Contents

Introduction

Chart 3

Chart 2

Chart 1

Appendix / Chart 4

[note from the editor the sequence in which the numbers are revealed in the book is in reverse order.]

[It is strongly suggested that the reader print out the full page charts in order to view them--you may have these reproduced as Bible inserts - ed]

The Book Unsealed
INTRODUCTION

I SUPPOSE that the name of Daniel is familiar to you all. He is styled in Scripture "a man greatly beloved" of the God of heaven and earth. He was of the seed royal of Israel. He lived at the time of the overthrow of the Commonwealth of Judah, by Nebuchadnezzar; on the occurrence of which event, he, together with many other Jews - princes of the nation - was carried captive, a prisoner of war, to Babylon. Arrived in Babylon, he was lost in the undistinguished crowd of prisoners; but God soon manifested a purpose to distinguish him, and to make him the medium of some very important communications for the instruction of that generation, and all subsequent generations, with reference to the purposes of the Deity, and the train of events by which, through human agency, He should develop those purposes.

What raised Daniel from the position of a humble captive to that of the second man in the greatest empire on earth, was the possession of the wisdom and knowledge of the Deity. Contemporary with Daniel was a man named Nebuchadnezzar, who was the Napoleon I. of his day. He was the greatest conqueror of his time. He was the founder of a dominion which comprehended within its jurisdiction the whole civilised population of the world. The civilised population of the world at that time was confined to the east. The western and northern parts of the earth were left out of account, as inhabited by wild men, among whom were the ancestors of the present population of the British Isles.

The Jewish Commonwealth being overthrown, the temple destroyed, the city of Jerusalem laid in ruins, its monarch deposed, its government broken up, its priesthood scattered, Israel was without a country, without a state, without a religion. All its ecclesiastical relations were scattered to the winds. The harp of Israel hung upon the willows by the rivers of Babylon. In this state of things, God, in His wisdom, chose to make use of Daniel, together with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his fellow captives, to manifest His wisdom and His power to the Pagan world. In order to

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do this in His own way, Nebuchadnezzar was acted upon while upon his bed, contemplating the magnitude of his conquests, and reflecting upon what would be the possible fate of his dominion in later times (Dan. 2:29). God takes the man in the pre-disposed current of his thoughts, and when he falls asleep, impresses a dream upon his sensorium. That dream made a great impression on the king's mind; but while the impression remained, he entirely forgot what the dream consisted of. On awaking, he was anxious to know the dream, and the interpretation of it, and called together his wise men -- the astrologers, soothsayers, Chaldeans, and magicians -- the lights, so to speak, of Chaldean society in Babylon. He told them he had had a dream, but that he had forgotten what the dream was, and required of them that they should tell him the dream and the interpretation. The wise men answered that it was the most unreasonable request that had ever been made by a king or anyone else on earth. They said, "If the king will only tell us what the dream was that he saw, we will then tell him the interpretation of it." "Oh, yes; I understand," said he, in effect, "you want to gain the time: you think that the times will change, and that in the change of time, the dream will come to my recollection, and then you will fabricate any sort of interpretation you please! There is but one decree for you: if you don't tell me that which I have forgotten, and give the interpretation of it, you shall all of you be cut in pieces, with your families, and your houses made a dunghill." That was a terrible strait to be in. Well, they could not do it; they had to give it up. They remonstrated with the king, but it was no use. He was firm to his purpose, and the decree went forth that they should all be slain.

Now, this decree affected Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the four Jewish captives, because they had all, by a process peculiar to the Chaldeans, during three years, been prepared to stand before the king among the wise men of his estate. When Daniel heard it, he said to the captain of the king's guard, "Why is the decree so hasty? If the king will only give time, I will inform him about this matter; for," said he, "there is a God in heaven -- the God of Israel -- that revealeth secrets, and we will enquire of Him, and I doubt not, that for the sake of those affected, He will communicate the king's matter." This caused a delay in the execution of the decree, and Daniel and his companions proceeded to offer up a prayer to the Revealer of secrets, that He would grant them a knowledge of the king's

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matter. "Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night-vision." Armed with this revelation from God Himself, concerning what He had impressed upon the mind of Nebuchadnezzar, he went before the king, and told him that what he had seen was a representation from God of what should come to pass hereafter. "There is a God in heaven," said Daniel to the king, "that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days."

Now it is necessary to bear this in mind -- that the whole representation that had been impressed in dream upon the mind of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel - was to illustrate a great purpose to be developed in what is termed "the latter days." I may here remark that there are two periods - one called "the last days" and the other called "the latter days." The last days passed away 1800 years ago. They are thus referred to in Heb. 1:1: "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 a Son." They are again referred to thus in the same epistle - (Heb. 9:26) - "Once in THE END OF THE WORLD hath he (Jesus) appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." So that you perceive there was a certain world in existence at the time when Jesus was crucified. He was crucified in the end of that world, and not in the end of the world we are now living in. The end of the world in which Jesus was crucified, is what Paul terms "the last days," in the first verse quoted. These were the last days of the world constituted by the law of Moses - a world that began when God brought Israel out of Egypt, and constituted them a kingdom.

That kingdom continued in existence until it was subverted by the Chaldeans. In Chart 3 it is represented by the pink margin at the left end of the chart. It is represented as belonging to the past, that is, the times antecedent to, or before Nebuchadnezzar's reign - before the Chaldean overthrow of the city and country. It is described on the chart as "the kingdom of God as established under the Mosaic law, constituting the old Mosaic heavens and earth." The kingdom continued in a modified form, till the days of the apostles; and at the time Paul wrote his epistle to the Hebrews, he described it as "waxed old and ready to vanish away" (Heb. 8:13). Peter, in his second epistle, chapter 3, gives a description of the passing away of the Mosaic heavens and earth. The whole system disappeared with a tumult and great noise, before the fervency of God's wrath and

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indignation against the rebels of Israel. This was the catastrophe of the last days.

But Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that what he saw in his dream was the representation of a great catastrophe to be manifested, not in the last days, but in "the latter days." Now, we are particularly interested in that catastrophe, for it has reference to our own time. "The latter days" is a phrase used in Scripture to indicate the time of the end. They are the last few years of the times of the Gentiles, or period in which we are now living, of which a few years yet remain, during which the existing governments of the world will continue in the hands of the kings and rulers that now possess them.

What Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream was an image in human form - a man - with head, breast, arms, body, legs, feet and toes, made of different kinds of metal, in order to represent the different dynasties that were to obtain in connection with human government as a whole. The head was of gold; the breast and arms of silver; its body and thighs of brass; its legs from the knee downwards, were iron, and its feet part iron and part clay. This was what Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel both saw - an immense metallic human figure, of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay

Chart No. 3

These metals are represented by these different squares of colour in the body of CHART No. 3, extending from the pink border on the extreme left. The colours you will perceive, approximate as nearly as possible to the colours of the metals themselves.

The image, however, was not all that the king Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream; for while he contemplated this image, which no doubt was of immense height - (for he afterwards set up a similar image on the plains of Dura, 90 feet high) - he saw a stone poised in the air (not held by human hands), by the side of the image. While he looked, the stone acquired motion, and descending, struck the image - not upon the head, nor upon the breast, nor upon the body, nor upon the thighs, nor upon the legs, but on the feet and toes. It is important to remember this, when we come to consider the meaning of the vision. We all know what would be the effect if a stone were to strike a marble statue on the pedestal, with sufficient force to break it: the support of the statue would be fractured, and the statue itself would fall to the ground, and be shattered into fragments. This was what Nebuchadnezzar witnessed. The stone smashed the feet, and the whole fabric came tumbling down, and lay scattered in ruins on the ground.

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But he saw more than this, for while he was looking at the shattered image, he perceived the stone increase in size, until it attained the magnitude of a mountain, filling the whole earth.

Such was the dream which all the king's wise men could not bring up before his mind, but which Daniel, by the revelation of the God of heaven, was enabled to revive before him. But what was the interpretation of it? Daniel was able to make this known also. He told Nebuchadnezzar that the head of gold represented his own government - his own dynasty - his own power and majesty, whereby he had been able to bring into subjection all the civilised people of the earth. Hence, therefore, the head of gold is identical with this yellow square to the left of the chart (No. 3), marked with the inscription - "the Babylonian Empire," which dates from B.C. 612, when Nebuchadnezzar overthrew God's kingdom - destroyed God's people, and took the survivors captive to Babylon. This event commences that long-prevailing order of things called "the kingdom of men," as distinguished from the kingdom of God, which existed in the land of Israel prior to the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar. That order of things will continue till the appearing of Jesus to establish the kingdom of God, in the restoring of the kingdom to Israel, as represented by the perpendicular belt of pink colour to the right of the chart, which you will see is inscribed with the words: "The kingdom of God or the kingdom of Israel re-established as the new or millennial heavens and earth."

The long interval between the kingdom of God, as it was under the Mosaic constitution of things, and the kingdom of God as it will be under Christ, is filled up by the kingdoms of men. These are all founded by the sword: they are all in the hands of sinners; they are all of them governed upon the principles of diabolism. Nevertheless, they are under divine supervision. The fact that order continues in the world - that anarchy does not prevail - that the world is in such a state that decent men can live in it, goes to show the truth of the lesson taught to Nebuchadnezzar - that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men - setting up kings and casting them down, and setting up over them the basest of men, when they answer His purpose better than the noblest of mankind.

A certain nobleman had a son who was going to travel among the courts of Europe, and before he started, he told him that he would be surprised to find by how little wisdom the world was ruled: and this is the truth. If the government

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of the world were left to what they call "wisdom," anarchy would soon set in, and the whole world become a tumultuous pandemonium - a "hell upon earth." The fact that there is so little wisdom among mankind, and so much order in the world, goes to prove that God rules among the kingdoms of men, has a certain purpose to accomplish, and men know not what that purpose is. Those who have the government of the world in their hands seek to establish their own policy. If they were to establish their policy uncontrolled by God, God's purpose would be subverted and perverted. But He over-rules them; for we see things tending to the development of a certain declared purpose, and as mankind are the agents employed in the development of the events that are to lead to that crisis, and are profoundly ignorant of what that crisis is, it follows that God is making use of them, and shaping their rebellious policy to the accomplishment of what He has determined.

You will understand then, that the kingdom of God as it was under the Mosaic constitution of things, and the kingdom of God as it is to be hereafter under the millennial constitution of things, when the law shall go forth from Zion - is divided, one period from the other, by this long dreary period in which the destinies of mankind have been visibly or apparently, but not really, under the direction and supervision of mere mortal sinners.

Nebuchadnezzar was told that after his dynasty (represented by the head of gold), should pass away, it would be succeeded by another inferior to his, as silver is inferior to gold. This second dynasty of the kingdom of men, was represented by the breast and arms of silver, and answers to the light blue square in the chart to the right of the Babylonian yellow. The name of the dominion or dynasty represented by it, you will see inserted above it: "THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE." In the year B.C. 542, the Babylonian Empire was transferred from the family of Nebuchadnezzar to the family of Cyrus: thus the breast and arms of silver were historically illustrated.

The belly and thighs of brass, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, represented the (third) kingdom that was to arise after the silver dominion had passed away. Brass was selected to represent the third kingdom, because the people who constituted that kingdom selected brass as their representative metal. Hence you read in history of the brazen-coated Greeks. The brazen part of the image represents the Macedonian or Grecian dynasty which was caused to supersede the Medo-Persian empire

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by the conquests of Alexander the Great, in B.C. 334. The silver empire came to an end with the overthrow of the last Persian monarch, Darius, after having continued 200 years. The brazen element of the image has its counterpart in the chart before you in the brass-coloured square to the right of the silver-blue of the Medo-Persian Empire.

Daniel told the king that after the brazen would come the iron phase of the kingdom of men. The iron was to represent a power stronger than any that had preceded it. Hence, Daniel says that as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all these (the preceding metals), so would the fourth kingdom break in pieces and subdue all others. The iron portion of the image consisted of legs of iron, and feet that were part iron and part clay. Now, as you know, iron or clay are not in their nature cohesive. They will not mix together so as to form a solid substance. Hence, their mixture in the feet of the image represents a fragile combination of political powers at the time signified by the feet. The iron as a whole is the fourth section of the image, and represents the great empire that succeeded the Grecian dynasty, viz., the Roman Empire, which you have in the chart (No. 3), in two sections of colour to represent the two aspects symbolised by the pure iron and the iron mixed with clay. I refer to the lead-coloured patch after the Grecian square, and the lighter and longer square immediately to the right of that. The Roman power swallowed up the provinces of the Greek Empire, and some of the provinces of the Babylonish, so that the fourth empire was representative of all the dominions which had preceded it.  

This same kingdom of men, in its various dynasties, is represented in another of Daniel's visions by a tree, which, with its outspread branches, sheltered all the beasts of the earth, and gave roost to all the fowls of heaven. At a certain time, the tree was cut down, its stump was allowed to remain in the earth, and the stump was banded with two bands, one brass and the other iron. The brass band of the tree stump corresponds with the brazen portion of Nebuchadnezzar's image - answering to the Grecian element, while the iron band of the stump corresponds with the iron of the image, representing the Roman banding of the kingdom of men.

The feet were part iron and part clay. On each foot are five toes. This signified that the fourth kingdom, in its last form, should be sub-divided into

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ten parts. This is very clear from the 7th chap. of Daniel, where we find the record of a vision seen by Daniel himself, in which the four kingdoms are represented by four beasts instead of four metals. On the head of the fourth beast, were ten horns. We also find ten horns upon the great red dragon of Rev. 12, and upon the head of the beast that comes out of the sea, in chap. 13. Wherever you find these ten horns treated of, whether in Daniel's book or the Apocalypse, they represent the same powers, which powers, or kingdoms, have existence in our day, and have existed in the world - that is, in Europe - for the last 1,330 day-years, and are now verging, all of them, to their fall; and when they do fall, they will disappear for ever.

The toes of the image bring us down to the latter days - the last period - the last crisis of human government. The feet and toes were partly iron and partly clay, to represent that the metallic image dominion, in its last form, would be partly strong as the iron, and partly weak as the clay - a brittle mixture, easily fractured. The little stone, striking the image on these brittle feet, brought it down to the ground, but something more had to be done before the little stone could become a mountain to fill the whole earth. It was necessary not only that the image should be shattered to pieces, but that these pieces should be ground to powder - comminuted into dust, as light as the chaff of the threshing-floor, and capable of being blown entirely away. This is what Daniel says the king saw. The stone having acquired motion, not only felled the image to the earth, but ground the fragments to powder, and a whirlwind carried the powder away.

Thus, all that was represented by the metallic image was completely swept away. Not a vestige remained. Nothing was left by the whirlwind, but the little stone which became a mountain or dominion, filling the whole earth. When the whole earth is filled by the mountain dominion, it follows that there is no room for a second dominion. There is no room for any rival power. Now, the question is, what is represented by this little stone becoming a great mountain, in the fulness of its manifestation or development? The prophet Daniel told the king what the mountain-stone represented, in these words: "In the days of these kings (that is, the kings or kingdoms represented by the ten toes), the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and it shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and subdue all these kingdoms (represented by the ten toes), and it shall stand for ever."

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When the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar was shattered to pieces, and the fragments were all lying on the ground, they are said by the prophet to be shattered to pieces together or ground together. That is a very important item in the understanding of the vision. The stone did not demolish the image piecemeal. It did not break first the head; then the breast and arms; then the body, and then the legs and feet. It struck the image on the feet, and thus shattered the whole image into fragments, and afterwards, the fragments were ground to pieces together. "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor." Now, the feet could not be struck till they were in existence, and they were not in existence in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Hence, the breaking of the "iron and the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold together," is an event which we have to look for in our own future. The things represented by the different metallic parts of the image have never been "broken to pieces together." Daniel continues, "Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." In this verse, we have an exposition of the statement in an earlier verse, that God made known to Nebuchadnezzar what should come to pass in the latter days. These latter days are now upon us: we are contemporary with them.

Daniel had a vision of these things which he records in the 7th chapter. He saw a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, representing the conflicts in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, out of which the various dynasties would arise, for the beasts are said to "rise up out of the sea," and "out of the earth." It also goes to show that the storm on the sea which developed the results of the storm, was to be taken as a storm affecting the countries bounding the Great Sea or Mediterranean. While he was contemplating the strife of the elements, he saw four extraordinary looking beasts arise out of the waters. These may be called the first beast, the second beast, the third beast, and the fourth beast.

The first beast is described as a lion with eagles' wings in the first manifestation of it. Afterwards, its wings were plucked, and it stood upon its feet, and a man's heart was given to it. The second beast was a bear with three ribs in the mouth of it, and one

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shoulder higher than the other, representing two distinct dynasties. The higher shoulder corresponds with the higher horn of the ram in the vision of the 8th chapter, representing the Persian dynasty of the Medo-Persian dominion. The three ribs in the mouth of the beast represented the three presidential divisions into which the Medo-Persian empire was divided, and their being in the bear's mouth signifies that the presidential divisions were subject to the sovereign power of the Persian dominion. It was said to the second beast, "Arise, devour much flesh." The third beast was like a leopard, and it had four heads and four wings like a fowl on the back of it. This beast as a whole, answers to the brass of Nebuchadnezzar's image, representing the third kingdom that should arise: the four heads represent the four dominions into which the third, or Grecian, empire was divided on the death of Alexander, and the four wings, the four quarters of the heavens in which the four dominions were to be found. This is represented in the 8th chapter by the four horns on the head of the Grecian goat, the four horns of the one vision answering to the four heads of the other, and pointing east, west, north, and south according to the division of the third empire. In the 11th chapter of Daniel, two of the horns or heads are dropped, and the prophecy discourses on only the northern and southern heads of the leopard. The leopard with its heads and the goat with its horns, represent, as a whole, the Macedonian empire founded by Alexander the Great upon the ruins of the Persian-bear dominion.

Afterwards, Daniel saw a fourth beast arise up out of the sea. He describes it as dreadful and terrible, and diverse from all the three beasts that preceded it. It had on its head ten horns, answering to the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image; but what struck him as most remarkable in connection with the head of the fourth beast was this, that while he was looking at the ten horns, another little horn arose among them. His attention was directed to that little horn particularly, because, unlike all the other horns, there were in it eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things. He observed that when this little horn rose, three of the original ten fell. His attention was particularly arrested by this little (eleventh) horn, and when he wanted to know the interpretation of the vision as a whole, you find him enquiring particularly as to the meaning of the little horn that had eyes and mouth, in which I may say, we of the latter days are particularly interested, for we read that the little horn prevailed

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until the Ancient of Days came, and that event has not yet occurred.

Daniel says, "I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them." No wonder he was interested in a horn with eyes and mouth, that made war against his own class, for Daniel was one of the saints. The symbolism pointed to a war on the part of the little-horn community waged against the saint-community - a war that was to be successful for a while on the part of the little horn. This has been the order of things during all the long dreary period of the kingdom of men. Human governments have all been opposed to God's truth, and they have made war upon all that class of people in their several countries who are entitled scripturally to the designation of the saints. You cannot make peace between them. That is the reason why we who advocate the doctrine of God's saints are in hostility to the world. Those on our side who would make peace with the enemy are not fit to be on our side. It is war to the knife between the powers that be and all Christadelphians. We accept no truce; we will consent to no compromise. Either they must conquer us or we will conquer them, - by argument now, but when the time for argument is passed away, and the Lord has come with power and great glory, His saints will take the sword and conquer the world, whether the world likes it or not.

"I beheld, and the same horn made war against the saints, and prevailed against them until the Ancient of Days came." That little word "until" indicates that the saints are not always to be prevailed against. They were to be prevailed against "until" the time comes for that event to be developed which we have already called attention to in connection with the metallic image - viz., the breaking of the image to pieces by the catastrophe of the little stone's descent, and the establishment of the stone dominion by conquest in all the earth. The saints will then no longer be prevailed against, but sit on the throne of universal dominion. This climax is described in the image-vision thus: "The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; it shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and destroy all other kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever."

In this vision of the four beasts, the matter is put somewhat differently. It is said the little horn prevailed against the saints, "until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High." Now, who is the Ancient of Days? The Deity; but how is

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He to "come"? In Jesus of Nazareth, who is Deity manifested in our human nature - justified by spirit. Jesus himself preached this coming in power and great glory. He said, "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." That is the time when the Ancient of Days comes; judgment shall then be given - to whom? "Judgment was given to the saints of the Host High." The little horn made war against the saints until judgment was given to the saints who had been made war upon. When judgment is given to them, they will no longer be trampled under foot. When the time arrives for the Ancient of Days to manifest himself, the fortunes of the two parties will be reversed. The saints will have power put into their hands, and they will execute judgment on the powers of the world:

"I beheld, and the same horn - the little horn with eyes - the episcopal horn, the overseeing horn, with mouth that spoke great things and blasphemy against the Most High - made war with the saints, and prevailed against them until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom."

The interpretation given to Daniel of the fourth beast is very plain. "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on earth. It shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." They had no existence in Daniel's day, nor any existence in the days of John the apostle; they came into existence in the middle ages. "And another shall rise after them" - the little horn with eyes and mouth - "that shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings" - three of the primitive horns - "and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change the times and laws; and they (the saints) shall be given into his hand (or power), until a time, and times and the dividing of time (or for a period extending over 1,260 years); but the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his (the Little Horn's) dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. Hitherto is the end of the matter;" that is, the end of the times of the Gentiles, and the

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commencement of the next constitution of the world, which will continue undisturbed in peace and righteousness for a thousand years.

The four beasts are represented on the chart by the sections of colour that answer to the metals of the image, and you will find them mentioned in the line below the names of the metals. Above both are the names of the empires represented, and on the extreme right is a pink perpendicular margin representative of the millennium, when the kingdom will again be restored to Israel, and given into the hands of the saints.

In the 8th chap. Daniel records a certain catastrophe that was seen by him in vision, viz., the taking away of the daily sacrifice, the treading under foot of the Holy Land, and the dispersion of the Jewish people, leaving nothing but desolation and that which makes desolate for a long period. As the Jewish commonwealth was at the time of the vision in ruins, it showed to Daniel that there must be a previous restoration of it before the time of the fulfilment of the vision; and he was particularly interested in how long, after the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, this desolating abomination should prevail against the fortunes of Israel. He was answered, according to the Greek version of the Scriptures, translated in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, that it was a long period, called the evening-morning period of 2,400 years; and when that period had passed away, a new series of events should be developed, the result of which would be to avenge, justify, or cleanse "the Holy." It matters not which form of speech you employ, for the consummation of its avengement, justification or cleansing results in the building again of the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and setting up the ruins thereof, and the establishment of the Messiah on the throne of Israel, under the Millennial constitution.

From the best evidence we can get, the beginning of the 2,400 years is when the second horn of the ram became higher than the first horn. Now the ram of the 8th chap. represents the same power as the silver of Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the second beast of Daniel; that is the empire of the Medes and Persians. Consequently the rising of the higher horn of the two-horned empire of the Medes and Persians signifies the commencement of the Persian dynasty, which was the higher or longer-lived of the two. When Persia overthrew the kingdom of Babylon, Darius, the Mede, took the reins of government. He was sixty-two and had no sons. His nephew Cyrus, a young man, was conjoined with him in the government.

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In two years, Darius died, and Cyrus then became sole ruler of the empire. This was the rising of the higher horn. The third year of the reign of Cyrus conjointly with Darius, was the first year of his sole reign. Hence it is that, while the book of Daniel informs us that Daniel continued to the first year of Cyrus, it also tells us of his having a vision in the third year of Cyrus, showing that the third year of Cyrus (jointly with Darius) was also the first of his sole reign. It was on that occasion that the higher horn (or the Persian element of the government) acquired ascendancy over the other or Median horn.

That seems to be the commencement of this long period of 2,400 years. It was the year that Daniel died, 540 years before the birth of Jesus, so that this long period of 2,400 years has all passed away. We have not to wait and look forward to it as Daniel had. We look back and see that it is over 2,400 years since Cyrus began to reign alone, and that therefore the long period of waiting has all passed away. Does this mean anything or does it not? I believe it means that the period for Israel's down-treading is at an end, and that we have entered upon a new series of events that will culminate in the cleansing of the Holy. We are not necessarily to look for some great event that will wind-up the purposes of God in a flash of lightning. One series of events having come to its close, another series has already begun and will continue to develop more and more largely until the Ancient of Days makes his appearance and takes things into his own hands. That this will be the order in which the events of these latter days will develop, we are justified in saying, because it is the order of all God's past relations with Israel. All His purposes and schemes with them have been gradual in development. God is never in a hurry. He has plenty of time at His disposal. He is not bound to do things according to your speculation or mine as to how long He ought to take. He has fixed the times and seasons. He has commenced the development of His events, and they will not be interrupted by the policy of men, but on the contrary, the activity of men to carry out their own purposes will only expedite His. He has the controlling power, and what He has decreed will most assuredly come to pass. None can hinder or stay His hand.

These events have begun. Egypt rises in commercial importance. You hear of the fortunes of the Jews being improved in parts of the world where they were formerly oppressed in shameful severity. You hear of a canal being cut through the Isthmus of Suez, to carry the commerce of the world by a

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new route along the Mediterranean, through the Canal, into the Red Sea, through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to British India, all of which will have an important bearing on these countries. We in America know that when you cut a canal through a wilderness, the land becomes ten-fold more valuable than it was, because of easy access to the markets. So when a canal of such magnitude and such world-wide interest as that through the Isthmus of Suez, unites the Mediterranean and Red Seas, the results to the countries adjacent cannot fail to be very great and vital. Already have we seen an illustration of this. There is a town called Ismailia, with from 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, where all was desert before the formation of the canal; and there is Port Said at the Mediterranean entry of the canal, and Suez at the Red Sea entry, both important places, and rapidly growing in importance, showing that the cutting of the canal through the southern portion of Arabia is bringing those countries into the highest commercial importance.

These are only elements in the new series of events which will ultimate in the appearing of Christ to take the matter in hand, and restore the Jews to their own land, and set up the kingdom which the God of heaven is to establish, which kingdom, put into the hands of the saints, will destroy all the kingdoms of Europe and republics of America.

This long period of 2,400 years is represented by the parallel green line running along the chart under the squares answering to the four empires, and terminating contemporaneously with the fourth or iron empire. The gap between the end of the line to the right and the pink margin representing the kingdom, indicates the interval between the termination of this long period of 2,400 years, and the commencement of the millennium, during which interval will transpire the events by which the kingdoms of this world are to be subdued and transferred from those who have the government now, and placed in the hands of the saints of the Most High.

In the 9th chapter of Daniel, there is a prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, at the end of which, the Messiah was to be cut off, but not for his own sins. These Seventy Weeks represent a period of 490 years. They were to commence from an event specified in the prophecy itself - "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem." The period is divided into seven weeks, 62 weeks, and one week, and two halves of the week. In the first seven, the Jewish State was to be restored from the

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Babylonish captivity; at the end of the sixty-two, the covenant was to be introduced, and confirmed in the last sixty-two, the covenant was to be introduced, and confirmed in the last week (or seven years) during which John the Baptist and Jesus were occupied in their ministry. The last week was divided into two parts. The first half was the three-and-a-half years during which John the Baptist preached "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," in preparation of a people for the Lord when he should appear. The last half-part of the week as occupied by the ministry of Jesus, and terminated with the Messiah being cut off. So that exactly seventy weeks of years, or 490 years, elapsed from the "going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, to the crucifixion, when various things were done, upon the basis of which, the gospel was preached in the name of Jesus.

This period of seventy weeks is represented by the shorter line or belt of green below the line representing the 2,400 evening-morning period. At the end of the period, Messiah the Prince was cut off by the little horn of the goat - not the little horn with eyes and mouth, which is seen on the head of Daniel's fourth beast, but the little horn that arises out of one of the horns of the Grecian goat, and waxes great towards the south and towards the pleasant land, and by whom also the daily sacrifice was taken away.

Chart 2

This chart consists of a series of parallelograms of different colours, each of which represents a period of time. The one representing the longest period of time is that at the top, coloured grey. It represents the times in relation to the tree I was speaking of, that was cut down, - the stump of the tree remaining with its roots in the ground, banded with brass and iron. That tree represented the dominion and glory and majesty of the kingdom of men. As far as Nebuchadnezzar was concerned, his dynasty was to be removed, but the kingdom of men was to continue, as represented by the stump in the earth banded with brass and iron. Certain times are in God's arrangements appointed, in which men are permitted to govern themselves by their own institutions. God does not intend that mankind shall govern themselves for ever. They are not fit to govern themselves. Experience has proved it. If it had not been for God's supervision of their affairs, the world would have been a perfect pandemonium by this time.  

The times allotted for the duration of the kingdom of men are expressed in seven symbolic times, commencing with the overthrow of the Jewish Commonwealth by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, about 612 years before the birth of Jesus, and continuing 2,520 years from that date down to the establishment of the millennium. When the judgments that remain to be poured out have been exhausted, the result will be the establishment at the end of the seven times of the kingdom of men, of the kingdom of God, represented by the yellow downward stripe at the right hand side of the chart, called "the Millennium or aion of the kingdom." This long period of 2,520 years is called by Jesus "the times of the Gentiles." In his prophecy concerning the destruction that was in his day impending over the Jewish nation, he says (Luke 21:24), "Jerusalem shall be trodden under the feet of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." When those times are run out, the Gentiles will have no more right to govern themselves and no more power over Jerusalem. There will be no more vote by ballot. The people will not be consulted as to who should rule over them. God will give them rulers as He thinks proper, and they will be obliged to submit. The time for the self-government of the devil will have passed away. The world will have had enough of that.

The next parallelogram (pink) represents the somewhat shorter period of 2,400 years of which I have just been speaking. It is placed in such a position as to show its commencement relatively to the seven times of the Babylonian tree, and its termination with reference to their termination. It commences B.C. 540, and terminates A.D. 1860. So that it begins after, and ends before the seven times. The interval between 1860 and the end of the seven times is the time during which the events are developed that result in the demolition of the kingdom of men, and the establishment of the kingdom of God.

The next parallelogram comprehends three periods; first, the seventy weeks, of which I have already spoken, represented by the first section of the parallelogram (green). They commenced B.C. 456, and terminated at the crucifixion. Then from the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the crucifixion, to the establishment of the apostacy, under Constantine (the Great, so-called, and by Catholics described as the first Christian emperor), is a gestation interval of 280 years, during which the mystery of iniquity, which began to work in the apostles' days, developed into the Man-child of Sin, who was born as the champion of the Catholic woman. This is represented by the grey portion

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of the line, coming after the seventy weeks. The birth took place during the revolution contemporary with the Donatist trials in 312-16, after the birth of Jesus. From the manifestation of the first Catholic emperor - characterised by these Donatist trials, in the epoch 312-16 - down to the massacre of St. Bartholomew, when the powers that be, began to make war against the two witnesses who protested against the abominations of the middle ages - which war continued 113 years, and resulted in the death of the witnesses - is a period of 1,260 years. This period is represented by the third (green) portion of the line, and conducts to the epoch, 1572-76.

In the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse, we read of a certain power called the god of the earth. The witnesses are represented in that chapter as standing in the presence of the god of the earth. That god of the earth is the power represented by Daniel's little horn, with eyes and mouth, and the throne of his godship is the seven hills of Rome. The god of the earth is still a power existing in Rome - a city called by those who don't know what they are talking about, the Eternal City. The god of the earth is familiarly known as the Pope. He is the ecclesiastical element of the power referred to by Paul in his 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. 2, as the Man of Sin, who should oppose and exalt himself above all that was called God, or every power to whom political and religious obedience is yielded, and who should sit in a temple as a god - not the true God, yet openly showing himself that he is a god. That performance you may see every year in connection with the festivals celebrated in the Cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome, which is the temple of the god of the earth, where he sits on a high altar, and is worshipped by the cardinals who kiss his toe.

The development and career of this god of the earth are represented by the fourth parallelogram. The small grey portion to the left represents the gestative period of 280 years from the Council of Nice, or the Pentecost of the Apostasy, during which the Harlot Church was pregnant with the god of the earth; and at the end of which, viz., in 608, he was fully born by the decree of Phocas, which confirmed the bishop of Rome head of all the churches.

The small detached green patch to the left, below the fourth line, represents the opening of the seventh seal, which was characterised by silence politically for half-an-hour, or 15 years, after the political heaven had been convulsed by that war by which the Pagan dragon was cast out by the

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champion of the Catholic Woman - the Man-child of Sin. Until the death of Constantine in 337, there was perfect peace and quietude in the Roman world. That was characteristic of the opening of the seventh seal, under which seventh seal we are now living.

The two other green patches on a line with the one I have just noticed, but farther to the right of the Chart, represent the complications developed by the fifth trumpet in the organisation of the Mohammedan power, and the letting loose of the Saracens in the year 632, when the battle of Muta commenced their invasion of the Byzantine empire. They were to prevail five months of years, at the end of which, having reached the turning point, they were to commence to decline, and continue declining for another five months of years, when they were to come to an end. This came to pass. The Saracens were submerged in the Turkish power in 932 - exactly ten months of years - or 300 years - from their invasion of the Greek empire. The period comprehends all that you read in history about the crusades in the middle ages. The second square, farther to the right, represents the period during which the four angels were loosed from the river Euphrates - that is, the four Mohammedan Euphratean powers were developed, resulting in the formation of the Turkish power, which overthrew Constantinople on May 29th, 1453. They were prepared for an hour, a day, a month, and a year, or 391 years, 30 days, which was exactly the time that elapsed between the crossing of the Euphrates by Arslan the Valiant (1062), and the fall of Constantinople (1453). The Turks have held Constantinople from that day to this.

The three parallel belts at the bottom of the chart represent three distinct periods. The first (grey) - that with the interrupted lines - represents an historical period, arrived at by calculating the times that actually transpired between certain events as bearing upon certain symbols employed in the Apocalypse, viz., the interval that elapsed between the issue of the Justinian edicts, A.D. 531, in the reign of the emperor whose name they bear, and the abolition of them in 1789, when the French Revolution broke out, and by its extraordinary effects, arrested general attention to the fact that it marked an epoch in prophecy. Between these two dates is an exact period of 1,260 years. This is the period mentioned in connection with the operations of the two symbolic witnesses. Their connection drew attention to the relation of that symbol to the events that

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transpired within that long period.

The square at the end of the belt represents a prophetic period that has to do with the events marking the close of the "forty and two months," or 1,260 day-years. The witnesses were made war upon by the system of powers constituting modern Europe. This system of powers is represented by a beast coming up out of the Mediterranean waters in a stormy period, with seven heads and ten horns, and a name of blasphemy upon its heads. The beast is represented as making war upon the witnesses, and overcoming them, and putting them to death, notwithstanding the issue of devouring fire from their mouths. We recognise the accomplishment of this calamity in the war initiated by the massacre of St. Bartholomew. This war against the witnesses continued 113 years, so that in 1685 they lay politically dead, being unable any longer to bear a living testimony against the reigning apostasy. They remained dead for a period of 105 years, answering to 3 lunar days, mentioned as the period of their decease. Afterwards, their resurrection took place. We (the Christadelphians) live in the epoch of their resurrection. We belong to the same class of people. Before 1789, the witness-class existed, but were unable to deliver their testimony. We exist, but our testimony is free, and no man can stop us.

This means something. The class to which we belong was prevailed against by the powers that be, and continued in political death three lunar days and a half of years - that is, 105 years, which extend from 1685, when their death was accomplished, to 1789, when the French Revolution released them from their death-state, and caused them to stand upon their feet, and to ascend in a storm-cloud to the place of power, to the "terror" of their enemies, the Catholic kings and nobles of the earth; for they established the "reign of terror," abolished, for a time, the Catholic religion in France, and the names and titles of men. Their political champion is known in history as "The Great Napoleon."

That was the political resurrection of the witnesses, preceding their spiritual resurrection. The one resurrection had to take place before the other was possible. We have lived to witness the spiritual sequel to the political resurrection of the witnesses. A resurrection has been developed before your eyes of the testimony which was originally set forth in the gospel preached by Jesus and the apostles 1,800 years ago. That doctrine is so different from anything you can hear from the pulpits in Europe or America, that they all concur in denouncing it as infidelity and

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blasphemy, and everything that is abominable. It is the greatest compliment they can pay us to stigmatize our doctrine in this way.

The second of the belts (coloured pink) is representative of a period named only once - in Daniel's prophecy, last chapter, where Daniel was told that there was to be a desolating abomination, which should overspread the land for 1,290 years, or until that determined should be poured upon the desolator of the Holy Land. I need scarcely tell you who that is. You know that the Holy Land is a province of the Turkish Government, and you all know what sort of a Government the Turkish Government is. The Turkish Government improves nothing, but desolates and destroys everything. It was destined, in God's arrangement, that the Holy Land should be protected in the enjoyment of its Sabbaths by the rule of a despotism which would prevent the land from being cultivated. This, however, was only to continue until that determined should be poured out upon the desolator himself; and that which was predetermined to be poured out is represented in the 16th chapter of the Apocalypse as the sixth vial of the wrath of God, poured upon the river Euphrates - the symbol of the Ottoman power - that the water or power of the river might be dried up for a certain specific purpose - that the way of the kings from a sun's rising might be prepared. These kings, from the sun's rising, are the saints who are to be manifested when the power of the Sun of Righteousness, who is to rise with healing in his beams, shall cause them to come forth and grow up as calves of the stall, preparatory to the treading of the wicked as ashes under the soles of their feet (Mal. 4:1-3).

The last of the three parallelograms (coloured green) represents another period mentioned only once, viz., in the 12th chapter of Daniel - the 1,335 days. Daniel was told he should go to his rest, and that he should stand in his lot or rise to his lot at the end of the days - that is, of the 1,335 days or years. The 1,335 years, reckoned from a certain date, were entirely to expend themselves before that new series of events should commence, which should include the resurrection of the dead. Then Daniel would stand in his lot - not that the resurrection of the dead would take place the very year after the 1,335 years were accomplished; but that the series of events developed in the 1,335 years were first to elapse, and then a new order of

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events would be developed, one of the elements of which would be the resurrection of the dead, when Daniel and the rest of the prophets would come forth and stand in their lot in the end of the 1,335 days or years.

CHART No. 1

The Apocalyptic Scheme.

Here is a chart, the original of which you will find occupying one page in the preface of the last volume of Eureka, which is the third of my exposition of the Apocalypse. That page line been enlarged by our friend Bingley, of Chicago, Ill., and presented in this size. It represents the structure of the Apocalypse, which was shown to John about 98 years after the birth of Jesus, while he was an exile in Patmos - a little island of the Mediterranean Archipelago, to which he was banished in the reign of Domitian, emperor of Rome, because of his fidelity to the doctrine of Christ. The pink margin to the left of the chart, represents the time in which John lived. John, in the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse, verse 10, tells us in effect that he was living under the sixth form of the Roman constitution or government. We read "Five (of these heads or forms of government) are fallen; one (the sixth) IS, and the other is not yet come." Five forms of government that had prevailed in the city of Rome had passed away. The sixth - represented by one of the heads of the beast - was in existence wile John was in exile. There was to be a seventh, not in existence then, but which was to arise after and continue a short space. Then there was to be a healing of the sixth head, after its being wounded to death; and that restored sixth head was to be manifested as an eighth head, answering to the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast, viz., that horn which had eyes and a mouth, speaking great words of blasphemy.

It is nothing at all extraordinary to represent dominions by beasts. The dominion of Great Britain is symbolised by a lion; the dominions of many Continental powers are represented by eagles; different nations are represented by different creatures. God has acted on this principle in the communication of political visions. As men represent their own powers, so He represents them. In this 12th chapter of the Apocalypse, He represents the Roman Power under the symbol of a dragon, in the great crisis of its existence, when the introduction of new principles into the empire had brought about a death struggle between Paganism and Catholicism, result-

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ing in the former being upset and the latter established as the religion of the Roman world. This was, of course, long after John's day.

John stood at the point of time represented by the pink margin to the left - at the end of the first century. Standing there, he had a telescope given him, as it were, through which he was enabled to have a view of certain things that were to transpire between his day and the day when the kingdom of God should be established, and the saints obtain the promised inheritance, and when he, John, should rise again to a new life, and - as it was told him - prophesy again before kings and nations, peoples and tribes. Between the time that John was told that, and the time that he died, he never prophesied before kings and nations. Consequently, the statement that he is again to do so (Rev. 10:11), shows that he is to rise at the time represented to him at the end of the vision, when he will be an element of the company represented by the proclaiming angel, flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach, announcing that the hour of God's judgment is come. He will then announce, as one of that great company, that the hour of God's judgment has come, and that men are to fear God and give Him glory, and no longer give glory and honour to the mortal, earthly, and sinful governors that men have for ages worshipped.

John saw this great era from his stand-point in the isle of Patmos. He saw the period called the millennium, in the establishment of which, he should go forth with others to the war of the great day of God Almighty. That was a long time ahead. Nearly 1,800 years have passed away since he saw it, and it still lies ahead, but now quite near. The interval between John's day and the day of Christ is represented by the body of the chart before you. All the intermediate space between the pink margin on the left and the yellow margin on the right, is representative of that interval, and the lines and characters occupying that space, answer to the series of events shown to John, destined to fill up that interval. Looking at it as a whole, it must strike the reflecting mind that although the history of past ages appears confused and without method - a mere jumble of facts, of which the generality of people can make neither one thing nor another - yet every thing has been marked out in the mind of God with the definiteness of a plan. All things have been developed in an orderly manner. The great thing in looking back, is to distinguish the gold

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from the quartz - to identify the prophetic vein in the mass of historic materials with which the reader of history has to deal. Goldfinders can trace the vein if they once strike it in the rock, no matter where it leads to. The great thing is to be able to strike the vein of God in history. When you get on God's vein there, you will be able, in the light of the Apocalypse, to follow it in all its windings and turnings among the mountains of rubbish that constitute human history. The Apocalypse is history revealed by the Deity to John, in the isle of Patmos, before a single event of it had transpired.

You see the different colours in the charts. The green represents what in the Apocalypse are called THE SEALS. There are seven letters, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials, and seven thunders; and the Apocalypse is so curiously and beautifully arranged, that the seventh seal, which you will see extends to the extreme right of the chart at the top, contains the seven trumpets, the seven vials, and the seven thunders. That is the reason why I said we are now living under the seventh seal. The seven trumpets are represented by the buff-coloured portion of the chart lying under the seventh-seal horizontal strip. The seventh trumpet, commencing at the close of the sixth, which you see marked in the chart, continues till the introduction of the millennium, and includes the seven vials, represented by the pink colour; the seventh vial again includes the seven thunders, and all - seals, trumpets, vials, and thunders - end together in the establishment of the kingdom of God.

The whole of these were shown to John for the information of the servants of God, in order that they might know the times in which they lived. God has had servants in all the long dreary interval between John's day and the present, and in all the ages and generations intervening, they have had some knowledge of the times in which they lived. Although they may not have been able to interpret all the visions of the Apocalypse, they had intelligence enough to know their own time, as we have to know ours. The seven thunders are exceptional; they were not permitted to be written, for this reason: the saints (for whose information the Apocalypse was given) are themselves to be the developers of these thunders. Hence, there was no necessity to reveal what is to be done, when the seven thunders utter their voices. When judgment is given to the saints of the Most High, and the time comes for the saints to take the kingdoms

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under the whole heaven, they will, in taking possession of the kingdoms and executing the judgments written, be causing the seven thunders to utter their voices. Their operations will be the agency symbolised by the seven thunders. There was, therefore, no occasion to reveal to them that which they are going to enact in their own persons. The seventh vial contains the seven thunders. It is under the seventh vial that the work of the saints comes into operation. They develop the seven thunders in the hour of judgment.

We will now look at the chart a little more in detail. The first seal represents a condition of the Roman Empire in relation to the truth. Under this seal, John saw a white horse. The Romans represented their power among other things by a horse. The Roman horse was just as symbolical of the Roman power as a dragon or an eagle. In the first four seals, the Roman body politic is represented by a horse, in different colours, corresponding to the condition intended to be represented. Under the first seal, the Roman horse was in a very peaceable state. Therefore, the colour of the horse is white, representative of peace. This state was favourable to the development of the truth among the citizens of the empire. The "one body" (a multitudinous unity, made up of individual saints) is, in this symbol, represented as an archer riding the horse, with a bow, but without any death-dealing weapon. His words were his weapon: they were "sharp arrows in the hearts of the king's enemies." It was with their testimony the Christians fought the Roman Empire, and in 280 years they gained the victory, completely upsetting the Roman Government, which was Pagan to begin with, and establishing a new form of government, which recognised the religion of Christ as the true religion, though it did not understand that religion.

Under the second seal the horse is red, because in the period answering to this seal, the empire was agitated by civil wars, commencing A.D. 183.

Under the third seal, the Roman horse was black with great woe, commencing A.D. 212.

Under the fourth seal, the horse, as the result of the previous judgments, had become pale and bloodless. Civil strife, famine, pestilence, and barbarian invasion, combined, A.D. 235, to exhaust the vigour of the empire. It is remarkable that the Pagans attributed these calamities to the Christians. They said the Christians were aggravating the gods, and that the gods had brought these judgments upon them because of their doings. There was a

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little truth mixed with their superstition. He who was on the side of the Christians was plaguing the Pagan Government, while the One Body was maintaining the truth by the word of their testimony. Divine power was bringing wars and attendant evils upon them, for shedding the blood of the saints so mercilessly.

The fifth seal was characterised by the terrible persecution which lasted ten years, in the reign of Diocletian, A.D. 303-13. Then arose that champion of the Catholic Apostasy, Constantine, who was half Pagan, half Catholic, worshipping Apollo, his favourite god, and Jesus Christ. The character of his religion may be known from this fact: he recognised baptism as for the remission of sins and when urged to be baptised, he said No, as baptism was for the remission of sins, he would put it off to the last, so that he might commit all the sins he might do, and have them all washed away at once. He was true to his word. He would not consent to be immersed until three days before his death, and then he was immersed; (they did not sprinkle in those days; when they baptised people, they submerged them bodily in the water).

During all the period covered by these seals, the archer of the first seal fought Paganism with the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, loving not their lives to the death. Under the fifth seal, we have the altar victims of the ten days tribulation, crying out, "O despot, the righteous and true, wilt thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" They were told to wait a little while, till the rest of their brethren should be slain, and then there would be a general settling of accounts.

The sixth seal exhibits the Constantinian rocking and shaking of the Roman world, in 312, in the great day of the Lamb's wrath on Paganism, resulting in the expulsion of Paganism from the seat of authority, and the enthronement of Constantine, the hero of the Catholic party, as the sole emperor of the Roman world.

The seventh seal was introduced by silence in the Roman government (until the death of Constantine), for an Apocalyptic "half-an-hour." Then, on the death of Constantine, fire was symbolically cast into the earth, resulting in voices, and thunders and lightnings, and a great (Julian) earthquake in A.D. 360. You have all heard about Julian. He is called by historians, Julian the Apostate. The reason is that Julian was educated

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as a Catholic, but was so disgusted with the bishops and clergy, that he renounced Catholicism and went back to Paganism. He tried to falsify the idea of Christians that Jerusalem was not to be re-built until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. In order to prove the Galilean an impostor and a false prophet, he authorised the Jews to re-build their temple; and a Pagan writer informs us that while they were digging the site, and clearing away the rubbish, to lay the stones of the new temple, balls of fire issued from the foundations, and scorched the workmen, so that they could not carry on the work. This is the testimony of a writer whose interest it was to falsify the fact, because the fact was subversive of the position of his Pagan friend and associate, Julian. Afterwards, Julian was shot in battle, and while his wound was bleeding, he held up his hand, and said, "Thou, Galilean, hast conquered." After Julian's death, Catholicism was restored, and has been the religion of the Roman state down to the present time. That was the result of the Julian earthquake in 360.

The next 35 years were occupied in the preparing for the blowing of the trumpets of the four angels, that are represented in the 8th chapter of the Apocalypse as holding back the winds and tempests, that they should not blow on anything until a certain work was accomplished in relation to God's own people; that was, that they were not to let the winds blow to the prejudice of human affairs, until the servants of God were sealed with their Father's name in their foreheads. A certain work was being accomplished, preparing a people to maintain the testimony of God, during the troublous times to come. You have an illustration of the nature of this process in what is transpiring before your eyes. The Christadelphians in different places are endeavouring to enlighten the understandings of the people. They are seeking to free them from the traditions and delusions of the clergy, and to impress on their minds the truth originally preached by Jesus and the apostles, that in the affectionate obedience of it, they may be got in Christ, in putting on the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The people who become enlightened under these operations, are sealed with the name of the Deity in their forehead, which is a symbol of their intelligence.

That was a work which had to be accomplished in the time succeeding the overthrow of Julian, because when the trumpets should come to be blown, there would be such terrible times that there would be no opportunity

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for the work of the truth, which requires time and peace, as we see from our own experience. In America, when the Southern war broke out, it was impossible to get the attention of the people to the truth of God. They were all so taken up with the questions developed by the devilish policy of the people in power, that there was an utter distaste for things pertaining to the gospel. So it would have been in the days succeeding the sixth seal. If there had been no interval of peace, the work of sealing the servants of God could not have found scope, because men would have been so occupied with the calamities desolating society in all directions, that they would not have given the time and attention necessary to their enlightenment in spiritual things. This suggests a lesson for you. It is to your interest, while a state of peace continues, to avail yourselves of the opportunities that are now within reach, of getting to know the truth, that you may be saved. If you neglect the word in these peaceful times, the time is coming when you will have no opportunity for enlightenment.

When the time of preparation had come to an end, the time arrived for the four angels to blow upon human society for its destruction. The first four trumpets are called wind-trumpets, because these four angels held the winds. The last three are called the woe-trumpets, because previous to the sounding of them, there was a proclamation, "Woe, woe, woe," because of the trumpets which remained to be sounded. The seven trumpets are thus divided into two classes - first, the four wind trumpets; and second, the three woe trumpets.

The first trumpet is characterised by (Alaric) hail. A certain barbarian named Alaric invaded the Roman empire, and produced the devastations symbolised by the hail and fire mingled with blood, and burning the third part of the trees and green grass. This was in A.D. 395.

The second wind-trumpet precipitated a great mountain, burning with fire, into the sea. The catastrophe answering to this symbol was the maritime feats of Genseric, the leader of the Vandals, who spread destruction among the countries in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean.

The third trumpet, or the falling of a star upon the third part of rivers and fountains of waters, symbolises the invasion of the western dominion of the Roman empire by Attila, who, in the symbol, is called Wormwood (Apsinthos), just on the same principle as Napoleon is called the Corsican. He came from a country drained by a river called Apsinthos.

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The fourth trumpet let loose the fourth wind upon Roman society, and developed the seventh of the seven heads of the Roman beast. This seventh head, John was told, was to continue a short space. The sixth head was existent at the time the vision was communicated. Under the fourth trumpet, this was suppressed in the smiting of the Roman sun, moon, and stars, in the third part of them, and the seventh was developed in the form of government resulting from the terrible commotions of the fourth trumpet. The seventh, however, only continued for a short space, as John was told, and was finally superseded by the eighth, which was one of the seven restored, and which has continued ever since.

The calamities of the period were terrible for Rome, the boasted city of the so-called Christ's Vicar and Peter's successor. For forty days, there was not a single inhabitant, or even dog, in the city. The eternal city, as they call it, which, in the days of John, had a population of three or four millions, had not a dog left to bark in the streets in less than 500 years afterwards. This was the effect of God's terrible indignation against the apostate and abominable city, as evinced in the blowing of the four wind trumpets against the Catholic Apostasy. But that was not nearly so terrible an overthrow as what awaits her when Jesus comes, and gives power to the saints to execute the judgment written.

The result of the fourth trumpet was that a third of the Roman sun, moon, and stars were smitten by the Herulian Goths. The western third was completely eclipsed for a time. The sixth head, on the Seven Hills, was fatally wounded, and the seventh set up till the expiry of the short space; after which, in the days of Charlemagne, who (A.D. 799) in the founding of what was called the "Holy Roman Empire," revived the wounded sixth head. This revived sixth head appearing on the scene as the eighth, and yet of the seven, is that which is represented in Daniel's 7th chapter by the remarkable horn with eyes and mouth, in the head of the fourth beast. Both are representative of the Holy Roman Empire, established by Charlemagne. This empire still exists in a dilapidated state, and will continue to exist until it is finally destroyed by Jesus Christ.

The eclipse of the sun, moon, and stars of the Roman system, for over a third part, is seen in the fact that when the fourth trumpet had been blown, Rome, for 240 years, was not the seat of government for any power at all. In all previous periods of her history, she had had kings, consuls,

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dictators, emperors, and so forth; but when the fourth trumpet had worked out its results, it took dominion completely away from her, and left her, for more than 240 years, an ordinary city, of no higher status than Swansea, Birmingham, Liverpool, etc., so far as government was concerned; but when certain events were developed, by which government was restored to Rome, Charlemagne formed an alliance with the Pope, and they had a compound government, which consisted of the civil, military, and ecclesiastical power in combination. This lasted many centuries. Napoleon I. gave it a terrible overthrow, but it has revived a little and has been struggling on until the present time. In 1866, it suffered a severe shock at the battle of Sadowa, when Austria was so completely defeated by the Prussians. Since that time, the Holy Roman Empire, in its secular element, at least, as represented by Austria, has become more Protestant and liberal than the British government itself.

People see this in the papers, but don't know the meaning of it. It is only the beginning of a series of events, which, commencing A.D. 1866, will go on gathering strength without interruption until Jesus Christ comes, in power and great glory, to destroy the "Holy Roman Empire," root and branch. You must have a beginning, before you can have an end. The beginning is working, but the world does not see it, because they don't know what God has determined and revealed. God has clearly made known His purposes and plans, but people won't give themselves the trouble to study them. They won't avail themselves of the information which is given to them. Therefore, they just go on in their blindness until Christ comes upon them as a thief. People will then be glad to know about these things when it is TOO LATE. Men in our day and generation have lost thrones by being too late. So it will be with you, if you don't avail yourselves of the present. The time is coming when all men will be eager to know about these things, but then it will be too late; judgment only will await them.

We next come to the consideration of the three last trumpets, which are called "woe trumpets," because of the terrible judgments developed in the periods represented by them. Under the fifth trumpet, the pit of the political abyss was opened, and the Saracens were let out upon the Eastern division of the Roman Empire. The consequence was that the sun and air politically were darkened. The Saracen woe commenced 632, and continued with more or less intermission, till 932, when the Caliphs came to an end.

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Then comes the sixth trumpet, in which the four angels of the Euphrates were loosed. The powers represented by these four angels were territorially bounded by the Euphrates until the time came for them to extend their dominions to the Western side. In this sense, they were "bound"; and when the time for extension arrived, they were "loosed." When loosed, they crossed the Euphrates, and invaded the Eastern (Greek) division of the Roman (Byzantine) empire. They then began the destiny marked out for them, which was to subvert it, and bring the Greeks into what was to be their condition for a long period, and under which they are groaning to this day - subjection to the Turks. Constantinople was taken A.D. 1453.

While these events were transpiring in the eastern division of the empire, other events were going on in the western division, viz., the temple, altar, and worshippers were measured out for forty and two months down-treading. That (1,260 years) has all passed away. That is why I stand here to show you the truth without fear, favour or affection. If that period were still current, we should not have the opportunity which we enjoy now. We can speak the word with perfect freedom, without fear of oppression; thank God for it - not man. You may find instances now in which persons, if they dared, would carry out their bitter spirit of opposition to the utmost extremity of violence that history ever records. If they had the power, it would not be long before the Christadelphians made the acquaintance of the prison, and worse. But the time has passed. The witnesses were finally killed in 1685; they rose, and ascended to power in 1789. Then a tenth of the city fell in the dissolution of the French kingdom - one of the ten divisions of the city. A political earthquake prevailed; titles were abolished, men were affrighted, as they had never been before (in the "Reign of Terror"), and the second woe ended with the ascription of glory to the God of heaven, at the great national festival, in the time of Robespierre, which was the last act before his fall.

Then the third woe "came quickly." When the sixth trumpet finished with the downfall of Robespierre, the seventh trumpet began to sound, and has been sounding ever since (1793), and people don't know it. They think that the sounding of the trumpet will be a sound in the sky. They don't know that trumpets are periods in relation to God's dealings with mankind, in which events are transpiring, by which He afflicts them by war, pestilence, and famine, for their abominations. The seventh trumpet will

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last until the dead are raised, for the trumpet has not done sounding yet, and will not, till the millennium is established. The terrible woes that have been developed during the last 76 years - all that goes to make up the history of Europe, in connection with the Catholic despotisms and powers of the Protestant portion of the world, - are events developed under the seventh trumpet. We are now living under the seventh trumpet, which is the last period of the seventh-seal.

This last trumpet comprehends seven vials.

The first vial was poured out in the earth in 1789.

The second vial was poured out upon the sea in 1793, and its effects are to be seen in the long maritime wars of Britain against France, under the ministry of Pitt, in the times of George III and George IV. That vial ended in 1815, with the general pacification of Europe, in the downfall of Napoleon.

The third vial was the pouring out of Gods vengeance upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and was concurrent with the operation of the second. It is to be identified in Napoleon's campaigns in Italy in 1796.

The fourth vial (also concurrent with the second), was the pouring out of God's indignation upon the sun of the Holy Roman Empire, in the wars of Napoleon against Germany in 1805.

The fifth vial was poured upon the seat of the beast - first, its political seat in Vienna, and then its ecclesiastical seat - Rome. The result was, the kingdom of the beast was darkened. The historical parallel is to be seen in the fact that the Pope was taken prisoner by Napoleon; and carried to Fontainebleau, where he was made the chief bishop of the French empire; and Rome degraded to the rank of second city in the French empire. Rome was permitted to elect seven senators and send them to Paris to represent the people in the Legislature - a great humiliation certainly for the city which is called the Eternal City, and in which imperial government had been established for so many ages. This was darkening the kingdom of the beast.

When Napoleon fell, the Holy Alliance, as it was called, restored light to the kingdom of the beast. Britain took part in this. Britain co-operated with the Catholic powers of Europe in restoring the Pope. Pretty Protestants!

The sixth vial, like the sixth trumpet, is divided into two sections, eastern and western. In the eastern part of Europe, it was poured on the

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Euphratean or Ottoman power, that it might dry up. The Ottoman power has been drying up for 50 years past. It began to dry up in 1820, and now exists only by the sufferance of the other powers. While that power is drying up, a great event is announced. You will observe a break occurs in the prophecy, and a warning is introduced. The warning is this:

"Behold! I come as a thief; blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

Then the prophecy is resumed, and the powers are represented as being mustered for the war of the great day of God Almighty, the result of which is the overthrow of the armies in the east, in the war of Armageddon, the expulsion of the enemy from the Holy Land, and the establishment of the power of the kings of the east, or from a sun's rising, viz., the saints who are developed by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, or the advent of the Lord Jesus.

While these things are maturing in the east, other events are transpiring in the western part of Europe, represented by the issuing of three unclean spirits, like frogs, from the mouths of the dragon, beast, and false prophet. The frogs represent the power of France, whose original heraldic symbol was three frogs emblazoned on shield and banner, and stamped on coins. The events of the last twenty years exhibit France as the leading power of the situation. No question has arisen in Europe, since 1848, in which France has not been mixed up, and taken the leading part in it. The reason is to be found in the symbol before us. It was foretold to John, that in the time of the sixth vial, under which we are now living, a power, answering in political heraldry to three frogs, would be active in developing a war spirit among the nations, and causing it more particularly to radiate from three notable political centres, symbolised by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

Contemporary history illustrates the prophecy. Louis Napoleon is the heading up of the frog-power. He is the personification of the French people. He is not descended from royalty, but has sprung from the common people, who represented themselves by frogs on account of the prevalence of that creature in the marshes of Westphalia, in Germany, whence they originally came. He is not the three frogs in himself, but the head of the frog-people. He has played a remarkable part in the politics of Europe since he came into power. He is a remarkable man. You all know how he is spoken of as a

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mysterious man - a man of destiny, whom nobody can get to the bottom of, and who keeps his position in spite of all the blunders of his government. Like his uncle, he is an instrument in the hand of Deity, to work out a crisis for Europe which will bring it to the verge of destruction. That is his mission, and no one can prevent him from carrying it into effect.

Well, Christ comes in the time of the vial which now exists. We don't know how soon he may be here. The times are all run out, except the long period of 2,520 years, the symbolic times of the Babylonian tree - the kingdom of men. All the rest of the times have expired, and A NEW SERIES OF EVENTS has commenced which will comprehend the advent. Whether he may be here next month, or next year, or how long it may be, we know not. This we know, that a series of events has begun which will bring him here.

Part of that series is the preparation of a people for the Lord. This work is going on throughout England, and has been going on throughout America. The work will go on more and more; and while we are endeavouring to enlighten the people, Christ will come. When he comes, he will not send to the Roman Catholics, nor the Church of England, nor the Church of Scotland, nor the Church of Ireland, nor to any of the Dissenting denominations. He will come to the humble class of people who believe the truth and have obeyed it, and are not afraid to maintain it. If there are only twenty of them, he will come to them. He will not come to the mass of ignoramuses who are headed up by the clergy and ministers of the day.

The seventh vial contains the seven thunders which will manifest the remainder of the judgments of God upon the nations. When the events of the seventh vial are all expended, there will be no more wrath of God upon mankind for a thousand years.

Christ comes under the sixth vial. He raises the dead under the sixth vial. Through his angelic messengers that come with him, he gathers together his elect from the four winds of heaven. He sifts out, from the company thus convened in his presence, those whom he considers worthless, and exiles them into the punishment prepared for the wicked; to the others he says, "Come ye, blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." When he has made this separation of the good from the bad - of the pure from the vile - he gives judgment into the hands of those whom he associates with himself. Daniel says, "I beheld, and the time came that judgment was given to the

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saints of the Most High." When judgment is given to the saints, they go forth to war against the world, as you may learn from the 19th chapter of the Apocalypse. That is called the war of the great day of God Almighty. There are two parties to that war - first, Christ and the saints, and the Jews as their rank and file; and second, the powers that be, with their millions of armed men on the other. The conflict is certain, and the end sure, for we read in Rev. 17:14: "These (the kings represented by the ten horns) shall make war upon the Lamb, and the Lamb shall OVERCOME them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." The war will last forty years, as represented in the lowest square of the last section of the chart. "Treading the winepress by the space of 1,600 furlongs," is the symbolic equivalent of judgment for 40 years, which is the square of 1,600. The matter is mentioned in a more specific form in the prophecy of Micah (chap. 7:15). The events of the forty years will introduce the millennium; for when the seven thunders have ceased to roll, the world will have been brought to its senses; as saith the prophet, "When thy judgments are in the earth, then will the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9). Then will the Gentiles wait for the law of the Messiah, and submit with joy to his authority. "They shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths" (Isaiah 2:3). Then shall the law go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Micah 4:3). Then shall the Messiah's mission be brought manifestly before the world, when, in all the earth, he shall have established "Glory to God in the highest, over the earth, peace, and goodwill amongst men."

For more ample details than are contained in this extempore address, the reader may consult the three volumes of Apocalyptic Exposition, published by the author, styled "EUREKA," and which may be had according to advertisement on the cover.

this is followed by 39-40 "THE OHRISTADELPHIANS BELIEVE"

Appendix.

THE foregoing exposition, excellent though it be in its main lines, fails, as will at once be seen, in the matter of premature expectations. These have been indulged in by all the Lord's people from the time when the apostles, immediately after his resurrection, asked him: "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Dr. Thomas was quite prepared for the possibility that his calculations might prove to be wrong, and said so definitely in Eureka, his exposition of the Apocalypse.

Dr. Thomas estimated that the termination of "The Seven times of the Babylonian Tree" would come in A.D. 1910. Concerning this and some of the other times, a few words may be said in connection with

CHART No. 4 - SUPPLEMENTARY.

which is inserted after the others to give an idea of current anticipations in relation to the historical developments in Israel and among the Gentiles during the past fifty years.

In 1881 a brother published a chart of some of the principal prophetic times, in which he proposed to commence the "seven times" in relation to Israel, in B.C. 623. He said:-

"That seven times equals 2,520 years is proved by the comparison of Rev. 12:6 with verse 14 of the same chapter.

"We begin the times of Israel's down-treading at 623 B.C. because of this being about the date when the answer was given through the prophetess Huldah, as in 2 Kings 22:16, declaring that the commencement of the times of desolation upon Israel were about to begin. In support of this, we have Ezekiel's statement in his first verse, that his prophecy commences in the 30th year. From the second verse we find the year spoken of as the 30th to be the same as the 5th year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, which was 593 B.C. So that, taking the 30 years as the period of the times of Israel's desolation already expired when Ezekiel commences his prophecy, and adding it to 593 B.C., we have 623 B.C. as the commencement of the time. Consequently, Israel's down-treading should terminate about 1897 A.D."

Although it cannot be said that Israel's down-treading has even yet terminated (1920); yet there is this interesting indication of its termination, namely, that in this anticipated 1897 A.D. at Basle there was held the FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS, which revealed to Israel and to the astonished world the first organic national voice of Israel since the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Dr. Thomas' reckoning of the seven times is from B.C. 610, which he considers to be the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. This gave the termination A.D. 1910. But it is doubtful if the time is to be reckoned from the palmy days of Babylon. The seven times appear to date from the "hewing down" of the tree (Dan. 4:14-16, 23-25, 33-34). If this be the meaning of "the watcher - the holy one," and the hewing down of the tree he taken to represent the Medo-Persian overthrow of Belshazzar in B.C. 542 (Dr. Thomas), then the termination of the seven times must be deferred to A.D. 1978. Other considerations make us hope this may be wrong; but the scripture seems to convey the idea, and therefore it is mentioned.

Again, if the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar be taken as the commencement (though the subject of Dan. 4 does not seem to warrant it), and the date be reckoned as B.C. 586 (Conder, in The Bible and the East - The chronology of the Book of Kings compared with the monuments. Dr. Thomas, in Chron. Heb., has B.C. 592), then we have the termination A.D. 1935. Time will try these forecasts.

With reference to the "evening-morning" period of Dan. 8, or 2,400 years which Dr. Thomas begins B.C. 540 and terminates A.D. 1860, it must be remarked first, that documentary evidence is all in favour of "2,300" as the true reading (see The Christadelphian, 1907, page 158). And, taking this number, some have reckoned from the close of prophecy about B.C. 397 (compare Mic. 3:6, and the date of Malachi - Usher) and thus arrived at A.D. 1903 for the date of "the cleansing of the Sanctuary." The efflux of time has proved this also to be premature.

Taking the 2,400, others have arrived at A.D. 1944 as a termination as illustrated by the following by a brother in The Christadelphian for 1899, page 24 :-

"The question is, seeing the Sanctuary has not been cleansed, when did this period begin? We are told, with respect to this vision (Dan. 8:27), that 'none understood it,' and we can see also in the ninth chapter, verse 2, that Daniel had been trying until the first year of Darius to find it out, and having made the matter the subject of prayer (verses 17-19), the angel Gabriel has sent to give him understanding concerning the matter of the vision (verse 23). Thus must be the vision of 'the evening morning,' for he had not been shown another vision since, and he says (verse 21) that he had seen Gabriel in the vision, a fact which is also stated in chapter 8:16. It is evident, therefore, that the explanation that follows, namely, the 'seventy weeks,' is an elucidation of the 'evening morning' vision, and is a part of it, and not a separate prophecy; and also that being a part of it, it must be the beginning part of it, and, consequently, the 'evening morning' and the 'seventy weeks' begin at the same time."

Thus, as represented on the second line of Chart No. 4, dating from B.C. 456, which all agree is the commencement of the "seventy weeks," the 2,400 expire A.D. 1944.

With regard to the Papal times, and the last three times of Daniel ch. 12 (1,260, 1,290, 1,335) it is evident that 1870 is to be regarded as the terminal date of the fall of the Temporal Power of the Papacy, and it is so celebrated in Italy itself. This gives a starting point for the 1,260 of A.D. 610; and it is noted that in that year the completion of the setting-up of the Papacy was marked by the giving of the Pantheon by Phocas to Boniface IV., and the dedication of the old heathen temple to the new Queen of Heaven and all the gods and goddesses and "saints" of the Papal superstition.

With this adjustment of the Papal 1,260 days, and naturally regarding the 1,290 and 1,335 of Daniel 12 as specifying times with the same starting point, we are brought to A.D. 1900 and 1945 respectively as their terminations.

In A.D. 1900 the FOURTH ZIONIST CONGRESS was held in LONDON and appeared to illustrate the friendliness of Tarshish for the Jews in a world of enemies.

In A.D. 1945 it is hoped by many that they may stand with Daniel in his lot in the kingdom of God.

Some prefer to consider the Moslem as "the Desolator," and to adjust Daniel's times in ch. 12 to Mohammedan rather than to Papal times. The Moslem year is lunar, and about 11 days shorter than the solar year of 365 days. Allowance must be made for this in calculating Moslem dates. A.H. (Anno Hegirae) 1260 = A.D. 1844, "a most marked era in the overthrow of Mohammedan Power." A.H. 1290 = A.D. 1873, followed shortly by the RUSSO-Turkish War of 1877. A.H. 1335 = A.D. 1917, marked by THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM, and the expulsion of the Turks from Palestine.

With regard to the war of "the last 40 years," of which Dr. Thomas speaks on p. 29, it is not certain that Mic. 7:15, and Rev. 14:20 indicate such a time, especially the latter passage. See footnote in Elpis Israel, page 409.

It is very evident that we are in "the time of the end"; and what the Lord himself said in the days of his flesh will doubtless prove true at the last: "In such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh."

"Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments."