EVIDENCES FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD IN 1873: OR THE MIDNIGHT CRY.

 

"Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him."

 

PUBLISHED BY NELSON H. BARBOUR

 

SECOND EDITION.

 

ROCHESTER, N.Y., 1871.

 

Those desiring books, address DAVID T. COOPER, 72 Mount Hope Ave., Rochester, N.Y.   Price, single copy, 25 cents: $1.80 per doz. $12.00 per hundred.

 

**************************************************************************************************

 

PREFACE.

 

In presenting the following pages to the consideration of those who are waiting for the coming and kingdom of our Lord, the writer is not unmindful of his utter inability to do justice to the subject he has attempted to handle.  Notwithstanding he has held these views in the main as here presented, for many years, he has held back, hoping and praying that God would raise up men more capable, and better prepared to bring these things before the world in a less objectionable way, and one more likely to command attention.  But as he humbly believes that God has given him some little light on the prophecies which has not been proclaimed to the world, and which has an important bearing on His people at the present time, he dares therefore no longer refuse to sound the alarm. N.H.B. 

 

 

 CONTENTS.

 

 The Time of the End                3

 Definite Time                     15

 The Parable of the Ten Virgins    20

 Views held in 1843                39

 The Chronology                    50

 The Appointed Time                69

 The Judgment on the Papacy        82

 The 2300 Days                     92

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

"THE TIME OF THE END."

 

 

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."

 

This language of the prophet implies that time will have an end.  Not that the earth will ever cease its circling course around the great central orb, but that time allotted to mortals, like all human, earthly things, will end.  God hath measured and fixed its bounds and declared its end, from the beginning.  And having "declared it," he has revealed it: for "surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the prophets."  And if revealed, it "belongs to us and to our children."

 

Time is a measured or definite portion of duration.  An end, if the extreme point or conclusion of a series, says Webster.  Therefore "the time of the end" must be a series of points, or ends.  And this definition is in harmony with the events associated with this phrase, wherever it occurs, in the book of Daniel.

 

It is the time during which God is closing up the prophetic periods.  Some terminating at its commencement, others scattered along through, and still others, reaching to its consummation.  Thus the language, "time of the end" is full of meaning.  And events, to a few of which we shall refer in brief, point to the present for its fulfillment.

 

But first, I would have the reader so connect the present with the past, that in one comprehensive view, the whole of the world’s history, from Eden lost, to paradise regained, may pass before him.

 

  *************************************************************************************************

 

  - 4-

 

After which I promise, by stubborn facts, which none can question, to prove that we are living in the little space of time mentioned in our text, and marked out as one of preparation, for both God and man; and ending, ends the sweet story of the gospel.

 

Come, then, and for a few brief moments look at the dim past, through the telescope of inspiration; and like a vision, time’s picture, with all its long forgotten years, shall pass before you.

 

I warn you, the vision will be one of sorrow, death and woe.  For scarcely had man, fresh from the molding hand of God, tasted of the sweets of life, ere death began to feed upon him.  But as the picture, except a few brief sands of time, is all behind us, hope gives us courage; and the contrast adds new luster to the brighter future.

 

The line through which the promised Seed, the world’s great Life-giver should come, numbers ten human lives, from Adam to Noah’s flood: and measures a thousand six hundred and fifty-six years of primeval history.  So God informs us.  But I will not stop to give the proof, since chronology is reserved for a future chapter.

 

At the flood, the human race reduced to a single family, sad consequence of sin, begins the second act in the great drama of man’s probation.

 

Noah, the father of the new world, is followed by a line of patriarchs, twelve in all, whose united ages, lapping more or less, measure off six hundred ad fifty-nine years more of the stream of time-beginning at the flood, and ending with Jacob down in Egypt.

 

At Jacob’s death, the twelve tribes of Israel received the scepter, and became a nation, God’s chosen people.  And as they pass before us we see them crushed to earth by hard Egyptian bondage, their children slain, their hopes cut off.  And yet in this their darkest hour, God hears their cry, delivers

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 5-

 

them from bondage, and with a mighty hand brings them in triumph through the sea.

 

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song: I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously; the Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."  This song will again be heard from the sea of glass at our deliverance.  Rev. xv.2,3.

 

From here we follow them through the wilderness into the promised land, under their judges and kings, down to their captivity in Babylon; which, from Jacob’s death, makes a thousand two hundred and seven years more to be added to the past.

 

Here the four great empires, human institutions, aptly represented by the image of a man, complete the picture.

 

Babylon, the head of gold, or lion of the prophet Daniel’s vision, is the first, and holds universal sway for seventy years.  As the conquerors of Judah, they require of them a song.  But their tongues refuse: for how can they sing the song of Zion in a strange land?  Their harps hang idly by the willows, and the voice of weeping is their only answer.

 

There is a Lion soon to come, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," at whose command the glad songs of Zion shall again be heard, until the echo of those golden harps shall ravish every ear.

 

The second universal empire of the image, Medo-Persia, fills up two hundred and ten years more of the prophetic page, and the world’s history.  After which, "a mighty king stands up"; the great Alexander, who overruns the Persian empire, and with an army of a few thousand men, scatter their hosts of millions like chaff before the wind.

 

Here the third kingdom, Greece, has its origin, and for the short space of one hundred and seventy years controls the scepter of the world.  After which the "legs of iron" exalt themselves: and Rome, the fourth and last of earth’s universal

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 6-

 

kingdoms, stands up against the Prince of princes.  "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ."

 

Rome, in its imperial or pagan form, holds the world in its iron grasp six hundred and ninety-three years.

 

Early in this period, in the days of Augustus Caesar, the long promised Messiah makes his advent, and as the "man of sorrow" bore our sins upon the cross.  His second coming, which is as certain as was the first, will be in different form; now he is to come as "King of kings, and Lord of lords."

 

As the reckoning of time began with Adam, so at the end of four thousand one hundred and twenty-eight years, it began again with the second Adam, as the year one of the Christian era.

 

But the world’s history still went on unbroken.  Imperial Rome numbered its full term and then papal Rome, or "the abomination that maketh desolate," was "set up."

 

If you would find the age of the human race at any particular year during the Christian era, add the last number we have given to that year, and you will find it; but in adding up the world’s chronology, leave it out.

 

The "abomination" once "set up," had power to continue forty and two months prophetic, or one thousand two hundred and sixty of our years; when its dominion should be given up.

 

This leaves us five thousand nine hundred and twenty-five years from Adam, or at the close of the year 1797 of the Christian era.  In this chronology we follow Jewish time, or from spring to spring.  Therefore, the year 1797 ends not till the spring of 1798, by common reckoning.

 

In 1798, as we all know, the papal power was broken.  And we are told by inspiration, that when broken, it should be consumed and destroyed unto the end.  The gradual consumption of its dominion since then has completely answered to the prophetic language.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 7-

 

Thus we have the world’s history in epitome:

 

 The time before the flood, . . . . . . . . .  1656 years.

 Patriarchal age, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   659   "

 Israel, to their captivity, . . . . . . . . . 1207   "

 Captivity under Babylon, . . . . . . . . . .    70   "

 Medo-Persia, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210   "

 Grecia, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  170   "

 Pagan Rome, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  693   "

 Papal Rome,  .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1260   "

                                               _____

 

 Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5925   "

 

 

 from Adam to the beginning of 1798 of the Christian era, which leaves but seventy-five years to complete the six thousand; and with the seventh, we are taught, begins the new Eden, or Millennial state of rest.

 

 And now this little span, called in prophetic language "The time of the end," is nearly finished, and unless God shall reverse the hour-glass in a new dispensation, the stream will cease to flow.  But "to those who look for him the second time," there is a promise of a new birth and glorious future.

 

 If I keep my promise, I shall now prove that we are indeed in the little space of time, during which

 

 "MANY SHALL RUN TO AND FRO."

 

 The present century has developed wonders in this direction, of which Philosophers of past ages never dreamed.

 

 When John Stevenson, the English Engineer, first proposed the building of a railroad from London to Manchester, he advanced the idea that passengers and goods might be carried at a speed of eight miles an hour.  And so extravagant was this idea then thought to be, that his friends urged him to moderate his views, if for no other reason because the English Parliament would never entertain a scheme so visionary.  And before obtaining his charter he was compelled to limit his ambition

 

  *************************************************************************************************

 

  - 8-

 

 to a speed of four, or at the most, five miles an hour.  Since then, passengers have traveled on that same road at seventy miles an hour; a speed that outstrips the hurricane, and leaves it far behind.  And now the face of almost every land upon the globe is thickly interspersed with iron rails; long trains of cars go hurrying by, loaded with thousands and tens of thousands of human freight, rushing hither and thither, "to and fro," as if their lives depended on their speed.  Darkness cannot stop them, or sleep reduce their numbers.

 

 I have watched them as the trains approach the depot, on a dark and stormy night, when the torch in front seemed like a globe of fire.  The jostling of the cars, the rush of passengers, the steam and smoke, and screaming whistle, must have been a wondrous vision to the prophet Nahum.  And yet his description is as accurate as though he had lived and seen it with his mortal eyes.

 

 "The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways, they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings."

 

 Who can read this language of the prophet, and not feel the full assurance that he speaks of railroad cars?  What other vehicle has ever met a single feature of the picture here portrayed, and what one is not answered by the railroad car?  Then it is God’s preparation day.  He is speaking in these great signs, and they that hear his voice shall live.

 

 INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE!

 

 The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?  "Gird up now thy loins like a man and I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." Job 38.

 

 Let us now compare ancient with modern times; the knowledge of the past, with that of the time when God said knowledge

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 9-

 

 should increase; and see if we cannot answer questions which made the prophet lay his hand upon his mouth.

 

 "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?"

 

 Have we not carefully marked out a path, with lead and line, and built a highway there, over which if not to walk, at least to send our words, our hopes and fears and inmost thoughts?

 

 "Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare, if thou knowest it all."

 

 We have indeed perceived its breadth, measured its sands, and weighed it in the balance.

 

 THE DWELLING PLACE OF LIGHT.

 

 "Knowest thou the way where light dwelleth?"  Recent developments with the spectroscope, that new and wonderful instrument that makes light almost talk, has not only answered this question in relation to our solar system, but that answer is extended to the remotest star, and nebula, whose distance is so vast, that light which had started with lightning speed, e’re the Almighty had asked the question of the astonished prophet, has but just reached our distant world.

 

 By means of this instrument, we will question this messenger from that far-off world.

 

 But first, we pass it through a triangular glass, or prism, to separate it from its companions, or else speaking all together, confusion will ensue.  It then passes through the spectroscope and also an elongated slit in a piece of paper, to a screen, suspended in a darkened room, where, if we but listen, it will tell the secret of its birth.  Little stranger, we would know of thy nativity, thy origin, and the object of thy being.

 

 I sprang from hydrogen, and more than half suspect oxygen to be my father; but of this I am not sure, for you must know that marriage among the elements, is governed

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 10-

 

 by quite different laws from those our Maker gave to you.  With them the strongest, with imperial will, selects his bride at pleasure; and if perchance he comes in contact with a form more to his liking, he leaves his first, and following the stronger affinity, takes to himself another bride.  But they are not susceptible of sin, and suffer neither sorrow, shame, or death.

 

 I have heard that some gross minds among your race, lowering themselves to the level of inorganic life, follow our laws, and set aside the higher ones which Heaven ordained for them.  But as they hide themselves from us, I only speak from hearsay; and trust you will forgive this slight digression.  For if stones will preach, when men keep silent, why may not rays of light?

 

 From this union of the elements we, their offspring, start into life, and without one moment’s waste of time, enter on our mission, Heaven ordained, of which we learn the object only at the hour of death.

 

 In my joyous flight, I crossed the track of myriads of messengers like myself, and many a flaming orb.  But we never stop to dally, or hold converse; for motion is our very life, and hence to stop is death.  Thus with inconceivable velocity as years and centuries rolled away, I hurried on, never for a moment swerving from my course until I felt the influence of your atmosphere; then I knew my end was near, and bent my course to this my resting place.  And now the hour of dissolution is at hand, I can unfold the mystery of my being.

 

 Death, to us sunbeams, is but a change of life; for you must know what God pronounces "good" can never die.  And so we pass a round of being through many a change and vast.  Sometimes as life-sustaining heat we act our part; anon, as chemical affinity, we inspire the very union between the elements, of which I spoke at first, and thus become the agents of a new

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 11-

 

 birth unto ourselves.  Again we take the form of God’s thunder-bolts, which one day will hurl destruction on his foes.  We sometimes sleep for ages; all things rest; even God himself ceased from his labors.

 

 When last I came to earth, for I am not so much a stranger here as you thought at first, I lay for ages dormant in its bowels, locked in a carbon dungeon; you call it coal, and cold enough it was, and cheerless, until one happy day the earth gave forth a mighty throb that burst my prison doors; bright streams of liquid lava set my very soul on fire; my chains fell off, and I was free again.  The first-born of created things, e’er time began, was I.

 

 And now the moment of my change has come, and in that change I shall impart warmth, life and joy, to plant or animal as He ordains.  And you, too, if obedient to the will of Heaven, may soon be changed, and put on immortality; when in the countless ages, perhaps we will meet again.  And with immortal powers you then may learn that light has many a truth, and deep, as yet unseen by mortal eyes.  Are your companions from the same origin? I quickly asked.  The little traveler gave no response, but faded from my sight.  I placed my hand upon the screen and felt the warmth, and knew his words were true.  And more, I learned, that however freely they of themselves converse, they never tell the secrets of another.  And so I question each in turn; some from the same distant star, others from the infinite abyss of nebula, or chaotic worlds as yet unformed and void; and still others from our own bright sun, whose flight, between that orb and us, we count by minutes, not centuries.  Their answers were the same, whate’er their source.  One quickly said, I spring from iron; others, nickel, cobalt, copper, carbon, sulphur, sodium, &c.  Thus we learn that God’s great universe of worlds, however distant, are all made of common stuff, familiar to our touch, of which our world is but an epitome, and man an epitome of this

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 12-

 

 If you ask how this instrument compels each ray of light to tell its origin, I answer, that by throwing its likeness on a screen, we find that light produced by burning, or incandescent carbon, gives a picture-a spectrum-composed of bright and dark lines, arranged in a way peculiar to itself, and as easily recognized under all circumstances, from that of hydrogen, phosphorus, gold, or any other element, as is the likeness of your face from that of other human beings.  But you will understand this ray of light, passed through the spectroscope, has told us only part of what it can be made to say by other means.  The present generation of savants have learned that light is the vibration of matter, caused by the union, or closer contact, sometimes called combustion, of the elements; while the old theory of its imponderable existence, is obsolete as is that of the earth being the center of the universe.

 

 This vibratory motion, imparted to an all-pervading "ether," is subject to the laws that govern sound; and so the poet’s fancy of "the music of the spheres" is now a fact.  Thus God’s great book, "the ordinances of heaven," like that of revelation, is unsealed, "and he that runs may read" from both at pleasure.  We also learn the movements of worlds, once called "fixed stars" because their distance was so great no instrument could mark the slightest motion in a hundred years; but now we count the miles they pass per minute, in which they widen or reduce the great gulf between them and us, and in language a child can understand.

 

 Suppose a bugle to be played in perfect time, by one standing on a train of cars, and moving from you at a rapid rate; each succeeding note would lag behind, and reach the ear a little out of time.  If, on the other hand, the train was coming towards you, each note, having a shorter distance to travel, would fall too quickly on the ear; and so we should know which way the train was moving if we had no eyes.  And with proper instruments to measure sound, could tell the speed

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 13-

 

 at which it moved.  So it is with light; the vibrations are too wide apart to be in time, if the star is moving from us; too near together when approaching.

 

 As there is a limit to musical vibrations on both extremes, beyond which noise ensues, so too, it is with light; for if the motion is too fast, or more than six hundred million times a second, the rays of light fade out, and change to those of chemical or decomposing power; if too slow, or less than four hundred and fifty million times a second, the effect upon the optic nerve ceases to be light, and then we call it heat.

 

 I will not stop to tell you how to count so fast, but you may try the lowest one in music first, and when, with unaided human tongue, you master this-it’s only sixteen times a second-you then may try the higher ones of light.  It is thus we get a glimpse of the place, and way, and origin of light.

 

 DARKNESS.

 

 "And as for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou shouldest take it to the bounds thereof, that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof."

 

 Little did Job know that darkness had a "place" as fixed as the eternal hills, aye, more fixed, for they turn with the earth upon its axis: while that cone of darkness, the earth’s shadow, whose base is the diameter of the earth, and apex stretching far beyond the orbit of the moon, changes not with the rolling earth, but stands eternally the same, with "bounds" as sharp and changeless as though it were cut out of solid blackness, and softened only for a little space by our atmosphere.  What we call day and night, is only being rolled into this darkness and then out again.  Thus "the light is parted, that scattereth the east wind upon the earth."

 

 How wonderful is Jehovah’s word; and facts as they unfold themselves to our finite minds speak volumes of its truth.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 14-

 

 Wisdom dwelleth at his right hand!  Happy the man who hears her voice, and walketh in her ways.

 

 "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven, and canst thou set the dominions thereof in the earth?"

 

 What knew he of eclipses, and their cause?  Or of the law of gravity, by which the sun maintains dominion and holds the earth and planets in their place?  What must he have thought of this?  "Canst thou send the lightnings that they may go, and say unto thee, here we are?"  And yet, far as they traverse every land, through mountain gorge, or beneath the ocean bed, and like the humblest servant, say in very deed, "Lo, here we are."

 

 Time would fail to tell of half the progress in art and science, invention and discovery, of the present day.  For truly knowledge has increased, as God foresaw and said it would.  And more than this, the door of wisdom’s self is flung ajar, the Book unsealed, and the entrance to God’s word made easy.  The mysteries which holy men and angels desired, but failed to see, are now freely offered to our gaze; and if his judgments are measured by the light we have, may God have mercy on this generation, so soon to stand before his bar.

 

 The end is even now begun, and we are living in that little space marked out as one of preparation for both God and man.  If we shut our eyes against the light, and watch not for the landmarks, by which "the wise shall understand," it will not change His plans nor stay the coming wrath; no more than does the desert bird, who hides its head beneath the sand turn back its foe.  A few short months, which will not stop, and we shall stand in presence of our Judge, with no veil, not even one of earth, to hide us from his gaze.  Now, while mercy lingers, those who seek may find a refuge from the storm.  May He who made us, gently lead us to the shadow of that Rock.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

DEFINITE TIME.

 

Is the time of the second advent of our Lord a proper subject for investigation?

 

It is well, before entering upon such investigation, to know that we are not treading on forbidden ground.  For "secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children for ever."

 

If the time for the appearing of our blessed Savior is not revealed, then it is one of God’s secrets into which, if we attempt to pry, we shall reap condemnation to ourselves.

 

"Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh."  "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven; neither the Son, but my Father only."  "Watch, therefore, for ye know not when the time is."  These, and similar scriptures, have deterred many an earnest searcher after truth from investigating the prophetic periods, and if they were designed for that purpose, it is well that we take warning.  But before drawing back, it is also well to be certain we are not mistaken in their meaning; least we turn aside from the path in which God would have us walk, for some imaginary obstruction, and so fall into darkness.

 

God tests His people in many ways.  There are apparent contradictions and difficulties which seem as real as were the mountains on either hand of Israel, and the sea in front; yet God said, "Speak unto the people that they go forward."

 

The Bible is a strange book; seen from the standpoint of the world, it is foolishness; but the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.

 

  ***************************************************************************************************

 

  - 16-

 

If I bring scripture, of which there is an abundance, to prove we are to know the time, while these appear to teach the contrary, it does not lessen, but rather increases, the difficulty.

 

The time was when such as the following were hard to reconcile.  In speaking of "the tares and wheat," or good and bad, our Lord says, "let both grow together till the harvest," which, he informs us, is the end of the world.  In another place we read of a time when "all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest."

 

Adventists have got beyond such difficulties, and see harmony, not discord.  As we progress in this highway of knowledge, the sea retires, and the dry ground meets our feet at every step.  Difficulties which seemed like mountains in our path, vanish away; and the real object of our dread often proves only a beacon light which God had kindly given to help us on our way.

 

Let us then, with honest purpose, search for truth; "knowing this first, that all scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable."  "For they who seek shall find," "and unto them ‘tis given to know the mysteries of God’s kingdom."  "While others seeing cannot see; and hearing, cannot understand."

 

The Great Teacher taught by parables; and humbly walking in his steps, we too will try to show the harmony existing here, by an illustration.

 

A mighty king sent forth his armies to destroy a wicked city.  Willing to spare such as would repent of their rebellion, he sent his herald with this proclamation: My engineers are about to undermine this great city, which is soon to be destroyed; let such, therefore, who would save their lives be on the watch; for when we have tunneled to the citadel a white flag will be hoisted; then know the coming desolation is at hand.  When the excavation for the powder is completed, a red flag will be seen.  Then you who desire deliverance, may look up, and lift up your heads, knowing that your redemption draweth nigh.  When the magazine is full charged,

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 17-

 

the slow match laid, and everything in readiness, a black flag will appear; from which time, in just seven days, the torch will be applied, and all within the city perish.  Therefore sleep not, but watch; and when all these things shall come to pass, fly to the eastern gate, where means will be provided for the escape of those found ready.  Watch, therefore, for ye know not when the time is.  Watch! What for? says one, why for the explosion, to be sure!  O no! Why watch for that?  It will be as the lightning, which shineth from the east even unto the west, and every eye shall see it; watch rather for the flags.

 

But tell us, Engineer, when shall these things be?  I cannot, for no one knows how long it will take to tunnel the citadel and prepare the excavation.  Of that day knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven; God only, reads the future.  "But what I say unto you, I say unto all: Watch!"

 

Days, months, and years went by.  The citizens became absorbed in careless pleasures, and forgot their danger.  They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, and all things continued as before.  ‘Tis true a few who loved the king repented of their rebellion and ceased to lay up treasures in the city, but invested all they had outside the walls.  These failed not to watch and pray for deliverance.

 

As time went on, the white flag, and then the red, was hoisted up, for a little, and soon disappeared.  The pilgrims who were on the watch, and saw the signs, lifted up their heads which had been hanging down, and with shouts of joy disturbed the quiet of the city.  Men called them fools and evil prophets, to make so much ado about a common flag; and some doubted if they had seen one, and even if they had, it could easily be accounted for.  It was a common piece of bunting, run up with ropes.  But they heeded not their scoffs, for well they knew by these same things which men accounted for so easily, that the king had not forgotten

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 18-

 

them, and the time was hasting greatly for their deliverance.  Their hopes grew stronger, and their vigilance increased so much the more, least they should miss the black flag when it came to view; and so, by not enduring to the end, lose all.

 

After a long weary waiting, their eyes were greeted by the welcome sight.  Now their hearts leaped for joy! for they knew the time, and could see the day approaching; and as they fled for refuge, earnestly entreated others to join them, and seek safety from the coming wrath.  A few there were who listened, and by forsaking all they had, were just in time to save their lives.  But others heard with scorn, or pity, and wondered the pilgrims could be so foolish as to fix the time, and think that they could read the future, when the herald had said, long years before, that no man knew the time, not even he himself.  Nor could the wisest, among the citizens, gain the slightest clue.

 

When asked if they had watched, some said they had watched for the explosion; but they could see no use in watching for that which no man could ever know, or at least not till it was too late to be of any benefit.  They thought the language of the Herald obscure; they had been good, and meant to be better, and if the city should ever be destroyed, which was doubtful, they had no fears of it coming in their time, at least.

 

When told by the pilgrims that the very reason they were to watch, was that they might know; and that the Herald had said, "If therefore thou shall not watch I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shall not know what hour I will come upon thee," they seemed the more surprised at the foolish way the pilgrims had of construing language.

 

These men who would not watch, nor believe those who did, perished alone in their blindness.  For when the time had come, the pilgrims had all fled, as had the Christians of old, from the fated city of Jerusalem.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 19-

 

GOD’S SECRETS.

 

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him."  "Shall I hide from Abram that thing which I do?" said God, when about to destroy the cities of the plains.

 

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets to his servants, the prophets."  "God hath appointed the day in the which he will judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained."  "Those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children."

 

In appointing the day, he has done something, and yet he will do nothing but he revealeth it to his servants the prophets.

 

From these declarations of the Almighty, we learn not only that the day is appointed but it is revealed, and therefore belongs to us.

 

God has always warned the world of coming judgments.  And those who have rejected the warning and been lost, have done it willfully.

 

The old world was not left unwarned, and yet our Lord says, "They knew not until the flood came and took them all away.  So shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man."

 

Sodom could not fall without a warning, but Lot seemed to them like one who mocked.  "So shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man."

 

Jerusalem was destroyed because they would not hear the warning.  "They shall lay thee even with the ground, says Christ, and thy children with thee; because thou "knewest not the time of thy visitation."

 

When God has promised to do nothing but he revealeth it to his servants, shall we believe those who tell us that he will come upon this world unwarned, and leave his children in the dark?  I tell you, Nay; "ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day overtake you as a thief."  "Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?"

 

**************************************************************************************************

 

AN EXPOSITION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS. -Mt 25.

 

"Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom."

 

The parables of our Lord are usually in the present tense, and represent the whole gospel dispensation.  "The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a grain of mustard seed, &c."  But this parable is an exception to all others.  "Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened"; it is not now, but at some future time it shall be likened to ten virgins.  Therefore, as it represents the end, when the bridegroom comes, and they that are ready go in, and not the beginning of the gospel dispensation, it is now being enacted, at the present time, or it is altogether future.

 

This is self-apparent and needs no proof; and I will here state that I do not ask the reader to give credence to any argument that may be advanced in these pages in favor of the coming of the Lord in 1873.  Give them your earnest consideration; and if they are of God, they will command your faith-not yours who draw back and would not have it so.  If you love not his appearing, and feel in your heart that if you could you would delay his coming, your eyes are sealed; and no power excepting love can open them.  "The wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand."

 

This is a natural sequence, true in all things.  For instance, the man who loves the science of geology, will

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 21-

 

find means to become familiar with it.  He can read many a truth in God’s great book of nature, which is close sealed to him who loves it not and therefore shuns it.  The same rocky page, spread out before them both, is a blank to one; or perhaps, having a taste for some other science, he sees its structure or elements; the other reads a quite different story.  Both may be true; and yet each one sees those truths he loves to see, and only those.

 

These things being so, it is not difficult to know why "the wise shall understand," and the wicked not.  Where their treasure is, there will be their eyes, their ears, their hearts, and understanding.  Hence there is but one standpoint from which to see these truths.  Gain that position, and you will not fail.  For I tell you truly, that the prophecies and signs of the coming of the Son of God, "to wipe away the tears from off all faces," and restore this sin-cursed earth, before the close of 1873, are of such a nature, so simple, and to the point, that you cannot question them; when once your eyes have been anointed with God’s eye salve. Re 3:18.

 

Great discoveries are great in their simplicity; and men wonder they had not seen them sooner.  So with these things which God has in reserve for this present generation.

 

"Close up the words and seal the book, even until the time of the end," was God’s command.  But now they are freely offered to the "wise."

 

If you would become "wise," the way is very simple.  I will tell you how.  Ask in the name of Jesus, and ask in faith, that God will change your heart, and make your love the appearing of His Son.

 

You cannot but wish to know, if the judgment is indeed so near; then ask, and, if your prayer is answered, and you fail of seeing these evidences, after a careful and full examination of the subject, you may put them down, and safely too, to be of men.  God has said

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 22-

 

"Write the vision and make it plain."  And rest assured that when the time comes for its fulfillment, be it now or in the unknown future, it will be written plain; so plain "that he who reads may run."

 

THE SIGNS.

 

In the 24th of Matthew (Mt 24), our Lord says, "Immediately after the tribulations of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven; and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when its branch is yet tender, and it putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.  Verily I say unto you, this generation-who see the signs-shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled."

 

Some think "this generation" must refer to those who heard him speak.  To whom does the following refer?   "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, **.  Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world."  This "ye" and "you" certainly refers to some who will be living at the end of the world.  And in the other case he says, "When therefore ye shall see all these things then know," and who can see them all except the generation who shall be living when he comes?

 

After instructing us of the signs in the heavens, he speaks of things which would transpire among the people.  Some who saw the signs would be giving meat in due season, viz., preaching that his coming was "near, even at the door"; others would rebuke, or smite them, and say, "My Lord delays his coming."

 

"Then," namely, at that time, "shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom."  But they were disappointed, for he does not come, "and while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."  This disappointment was only temporary, however, as the sequel shows.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 23-

 

Thus far, as we shall show, the signs and parable have been fulfilled.  The sun was darkened in 1780, and the moon refused to give her light.  The stars fell in 1833, "and the powers of heaven," viz., those offered by the "prince of the powers of the air," and rejected by our Savior on the mount; these powers or kingdoms are being shaken, and their crowns are falling.

 

Some may object that all these signs, to which Adventists so often refer, can be accounted for.  Suppose they can?  When Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare the Passover, he gave them a sign by which they might know the house.  "Ye shall meet a man bearing a pitcher of water; follow him."  If the man could have accounted for his being there, would it have been any the less a sign that they had found the place?

 

Our Lord foresaw that these phenomenon in the heavens would occur at the time and in the order mentioned.  And if they were as easily accounted for as the rising of the sun, it would not affect their importance as signs.

 

We have no right to expect signs the world will all acknowledge.  "It shall be as it was in the days of Noah; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, and knew not, until the flood came, and took them all away."  Who are they that knew not?  Noah knew, and built an ark, for the saving of himself and house.  How then could these signs be more conspicuous than God has made them, without failing of the very purpose for which signs are given.

 

Those who look for something to be acknowledged by all the world, will have to wait till "the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven is seen; then shall all tribes of the earth mourn."

 

These signs in the sun, moon and stars, and upon earth, have been fulfilled, and therefore "this generation" who have seen them, cannot pass away until the bridegroom comes.

 

The other signs, viz., the going forth of the virgins; the tarrying of the bridegroom; smiting by those fellow

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 24-

 

servants who say, "my Lord delays his coming," have also been fulfilled, during the advent movement which began about 1828, and culminated in the disappointment of 1844.

 

"The virgins took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom."  Namely, they took their Bibles.  "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path."  Never before was there such a taking of their lamps in any previous age.  Every Adventist had one in his hand or pocket, ready for immediate use.  It must have been a small gathering for those days, where, if a preacher quoted or misquoted a text, his ear was not saluted by the rustling of a hundred volumes.

 

A good reason why, perhaps some will say; "In former times they had no Bibles for private use."  No matter, they had Bibles then, and took them, and went forth, and were disappointed, just as our Lord said they would be.

 

All the conditions of the parable, down to the tarrying, were fairly met by that movement.  And if it failed of its fulfillment it was for want of magnitude and nothing else.

 

There are those who think it was not of sufficient extent to fairly represent "the kingdom of heaven," to which the movement was likened.  Although it was preached in all the world, and the sound went to the utmost parts of the earth; to every missionary station, and all other accessible places on the globe; still they may be right.  Though we can safely say, "This think was not done in a corner."

 

If the movement was not of sufficient extent to answer the condition of the prophecy, it certainly failed in no other particular.  Hence whenever it is fulfilled, it must be a simple repetition, only on a larger scale.  For, to accomplish even like results, it must make up in magnitude what it will lack in novelty.

 

Prophecy is pre-written history and requires time for its fulfillment.  More than forty years have already passed

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 25-

 

since this movement began.  Is it possible, therefore, for a repetition, and on so large a scale, during the little remnant of "this generation," already drawing to a close?

 

Do you not see that we must accept of that movement, as the going forth of the virgins, or abandon our whole position as Adventists; and admit that these signs in the sun, and moon, and stars, and upon the earth, by which our Lord told us to know that it was near, have not transpired, and this is not the generation?  I told you at the first, the evidence would command your faith.  Nothing less, and hardly this will wake the slumbering virgins.

 

Once admit that the disappointment of 1843-4 marks the tarrying of the bridegroom; and our remaining task is easy.

 

The time to which the "virgins" looked in that "going forth," ended with the Jewish year 1843, viz., in the spring of 1844.  It does not matter where the prophetic periods ended, whether at the beginning or end of that year.  The time to which that movement looked, was the Jewish year 1843."  In proof of this, I refer Adventists to a letter from Bro. Miller, in the advent paper published in Boston in 1842, and now on file in the Advent Herald office.

 

In this letter Bro. Miller states that the only time to which he, and others of like precious faith, were looking and had been looking for many years, was the Jewish year beginning April 3, 1843, and ending April 3, 1844.

 

With the passing of that year our time expired; and we began to preach, "If the vision tarry, wait for it; it will surely come."  And so we looked to the 10th day of the 7th month in 1844, hoping it would no longer tarry.  Many have set other times, but still the vision tarries.  "And while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept; and at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him."

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 26-

 

Here was our night of darkness; for while he tarried they all, not the foolish virgins only, but the wise, all alike, slumbered and slept.  So said our Lord; and events have proved it true.  The schisms, vagaries, and divisions of Adventists since then, speak only of night and darkness, "and they who sleep, sleep in the night."

 

We held together until the autumn of 1844.  Then, as if a raft floating in deep water should suddenly disappear from under its living burden, so our platform went from under us, and we made for shore in every direction; but our unity was gone, and, like drowning men, we caught at straws.

 

During this sleeping of the virgins, the prophecies have been so mangled that conscientious men, who love all other truths, shrink from the investigation of the time, as children who have been burned shrink and cry out at the sight of fire.  This is just what might have been expected, and only proves that "while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."  And more than this, it proves the fulfillment of the first part of the parable; having passed that, we are nearly home.

 

These very things which prove we are near the end, are brought by our opponents to prove the contrary.  When we can see God’s word fulfilling under our very eyes, they would have us reject the light, and make this a reason why we should give up our hope.

 

"And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him."  Some will say there have been many cries, and fixing of the time, since 1843; all of which have proven failures.  This is true; but as the virgins have been sleeping, how could we have expected otherwise?  But you are setting time again, and if others have been sleeping, why may not you be now asleep?

 

This may seem a difficult question to answer satisfactorily, for no amount of ranting or personal assertion can weigh a straw in such a case; nor should it with those who require facts and not opinions.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 27-

 

In the providence of God, facts rise up and answer.  Every time fixed upon since 1843 has been at the expense of landmarks, and positions held prior to that time; against which no sound argument was ever brought.  Nothing but the passing of the time, made us so much as dream these evidences had been shaken.

 

For instance, the fact that the papal dominion was taken away in 1798, a fact which none can question, was put aside by the supporters of every one of those different times.  The 2300 days of Dan. viii, were also made to end at many different times.  If they did not end in 1854, 1866 did as well.  If not in ‘66, they were, without the slightest trouble , made to reach to ‘67, ‘68, ‘69, ‘70, ‘73, or ‘75, ignoring the cross, the only landmark God has given, by which to fix their date.  Structures built in dreams require no foundation.  And so these prophetic periods could be made to end at almost any place.

 

The time as given in the midnight cry, takes up the subject just where it was left in 1844, when the virgins went to sleep, without the removal of a single landmark.  And with one exception, not a prophetic period is differently applied.  The building still rests on the old foundation against which storms have beat in vain.  God gave us in that movement all the light it was possible for us to have on the time; and yet go forth to meet the bridegroom, and our disappointment.  The few jots and tittles added to the structure, not divided against it, complete the building.  This whole movement; the going forth of the virgins, the tarrying of the bridegroom, the slumbering and sleeping, the night of darkness, and the closing scenes of the midnight cry, make one great unit and, like the path of the just, shines more and more as we near the end.

 

These comparisons are not made to hurt the feelings of any of God’s dear children, but to the intent that truth may take its place in support of truth.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 28-

 

The advent movement may be likened to a man who builds a house.  He digs deep and lays his foundation on a rock.  Night comes on and he dreams the beautiful structure is all in ruins.  With the debris he essays to build again; but, having no foundation, it soon falls.  He moves a portion of the crumbling mass a little further on, and tries again and again, with like results.  When almost in despair, the morning comes; and behold it was a dream.  The noble structure is still unshaken by rain or wind or flood.  With a light heart, he offers to God his morning sacrifice, and continues to add stone to stone until the house is finished.  Would not his neighbors, and all who beheld him know that he was now clothed and in his right mind?

 

We build on the foundation upon which this movement started.  A foundation God has endorsed.  Notwithstanding the disappointment, our Lord likens it to the kingdom of Heaven.  "Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins" &c.  "But let every man take heed how he build thereon, for every man’s work will be made manifest; for the day will declare it."

 

Some suppose that God was not in that movement because there was a disappointment.  I would ask such if they believe God was with Abraham when he went three days’ journey to offer his son as a burnt offering?  God tries his people as gold is tried, before he confers his great and precious benefits.  And what could have been a more severe test in 1844 than the passing of the time?  I thank God that he has a people whose faith, like that of Abraham, could withstand the trial, and not draw back.

 

MIDNIGHT.

 

"And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.  Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out; but the wise said, not so, least there be

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 29-

 

not enough for us and you; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves; and while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut."

 

The midnight cry, it will be observed, is the one at which he comes.  Not at midnight, when the cry begins; for the virgins arise and trim their lamps; and much of the parable transpires after that.  A "cry" is a prolonged message.  It is at, or during, this cry, the virgins trim their lamps and go out and meet him.  There is no tarrying or disappointment or failure connected with it.  The bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage.

 

As it is the true cry, it cannot be represented by that of 1844, or ‘54, or ‘67.  He does come in accordance with this.  If therefore we call any of these failures and disappointments the midnight cry, we shall deceive ourselves, and do it willfully.  For the midnight cry is not a failure.

 

No stretch of human language can turn midnight into morning.  Nor would I try to stretch this language if I could, for not one word of his can in any wise fail.  If I should state in a court of justice that a fire occurred last night, at midnight, when it did not occur till nearly morning, I should perjure myself.  If the midnight cry is not made till at his appearing, it would be a simple contradiction, for midnight never comes in the morning.  Nor did our Lord use language so loose and meaningless.

 

The midnight cry has been made, or we have not yet reached midnight.  We know where the night began, "for they who sleep, sleep in the night."  "And while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."  The tarrying began in 1844, as we have shown.  Hence if we have not yet reached midnight, the morning cannot be this side of 1899; and may be far beyond.  In either case "this generation," who have seen the signs will pass

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 30-

 

away.  While Jesus said, "this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled."

 

Again we are driven to a corner.  The midnight cry, the real one at which he comes, has been made, and is now sounding, or these "signs in the sun, moon and stars, and upon earth," are not the signs, nor is this the generation spoken of.

 

1873

 

Thank God! There is a movement among the virgins at the present time, answering in every jot and tittle to the conditions of this cry.  It began early in the midnight watch.  It already numbers thousands in its ranks; and the cry is, "speak unto the people that they go forward."

 

"According to the days of the coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto thee marvelous things, saith the Lord."

 

The children of Israel came out of Egypt with flying colors and in a hurry; so did the virgins go out to meet the bridegroom in the first movement.  Israel was brought to a stand, and hemmed in on every side, until in their despair they cried unto the Lord.  Such has been the experience of the virgins.  And when the time came for them to cross the sea, the Lord said, "Wherefore cryest thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward."

 

The parable also brings to view two movements.  One was a going forth to meet the bridegroom; the other, a "going out" to meet him.  The first was small, in its beginning, and for many years remained so; but in 1842 their numbers began to count up by thousands, until at last it grew to be a mighty host, and broke in the great disappointment in 1844.  The second, or midnight cry, began early in "the midnight watch," or in the spring of 1860.  It too was small in its origin, and insignificant, and so remained for many years.  But the "cry" ceased not.  Now, in 1871, it counts its numbers

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 31-

 

by thousands; and before 1873 shall pass, if it be of God, it will swell to a mighty wave, and break on the shores of the eternal world.

 

The two movements appear similar in their origin, duration and magnitude.  They differ in one important point.  The first was determined by our Lord to end in disappointment, and so given in his word.  The second ends in the morning of the resurrection and the marriage feast.

 

If it is true, this movement looking to 1873 is the last, the one which will indeed bring us to the desired haven; who would not have their bark launched on its wave? or who would draw back because its origin, so far as human means were used, was insignificant? or shut out the light and close their eyes against the evidence, because it comes not in their chosen way?

 

There is another prophecy which clearly shows the first of these movements would end in disappointment.  I refer to Rev. x, where the angel was seen to stand one foot on the sea and one on land, holding in his hand an open book.

 

Adventists have held that the unsealed prophecies were the "open book"; and the angel offering them to the world, the advent movement.  When speaking of Adventists, and their views on the prophecies, I refer to those held prior to the tarrying.  Since they have "all been slumbering and sleeping," their views are more difficult to trace, and to my mind less reliable.

 

"And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and eat it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter." Verse 11.

 

That message or "going forth" in 1843, and those truths were sweet in the eating.  Those who can recall their feelings at that time, will remember how their hearts leaped for joy at the prospect of soon seeing "the King in his beauty."  Unity, brotherly love and sweet expectation, fairly sparkled in their eyes.  If it were

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 32-

 

not for the "eternal weight of glory" just before us, I would be willing to live it all over, with its disappointment and "bitterness," for the hundredfold we then received.

 

"And he said unto me, thou must prophecy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." (Verse 12.)  Here is the second movement co-extensive with the first.  "Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps."  There is no "tarrying" this time; the bitterness is passed.  "Now he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry."

 

ONE FOOT ON THE SEA AND ONE ON LAND.

 

"Not one jot or tittle of the law, or prophets, can in anywise fail, till all be fulfilled."

 

The midnight cry, or coming of the Lord in 1873, began on the sea.  Before sounding on land, it was made over the whole length and breadth of the north and south Atlantic and Pacific oceans, during a voyage from Australia, around Cape Horn, to London, and from London to New York.

 

The vessel left Australia with an advent brother on board, who had lost his religion, and been for many years in total darkness.  To wile away the monotony of a long sea voyage, the English chaplain proposed a systematic reading of the prophecies, to which the brother readily assented; for, having been a Millerite in former years, he knew right well there were arguments it would puzzle the chaplain to answer, even though the time had passed.

 

When they came to the 12th of Daniel, the brother saw what he had never seen before, though he had read it a hundred times.  "From the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."  In our explanation of this in 1843, why did we begin the thousand years thirty years before the abomination was set up?  Here is our mistake; and

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 33-

 

it is one of thirty years.  The days end in ‘73, not ‘43.  All this came in a moment.  From that hour, says the brother, the whole truth of our position was made clear.

 

On arriving in London, he went to the library of the British Museum, and among many other extensive works on the prophecies, found Elliott’s Horae Apocalypticae, which at that time, 1860, was a standard work; advocating 1866 as the time for the coming of the Lord.  There the chronology was found as now given in these pages, with some slight additional proof.  Elliott, who was trying to prove the end in 1866, had worked it up.  But it overran the time, and finding no possible way of shortening it a single year; he closed with the remark, "It seems to overrun a few years, but it is barely possible some mistake may have occurred among so many periods, though I am unable to discover it."

 

The brother felt curious, he says, to know how much it overrun, hoping it might reach to 1873, and so prove additional evidence in support of his own views.  He therefore added up the little remnant of Elliott’s figures, which had not been carried out in the book, and sure enough, without the changing of a word, it made the 6000 years end at 1873.  When he looked at the figures, the shock, he says, almost took his breath away.  What! more evidence for 1873, and from the writings of a scholar whose faith and efforts were pointing to 1866.  It was surprising that prophetic periods once thought to point to 1843 now marked 1873 so clearly.  But here was a chronology, not made for the occasion, as too many have been, which pointed with steadfast finger to 1873, in spite of every effort to make it end in 1866.  This will bear examination; and so he carefully went over it, looking out every text, and came to the conclusion that it was made for the occasion, and by Him who has declared the end from the beginning.

 

I do not say 1873 had not been mentioned prior to that.  Bro. Miller stated soon after 1843 had past, "that

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 34-

 

he could see no light this side of 1873"; and others may have said as much, or more, at that early day.  But as a persistent cry, so far as at present known to the writer, it began as above stated, early in the midnight hour.

 

Supposing this truth would be seen at once by Adventists, the brother called on Josiah Litch in December, 1860, having looked upon him as one of God’s mighty men in the first movement.  But instead of listening with greedy ears, as he supposed he would, Bro. Litch, in a very kind but positive manner, informed him that all these prophetic periods were literal days, still in the future, and hence to listen would be a waste of time.

 

Disappointed, but not disheartened, he went to others.  Some heard it patiently, while most turned away as those who slumber turn from an unwelcome sound.

 

Eld. H. F. Hill, of Lindley, Steuben Co., N.Y., author of the well known book, "The Saints Inheritance, or the World to Come," has in his possession a long letter from this same brother, dated Jan. 6th, 1861, in which most of the leading arguments for 1873 were then presented as now given in these pages.  There are other documents, and living witnesses, that this "cry" has been persistently maintained until the present time.  And now the virgins are rousing up in all directions, and the "cry" is welcomed as the harbinger of morning.

 

OUR MISTAKE.

 

Time has been so often preached, and the prophecies so mangled, during this "sleeping" of the virgins, that many fear least this cry will do harm.  If God has given light on this last great message to the world, can we withhold it and be guiltless?  Shall we put forth our puny arm to steady the ark; or disannul his judgment, that we may be righteous?  I speak as unto wise men, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked."  "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."

 

**************************************************************************************************

 

 

 From A.D. 538 there                                        From A.D. 538

       shall be       A                                           THE

 

       1000-                                                    -1000

       200-

       And            90- days.

                                                             - 300

 

 These days ended A.D. 1828, where the advent movement, or waiting time, began.

 

 "Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."

                                                                                                                  and

 The virgins went forth expecting to meet the bridegroom in 1843-4

 

                                                                  -5

 

 and were disappointed.

 

 While the                                                       and

 bridegroom

 And at

 TARRIED,                    MIDNIGHT                        -30

 they ALL                                                 there was a cry made

                                                                days.

 slumbered                                                Behold the bride-

 and slept.                                              groom cometh, go ye

 out to meet him.

 

 "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor                   end in

       to him for the marriage of the Lamb is

 come, and the bride hath made herself ready."                  1873

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

 

  - 36-

 

 OBJECTIONS.

 

 Some suppose all the virgins must arise when the cry begins.  "Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps."

 

 I answer, it is at the cry they all arise; and the cry is still sounding.  The symbol of the ten virgins begins with the first movement, and yet they did not all start together, as we know.  Again, as none of the foolish virgins succeeded in getting oil, it has been supposed there could be no conversions after the midnight cry was heard.  This same idea might be drawn from all his parables, through the whole gospel dispensation.  The tares and wheat grow side by side until harvest.  When the net is drawn from the sea, the good fish and the bad are separated.  Not a word is said of tares becoming wheat, or bad fish becoming good, and yet we know this was the only object of his mission.  "I came not to call the righteous but sinners, to repentance."

 

 Our Lord chose the symbol of ten virgins to represent this two-fold movement, from first to last, with no reference to individuals; otherwise all must have started at the same time, and together reach the end.  None could have fallen by the way, or changed their moral condition.  This we know has not been so; many have fallen in death, while others have been added to our numbers.  If God’s arm has not been shortened, that it cannot save, these additions may continue until the bridegroom comes and shuts the door himself.

 

 Again, some suppose that in the exposition of these parables, we must hunt through the musty tradition of ancient customs.  Is it indeed so, that we must understand in all their details the ancient custom of the people, in order to understand the simplest teaching of the Saviour? for he almost always spoke in parable.  He spake in familiar language, it is true; but that he confined himself to local customs, intelligible only to the generation then living, is not true, as we can show.

 

  *************************************************************************************************

 

  - 37-

 

 It was not the custom of the Jews to drop their seed along the highway, or among thorns.  They prepared their ground to receive the seed; but the parable of the "sower" is quite intelligible notwithstanding this, and fits in all its parts the gospel seed, but not the manner in which the Jews sowed their grain.  That this parable of the virgins, designed exclusively for the last generation, was founded on the local customs of the first, and not to be understood without such knowledge, would be an incongruity not to be tolerated from poor human tongues.  The parables of our Lord are complete in themselves; they carry their meaning on their face; and therefore need no traditions to give them strength.

 

 Again, it may be said we make too much of this parable, by giving every part an application.  Read the explanation of parables by our Lord, and you will find he never leaves a single thought unapplied.  See the "Tares and wheat," "Talents," "Sower by the wayside," &c., &c.

 

 SUMMARY.

 

 We have shown that the definite time movement which began about 1828, and ended in the disappointment of 1844, filled the conditions of this parable in time and place and circumstance.  It was to be followed by a night of trial, during which the virgins would sleep.  Not necessarily on all subjects, but on the one under consideration, viz., the time for the coming of the bridegroom.

 

 That there was a second "going out" to meet the bridegroom, which was not to end in disappointment.

 

 As the first has been fulfilled during "this generation" who have seen the signs, the last one must be, or the whole of Adventism, as at present taught, is a failure; and all these things, the going forth of the virgins, the tarrying, the slumbering and sleeping, and the second cry, must be enacted over; for God will have a waiting

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 38-

 

 people when he comes.  "It shall be said in that day, Lo this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us."

 

 There is no element of failure in the midnight cry; therefore none of those which have proven failures, can represent it.  That it is now being made, or we have not yet reached midnight; in which case the morning is too remote for "this generation" to compass it.  That the present movement, looking to 1873, answers all the conditions of the cry; and if it be the true one, as the ending of the prophetic periods in 1873 implies, and the unity of the parable, and consistency of the whole advent movement, with all the signs, require; then 1873 will usher in the glorious morning of the restitution; the day so long desired by apostles, prophets, and martyrs.

 

 There is such consistency and unity in this whole subject-the first "going forth"; the tarrying; the confusion even; the midnight cry; the time it began; its present proportions; the actual necessity of its truth, in order that the signs and "this generation" should have any meaning-that it compels us to accept it and come in, "that his house may be full."

 

 Do you ask if those who began the "cry" knew at the time they were fulfilling prophecy.  I answer NO! no more than did the thieves who hung on either side of Christ; or soldier when casting lots for his vesture."

 

 THE ADVENT MOVEMENT.

 

 Were it not for the light thrown on our present position by this parable, another message of time would fall upon the ear like "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."  But when we see that, because the scripture could not be broken, the first great movement must needs have ended as it did, our very disappointment becomes another landmark, to light us on the way.  Thus the Great Captain whom we serve can turn defeat to victory.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

VIEWS HELD IN 1843.

 

  ____________________________________________________________________

 

At this late period of time I shall not attempt to prove positions so well established in 1843, viz., that a day, when used in prophecy as a symbol, represents a year.  Where time is used to measure symbols, as beasts, horns, woman, witnesses, &c., the time itself must be symbolical.

 

Second, that the papacy is the power represented by "the little horn," of Daniel vii, which should speak great words against the Most High and wear out his saints; also the woman of Re 17, drunken with the blood of saints.  And "the man of sin, or mystery of iniquity," of St. Paul.  Nor need I stop here to tell how, in the symbol, this power is called both man, and woman, since all men know it was a union of church and state.  The people were the body of the Roman beast, while the ecclesiastical character, or faith, or practice of the people, made them the church.

 

Papacy was a temporal power, and as much a "king," or kingdom, as was ever Imperial Rome, under the Caesars.  As such it filled its place as one of the heads of Rome.  Yet that head was church, or woman, in its other character, and was supported by the beast, which carried her; and yet the two were one.  Hence it was "diverse, or different from all that were before it."

 

Keep in your mind this double nature of the Romish church, and you will see how the Roman empire, made up of the three previous kingdoms, the lion, bear and leopard, and called "dragon," under its imperial head, could retain those features, together with its heads and horns complete, as the very Roman beast; and yet under its papal head become a church, or woman.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 40-

 

Thus this power, with its two-fold nature blended into one, answers to the double character in the prophecy; and those who try to make two distinct powers out of its two characters, get into trouble.

 

This "abomination that maketh desolate," has done its work.  In point of time, it came up after the other ten.  (See Da 7:24)   In duration, it had power to continue 1260 years; its character was one of blood.  The prophetic picture is complete, and she alone has filled it; and in the desolation of God’s church, has filled her cup of blood, and filled it to the brim.

 

THE 1290 AND 1335 DAYS.

 

"And from the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."  Da 12:11, 12.

 

We take the view that this "daily," was the Jewish daily sacrifice, and think the proof conclusive.  But as these prophetic periods begin when the abomination is "set up," it makes no difference with the end in view, to what event the taking away of the "daily" may refer.  Hence we will give but little time to its exposition; enough, however, to make the language of the prophecy clear and consistent with the facts.

 

This term "daily" first occurs in Da 7:11.  There is nothing here to show that it differs from the same word, where it occurs in Da 11:31, or in our text.  And if there had not been an interpretation requiring a difference, no such thought would have occurred.

 

The "daily sacrifice" of Dan. 8, cannot refer to any Roman institution, for the 2300 days, the first part of which measures the daily sacrifice, carries it back of Grecia into Medo-Persia, and therefore before Rome existed-in prophecy.

 

It has been supposed this "daily sacrifice" of our text could not refer to that of the Jews, since it was taken away so long before "the abomination" was set up;

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 41-

 

while the language of the text implies that one succeeds the other without a break.  And this is true as I can plainly show.

 

The Romans took away the Jewish daily-I had almost called it abomination, instead of sacrifice, as our translators have-at the destruction of Jerusalem.  And indeed it was an abomination at that time, for Christ had finished the sacrifice for sin; and every offering in that God-forsaken city after that was an insult to our High Priest in heaven.

 

The Romans took away this "daily" of the Jews, and placed the one "that maketh desolate," viz., "the mystery of iniquity," "the abomination of the earth."  The mystery of iniquity was already working in St. Paul’s day; before the "daily" was taken away; hence, instead of a gap between the two events, they are really dovetailed.  It continued to work and grow, until God’s time had come, and then he let them set it up.  Papacy itself claims to have come down from the apostolic days, and very justly, as the prophecy informs us.

 

Suppose a contract were made to remove the ruins of a building and erect a new one.  The contract read, "From the time the ruins of this building shall be taken away and a new structure, with all its parts, set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days before the first payment will be due," would any one be in doubt, after seeing the new building finished, as to the time when the money would be due?  Or question of a break between the two events, though the new one were not finished for a hundred years after the ruins of the former were removed?

 

The Romans took away this "daily" at the destruction of Jerusalem.  The prophet could not call it sacrifice, for when taken away it was anything but a sacrifice, and so he called it "daily."  When the Romans took it away, the abomination was already growing, and when the time came, and "he who let" was taken out of the way, they set it up.  Here our measuring line begins.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 42-

 

THE ABOMINATION SET UP.

 

The setting up of the abomination, and the woman taking her seat on the beast (Re 17), must be one and the same event, for they both answer to the papacy, as we have shown.  "I saw a woman sit on a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy."

 

If we can learn when the papal church received her seat, and was supported there for one unbroken term of 1260 years, we shall then know where to place this prophecy.

 

By the following account of Gibbon’s, it seems clear the papacy was not supported by the Catholic powers prior to A.D. 538.

 

Gibbon’s Rome, London edition, 1834, page 701:

 

"Bellisarius entered Rome December 10, 536, and the city, after sixty years servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the barbarians.  The Goths, however, assembled in vast numbers for the defense of their country, and early in the spring, besieged the city; which siege was maintained for one year and nine days."  Page 707.  The Goths raised the siege of Rome, March, 538, and the Gothic army, lately so strong, was now reduced to the walls of Ravenna, and some fortresses destitute of mutual support, and the provinces of Italy embraced the part of the emperor.  Notice this, for we shall have occasion to refer to it again.  Here we learn that for about sixty-two years prior to March, A.D. 538.  Rome, the seat of the beast, had been subject to the Goths; and during the last year, and more closely besieged.

 

It is true Justinian, the Catholic emperor, issued a decree some years prior to this, in which the Pope of Rome was declared to be the head of all the churches, and sent his army to enforce it; but it could not answer the prophecy until it was enforced.  The language is, "from the time the abomination that maketh desolate is set up," not from the time a decree is issued to set it up.  The decree could not take effect so long as Rome

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 43-

 

and Italy were in the hands of non-Catholic powers.  Nor could "the dragon," imperial Rome, give its seat, and great authority to the "beast," Papal Rome (see Re 13:2) until it had re-conquered that seat from the Goths.  Gibbon tells us, page 708, "That when Justinian first meditated the conquest of Italy, he sent ambassadors to the kings of the Franks, adjuring them by the common ties of religion to join in the holy enterprise against the Goths."  This conquest was certainly not accomplished at the time Bellisarius, the general of Justinian, entered Rome with his little army, in Dec. 536, for he was held a close prisoner by the Gothic army until March, 538.  But when he had conquered the Goths, Rome, for a time, became free.

 

During those sixty-two years no less than thirteen popes lived, and exercised their priestly functions by sufferance of non-Catholics.  If the woman, or church, was that great city, and God said, "the woman thou sawest is that great city which ruleth over the kings of the earth"; then was she not "set up," or supported by the Roman world as their head, during those sixty-two years.  Nor could those years have been a part of the 1260, during which "times and laws were given into her hands."

 

In Re 17:17, we read that the ten horns were to "agree, and give their power unto the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled," viz., "the forty and two months."  If the provinces of Italy were any parts of those ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided, that part at least did not agree and give their power unto papacy, so long as they remained non-Catholic or Arian.  But when the "provinces of Italy embraced the part of Justinian" the Roman Catholic emperor, in A.D. 538, they did "agree and give their power unto the beast."  From which time the people of Rome and Italy remained true to the Romish Church, and endorsed no other government, until they themselves proclaimed the republic in 1798.  In other words, the beast, the people,

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 44-

 

carried the woman, the church, for that unbroken term of years.  It is true Rome was taken and re-taken by the Goths no less than five times during the next few years.  And during the 1260 years many popes were banished or put to death.  But notwithstanding this the people ever remained faithful in their allegiance to the papal organization.  And so the woman maintained her seat.

 

The setting up of that abomination or church, does not necessarily imply an increase of power, and it really had no accession, at that time.  Nor did the church ever exercise much power, excepting for a small part of that 1260 years.  It was the other arm, or political part of that compound beast, which put to death God’s saints.

 

If the abomination hath set itself up, and taken "times and laws" into its hands, the power to do so would have been implied.  But we read, "they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate."  "Times and laws were given into his hands, not taken."

 

When the French took a vile woman, and "set her up" as the goddess of reason, it did not follow that the woman received one iota of power.

 

The Catholic princes, of their own free will, set this abomination up, and maintained it there, "until the words of God should be fulfilled:" then, in 1798, they took it down.  France took the pope prisoner; but it was the people of Rome and Italy who changed their government by taking away the dominion of papacy, and setting up a republic in its place.

 

Rome and Italy must be looked upon as the real nucleus, or body of the best.  Other parts of the empire changed hands more or less, and in part became protestant prior to 1798.

 

Where, I ask, had "the peoples and multitudes and nations, and tongues upon which the woman sitteth" rejected her as their head, from the time "the provinces of Italy embraced the part of the Roman Catholic emperor" and his faith in 538; until the spring of 1798?  If such has been the case, history has failed to mention it.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 45-

 

END OF THE 1260 YEARS.

 

French Revolution, by Christopher Kelly, Lon. Ed. Vol. 1, page 243-4.  "The Roman republic was proclaimed on the 15th of February, 1798.  The pope, however, made one additional effort for the continuance of his temporal existence by sending an embassy to Berthier, who was encamped outside the walls.  The general refused to admit any other deputation than that of the people of Rome, thus dissipating the last hope of the holy father.

 

"The general then entered the city of Rome, and made a speech from the capitol, in honor of the re-establishment of the ancient republic.

 

"The arrival of the French army, and the proclamation of the general, had given the fatal blow to the papal sovereignty."  "And they shall take away his dominion," said the prophecy, Da 7:26.

 

Here we have a perfect fulfillment.  Not only was the pope removed, but the dominion of papacy was, in every sense of the word, "taken away," and the ancient republic, which had ceased to exist long before this abomination, began "to work," was re-established,  thus showing that the "woman" was entirely unseated, for she never sat upon republican Rome.  The dominion was soon partially restored by a return to the old order of things in Italy, that the words of God might be fulfilled, for its dominion was taken away "to consume and to destroy it unto the end."  Since which we have seen the consumption going on as one after another of these "ten kings" have withdrawn from her support.

 

"And the ten horns which thou sawest, upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."  Re 17:16.

 

Thus far we differ but little from the position held by adventists in 1843.  From A.D. 538, the time as given by the angel, is easily reckoned up.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

- 46-

 

 THE END IN 1873.

 

 The daily sacrifice of the

 Jews was taken away at the                                       The

 destruction of Jerusalem, or                               Daily sacrifice.

 about the year A.D. 70.

 

 The mystery of iniquity                                   "From the time the

  was already working                                    daily sacrifice shall be

 in St. Paul’s day, and                                    taken away, and the

   continued to grow                                        abomination that

     until A.D. 538,                                      maketh desolate set

  when it was set up       538                            up, there shall be a

    "And he shall                                            thousand two

   speak great words                                           hundred and

    against the Most       These     A       From 538          ninety days;

    High, and shall                            the          blessed is he that

  wear out the saints                                      waiteth and cometh

   of the Most High,       1260     1000      1000           to the thousand

  and think to change                                         three hundred

  times and laws, and                         days            and five and

  they shall be given                                       thirty days.  But

   into his hand for                                         go thou thy way

   a time, times and     end in               200           till the end, for

    the dividing of                           and            thou shalt rest

        time,"            1798      90        300           and stand in lot

                                              days."

 "But the judgment      A.D.1828   and

  shall sit, and        "The time          The Advent

they shall take away     of the             Movement     5

   his dominion,          end."               and

  to consume and to                 30

  destroy it unto the                         end

         END."                                in

                                             1873

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 47-

 

 The 1000 years is a part of both periods, for the definite article "THE" in the 12th verse; "blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand," necessarily implies that it is the thousand already mentioned.  This repetition also implies that the thousand years have some special significance.  In the history of the times we find it has, and is as clearly marked as the period of unbroken papal persecution; or is the 1260 for that of its dominion.

 

 From A.D. 538 to 1538 is the thousand years from which more of the martyrs "who have been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and the word of God" will date their experience, than perhaps all the other five of the world’s history.  It was under this desolating power "the abomination of desolation" spoken of by Dan. the prophet; the great tribulation such as was not since the creation of God, to that same time, "no nor ever shall be" referred to by our Savior, occurred "and except those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect’s sake he hath shortened them."

 

 Some have supposed the shortening of the days was the 1290 shortened to 1260; but this is a forced construction, and not in harmony with its fulfillment; for Mark says: "But in those days, after that tribulation, shall the sun be darkened."  The sun was darkened in the 1260 days; or in 1780, and yet it was after the tribulation.

 

 Our Lord did not say the prophetic periods were to be shortened; they are as fixed as is God’s word, "and the scriptures cannot be broken."  He simply said, "except those days," viz., the days of tribulation, of which he spoke, "were shortened, no flesh should be saved."  They were shortened by the Lutheran reformation, and it was there "God helped his people with a little help."  Yet some continued to fall under that power till 1798, or "even to the time of the end."  See Da 11:34,35.

 

 The 1260 days of papal persecution were broken in

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 48-

 

 upon, and a door opened by that reformation, "no man could shut."  The printing press began to scatter light; and the Bible found its way into the hands of the common people.

 

 These events mark the end of that thousand years in a general way, but we have a right to look for something more definite than this; for God is a good time keeper, and his great clock has never yet failed to strike at the appointed hour.  Church History, by Charles Hase, New York, A.D. 1855, page 391.  "The holy league between the archbishop of Mentz, the archbishop of Strasburg, the Duke of Bavaria, George of Saxany, Henry of Brunswick, supported by Francis of France, Henry of England, and other northern powers was formed in 1538 to roll back the tide of papal persecution and protect the reformation.  Here ended that thousand years.

 

 The facts in relation to the setting up of this "abomination" in 538 are in themselves clear and unanswerable; but if they were less conclusive than they are, the ending of the thousand years at the right place to fit the circumstances, and the 1260 also, form a union of events difficult to explain away.

 

 From A.D. 538, where "the abomination was set up," the thousand two hundred and ninety days end in 1828.  No political event marks their end, for God has given none; and those who look for such will look in vain.  "Blessed is he that waiteth," is God’s mark.  And here began the advent movement, or gathering out of a people who shall say in that day, "Lo this is the Lord, and we have waited for him, and he will save us."

 

 This movement was of such a nature we cannot put our finger on a day and say there it began; God only can do that.  But it was about that time the virgins began to go forth on this definite time movement.

 

 Some will say this was a small matter to fill a place in prophecy; the advent movement was scarcely heard of in 1828.  It was small and so was the gospel when

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 49-

 

 its head and "corner stone" lay in the manger.  All things are small in their beginning, but the ending of this movement will be glorious.

 

 If this is the last message to the world, the final gathering of God’s jewels, it is certainly as worthy a place in prophecy as the winning of a battle by an Alexander or Napoleon.

 

 This double period of time in the 11th and 12th verses, is given in answer to a single question.  "What shall be the end of these things?"  There was to be a scattering of the power of the holy people, a scattering, a coming out, a turning back of the foolish virgins, a division between those who do and those who do not understand; what does it mean?  "I heard, but I understood not, then said I, ‘O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?’" But the prophet is told to go his way.  This knowledge belongs exclusive to the last generation, and to God’s people.  The first thousand marks their tribulation.  The 1290 days, or shorter limb, marks the beginning, and the 1335 days, or longer limb, the end of this movement.

 

 THE TYPE.

 

 The waiting time, or from the time we began to search out the prophecies in 1828, at the end of the thousand two hundred and ninety days, till we receive our inheritance and stand in our "lot" with Daniel in 1873, is forty-five years.  From the time Israel sent men to search out their inheritance until it was divided to them by "lot" was forty-five years. Jos 14:7,10.

 

 "The time of the end,"    from 1798 to 1873, is 75 years.

 The waiting time,     from 1828 to 1873, is 45 years.

 The tarrying time,        from 1843 to 1873, is 30 years.

 

 The 1260 days reach to the time of the end.

 The 1290 days reach to the waiting time.

 The 2300 days reach to the tarrying time.

 The 1335 days reach to 1873.

 

 "But go thou thy way till the END, for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot, at the end of the days."

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

THE CHRONOLOGY.

 

The first thought of the reader will doubtless be that he is now entering on a subject uninteresting and obscure, and which can therefore have but little weight for or against the soon coming of our blessed hope.  Perhaps nothing but an investigation of the subject will eradicate this false impression.

 

It does indeed seem difficult, to one not used to figures, to trace the time and order of events through six thousand years of the world’s history.  But you will remember that it is God who gave these figures and arranged their order, and so perfect is his arrangement that the problem left for us to solve becomes so easy that almost any child could do it and find the answer.

 

"Write the vision and make it plain on tables" must surely refer to all the proofs which tell us of our coming king, and God has made their comprehension so easy that all who will may understand; and this simplicity speaks volumes in favor of their truth.

 

The belief, in all ages of the Church, that the seventh thousand of this world’s history will be a millennium of rest, is so firmly fixed in the minds of Christians, that when we clearly show the ending of the six thousand years at 1873 we shall have adduced an argument more weighty on the minds of Christendom in favor of the near coming of our Lord, than any other proof in all the Bible.

 

The forty years in the wilderness is a beaten track followed by almost all writers on chronology, but here they find a break.  God has not told us in a direct way how long Joshua and the elders lived.  The following

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 51-

 

is all that is given: "And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel.  And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old." Jud 2:7,8.

 

As we are not informed of Joshua’s age when he enters the promised land at the end of this forty years, nor yet when he comes out of Egypt, or at any other time, the simple fact that he died at a hundred and ten does not help us in measuring from the forty years to the first judge, where it has been supposed the regular chronology begins again.

 

Over this apparent break, writers on chronology, and their name is legion, have built a bridge of purely human material.  Josephus is appealed to: he says it was twenty-five years to the death of Joshua, and then eighteen years of anarchy followed prior to the first judge.  But Josephus is always wrong when brought to the test of inspiration.  For instance, in book 2, chap. 15, he says, after the children of Israel came out of Egypt they encamped for thirty days by the Red Sea before crossing it.  While God says,

 

Ex 16:1, "And they took their journey from Elim, and came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month."  And we know they left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month.  This discrepancy of Josephus does not stand alone.  He is full of chronological mistakes.  Can we believe that God has left a gap in his chronology to be spanned by such a broken reed as this and yet declare "the wise shall understand"?

 

If this be true, it were wise indeed to put aside the subject, admitting that chronology had proven a failure, and the duration of the world’s history has nothing in common with the ending of this dispensation, or the millennial age.  But I thank God we are not left in darkness to guess our way through any part

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 52-

 

of this pre-historic age, but have the time as clearly given by the mouth of inspiration, as is the time before the flood.

 

As the knowledge of the prophetic periods, ending in 1873, have been withheld until the sounding of the "midnight cry," God’s last great message to the world, so too has the chronology.  And these difficult places which have hitherto been unsatisfactory and obscure, now shine, in their simplicity, as beautiful as the morning.  And we can only wonder how truths as apparent could so long escape the observation of the good and wise.  And yet we need not wonder, for God had said, "shut up the words, and seal the book."  And if the chronology had been made plain at an early day, and all the church had known at what time in the Christian era the seventh thousand would begin, their faith would have centered on that year for the second coming of Messiah; hence they would have ceased their constant expectation, and no longer "watched."

 

And yet we cannot cease to wonder at God’s wisdom.  Here is a chronology free to all the world, to which great and good men have devoted years of study without comprehending it.  And now that God’s time has come, without the changing of a word, it is so plain that he who runs may read.

 

I will first give the time in complete periods, that you may the easier grasp the whole subject.  After which, chapter and verse and proof for every year.

 

In the 5th of Gen. is the time from Adam to Noah.  Thus, Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begat Set.  This 130 is the first period in the chronology, and then we come to Seth’s 105 years; the remainder of Adam’s life having nothing to do with it.  Seth lives 105 years and begat Enos; this 105 is the second period; and so on to the birth of Noah.  The exact age of Noah, on the very day the waters are dried up,

 

Ge 8:13, added to all the preceding periods, make

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

- 53-

 

 the time from Adam to the end of the flood,    1656 yrs.

 From the flood to the death of Terah, and

    covenant with Abram,                         427   "

 From the covenant with Abram to the law,        430   "

 From the law to the sending of the spies,         1   "

 Spies to the division of the land,               45   "

 Division of the land till Samuel the prophet,   450   "

 Samuel to the captivity,                        513   "

 Captivity to first year of Cyrus,                70   "

 Cyrus to A.D. 1, -Vulgar Christian era,        536   "

 A.D. 1, to end of 1872,                        1872   "

 

    Total from Adam to end of Jewish year

                        1872,                  6000 yrs.

 

 

 The above is the chronology of the six thousand years in full, and we shall show that each of these periods is in itself correct, and that there is no break between them.

 

 ADAM TO THE FLOOD.

 

 Adam lived         130 years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.                        Ge 5:3.

 Seth lived         105 years, and begat Enos.                         Ge 5:6.

 Enos lived          90 years, and begat Cainan.                        Ge 5:9.

 Cainan lived        70 years, and begat Mahalaleel.                     Ge 5:12.

 Mahalaleel lived    65 years, and begat Jared.                           Ge 5:15.

 Jared lived        162 years, and begat Enoch.                            Ge 5:18.

 Enoch lived         65 years, and begat Methuselah.                        Ge 5:21.

 Methuselah lived   187 years, and begat Lamech.                             Ge 5:25.

 Lamech lived       182 years, and begat a son and called his name Noah  .    Ge 5:28.

 And Noah was       600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

                                  ___                                           Ge 7:6.

          Total,   1656

 

 "And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth."  Ge 8:13.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 54-

 

 Thus we find that it is sixteen hundred and fifty-six years from Adam to the end of the flood, and that this period was fulfilled to a day, viz., on the first day of the first month, of the first year, when the six hundred had passed, the floods were dried up, viz., the day before.

 

 It does not follow, by any means, that Adam was just 130 years old to a day; and that on his birthday Seth was born, and on Seth’s birthday Enos was born; thus making the same day of the year the birthday of every one of the patriarchs and kings throughout the whole line of chronology.  If some of them lack a few months, others will overrun.  God was quite able to arrange it so that the sum total would be right.  And He has generally closed up these long periods with the statement that the time was recorded

 to a day, as in this six hundred years of Noah.  "The words that I speak unto you, says Christ, are spirit."  This chronology is true because it has come from God.  And yet our faith does not compel us to sacrifice our common sense.

 

 FLOOD TO COVENANT.

 

 "These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old and begat

 Arphaxad               2 years after the flood."     Ge 11:10.

 Arphaxad lived        35 years and begat Salah.      Ge 11:12.

 Salah lived           30 years and begat Eber.       Ge 11:14.

 Eber lived            34 years and begat Peleg.      Ge 11:16.

 Peleg lived           30 years and begat Reu.        Ge 11:18.

 Reu lived             32 years and begat Serug.      Ge 11:20.

 Serug lived           30 years and begat Nahor.      Ge 11:22.

 Nahor lived           29 years and begat Terah.      Ge 11:24.

 The days of Terah    205 years and Terah died.       Ge 11:32.

 

 

          Total,      427 years from flood to death of Terah.

 

 In Ac 7:2 and onward, we read, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 55-

 

 "in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’  Then came he out from the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.  And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child."

 

 Thus we learn that, on the death of his father, Abram came into Canaan.  And God makes the covenant with him by promising him the land.

 

 "So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haram, *** and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. *** And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto him, ‘Unto thy seed will I give this land.’" Ge 12:4-7.

 

 As the period before the flood was summed up with Noah’s six hundred years, instead of following the previous plan of beginning at the birth of each son, so God has seen fit to end this period of four hundred and twenty-seven years with the full age of Terah.

 

 In Ge 5:32, the fact is stated that Noah was five hundred years old before he begat his sons, and then mentions them together, calling the youngest first, because Shem was preferred before his elder brothers; as was Jacob before Esau, and Ephraim before Manasseh.  In Chap. 11:26, we are told that Terah was seventy years old, and begat his sons, naming Abram first, although we know, from subsequent statements, that Abram was only seventy-five when his father died; at which time he came into Canaan and God made the covenant with him.  This would have been obscure as recorded in the Old Testament; for we should not have known that it was at the death of Terah, God called

 

  ***************************************************************************************************

 

  - 56-

 

 Abram into Canaan, had not Stephen informed us of the fact.  And you will notice the accuracy of his language.  It is not one year or ten years after his father was dead; but "when his father was dead, he came out into this land wherein ye now dwell."

 

 I call especial attention to this, because one writer on chronology has assumed the responsibility of adding one year to the time, and on grounds which appear to me to be speculative and frivolous.  As the book is in the hands of some who may be more or less influenced by it, I dare not pass it by unanswered.  The best answer I can give, however, is to tell you how he makes up the time.

 

 "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, and unto Aaron, in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." Ex 12:1,2.  This is when the children of Israel go out of the land of Egypt, and our brother assumes that the Lord changed the time here about six months, and that he put it forward.  Now here are two assumptions, both of which are without proof.  The first one, that the time was here changed about six months, is a fair one; for the Jews had a secular year, ending at their harvest in the autumn, viz., the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year. Ex 23:16.

 

 The other assumption, however, that the time was there moved forward, and not back, is pure speculation, for we have no possible means of knowing.  The brother, however, boldly sets it back, and by that move gains about six months.  Now suppose he got it right, by accident, and that the Lord did really move the time forward six months; still as he does not tell us why he moved it, we cannot know that it was not because he wanted it moved, to make right what was wrong before.  Does our brother know that the original time, when Adam was created, did not begin in the spring, viz., at the first harvest?  See Jos 4:19, and Jos 3:15.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 57-

 

 And that God changed the time here, because Israel and the Egyptians had it wrong; at least that much is implied, by the ending of the 430 years.  These 430 years are a part of God’s chronology, of the age of mankind, reaching from Adam; and we may suppose they were right, and completed so many full years from the creation.  They ended on the 15th day of the first month, "even on the selfsame day."  Be this as it may, where did our brother get the authority to set the Almighty right, if he was wrong?

 

 It would appear more becoming in a poor, frail mortal to let God’s time alone; if HE has made it wrong, we will humbly wait for him to set it right, at his own good pleasure.

 

 But six months was not enough where a full year was wanted; and so our brother very kindly gives Abram a month to mourn.  Is it true he stopped a month to mourn for his dead father, after God had called him?  There came a time when that old man was more anxious to obey than mourn.  It was when God told him to sacrifice his only son.  On that occasion, there was no delay in his obedience.  "Abram rose early in the morning" to set about it.

 

 Seven months was not enough, and so the brother gives him twenty days to pack up.  And then, after a journey of some months, to accomplish a distance of perhaps fifty miles, he arrived in Canaan one year after his father was dead.

 

 The ingenuity displayed here is so erudite that I fear the reader will not understand how he makes the full year, without a repetition.  The Lord, he assumes, set the time forward six months, when they went out of Egypt.  And so left a gap of six months, at the beginning of this "four hundred and thirty years."  This assumed gap of six months, only requires six months’ addition to make it a full year.

 

 It is not better and safer,  in consideration of some words recorded in the closing chapter of Revelations, to

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 58-

 

 let the time stand just as God has given it?  "Now when his father was dead-not one year after-he came out into the land wherein ye now dwell."

 

 We learn then, on the authority of God’s word, that the time from the flood to the death of Terah, and covenant with Abram, was four hundred and twenty-seven years.

 

 COVENANT OF LAW.

 

 "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt."

 Exo. 12:41.

 

 This passage is obscure as it stands in the Old Testament.  We are not told that this four hundred and thirty years began at the covenant, you will observe; or any other place, only that it ended on the day they came out of Egypt.  But St. Paul helps us over the difficulty.

 

 "And this I say, the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that he should make the promise of none effect." (Ga 3:17.)  On the night they left Egypt, the feast of unleavened bread and the Passover were instituted; and this was the beginning of the law.  We see then that the chronology, from Adam down to the night in which they leave Egypt, is without a break, and perfect in all respects.  There has been no speculation or effort here to shorten or lengthen the time.  It is left just as God has given it.

 

 At this point we diverge from the beaten track, or rather we do not diverge from the true one, as others have.  The forty years in the wilderness has been the stumbling stone over which almost every writer on chronology has fallen.

 

 It is mentioned so often in the scriptures, and made so prominent, that, like a well- beaten road, men have naturally followed it.  And when, at the end of this

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 59-

 

 forty years, they find a break, instead of going back to take the narrow path, which would have led them safe across the chasm; they use material of their own, and with untempered mortar, build a bridge; and so fall into error.

 

 LAW TO THE SPIES, 1 YEAR.

 

 And it came to pass on the 20th day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.  And the children of Israel took their journey out of the wilderness of Sinai.  And the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paren.  Nu 10:10,11.  It is from the wilderness of Paren, the spies were sent.

 

 Nu 13:2.  And Kadish-barnea is the place in Paren from which they went.

 Nu 32:8.  In De 2:14,18, we learn that from the time they left Kadish-barnea, for the coast of Moab, was thirty-eight years; and this was before Aaron’s death.  Aaron dies on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year. Nu 33:37,38.  Therefore from the time they leave Kadish to the end of the forty years is at least thirty-eight years and eight months.  But the spies were forty days gone, and they do not leave Kadish till after their return.  Consequently from the time the spies were sent, till the end of the forty years, must have been at least thirty-eight years, nine months and ten days.  Therefore the time from their leaving Egypt to the sending of the spies is only one year, two months and twenty days, at the most.

 

 You have noticed thus far, that God has given no fraction of a year, in chronology.  This is the first which has occurred.  But God has clearly told us not to reckon them, as I will show.  "David reigned forty years; in Hebron, he reigned over Judah, seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years."  II Sam. v, 4.  And yet in summing up, those six months are left out, and this leaving out of the fraction is thrice repeated.  See 1st Kings 2:11.  "And

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 60-

 

 the days that David reigned over Israel were FORTY YEARS.  Seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem."  Here it is not only summed up as forty years, but the six months are left out.

 

 Again in 1Ch 29:26, "David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel, and the time he reigned over Israel  was FORTY YEARS.  Seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem."

 

 There is but one other place where the fraction of a year occurs in the whole chronology from Adam; but in the fact of such teaching as this, I dare not use them.  And even if we should use all that can be found, it would only bring the end of the six thousand about one year nearer to us.

 

 SPIES, TO DIVISION OF THE LAND,

 45 YEARS.

 

 "Forty years old was I, when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadish-barnea to spy out the land; ** and now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word unto Moses; and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old." Jos 14:7, 10.  "Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spoke in that day ** and Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron, for an inheritance."

 

 This last gift to Caleb, ends "the division of the land," "and the land had rest from war."

 

 DIVISION OF LAND UNTIL SAMUEL,

 450 YEARS.

 

 We might rely on St. Paul’s testimony, as to this four hundred and fifty years, without further remark; for he takes the time just where Caleb leaves it, viz., from the division of the land.   "And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot, and after that he gave unto them Judges, about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet." Ac 13:19,20.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 61-

 

 I say, we might rest our evidence here, but as this 450 years of the Judges is a period over which chronologers have stumbled, and not without cause, we will give all that there is to be said on every side of this question.  By referring to the chronology as given in the Judges we find the following:

 

 The anger of the Lord is kindled against Israel, and

 he sells them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia,

 and they serve him                             8 yrs.   Judg.    Jud 3:8

 But the Lord raised up a deliverer in the person of

 Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, and under

 him the land had rest forty years             40 "      "        Jud 3:11

 They are then delivered into the hand of Moab 18 "      "        Jud 3:14

 Then Ehud, a Benjamite, delivered them        80 "      "        Jud 3:30

 

 Then Jabin, king of Canaan, oppressed them     20 "      "        Jud 4:3

 Then Deborah, a prophetess, delivered them     40 "      "   Jud 5:31

 Then Midian oppressed them                      7 "      "   Jud 6:1

 Then Gideon delivered them                     40 "      "   Jud 8:28

 Then Abimelech reigned                          3 "      "   Jud 9:22

 Then Tola, son of Dodo, judged them            23 "      "   Jud 10:2

 Then Jair judged Israel                        22 "      "   Jud 10:3

 Then the Philistines oppressed them            18 "      "   Jud 10:8

 Then Jephthah judged Israel                     6 "      "   Jud 12:7

 Then Ibzan judged them                          7 "      "   Jud 12:9

 Then Elon, a Zebulonite, judged them           10 "      "   Jud 12:11

 Then Abdon judged Israel                        8 "      "   Jud 12:14

 Then the Philistines oppressed them            40 "      "   Jud 13:1

 Samson judged Israel                           20 "      "   Jud 14:31

 Then Eli judged them                           40 "      "   1Sa 4:18

                                           —————-

 Total,                                        450 " till Samuel.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 62-

 

 This is the chronology as it is given in the Old Testament, and the figures add up for us just as they did for St. Paul; and, guided by the Holy Spirit, he has evidently endorsed it.  Now the question is, can we?  Perhaps you answer yes: but do not be too fast, for there are two sides to this question.

 

 "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord." I Kings, vi, 1.

 

 Here is a discrepancy of just one hundred years.  Thus, from the time they came out of Egypt to the fourth year of Solomon is said to be 480 years.

 

 Egypt.

 1 year to the spies.

          45 years to division of land.

 

 480

 years      Time

 130      of the

  ———-     Judges.

 350

 

 40 for Saul.

 40 for David.

 480              4th of Solomon’s.

 

 130 years.

 

 We will put the two side by side in the diagram, and compare them.  Notice that from their coming out of Egypt we have one year to the Spies, and forty-five to the division of the land; then forty for Saul, forty for David, and four for Solomon.  Add these together and

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 63-

 

 we have a total of one hundred and thirty years, of which we are sure as having transpired during this four hundred and eighty years, or between the time they leave Egypt and the fourth year of Solomon.  Take this one hundred and thirty from the four hundred and eighty and it leaves the space for the Judges three hundred and fifty.  While our chronology, as found in the Judges in nineteen short periods makes this space for the Judges four hundred and fifty years long.  As there is a discrepancy here of just one hundred years, the question is, which is wrong?

 

 A mistake of a hundred years, among these nineteen short periods, would make sad havoc in the Book of Judges.  They would all have to be shortened something over five years apiece, or else a number of them struck out entire.  While the changing of a single figure, on the other side, or calling the four five, would make it right.  We see then, that the evidence is almost as ten to one in favor of the chronology of the Judges being right; and if that is not enough to satisfy the mind, we will bring the evidence of St. Paul, and stand or fall with him.  St. Paul says, "He divided unto them their land, and after that he gave them Judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years."

 

 The first eight years of this four hundred and fifty was under the king of Mesopotamia and prior to the first Judge, therefore St. Paul’s language is just what might have been expected in such a case, even if the time from the division of the land had been precisely four hundred and fifty to a day.

 

 A singular fact may be mentioned here, as well worthy of our notice.

 

 The time from the covenant to the law is given in the Old Testament correctly, and yet in such a way that we should have been entirely in the dark had not St. Paul told us in Gal. iii. 17 from what event the four hundred and thirty years were to measure.  And here again in the Judges, the time is given correctly, but in

 

  ***************************************************************************************************

 

  - 64-

 

 such a way that we could not have known that this four hundred and fifty was to measure from the "division of the land," had not God’s spirit directed St. Paul to make it known.  The fact to which I refer is, that these two places, Gal. and Acts, are the only ones where chronology is mentioned in all the New Testament.  And as these two stumbling places have been the cause which, in the providence of God, has closed the words and sealed the true chronology until the present time, we cannot but believe they were designed for this special purpose.

 

 UNDER THE KINGS TO THE CAPTIVITY, 513 YEARS.

 

 Saul did not belong to the regular line through which our Lord descended, and the time during which he reigned is not mentioned in the Old Testament.  But Paul, in the same connection, with the Judges, makes up the break thus: "And afterward they desired a king; and God gave unto them Saul, the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years."  Saul, 40 years.  Ac 13:21.

 

 David, 40 years.  "And the time that he reigned over Israel were forty years."

 1Ch 29:27.

 

 Solomon, 40 years. "And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem, over all Israel, forty years."

 2Ch 9:30.

 

 Rehoboam, 17 years.  "Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem."  2Ch 12:13.

 

 Abijah, 3 years.  "He reigned three years in Jerusalem."  2Ch 13:2.

 

 Asa, 41 years.  "And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign."  2Ch 14:13.  See also 1Ki 15:10.  "And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem."

 

 Jehosaphat, 25 years.  "He was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years."  2Ch 20:31.

 

 Jehoram, 8 years.  "He reigned eight years in Jerusalem."  2Ch 21:5.

 

 Ahaziah, 1 year.  "Forty and two years old was

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 65-

 

 Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year, in Jerusalem."

 2Ch 22:2.

 

 Athaliah, 6 years. "And he, Joash, was with them, hid in the house of God, six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land."  2Ch 22:12.

 

 Joash, 40 years.  "Joash was seven years old when he began to reign: and he reigned forty years, in Jerusalem."  2Ch 24:1.

 

 Amaziah, 29 years.  "Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years. 2Ch 25:1.

 

 Uzziah, 52 years.  "Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years."  2Ch 26:3.

 

 Jotham, 16 years.  "Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years."  2Ch 27:1.

 

 Ahaz, 16 years.  "Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years."  2Ch 28:1.

 

 Hezekiah 29 years.  "Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years."  2Ch 29:1.

 

 Manasseh, 55 years.  "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years."  2Ch 32:1.

 

 Amon, 2 years.  "Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years."  2 Chon. 32:21.

 

 Josiah, 31 years.  "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years."  2Ch 34:1.

 

 Jehoiakim, 11 years. "Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years."  2Ch 36:5.

 

 Zedekiah, 11 years.  "Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years." (2Ch 36:11.)

 

 Total, 513 years under the kings.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 66-

 

 "And they burnt the house of God, and break down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.  And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and to his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years."  2Ch 36:19-21.  See also Jer 25:9-11.

 

 CAPTIVITY 70 YEARS.

 

 Part of the Jews were carried into captivity previous to this, among whom were Ezekiel and many others.  But this "threescore and ten years," during which the land enjoyed her Sabbaths, does not begin until the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and the residue of the people were carried into captivity.  For so long as these wicked kings continued to reign, the land was not "desolate," and Jeremiah said, "This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.  This captivity was to continue until the "reign of the kingdom of Persia, and therefore did not end with Darius the Median.  Cyrus was the first king of Persia.

 

 "Now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, &c.  Here then ends the 70 years.

 

 FROM THE FIRST YEAR OF CYRUS

 TO A.D. 1.

 536 YEARS.

 

 Here we have reached a reliable historic era, and no longer need the pen of inspiration to mark the years.  Who thinks of asking for Bible proof to tell us in what

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 67-

 

 year of the Christian era we are living?  And history was as reliable, a few hundred years prior to the birth of Christ, as it has been since.  The Medes and Persians, whose laws change not, were as careful to keep record of the leading events of the empire, as were the Romans, or the English; and these records are no less reliable.

 

 "Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let there be search made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house at Jerusalem. *** Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon." Ezr 5:17.

 

 God helps us when we cannot help ourselves, and he brought us down through the pre-historical ages, this clear unbroken line, to the first year of Cyrus, and then leaves us.

 

 Previous to that date, men differ widely as to the age of the human race; some making out that nine thousand years have already passed since Adam was created; others, less than five; and still others, varying between these two extremes; yet at the first year of Cyrus they come together.

 

 Thus some chronologers, following the Septuagint translation of the Scriptures (supposed to have been made by the Jews for Ptolemy, king of Egypt), place Adam back nearly two thousand years further than the Hebrew Bible, and yet call the first year of Cyrus B.C. 536.  Others, differing widely from the above, come to the first year of Cyrus, and call it B.C. 536.  And so, among all writers on chronology which I could find in the great library of the British Museum, however widely they may differ prior to this historic age, come together here; the widest difference being less than three months for the beginning of his reign, Bishop Usher among the rest. (See margin of our tables against 2Ch 36:22.)  "Now in the first

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 68-

 

 year of Cyrus," B.C. 536.  Since that date, eclipses and astronomical calculations are made and found to corroborate the historic dates; or, being a little out, correct them.  But eclipses, though sometimes unerring guides, are themselves mute prior to about that time; for where there is no reliable history to associate events with eclipses, the eclipses can tell us nothing.  And Bible history does not mention one, from first to last.

 

 As this date of the reign of Cyrus is established beyond all question, by the best light we have, there remains no way to set it right, if it is wrong.  Therefore we are helpless; it is either this or nothing.

 

 God knew this fact, and if he ended his revealed chronology too soon, or before we could help ourselves by the assistance of His great book, "the ordinances of heaven," the whole chronology fails of its purpose if that purpose was to tell us where the six thousand years of warfare to His church would end in "the rest that remaineth to the people of God."  Therefore we accept of this period, as we have the others, just as we find it, without trying to bend or force the time one single day to suit a theory.  If it comes out right, so much the better; if wrong, the error will be found at some other door, not ours.

 

 Measuring from A.D. 1, vulgar Christian era, to the end of the Jewish year 1872, viz., the spring of 1873, we are brought to the end of the six thousand years; when, if found faithful, we hope to enter with all of God’s people, the great sabbatic year, in the new dispensation.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

THE APPOINTED TIME.

 

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her that her appointed time [margin] is accomplished, and her iniquity pardoned, for she hath received at the Lord’s hand, double, for all her sins." Isa 40:1,2.

 

Where the language of Scripture is ambiguous; one application having no particular point or force, while another is clear, consistent and full of meaning; we have no choice but to take the latter.  Else why the necessity of "searching the Scripture," where a superficial reading will do as well.

 

Our text informs us that there is an appointed time, at the expiration of which Jerusalem’s, or Zion’s, warfare will be accomplished and her iniquity pardoned.  The time is when she shall have received double for all her sins.

 

In Jeremiah we find that God did so appoint the time.  "I will cast you out of this land unto a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, where I will not show you favor."  Then follows the promise that, after they were so cast off, they should be restored again.  "And first, I will recompense your iniquity and your sin double."  Jer 16:13,18.

 

The first thought of the reader may be that, if definite time is here revealed, it must be exceedingly obscure.  Such, however, is far from the truth; for there is not a prophetic period found between the lids of the Bible, where the time when "God shall bring again Zion," is taught in such clear, literal language; and yet it has long escaped our observation.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 70-

 

Most readers have heard of a curious picture of Napoleon, said to be a natural growth on the Island of Helena.  He is seen standing between two trees which form the outline of his body.  The likeness, though nothing but a blank space, is so perfect, and so truly Napoleonic, that when once observed, it cannot be mistaken.  If you have never seen the picture, it might be in your possession for months and you would see nothing but the trees.  Once have the likeness pointed out, it is plain that when you look again, you see the likeness and not the trees.

 

So with these truths which God, to subserve his purpose, "closed up and sealed."  Holy men nor angels could penetrate the veil.  But when the time comes and passing events take off the seal, without the chanting of a word, they shine forth like gold washed by the running stream, and we have but to stoop to pick them up.

 

"The prophets search diligently to know what, and what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. 1Pe 1:11.

 

What, and what manner of time, viz., whether literal or symbolical.  There is no other.  And the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, or make known, the time, both for the first and second advent the "sufferings and the glory."  And not to Daniel only, but to the prophets.

 

We need not, therefore, be surprised at finding time revealed to more than one; and in language both symbolical, as to Daniel, and literal, as in the present case.  We should rather be surprised if it was not so.

 

The time was made known to the prophets, and yet in a way they could not understand.  "I heard," says Daniel, "but I understood not."  "I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it."  "Which things also the angels desired to look into."

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 71-

 

Under these circumstances we could not expect the time to be given, in so many words; and in such positive language that none, not even the wicked, could cavil.  But once brought to light, it must be so simple, "that he who reads may run."  The command to "write the vision and make it plain," is of God, and will not fail of its fulfillment, or return until it shall have accomplished that whereunto it was sent.

 

May God grant a portion of "that spirit that searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God," to shine in our hearts and bring to light the hidden things reserved for this last generation.

 

I purpose to show first, that God’s typical people, Israel, were cast off where "I will not show you favor," as brought to view in Jer 16:13, at the first advent.

 

Second.  Previous to that, they were a nation; "the kingdom of the Lord."  Their sins were of a national character, and their punishment conditional upon their obedience.  After that event, there is no more a literal kingdom of God upon earth; therefore his people cannot sin against him as their king, in a literal sense; and the conditions of punishment are reversed.  The first advent of our Lord being the turning point, in the history of his church, and people.

 

Third, the time during which they sinned nationally, and were punished conditionally; was eighteen hundred and forty-three literal years.  And when they, Israel, literal or spiritual, shall have received eighteen hundred and forty-three years more, "their appointed time will be accomplished, and their iniquity pardoned, for they will have received double."  That this "double" refers to time, and is in harmony with all the other prophetic periods.  That it ends in 1873.  "When thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come."

 

THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.

 

The children of Israel were not cast out of their land "into a land they knew not, neither they nor their fathers,"

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 72-

 

in this captivity; for Abram came from Ur of Chaldees, and Jacob’s family came from Syria.

 

They were cast off, "where I will not show you favor," at the first advent of our Lord, when the "partition wall" was broken down by the introduction of the gospel.

 

"And when he came near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying; if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." Lu 19:41,42.  Now it is too late.  God’s literal kingdom is given up, "until he comes whose right it is."  Jerusalem must be trodden down "until the times of the gentiles be fulfilled."

 

"They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. *** Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then shall the remnant of his brethren return unto the children of Israel." Mic 5:1,3.

 

When "she that travaileth hath brought forth," must be in the resurrection.  "Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such a thing? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? shall a nation be born once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." Isa 66:8.

 

THEIR NATIONALITY.

 

"And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:" De 26:5.

 

The children of Israel were called "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God was their king.  I Sam. xii, 12.  After they rebelled against God and made another king; they are still called "the kingdom of the Lord." 2 Chr. 13:8.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 73-

 

Their nationality began in Egypt, where the patriarchal age ended, at the death of Jacob.  For it was there, the "scepter" was given to the tribe of Judah.  And whatever that implies, it was something that was to abide with them from the moment they became responsible, as "the children of Israel" at the death of their father, until the true seed should come, to whom the promise was made.  "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh come: and unto him, shall the gathering of the people be." (Ge 49:10.)   Here then, we have their measure.

 

While Jacob lived, he, as the head of the family, was responsible.  When Christ or Shiloh came, he, as the royal head of his own house, was responsible.  If "the children of the kingdom" accepted him, it was their gain; if they rejected him, it was their loss.  "He came to his own, and his own received him not."  Therefore "the kingdom of God was taken from them."

 

THE TIME.

 

Literal Israel holds the "scepter" from the patriarchal to the gospel dispensation.  From Jacob, the type, till Shiloh, the anti-type.  From him who bought his birthright with a mess of pottage, to him who purchased it with his own blood.  This period of time measures eighteen hundred and forty-three years; as God has been careful to inform us.

 

From the covenant with Abram to the law, was four hundred and thirty years. (Ga 3:17.)   And from the death of Jacob, the starting-point of the period we want to measure, to the law, is a hundred and ninety-eight years.  Thus, Abram was seventy-five years old, when he came out of Haram, and God made the covenant with him. (Ge 12:4,7.)   Twenty-five years after the covenant, Isaac was born, viz., when Abram was a hundred years old. (Ge 21:5.)   Isaac was sixty years old when Jacob was born. (Gen. 25:26.)

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 74-

 

Jacob dies at a hundred and forty-seven. (Ge 47:28.)  Therefore, from the covenant to the death of Jacob is two hundred and thirty-two years.  This leaves a hundred and ninety-eight from the death of Jacob to the law.  (For proof of the remainder of these periods, you will please turn to Chapter on Chronology, in which it is given in full.)

 

 From the death of Jacob to the law, ..................198 years.

 Law to sending spies, about ..........................  1   "

 Spies to division of land ............................ 45 "

 Division of the land, until Samuel ...................450 "

 Under the kings, to captivity ........................513 "

 Captivity to first year of Cyrus ..................... 70 "

 Cyrus to A.D. 1 ...................................... 536 "

 Till A.D. 30 ......................................... 30 "

 

 Total, from Jacob to Shiloh, ........................1843 "

 

 

 Christ, or Shiloh, does not "come" till about A.D. 30, as I will show.

 

 "And when John had first preached before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all Israel; and as John fulfilled his course, he said, whom think ye that I am?  I am not he, but behold there cometh one after me." &c.   Ac 13:24,25.

 

 "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him; and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee am I well pleased.  And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age." Lu 3:21,23.

 

 It is supposed by many, that our Lord was born four years before the Christian era, and here is their argument: An eclipse occurred four years before the Christian era.  Herod, "who sought the young child’s life," died, while the infant Jesus was in Egypt.  History records the death of Herod during the year of that eclipse.

 

 If Herod died the year of that eclipse, the argument is sound.  The only question is, did he?

 

 History, though reliable in the main, makes some mistakes, especially in relation to the death of obscure individuals.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 75-

 

 Herod was a king of an outlaying province of the Roman empire, and a mistake may have occurred in the year of his death.

 

 Augustus Caesar was emperor of the world, as we know, for he issued a decree that "all the world should be taxed."  A mistake in the time of his death is not at all likely, nor is the time questioned by anyone.  His death occurred on the 31st of August, A.D. 14, vulgar Christian era, so called.  Tiberius Caesar was his successor.  So far these facts are unquestioned.

 

 "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea. ** The Word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, and he came into the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance." (Lu 3:1-3.)   This brings us well into A.D. 29, before John begins to preach; and he was then about thirty years of age, for he was six months older than Christ. (Lu 1:26.)   "And when John had baptized all people, Jesus came and was baptized; and Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age."

 

 This makes John’s ministry, which began in the year A.D. 29, continue about six months, or until Christ was thirty, and proves our common reckoning right.

 

 To avoid this conclusion, it is said that Tiberius reigned contemporary with Augustus, some years.  This statement is not true.  Tiberius assisted Augustus somewhat, but he was not crowned, and therefore did not reign until after the death of Augustus, and even then he affected to refuse the crown.  It has not been uncommon for father and son, or successor, to reign co-temporary, but in order to reign, the successor must have been made king or emperor, and accepted it; none of which was true of Tiberius, until after Augustus’s death.  And more than this, it is only claimed that he assisted in the government two or three years, while, to have this arrangement hang together, it must have been more than four years.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 76-

 

 Luke’s statement is clear and positive, that it was in the fifteenth year of the REIGN of Tiberius that John began to preach.  If this is true, and does not mislead us in assuming that he reigned four or more years before the crown was offered or accepted, then our vulgar Christian era is the true era.  And giving Bible evidence its full weight, it can lead to no other conclusion.

 

 A SINFUL KINGDOM.

 

 During their whole existence as "the kingdom of God," they never ceased to transgress against God their King.

 

 "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye."  "We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth, even unto this day."  Jer 3:25.

 

 Their nationality began in Egypt, as we have shown, and hence it was in Egypt they spent their youth.  "She multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she played the harlot in the land of Egypt." Eze 23:19.

 

 THEIR PUNISHMENT.

 

 God afflicts his people not willingly, but for their good.  And this has always been a necessity under both dispensations.  Under the gospel, it is unconditional.  They cannot be his people without being godly; they cannot be godly without suffering persecutions.  While he had a literal kingdom on the earth, the conditions were just the opposite.  If they would obey their King, they should triumph over their enemies.  If they were in captivity, and turned to God with a full purpose of heart, he would repent him of the evil.

 

 "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not," says Christ.

 

  *************************************************************************************************

 

  - 77-

 

 As they continued to sin, so God continually chastised them.  They were punished under the Romans, Grecians, Medo-Persians and Babylonians.  In their own land, God left nations "as thorns unto them," and they suffered no less than seven captivities, under the Philistines and other nations of Palestine.  They were punished for their rebellion in the wilderness, and for their transgression in Egypt.  "The law was given by reason of transgression."  They were afflicted four hundred years, fathers and children, prior to their coming out of Egypt.  But with the very first moments of their nationality, a special humiliation began.

 

 "And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him; ** and his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said, behold we be thy servants."

 

 SHILOH.

 

 The sceptre was to continue with that people, viz., they were to continue to be the representatives of God’s kingdom, until the true seed came, at which time the typical seed ended.  Shiloh came, as we have shown, at A.D. 30, and began his ministry.  It was there "the law and the prophets," or former dispensation, ended; and the Gospel, or present dispensation, began, as we shall show by two competent witnesses.

 

 "The law and the prophets were until John." -Jesus.

 

 "Wherefore then serveth the law; it was added because of transgression, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." -Paul.

 

 These two witnesses are perfectly competent to decide this point, and are worth more than all the theories in the world.

 

 We are not to understand that the law does not continue, in a certain sense, through the gospel dispensation, and with shadowy lingers point even into that

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 78-

 

 which is to come; nor that the gospel had its beginning when our Lord "came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the gospel." (Mark i, 15.)   The gospel was preached to Abram, and extended back into the garden of Eden.  But when John had first preached the baptism of repentance and Shiloh comes, the measure of the literal seed, viz., its 1843 years, was complete; the Jewish dispensation ended and that of the gospel began.

 

 It is true it was first preached to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel"; but it was the gospel notwithstanding, and it was to those already lost.  Their dispensation had ended.  And now there was no hope but in Christ where, "if ye will live godly, ye shall suffer persecution."  Here then begins the second half, or "double," of the prophet, with its unconditional punishment.

 

 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the heathen; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the end of the earth." Zec 9:9,10.

 

 Here is brought to view the gospel dispensation, under which Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Gentiles brought in.

 

 The prophet then turns to the literal Jew, whose probation had expired, and says: "as for thee, also, whose covenant is by blood, [margin] I have set forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water; turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee." Zec 9:11,12.

 

 That this invitation to turn to the strong hold refers

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 79-

 

 to Christ, is plain; for they are represented as prisoners of hope, in a pit in which was no water, viz., the law; and Christ had the living waters springing up into everlasting life to give them.  And he offers to deliver them from their prison.

 

 The text of the first gospel sermon recorded by Luke is, "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, ** to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."  This was to the Jew who had been in bondage under the law; for "I am sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." " This day, says Christ, is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." Lu 4:17.

 

 The day on which the gospel was introduced, or the good news of a kingdom soon to come, was the day they were rejected from being the literal people, or "kingdom of the Lord."  And here the first breach was made in "the partition wall" of which Paul speaks.  The law served only until the seed should come, to whom the promise was made.

 

 DOUBLE.

 

 Webster says that double means to increase, or extend, by adding an equal quantity, or twice as much.  But two parts added to a third, made a triplet.

 

 If you sentence a prisoner to ten years’ punishment, and another prisoner double, the second sentence would be twenty years.  But one sentence, or a continuation of a sentence, could not be called double if it were composed of three parts.

 

 If a man is punished conditionally for ten years, and then, without pardoning him, his sentence continues until he has received double, it must end at the expiration of another ten years.  And no just rendering of language could make it mean otherwise.

 

 The last is a parallel case with the one before us.  God’s people had been punished for 1843 years prior to

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 80-

 

 the coming of Shiloh, at which time they supposed their punishment would end.  But God said, No! "Even today do I declare I will render double unto thee."  If they had not already been punished previous to the coming of Shiloh, there would have been nothing to double.  As they were punished for 1843 years prior to that, when they shall have received 1843 years more, they will have received double.  And on the authority of God himself, their appointed time will be accomplished, and their iniquity pardoned.

 

 "Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."

 

 There is no forced construction in this view; or trying to bring it to any particular year.  The language is taken for just what it carries on its face, and nothing more.  God said he would cast them off where he would show them no favor.  He did not so cast them off, nor cease to show them favor, so long as they held the "scepter."  They held the scepter from the death of Jacob till Shiloh came; God’s word for that.  He then rejected his literal people from being a kingdom, and they were "given up until the time she that travaileth hath brought forth, then shall the remnant of his brethren return."

 

 Whether it is the literal or spiritual seed who are to return, I do not presume to say; or if this punishment is one half on the literal and the other half on the gospel church.  What I do say is, that God has declared that after they were cast off where he would not show them favor, they, his people-Zion-literal or spiritual, God knows, "shall come again into their land, that I gave unto their fathers.  And first, I will render unto their iniquity, and their sins double."  And further he declares by the mouth of Isaiah, that when they have received double their appointed time will be accomplished, and their iniquity pardoned.

 

 The patriarchal age ended at the death of Jacob, and that people became responsible as the "children of Israel"

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 81-

 

 and receive the scepter B.C. 1813; according to this, the only Bible chronology.

 

 Reckon back from A.D. 1.  The first year of Cyrus is B.C. 536; the 70 years captivity; the 513 under the kings; the 450 under the Judges; the 45 from spies to dividing of land; the 1 year from coming out of Egypt to spies; the 198 from death of Jacob to coming out of Egypt.  Total B.C., 1813.

 

 

  B.C. 1813               Shiloh does not come till A.D. 30,

   The time               as we have shown.  Therefore their

   they hold               measure, or the time they hold the

  the scepter          scepter, is 1813 years before the birth

   is 1843              of Christ, and thirty years after that

 literal years.           event; making in all, 1843 years.

    A.D. 30                 Which period ended at A.D. 30.

 

    1843                   Add to A.D. 30, another period of

    years                1843 years, and it ends in A.D. 1873.

    more                 When, on the authority of God’s word,

    reach            "Their appointed time will be accomplished,"

     to                      Zion’s warfare ended, and

  A.D. 1873                   their iniquity pardoned.

 

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

THE JUDGMENT OF PAPACY,  

Or an Exposition of the 17 and 13 of Revelation.

 

Re 17   Re 13

 

"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and taken with me, saying unto me, come hither: I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." Re 17:1.

 

This judgment is also brought to view in Da 7:26.  "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."  In both of these scriptures we are taught that this judgment is prior to the end, and therefore not the final judgment on the world.

 

Prophecy is simply pre-written history, the facts of which never vary.  Man records them at, or subsequent, and God prior to their occurrence.  But in their application, there are two difficulties to encounter.  First, God has spoken in symbols and dark sayings, not to be understood until fulfilled.  And which therefore exert no influence of man’s free agency.

 

Second, human records are necessarily more or less imperfect, truth being frequently displaced by error.

 

These, and other minor difficulties which beset our path, warn us that the way is narrow, and requires the utmost care, that we aim not to support a theory, and so shut out the still small voice of truth.

 

I shall attempt to show, first, that the beast of the 13th, and woman of the 17th chapters, refer to papacy.  Second, that the mountains, heads, or peoples, upon which the woman sitteth are identical; and represent seven successive governments.

 

Third, that the two horned beast of the xiii chap. symbolizes the Napoleon dynasties; already passed away.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 83-

 

Fourth, as papacy, while holding in its hand times and laws, was called the beast, so deprived of these, it is called "the image of the beast."

 

The character of papacy has been drawn in blood, and so clearly, that it cannot be mistaken.  At the mandate of that church, princes, priests and armies have put to death God’s saints by millions.  It has assumed to itself the prerogatives of the Deity, and blasphemed his name.  The time it comes up, its duration and character, prove that this beast, and the little horn of Dan. vii, are one and the same.  And the harlot of Rome in her double character of church and state is the only power that has filled the picture.

 

The Roman kingdom was made up of the three previous empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Grecia; and hence retain some of their characteristics, as brought to view "in the mouth of the lion, feet of the bear," &c.

 

In Revelation 12th chap., under the imperial government or head, it is called "the dragon."  When its body, the people, were converted to the Catholic faith, they became the body of the church; and under the woman or papal head, are "called the beast."  Bear in mind that this is not a simple union of state and church; but the very people who compose the state also constitute the church.  Hence they are truly one in fact, as in organization, and two only in character.  Those who try to separate these two characters into two distinct powers, involve themselves in difficulty.

 

Thus we can see that the symbols of the "horn," or "beast," or "man of sin," could not fully represent this power; it required the "woman" character to complete the picture.

 

In the application of these prophecies, the only proof of which the subject is susceptible is found in the perfect consistency and harmony of the prophetic language with the facts and history of events.  In the present case we have to do only with the great outline of history, patent to all the world; therefore it does not require

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 84-

 

that we give authority.  No one would ask proof that Washington had been President of the United States, nor do they of the events to which we shall refer.

 

THE MYSTERY.

 

"And the angel said unto me, wherefore didst thou marvel?  I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast which carrieth her; which had the seven heads and ten horns.  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition."

 

The angel is here telling him the mystery, not the literal interpretation.  "Here is the mind that hath wisdom; the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth."  The "woman," is certainly symbolical, as is the beast; and to make the mountains literal, would destroy the unity.

 

Mountain, in symbolic language, represents a government or kingdom.

 

The kingdom of Israel was called a mountain.  "O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil; and thy high places for sin; and thou thyself shall discontinue from mine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies." Jer 17:3.  Babylon is called a mountain, "O destroying mountain, saith the Lord which destroyeth all the earth." Jer 51:25.  Christ’s kingdom is called a mountain.  "I beheld till that the stone which was cut out without hands, became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." Dan. 2.

 

These mountains on which the woman sitteth, are first called "waters," then "a beast"; and in the literal they are "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."  In Re 12:3, the seven heads here called mountains, were said to have seven crowns on them.  And in the 13th chap., one of these heads received a deadly wound; therefore, they cannot refer to literal hills.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 85-

 

I think we must accept the fact that these mountains mean kingdoms, "and there are seven kings" or kingdoms. Verse 10.   But why this repetition, if mountains and kings mean kingdoms?  Because it is the order of the chapter.  That whereon the woman sitteth was called waters, beast, mountains, peoples.

 

These seven mountains, or kingdoms, or heads of Rome, are governments which come in succession, and therefore cannot refer to divisions of the empire which have existed co-temporary; and, more than this, such divisions have not been governments of the Roman world, "or that great city."

 

"There are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue for a short space."

 

To find these heads or governments of Rome, we cannot go back of Grecia, and take features already passed away before God brings the Roman empire in view.  The first government of Rome after it is seen in prophecy was the dictator or consular form, a little prior to the days of Augustus Caesar.  The second, imperial.  This continued until the empire was broken up.  Then, for a short time, under the Goths, Rome had its third or kingly head.  The fourth was papal; and, during its 1260 years of "dominion," it was, in its secular form, as much the head of Rome as ever the Caesars were.  In 1798, that head "received a deadly wound," its "dominion was taken away," and a republican government inaugurated by the people of Rome and Italy.  This republic was the fifth head.

 

In the month of March, 1800, papacy was restored, but not "the beast."  Shorn of its power over "times and laws," it was but the image of what it had been.  It had crowned and uncrowned kings; sometimes at their pleasure, sometimes at its own; for "times and laws had been given into its hands."  Since this, the "image" has not handled crowns.  In 1804, it essayed

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 86-

 

to crown Napoleon, but that prince took the crown himself, and placed it on his own head.

 

Papacy in some form, however, was to continue to "wear out the saints of the Most High, until the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom."  But was not to hold "times and laws."  In that character God had given it power to continue "forty and two months," and no longer.  And when its time was up, that "beast" ceased to be.  But there was another power; the two horned beast came up, "and said to them that dwell upon the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by the sword, and did live."  This "image" has been the sixth head of Rome, from 1800 to 1870.  During this 70 years, the "ten kings" have been stripping her of her territory piece by piece, and thus "making her naked and desolate."  It is here, during this judgment, the prophet takes his stand point.  "Come hither; I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot."

 

From this position, we can see the five which had fallen, viz., The Consular, Imperial, Kingly, Papal, Republican.  "One is," viz., Papacy; the same papacy, but in the image form.  The other, which from that stand point had not yet come, came Sept., 1870, and Rome is now under the seventh or last head, which is to "continue for a short space."

 

These seven are all the heads "that great city," the Roman world, has had.  Rome proper has been sacked and held for a few months at a time by invaders, it is true, but these seven forms of government are all which have been endorsed or supported by the people, since "that great city" came into prophetic view.  Ver. 11.  "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition."

 

This beast is the same mentioned in the 8th ver., for the angel refers him to this, viz., "The beast that thou sawest, was and is not," &c. Ver. 8.  It is the one on which the woman sat, during her long bloody career,

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 87-

 

and therefore we can be at no loss to know what the "eighth" is.  It is the body of the Roman, or fourth beast of Daniel.  The one of which he says, "I beheld until the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flames."  And here, the only thing said of it is that it goes into perdition.

 

When this Roman beast took on its ecclesiastical character, and submitted its "times and laws" into the hands of the church, it ceased to be, as a kingdom, for it had become a church.  "It was not, and yet it was."  The bottomless pit is a state or condition, in which it had lost its power to act.

 

The eighth "is of the seven," viz., the body of the beast, or people, have been a part of all the seven.  And this "eighth," being the body, or people, which carried the woman, is "of the seven."

 

Daniel’s fourth, or great and terrible beast, which embraces in itself all the seven heads, "will not again appear" in its true character, until the seventh head now in existence, has had the "short space" allotted to it, for these all come in succession; hence it is still in the condition in which it "is not."

 

This being in the future, we cannot fully comprehend it.  Prophecy is to be understood only so far as it is fulfilled.  "I speak these things, that when they come to pass ye might believe," said Christ.  This eighth is neither "head," nor "horn," but a nondescript.  It is something to take the place of the present and last head of Rome.  It is the last, and therefore worst, effort towards human government.  "And they that dwell upon the earth, shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life, from the foundation of the world, when they behold it."  Whether it will come up prior or subsequent to the appearing of our Lord, we are not informed.  But of this we are informed, that our Lord will himself, personally, deal with it.  Its name is International Society, or COMMUNE.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 88-

 

THE INTERPRETATION.

 

With the 11th ver. the vision and mystery ends.  The seven heads have all come and "the eighth" gone into perdition.  From here the interpretation is literal.  The prophet is again back to his real place on the Island of Patmos.  The time, in the days of Imperial Rome, and from this new stand point, we shall be able to understand the interpretation of the vision.

 

Ver. 12th.  The ten horns, which thou sawest, are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet.  Rome was not yet divided.  In the latter part of the fifth, and beginning of the sixth century, the division was made, and the ten kings received their kingdom; but hardly was it accomplished, when they adopted the Catholic faith; "and became of one mind, and agreed and gave their power and strength unto the beast."  "For God had put it into their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God, viz., the "forty and two months" should be fulfilled.  Since then, they have been stripping her of her power and dominion, and now she is naked, yet she must continue until Christ destroys her.

 

Three of these "ten horns" were plucked up by the roots, Daniel tells us.  They fell, or were "subdued," but not destroyed.  And like the beast itself, "which is not, and yet is," they are yet to come up and take part "in the battle of the great day of God Almighty."

 

"These ten kings shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings."  God has never shown us but ten horns, and those who give the Roman beast twenty horns, or ten new ones, in Italy, it seems to me are adding to the word of God.

 

THE PAPAL BEAST.

 

This beast of the 13th chapter, having seven heads and ten horns, is not the papal church; the church is the woman.  It is the Roman beast, while under its papal

 

  ***********************************************************************************************

 

  - 89-

 

head.  Keep this distinctly in your mind.  Prior to this, the same beast was called the dragon.  Now it is changed in character and name.  It was pagan, it is now papal; it was the body of the dragon, it is now the body of the church.

 

Its fourth, or papal head, "was wounded as it were to death" in 1798; "and his deadly wound was healed."  In 1800, papacy, the same papacy, was restored, but only as the image of what it was.  From the first to the third verse, the whole beast is seen by the Revelator; then from the 4th to the 10th inclusive, a more minute description is given of the way he gets his wound, and his final captivity.

 

An objection might be noticed here, that the woman could not be one of the heads, for the beast which carried her had the seven heads.  We do not claim the "woman" character for a head.  The head was the secular or kingly power, and not the church.

 

THE TWO HORNED BEAST.

 

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns as a lamb, and spake as a dragon." Verse 11.

 

This beast restores the papacy, or the image, "and said to them that dwell upon the earth, that they should make an image of the beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live." Verse 14.

 

We see, as before stated, that the beast and its head, are in a certain sense one; for in this verse it is said to be the beast which received the wound, while in the 3d verse it was the head.

 

These two horns have precisely the same history.  They both come up out of a republic.  They spake as a dragon, viz., like the dragon, Rome, under its imperial head; or in other words, they both became imperial governments, and their end is the same.  They both go into captivity.  France was overrun, and Paris taken in 1815, and again in the winter of 1870.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 90-

 

This two horned beast does not make the image; the people of Rome did that.  "He says to them that dwelleth upon the earth, that they should make an image."  But "he has power to give life unto it, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship it might be killed." Verse 15.

 

This image, or restored papacy, has already put to death many.  Some fell soon after its restoration, and many thousands were "killed" in Spain and Portugal, by the Romish church, in 1831.

 

The two horned beast was to give life to the image; hence, when the second empire, the source from which it drew its life, went down in 1870, the image also fell.

 

An objection has been brought, that in the symbol the two horns are seen at its first coming up.  So were the four heads of Daniel’s leopard beast.  "I beheld, and lo, another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl, and the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given it."  We know the Grecian beast did not have four heads until after the first kingdom had passed away.  He sees the beast with all its parts complete, as does the Revelator here.

 

Again, Imperial Rome, in the days of Augustus, standing before the woman, about to be delivered of the man child, "who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, (See Re 12:3-5, and Re 2:27) is seen complete, with all its heads and horns, although at that time only the second head had come, and none of the horns.

 

"He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth, in the sight of man, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth." Verse 13.

 

We all know that fire in the symbolized language of Revelations, means the scourge of war and nothing more.

 

All alike agree that the trumpets, at least four of them, were fulfilled in the wars which broke up the

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 91-

 

Roman empire, and here are two: "And the first angel sounded, and there followed hail, and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and a third part of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.  And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea." Re 8:7,8.

 

Napoleon was considered by the very men he was fighting against, as the scourge of God, and therefore irresistible.  In this sense his course was miraculous.  There was as much fire and blood in his wars as any that preceded them.

 

"Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three score and six." Re 8:18.

 

This cannot refer to Napoleon’s name, for this is the number of the beast that had received the deadly wound and was healed, and not the two horned beast.

 

This Napoleon power is not called a beast, except in the 11th verse, when first mentioned.  From that to the 15th verse inclusive, it is mentioned seven times, and in every case the personal pronoun "he" is used when referring to the two horned beast, thus keeping up the distinction between him and this papal beast, whose deadly wound was healed.  And the beast in all these verses is the same as that of the 14th verse.  The number of the beast is the number of a man, viz., "the man of sin."  It has been applied to the different sects who have sprung from the harlot mother.  With how much truth I leave others to judge.

 

**************************************************************************************************

 

THE 2300 DAYS.

 

"And he said unto me, until two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Da 8:14.

 

This prophetic period was the corner stone of the advent movement, looking to 1843.  And the arguments advanced by William Miller, showing the termination of the days at that time have never been answered, nor indeed can they be.  All admit the argument is in favor of 1843.  But time continued, the vision tarried, and the virgins slept.  This is its only apparent weakness.  And so they have tried to find other places to end them.

 

I shall show first: that the 2300 days ended at, or about 1843, and therefore marks the tarrying of the vision, and not its end.  Second: that the language used admits of this construction, and unity demands it.

 

This vision embraces the three last empires, Rome, Grecia, and Medo-Persia.  But not the rise or beginning of the Medo-Persian empire.  "I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold there stood before the river, a ram."  It is already up, and standing before the river when seen.

 

In the 13th and 14th verses (Da 8:13-14), the question, "how long the vision?" is both asked and answered, after which Gabriel is told to explain it. Ver. 16 (Da 8:16).   But he does not succeed at that time; for Daniel says, I was astonished at the vision; but none understood it.

 

Ver. 27 (Da 8:27).  Therefore Gabriel is sent a second time on the same errand. Da 9:21,23.   He refers Daniel back to this vision, in which he had first appeared to him; and almost in so many words, tells him that he is now come forth to finish what was left unfinished before.  "Therefore understand the matter and consider the vision."  Seventy

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 93-

 

weeks (of this vision of 2300) are determined upon thy people and the holy city."

 

These "seventy weeks," or four hundred and ninety days, have always been understood by Jew and Christian to symbolize four hundred and ninety years.  And the language is so plain, that this was to be the measure of that dispensation, viz., "thy people and the holy city," that no one questions it.  The only question is, where did the dispensation end?

 

Some take the ground, that as the holy city is included, the seventy weeks could not end till Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.  Others, that they ended with Christ, and that Jerusalem ceased to be "the holy city" when God left it desolate.

 

The seventy weeks were determined on his people, and the holy city, to do or accomplish certain specified things, viz., "To finish the transgressions, and make an end of sin; and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy."  When these things were all accomplished, the seventy weeks which were set apart for that purpose, must also have been accomplished.*

 

  *" From the going forth of the commandment, to restore and to build Jerusalem."  This looks as if the seventy weeks should date from the first year of Cyrus.  And if God had not designed to make the subject of the definite time for the "sufferings," as well as "the glory that should follow," obscure, so that prophets and angels, who earnestly desired to know, could not understand; we should naturally suppose it began there.  But the command was issued, and re-issued, as we learn from Ezra, and whether it was the first, or some subsequent "going forth of this commandment" we are left in doubt, until its fulfillment.  From the going up of Ezra, B.C. 457, until Messiah is cut off, is just seventy weeks.

 

God says by his prophet, that "Cyrus should build his city," and yet we know the city was not built during his lifetime. See Ezr 4:4.5.

 

P. 94 footnote continues: But as the same commandment issued by Cyrus, was re-issued, or put in force at a subsequent date, Cyrus built the city.  And it was "at the going forth of the commandment," viz., the time when it was put in force the seventy weeks begin, as its fulfillment clearly teaches.

 

"Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks."

 

  *************************************************************************************************

 

  - 94-

 

"Unto the Messiah," can mean nothing else than unto the coming of Messiah.  Our Lord does not come till after John, and when John had first preached before his coming, the baptism of repentance, &c. Ac 13:24.

 

Seven weeks and threescore and two weeks make sixty-nine weeks, at the end of which Christ, who is then about thirty years of age, comes as the Messiah and begins his work.

 

"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off."  We were just informed that the seven weeks preceded the threescore and two, and hence if he is cut off after the threescore and two, it must be somewhere in the last week; but it does not say how long after the sixty-two.

 

"And the people of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war, desolations are determined.  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease."

 

There is some obscurity about this last week, for we have no positive knowledge how long Messiah preached.  He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, may imply that he himself preached seven years.  Or, as he works in his disciples, it might have been confirmed by Christ through them that heard him.  In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice to cease."

 

Here again the language is indefinite.  The midst of the week may mean in the middle of the week, at which time it is generally supposed Christ died, or it may mean throughout the week, and that the transition from one dispensation to the other was a gradual work, embracing the whole week.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 95-

 

The fact that the one week is mentioned after the destruction of the city, certainly does not prove that it transpired during its destruction.  If the order of these events occur in the order in which they are mentioned, the one week does not begin until Jerusalem is destroyed and all the wars connected with it ended.  But the order in which events are mentioned in prophecy has nothing to do with the order of their occurrence, unless it is so affirmed.

 

The death of Christ is not infrequently mentioned before his birth, and the second advent before the first.  And then again, the two events are blended into one.

 

If God had chosen to make it clear, he would no doubt have done so; but he spoke in dark sayings for a special purpose, as we are informed in other places.

 

Of one thing, however, we may be sure, viz., That seventy weeks of that vision ended when all the purposes were fully accomplished, for which God had set apart the seventy weeks.  First, "to finish the transgression," viz., that under the dispensation which this time was to measure.  "And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." Heb 9:15.

 

Second, "and to make an end of sins."  "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world."  Third, "and to make reconciliation for iniquity."  "For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Ro 5:10.  Fifth, "and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy."

 

This is the last, and all that was to be accomplished under the seventy weeks; and if our Lord was not anointed as high priest, when he offered himself a sacrifice, nor yet when he ascended on high; we have no authority to say that he was ever anointed.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 96-

 

Which one of these events, set apart to be accomplished in the seventy weeks, was delayed till Jerusalem was destroyed?  If they were all accomplished at the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, where is the authority to continue the seventy weeks up to the destruction of Jerusalem?  Some will say, the seventy weeks were determined on the holy city.  Granted! but where is the proof that it continued to be the "holy city" after God had given it up?

 

"Ye are not my people and I will not be your God."  "And I will say to those that are not my people, ye are my people."  "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to another nation."  Were not these declarations fulfilled when our Lord said, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate?" or not until that God-forsaken city was taken by Titus?

 

If the seventy weeks reach to the destruction of Jerusalem, it follows that the Jews and Old Jerusalem continued to be "thy people and the holy city" until that time.  And so the two dispensations were co-temporary for nearly forty years; after the true Seed came and turned away the Aaronic priesthood to himself.

 

"How long the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation," was the question; and as the seventy weeks were a part of this vision, and the part which referred to the Jews, we naturally suppose it was the measure of the daily sacrifice; but did the daily sacrifice continue as a sacrifice after Christ had offered himself once for all?  It seems like doing violence to the Word of God to carry any of these things to the destruction of Jerusalem.

 

After Christ came and they rejected him, and he in turn rejected them, and was crucified, they were no longer his people in any sense in which they are not his today.  For he blotted out the hand writing of ordinances, nailing them to his cross.  After which there was no difference between Jew or Greek.

 

The fact that those seventy weeks ended at the death

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 97-

 

of Christ, or about that time, is just as certain as that the gospel was then fully instituted.  And the proof that the 2300 days ended 1810 years after, rests on the same evidence.

 

 

 From      2300   If the crucifixion occurred A.D.   33

 take       490            the                     1810

           ———-                                 ———-

 Balance   1810                     reach to       1843

 

 

 OUR MISTAKE.

 

 Second.  Our mistake was in expecting the Lord at the end of these days.  The language, "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," does not necessarily imply an instantaneous work, but simply that the cleansing would be the next event in that prophecy.

 

 Our Lord went to Jerusalem, and then to Nazareth.  If several days had passed before he started for Nazareth, the statement would still be true.

 

 The adverb "then" pre-supposes time, and more or less in proportion to the magnitude of the events with which it is connected.  You go to China, and then to Australia; months, or even years might intervene, and yet this language would convey no false impression.

 

 The question was, how long the vision, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be "trodden under foot."  The answer is, "It shall be for 2300 days," then something was to follow.  And whether that something would occur in one year or fifty, it did not say.

 

 Because the question involves the whole time during which the sanctuary would be trodden under foot, does not imply that the time in the answer, would cover it all, by any means.

 

 There is a parallel, in Revelation 12th chap.  "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?"  This question covers the whole ground; but the time in the answer does not.  "It shall be for a time, times, and an half, and when something else is done, &c."  The question is asked a third time, and still the complete answer is

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 98-

 

 withheld.  "There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days," and what then? a waiting time? "Blessed is he that waiteth."

 

 The time, which was withheld from prophets and angels, and reserved for the wise of this last generation, was not vouchsafed at every solicitation.

 

 There is but one period in the book of Daniel, reaching to the end.  This is positive.  Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days; but go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."

 

 All I have been trying to show here is that the language "it shall be for two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," does not necessarily imply that the days reach to the end.

 

 THE TARRYING TIME.

 

 "Write the vision and make it plain on tables; for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

 

 How strangely worded is the word of God; dark and unsatisfactory to the natural man, it leaves the future barred as with adamantine doors and ribs of steel against his curious gaze; and yet in its fulfillment, shines forth as beautiful as the morning.

 

 This language of Habakkuk, applied by Paul (Heb 10:36) to the consummation, seems at first sight contradictory.  It does not say, if you are mistaken wait for it; but "though it tarry, wait for it."  The bridegroom tarried, and in some sense the vision tarries.

 

 The simple fact is, the 2300 days did not cover the whole time.  The vision tarries, and the sanctuary is not yet cleansed.

 

 THE TYPE.

 

 This thirty years, from 1843 to 1873, is not the only thirty years of tarrying, by which God has tried his

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

  - 99-

 

 people.  "According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous things; the nations shall see and be confounded at their might."

 Mic 7:5.

 

 "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs, and shall serve them: and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance." Ge 15:13,14.

 

 This was the only definite time to which Israel looked for their deliverance, and yet we read, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, and it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even on the selfsame day, it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." Ex 12:41.

 

 Here is certainly a tarrying of thirty years.  No other construction can be put upon it.  Nor does it require that any man should steady the ark and help the Lord by saying, "The four hundred must have begun when Isaac was five years old."  This statement was made to Abram, not Abraham; and before the birth of Ishmael even.  Abram was changed to Abraham ten years before Isaac was born.  And more than this, the summing up is, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel was four hundred and thirty years; not four hundred.  Nor is it a mistaken translation.  Read what Stephen says about it in Acts vii, 6.  Notice the language carefully, and you will find the Lord does not say they should come out at the end of the four hundred years, any more than he does that the sanctuary should be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days.

 

 These prophetic periods, for both the type and antitype, were so arranged and worded, that a tarrying of thirty years could follow and yet the language remain strictly true.

 

  **************************************************************************************************

 

 1843 YEARS.

 

 From the first, to the second advent of our Lord.

 

 At the birth of Christ, it was proclaimed to the shepherds by angels, and by priest and prophet in the Temple, that a Savior was born.  This, together with the martyred infants of Bethlehem, must have been heard of wherever God’s name was reverenced.  But soon the excitement dies away, and the world slumbers again.  THIRTY YEARS roll round, and lo! the anointed Son of God is revealed.

 

 Christ did not come until the forerunner, John, had preached the baptism of repentance to all the people, "And when John had first preached, BEFORE HIS COMING, the baptism of repentance, &c. Ac 13:24.

 

 The message to the world at the beginning of this great advent movement was, in substance, that the second coming of the Messiah would be 1843 years from the first; and wisdom will yet be justified of her children.  As there was a tarrying of thirty years at the first advent, so there is a tarrying of thirty years now, and we still preach and believe that as Christ did not come till he was thirty, so the second coming will be 1843 years from the first.  Truly God is at the helm.

 

 The 1843 movement was as extensive and far reaching in its results as was the proclamation at the birth of Christ.  That thirty years of tarrying preceded his sufferings, this, his glory.

 

 Thy people are sleeping, O God rouse them up;

 Let the cry spread like fire through the camp,

 Till all of the virgins who wait for their Lord,

 Have the light of thy truth in their lamps.

 

 Reader, whoever thou art, "seek the Lord, seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be that ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger."