of our own day, the savage cannibals of the South Sea Islands, the ferocious fetish worshippers of Ashantee, the degraded aborigines of Australia, are specimens of the depth of moral depravity to which man may sink, when left to his own reading of the revelation afforded by nature.

Corruption and violence were the characteristics of the central portion of the patriarchal age, which closed with the flood. Idolatry was the great sin of its final third, which extended from the Deluge to the Exodus.

Egypt, the first mighty kingdom of antiquity, was the home and hot-bed of idolatry. The land was full of idol temples and idol monuments; huge monsters in human form, men and beasts, and reptiles, and even insects and onions, were adored as deities, and God was utterly forgotten and ignored. When at last his Divine claims came into conflict with the will of man, human crime, as represented by that first kingdom, culminated in the cruel oppression of Israel, and haughty defiance of Jehovah. The proud monarch that bowed before loathsome reptiles, refused to bow before the King of kings. God dishonouring idolatry, was mingled with God-defying audacity and rebellion; and judgment overtook the guilty: the ten plagues of Egypt were sent in sore and sad succession, ending with death-the death of the first-born, and the destruction of Pharaoh and all his hosts in the Red Sea..

Then followed THE DISPENSATION OF LAW. Man was no longer left to conscience and the light of nature. God unfolded to him far more of his holy character and will, by means of the law promulgated from Sinai, while his purposes of mercy were darkly foreshadowed in the ceremonial worship which He thence enjoined on Israel. It was a new and advanced revelation. Amid thunders and darkness and thick clouds, God descended in the presence of the assembled thousands of his chosen people. The mountain smoked and burned with fire, while lightnings uplit the lurid spectacle with a terrific glare.

A double law-moral and ceremonial-was given. Ten commandments were the principal embodiment of the former, while the establishment of the Tabernacle, the priesthood, and the Jewish worship, were the leading elements of the latter. The first was to convince of sin, the second to foreshadow its remedy. "The law entered that the offence might abound," and its ceremonies were "a shadow of good things to come."

With wonderful clearness and fulness the law revealed the holiness of God, his mercy, and his justice. He passed by and proclaimed Himself "the LORD, the LORD Gon, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation." The whole Jewish dispensation was one long display of these Divine attributes, and afforded a revelation of God, deeper by far than that latent in nature. It had also the effect of testing man by a more searching probation, and revealing with additional clearness his true character. Sin became more evident in the light of the laws enacted against it: "sin by the commandment became exceeding sinful." In the Jew, man stands forth, not merely as a sinner, but as deliberate and persistent rebel against God, breaking every law imposed on him, abusing every privilege granted to him, and despising every blessing bestowed.

Before they had time to receive, in its written form, the law which had been orally delivered to them, Israel had violated its first great and fundamental command, "Thou shalt have no other Gods but me," and all their subsequent career was in harmony with this beginning.

They sinned, and committed iniquity, they understood not God’s wonders nor remembered his mercies, they provoked Him and forgot his works, they waited not for his counsel but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert; they envied Moses and Aaron; they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass; they forgat God their Saviour and despised the pleasant land; they murmured in their tents and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord; they joined themselves to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead; they provoked God to anger with their inventions; they did not destroy, as commanded, the idolatrous nations of Canaan, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works; they served their idols and sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils; they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; they were defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions, till the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people, and He abhorred his own inheritance. Many times did He deliver them, but they provoked Him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity. They persecuted every prophet that was sent to them, and after every deliverance, fell lower than before, into all manner of sin and evil.

At last, long threatened judgment fell, and captivity after captivity came upon the tribes of Israel; Pul and Sennacherib invaded their land, Shalmanezer and Esarhaddon, kings of Assyria, conquered and enslaved the ten tribes,’and Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and carried Judah away captive to Babylon. The city that was full of people and esteemed "princess among the provinces," sat solitary and became tributary, the ways of Zion mourned, and her gates were desolate; her beauty departed from Jerusalem, and she came down wonderfully; God covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down the beauty of Israel; He cast off his altar, and abhorred his sanctuary, gave his people into the hand of the enemy, and scattered their princes among the Gentiles. "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold," were "esteemed as earthen pitchers "-the adversary took possession of the gates of Jerusalem. The Lamentations of Jeremiah tell how deeply the chastisement was felt; the confessions of Daniel show what searchings of heart and what contrition it created.

But the restoration of Israel under Ezra and Nehemiah, and their prolonged probation, in their land, proved that the awful lesson had been all in vain. Prophet after prophet had announced to them the advent of Messiah the Prince. In due time HE came. God was manifest in the flesh. He came unto his own,-to this people whom for over two thousand years He had been preparing to receive Him; but "his own received Him not." They" despised and rejected Him;" they hated Him because He testified of them that their deeds were evil; they blasphemed the Son of God, accusing Him of deriving his power from the Prince of Devils; they took counsel together to slay the Holy and the Just; they bore false witness against Him to put Him to death; they became his betrayers and murderers; they cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him," and by their wicked hands, He was crucified and slain.

And when the still ’lingering longsuffering of God, sent them one more chance of repentance, and the risen Saviour told his apostles that remission of sins through his name, was to be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, when the Holy Ghost in Peter and in Stephen pleaded still with Israel to repent and be converted, they filled up the measure of their iniquities by rejecting this final offer of mercy. They slew Stephen, and persecuted the Church. "The Jews both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway, for wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" (#1Th 2:15-16).

A few years elapsed, after those words were written, and then that wrath was poured out. Jerusalem fell, and great was the fall thereof! Signal, terrible and unparalleled was the Jewish war, ending with the siege and capture of Jerusalem by Titus. It needs a pen dipped in fire and in blood to write the story in its true colours! The sufferings and miseries that overtook the Jewish nation in that age, are all but indescribable, the very record of them is appalling. One million one hundred thousand Jewish lives were sacrificed in the siege and capture of Jerusalem alone; streams of human blood extinguished the blazing fires that destroyed the houses of the city, and heaps of the unburied corpses of those who had died of starvation during the siege, hid from the Roman soldiers the immense treasures of the temple. From April 14th, when the siege began, to July 1st,-115,880 bodies were buried at the public expense, or thrown from the walls, not including those interred by their friends. Some said that 600,000 of the poorer people had perished of want; women cooked and ate their own children, "the maimed and defenceless people were slain in thousands"; when the temple at last fell, "they lay heaped like sacrifices round the altar, and the steps of the temple ran with streams of blood, which washed down the bodies that lay about." "The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from without, . . .it was indiscriminate carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers.

The treasuries, with their wealth of money, jewels, and costly robes, were totally destroyed. . .
. The value of the plunder obtained was so great, that gold fell in Syria to half its former value."

Milman, after describing the long and awful siege, and the multiplied suffering of the Jews, says, "Thus fell, and for ever, the metropolis of the Jewish State. Other cities have risen on the ruins of Jerusalem, and succeeded as it were to the inalienable inheritance of perpetual siege, oppression, and ruin. Jerusalem might almost seem to be a place under a peculiar curse; it has probably seen a far greater portion of human misery than any other spot upon the earth."

After its fall, "the markets of the Roman Empire were glutted with Jewish slaves; the amphitheatres were crowded with these miserable people, who were forced to slay each other, not singly but in troops, or else fall in rapid succession, glad to escape the tyranny of their masters by the expeditious cruelty of the wild beasts. And in the unwholesome mines hundreds were doomed to toil for wealth not to be their own." "The political existence of the Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of the states or kingdoms of the world. Judea was sentenced to be portioned out to strangers, the capital was destroyed, the temple demolished, the high priesthood buried in its ruins, and the royal race extinct."

Titus had destroyed the temple and city of the Jews, and slaughtered and captured and sold into slavery millions of the people. About seventy years later, the Jews had sufficiently recovered from this crushing blow, to rise afresh in revolt against the Roman power, and then Adrian completed the work of their dispersion among all nations of the earth. He made the whole country of Palestine a desolation, expelled all Its remaining Jewish inhabitants, forbade the Jews on pain of death even to approach via Capitolina, the Roman city erected on the site of Jerusalem; he slaughtered 580,000 Jews in a murderous war which lasted three years and a half, and sold thousands of prisoners, at the lowest prices, into slavery. The rest took refuge in foreign lands, and Palestine has never since been inhabited by the children of Israel.

Eighteen centuries have elapsed, since that fearful judgment of fire and blood, attested the righteous "severity" of God against those who had despised his "goodness." It was but the beginning of the "indignation" against the Jewish people. Ever since they have been scattered among the Gentiles, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, denizens everywhere, citizens nowhere; oppressed and persecuted in most countries, banished at times in turn from each; treated with indignity, injustice, and ’cruelty, they yet survive, a separate and peculiar people; a nation without a land, while their land lies desolate, without a people; and their city, as Christ foretold it would be, is trodden down of the Gentiles, till "the times of the Gentiles" shall be fulfilled.

THE THIRD DISPENSATION, "the times of the Gentiles," brought a revelation of God, fuller, truer, more glorious by far, than any that had preceded it. "God was manifest in the flesh," men saw, and heard, and spoke with, incarnate Deity. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." ” God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." "No man bath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He bath declared Him." Not the power and wisdom only, not the righteousness and justice only, but the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man, appeared, in the life and death of Jesus Christ our Lord. God was proved to be a gracious Redeemer, as well as a holy Lawgiver, and an Almighty Creator. The shadows of the Law were replaced by the realities of the Gospel, the New Testament was added to the Old, its key and its completion; the great salvation so long foreshadowed, was accomplished and brought nigh to man. God had provided Himself a Lamb to take away the sins of the world, and that Lamb, his own glorious Son, the Lord of all I "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

What a flood of light fell upon the world in the teachings of Christ and his apostles I The gift of the Holy Ghost followed on the ascension of the risen Saviour; the Christian Church was founded, and gathered, from Jew and Gentile alike, a vast multitude into its bosom. In spite of persecution it grew and multiplied, for God was with his people; they endured and conquered, winning the world to their creed. Paganism fell. The mighty Roman Empire shut up its idol temples, sheathed its persecuting sword, and sat down as a disciple at the feet of Christ and his apostles.

Index I. 1 2 3 II. 1 2