in his atoning blood, clad in his glorious righteousness, is safe he may fail, and so far he does fail, in thinking of the crowned Christ to come; but he does not fail, and therefore his safety is secure, come what may, because resting on a crucified Christ that has come; and justified, and forgiven, and accepted of God, he will rejoice at that day.

LECTURE XI.

PROPHETIC DATES AND OUR STUDY OF THEM.

Dates are constantly given in the Scriptures. They mete out the future as well as the past. What God has inspired for our learning we may meekly and humbly study.

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”—2 PETER iii. 8.

It may be perfectly true that the thought expressed by the apostle here is that in the estimate of Him whose measure is infinity whose duration is eternity, a thousand years are less, far less, than one day is in the estimate of man; that is to say, that a thousand years bears an infinitely less proportion to an eternal duration than a single day bears to the lifetime of man, though it extend to seventy, eighty, or even a hundred years. But it has been adduced by writers on the prophetic dates as a probable or presumptive proof of what is proved to be otherwise certain, that each day of the creation week was the miniature of a thousand years; that as six days were expended by the Creator in creating our world, and the seventh day was consecrated to be the sabbath or the rest; so six thousand years will be expended-a day for a thousand years-in the government and working of the world, and the seventh thousand year shall be the sabbatical rest, what the apostle calls the oaßßarioμos, the sabbath keeping, "that remaineth for the people of God," or

what is more popularly called the millennium, or what will be the actualizing of the 21st and 22nd chapters of the book of Revelation. This part of its reference I shall not be able in this lecture to explain. But as a great deal of misapprehension exists on the subject of these calculations in prophecy-calculations which are not originated by the preacher, but often stated and inspired, surely for some purpose, in the word of God, -it seems very desirable that I should try-what I have never yet done in full-to lay before you an epitome or a summary of the various dates, where a prophetic day is made to represent a literal year; and show that all these great periods seem to cluster and to intersect at a period, whatever be its nature, accompaniments, or issues, not very many years distant from the year which is now running out. In order to do so, I will turn to the earliest of all. We read in Leviticus xxvi., verses 18, 21, 24, and 28, that God was to afflict, or to cause his people Israel to suffer what He calls " seven times." God declares on four different occasions, in the course of that 26th chapter, that He will afflict them seven times." We cannot but feel suggested to our mind by this expression in Leviticus, the frequent reiteration of such words as these in the course of prophecy, "time, times, half a time;" "wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" "The Jews shall be trodden under foot," that is, God will afflict them, "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." What were the times of the Gentiles? During these seven times God threatens to afflict his people, Jerusalem is to be trodden under foot, and his ancient people to be a scoff and a by word; and at the end of these seven times, whatever they may mean, the Gentile oppression shall cease; God's forsaken but unforgotten race will emerge, return to Jerusalem, worship on Mount Sion, and Christ shall be manifested, and shine before his ransomed ancients gloriously. The next remarkable era we find in Daniel viii. 14, 2300 days; beginning at the destruction of the ram, that is, the Persian empire, by the

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he goat, or the Greek; and at the end of that period exhausting itself; an epoch which I will endeavour to show when I come to treat of it alone. We find next what will confirm the solution of these dates, that a day means a year, by our investigation of the 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy. As these 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy, contained in his 9th chapter, at the 27th verse, have already been fulfilled, we can prove that the prophet necessarily means a day for a year, that the 70 weeks are 70 times 7 days 490 days prophetically, or literally 490 years. If I establish this, I have laid a basis on which I can solve and explain the other dates that are contained in these prophecies. In the fourth place, we have these words, "time, times, and half a time;" during which, says Daniel, in the 7th chapter of his prophecy, at the 25th verse, this great apostate power that he speaks of shall afflict God's people; this power that wears out the saints, that changes times and laws, about the application of which we can have no manner of doubt, shall dominate. Also he says that God's people shall be given to be crushed by him for "a time, times, and the dividing of times.' And then at the end of this epoch, whatever be its duration, or whatever be the date of its exhaustion, we are told that the judgment shall sit, his dominion shall be taken away, and he will be consumed until the end, when he shall be utterly destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Now these are the words of Scripture. In connection with that "time, times, and half a time," we have in the book of Revelation several periods precisely the same, but differently expressed. Thus we read that the holy city, the picture of the true church, is to be trodden under foot forty and two months. Now if you multiply 42 by 30, you produce 1260 days. The expression is repeated, "I will give power to the two witnesses; they shall prophesy in sackcloth;" that is, as I have explained, the true church shall be depressed and crushed by this dominant power, one thousand

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two hundred and three score days;" that is, 1260 days. We read in the 12th chapter that the woman flees into the wilderness; that is, that the Church of Christ, which, it is easy to show, escapes into obscurity where she shall be nourished a thousand two hundred and three score days. If we take all these words, "time, times, and half a time," or 1260 days, or 42 months-we shall find they all denote one period; a time, 360 prophetic days, or full literal years; times, the double number, twice 360; and half a time, the half of 360; making exactly 1260 prophetic days, or 1260 literal and full chronological years. Thus we have before us all these dates, namely, 66 the time, times, half a time,” the 42 months, the 1260 days, all denoting precisely the same thing. In Daniel, the 12th chapter, we read of 30 days added to the 1260, making 1290 days. He also speaks of a yet further period of 45 days added to the 1290; and he says that that man will be blessed, or specially happy, or the possessor of great joy, who lives to the close of the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. Another prophetic number is the period when the Saracenic power was to execute judgment on Christendom, namely, five months. We have next "the hour, the day, the month, and the year," which we will also investigate. There is next the number 666 as the number of a man, the application of which is very clear. Lastly, we have the three and a half days after the death of the witnesses, during which they lie unburied on the street of the great city of Christendom, called Sodom, Egypt, or Rome. These dates, or calculations, the Spirit has inspired we do not invent them. If we cannot fully remove every difficulty, it is our duty to do the best we can, and this is not little. There are some topics on which I can speak with the absolute conviction that I speak the very mind, and words, and truths of God; here are other topics more delicate, more intricate, on hich one must speak with reserve; in discussing which is possible one may be wrong, and in some inances it may be probable we have not arrived at the