f I Srom f ^e feiBrari? of ({)rofe66or WifPtam ^cnt^ (Brcen Q$equcaf^eb fig ^im to f^e feifirarg of (prtnceton S^eofogtcaf ^emtnarg E>S155^ .T242 V L. K . Q, ^ ■0 C CQ « » |5 Q^s «) £ ■" - "C ■?; « THE TIMES OF DANIEL AN ARGUMENT. HENRY W. TAYLOR, LL.D., LATE A JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COUST AND JUDGE OF THE COUBT OF APPEALS OF NEW TORE. NEW YOEK: ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., 770 BaoADWAT, cor. 9th Street. 1871. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., In the OflSce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. E. 0. JENKINS, STEREOTYPER AND PRINTER, SO N. WILLIAM ST., N. Y. SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I. Prefatory 9 CHAPTER n. Introductory IT CHAPTER IIL Announcement of tlie Messiali ^ CHAPTER IV. Subjection of the Saints to Anticluist 23 CHAPTER V. The Answer of Palmoni. 2400 Years 80 CHAPTER VI. Chronological Corrections 4i; CHAPTER Vn. Addition of 21 to the 2400 Years ; 49 CHAPTER Vm. Symbol of the Ram with Horns 5G Note to Chapter viii 6:' (3) 4 STWOPSIS. CHAPTER IX. Symbol of the He-goat 73 CHAPTER X. Somewhat more of tho Ram and He-goat 82 CHAPTER XI. The Holy City trodden down of the Gentiles 1300 years 104 CHAPTER XII. The same subject continued 109 CHAPTER XIIT. The Restoration of the Jews 115 CHAPTER XIV. The same subject continued 120 CHAPTER xV. The Twelfth Chapter of Daniel 130 CHAPTER XVI. 1290 and 1335 Years 139 CHAPTER XVII. Twelfth Chapter— Twelfth Verse 144 CHAPTER XVIIL The Close of the Christian Dispensation 148 CHAPTER XIX. Corroborative proofs from other Scriptures 163 SYI^OPSIS. 5 CHAPTER XX. Third Chapter, Second of Peter, Tenth Verse 1G5 CHAPTER XXI. The Answer of Christ to his Disciples— Matt. Chapter sxiv ... 177 CHAPTER XXII. The Coming of our Lord 18'^ CHAPTER XXIII. The Millennium 193 CHAPTER XXrV. Summary and Conclusion 200 TO THE READER. IT is a natural presumption on the part of the reader of this argument, that its preparation was prompted by the recent wonderful develop- ments which have signalized the history of Europe. So far from that, the whole argument, excepting the tenth chapter, and the note to the eighth, was in manuscript, with the design of immediate pub- lication, near four years ago. Some may think they discover a discrepancy of one or two years, between the time when certain events ought to have occurred, according to my system, and their actual occurrence. The writer admits no such discrepancy, beyond that resulting from probable errors in certain ancient chronologi- cal eras. The fixing dates to the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, has become a somewhat unpopular en- terprise. In the commencement of this argument, the writer had no premeditated design of placing (7) 8 TO THE READER. the final dates where they are found. But this fea- ture in the case, is only the necessary sequence of the argument. The writer would be just as well satisfied if his reasoning had led to different results. The radical principle of the theory presented is, that the last six chapters of Daniel, (except per- haps the first seven verses of the seventh chapter, which are necessarily introductory,) are devoted exclusively to visions relating to the Christian dis- pensation ; and in this consists my fundamental divergence from all former systems of exegesis ol this prophecy. CHAPTER I. PREFATORY. IT is many years since I became distrustful of some of the prevalent notions concerning the prophecy of Daniel. All the commentaries I had seen appeared to leave it deficient in some respects, in symmetry and system ; and indeed, to blend together those things, especially relating to time, which ought to be kept separate ; assuming, for instance, that as two terms of time were of the same duration, they therefore begin and end at the same period. As the leading example, I quote from Faber : "At the end of 1260 days, the judg- ment will sit, and the dominion of the papal horn, or the little horn of the fourth beast, will be utterly destroyed by the Son of man : at the end of the same 1260 days, the king, who magnified himself above every god, will undertake the expedition, which will terminate in his destruction; and at I* (9) 10 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. that very time, the restoration of the Jews will com- mence. At the end of the same 1260 days, the ten- horned beast, which was to practice prosperously in his revived state fort3^-two prophetic months, and along with him, his false prophet, will be ultimately, that is, at the end of those forty-two months, defeated in a great battle with the personal word of God ; and lastly, the man of sin will finally, and therefore, at the end of the same 1260 days, be consumed with the spirit of the mouth of the Lord, and destroyed with the brightness of his coming." To the same purport Mr. Whiston, in his Essay on the Revela- tion of St. John, at page 'jd : " Not only the- neces- sity of chronological synchronisms, but the evident force of common reason obliges us to acquiesce, and to esteem these five several prophecies, in the main, collateral and contemporary." A more careful examination has convinced me that errors have crept in, not only in the applica- tion of the prophet's developments to chronology, but in the generally accepted chronology itself. With very few variations, I wrote the four chap- ters of this essay, commencing with the third, more than five years ago, and subsequent investigation on my part, and events in the ecclesiastical world, have tended very much to strengthen my former convictions. PEEFATOBY. II Following the lead of the most eminent writers on Daniel, I had assumed the year 606 as that in which Boniface was constituted supreme Pontiff. More careful research, however, has satisfied me that this is an error. He was, undoubtedly, thus created Universal Bishop in 607, which epoch I have accordingly adopted. This, in itself, is a small matter, but as it is the epoch from which nearly every event foretold by Daniel is reckoned, it becomes desirable that it should be fixed, as far as possible, with perfect exactness. In a matter the value of which depends so much upon chrono- logical accuracy, as in this prophecy, I have been surprised to discover so many most obvious and momentous defects. The ninth chapter commences as follows : " In the first year of Darius the Mede." This has been assumed, I know not upon what hypothesis, to have been the year 538 before Christ, and is so noted in all the bibles having marginal references. We inquire who " Darius the Mede," was, and learn that he was undoubtedly identical with Cyaxeres, the son and successor of Astyages. Rollin, in his second volume, at page 97, sec. 3, of his history of Cyrus, says : " Astyages, king of the Medes, dying, was succeeded by his son Cyaxeres, brother to Cyrus' mother." This ho 12 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. dates 560 B. c. A writer in Rees' Cyclopaedia, says : " Astyag-es, after a reign of thirty-five years, was succeeded by his son, Cyaxeres, 560 b. c, who in the book of Daniel is called, ' Darius the Mede.' " Calmet says, " Darius the Mede, spoken of in Daniel, was son of Astyages, king of the Medes, and brother of Mandane, mother of Cyrus, and Amyit the mother of Evil Merodach, and grandmother of Belshazzar. The Hebrew names him Dariovesch, or Darius ; the Septuagint Arta- xerxes, and Xenophon Cyaxeres." There can be no doubt that Cyaxares, or Darius, was king of the Medes 560 b. c. It is presumed that the date of 538, as the first year of Darius the Mede, was adopted on the authority of Archbishop Usher, who under that date, says : " Darius the Mede, son of Assuaras al. Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, took upon him the kingdom, delivered to him by Cyrus, the Conqueror." No other authority has been found, and it does not appear certain that the archbishop, himself, ever countenanced this appli- cation, as it is found in our bibles. On the contrary, he in another place says, at the year before Christ, 560, " In the kingdom of Media, upon the decease of Astyages, called Assu- eras, succeeded his son, Cyaxeres, Cyrus' mother's brother, as Xenophon says, to wit : in the begin- PBEFATOBT. 13 ning of the first year of the 55th Olympiad, thirty- one years before the decease of Cyrus, which Cyaxeres, Daniel calleth, Darius the Mcdc^ It would seem just as absurd to call the year 538 the first year of Darius the Mede, because he re- ceived an addition to his kingdom in that year, as it would to call 1867 the first year of WilHam, King of Prussia, because in that year he added large provinces to his former kingdom. This mistake has led to serious errors. The compiler of Daniel's visions, has evidently intended to arrange them in the order of their appearance. He has placed this ninth chapter after the seventh and eighth, which is right, according to the received chronology, while, if this correction be made, it would properly be placed before those chapters, and thus give to the whole prophecy a symmetry, which appears to be wanting, as it now stands. Daniel's visions, commencing with the ninth chapter, followed by the seventh and eighth, and so on to the close, constitute one continuous prophecy, foreshadowing the most important mat- ters, touching the ministry and sacrifice of our Savior, and the progress, discouragements, and final triumph of God's people ; nearly all under symbolical forms, from the birth of Christ to the close of the Christian dispensation ; and they re- 14 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. late to nothing else, except so far as is necessary to elucidate their history. Taking this view of the case, his first vision, as recorded in the ninth chapter, initiates the whole prophecy, by giving a brief account of the coming ministry and death of our Savior, and of the suffer- ings of the Jews, very soon thereafter, under Titus and Adrian. In the vision recorded in the seventh chapter, he had a general view of the church, until the close of the Christian dispensation ; and also a more particular one of the delivery of the saints into the power of antichrist, with an account of the duration of their subjection. In the eighth chapter he gives a more particular account of the power into whose hands the saints were to be delivered, under the similitude of the ram with horns, with a statement of the time when their subjection to this antichristian power should cease ; and also introduces the he-goat and little horn towards the south, which became exceed- ingly great, symbolizing the twin apostacy of Mahometanism. In the tenth chapter he merely corrects matter which might possibly mislead ; or, rather gives more minute information as to the 2400 years men- tioned in the eighth chapter, which was liable, as it stood, to possible misapprehension. PBEFATORY. 15 The eleventh chapter, in the commencement, brings forward again the he-goat, as a mighty king, and his successors, and ends with the overthrow of JNIahometanism in the Holy Land. The twelfth chapter gives us, in its opening, in the briefest form, an epitome of wonderful events to occur immediately preceding the final consum- mation : as the restoration of the Jews ; the time of unspeakable tribulation ; the resurrection of some from the dead ; and after giving several specifica- tions of time, and their duration, closes with the announcement of final bliss, or the commencement of the millennium. As the times, relating to different events, have been unfortunately blended together, to the great confusion of the prophecy, so it seems to me, cer- tain great events have been confounded with each other, only because in describing these events, hav- ing a similarity in characteristics, the prophet has used similar language. The idea of " desolation," or " abomination of desolation," appears four times in Daniel. In the ninth chapter, it evidently refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus and Adrian. In the eighth, as clearly to the delivery of the saints into the power of antichrist. In the eleventh, to the desecration of Jerusalem and the Holy Land by the Mahometans, Saracens and Turks, 1 6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. and in the twelfth, to the vSame as the eighth, the delivery of the saints into subjection to the anti- christian power, and to the birth of Mahomctanism. It will be inferred from these prefatory remarks, that my interpretation of this prophecy of Daniel will differ essentially from those which have here- tofore received the popular approbation. CHAPTER 11. INTRODUCTORY. THERE are certain events foretold in the Scriptures with such precision, and repeated so often and with such steady assurance, that one finds it difficult to exercise proper faith in them, as a divine revelation, and at the same time doubt their literal fulfillment ; especially as such fulfillment in- volves far less of difficulty than any of the expla- nations which seek to evade such results. Nearly all Christians believe that the Mahometan delusion will come to an end at no distant period of time ; and this faith is a legitimate result from those lights which emanate from Divine revelation. So, too, all Protestants believe that the power of the Romish Hierarchy will vanish at about the same time ; and their faith is drawn from the same source. But there are other events foretold in the same (17) 1 8 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. Scriptures, with equal force and exactness, and constantly repeated, about which our notions are vague, even if many sincere Christians have not ceased to beheve at all, falling back upon the old skepticism — " Where is the promise of His com- ing?" More than one hundred years ago a large num- ber of intelligent and devout believers, drawing their inferences from a very careful study of the Scriptures, entertained no doubt that the year oi our Lord, 1747, would unfold wonderful develop- ments in the fulfillment of Scripture prophecy. Assuming their premises to have been correct, their anticipations were, doubtless, well-founded ; while that year witnessed the occurrence of no event that at all corresponded with such anticipations. They grounded their reckoning upon the answer of one saint, or Pahnofii, the wonderful numberer, to the question of the other, as stated in the 13th verse of the 8th chapter of Daniel. " How long shall be the vision concerning the dail}^ sacrifice ?" etc. According to the ordinary computation, as- suming the supposed date of the prophetic vision to be correct, 2300 days (or as is generally under- stood, years) would have ended in that year, 1747. The anticipated event did not occur, and on ac- count of the failure of this anticipation, and of oth- INTRODUCTORY. I9 ers, seemingly, not so well founded, but little confi- dence has since been placed in any interpretations of the times of this prophecy ; and this want of faith has been constantly growing, until one would imagine that nearly the Avhole Christian world had become skeptical as to the explicit revelations of the prophet. I think I shall have shown, in the course of this argument, a very satisfactory reason for the disappointments of 1747; while those antici- pations were well founded, after making due allow- ance for certain chronological errors. The design of this argument is to ascertain, so far as may be done, the time when. First, The antichristian despotism of the Roman Hierarchy shall come to its end. Second, The Mahometan delusion shall die away, and disappear, so far at least as the Holy Land is concerned. Third, The restoration of the Jews to Palestine shall be accomplished. Fourth, Shall be the coming of our Lord, and Fifth, The Millennium shall begin ; several of which events have been too often confounded to- gether, and with the anticipated end of the world. In the course of this discussion, some other mat- ters of great moment will necessarily be brought in ; but as their development necessarily depends 20 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. upon one or another of the above events, I have not thought desirable to specify them. The doctrine of the restoration of the Jews has been believed in all ages of the church ; but prob- ably, in no age, has so little been said and thought and prayed about it, as the present, when the pre- dicted event is just upon us. All the prophets are full of such declarations as this from the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel and the twenty-fourth verse, " I will take you from among the heathen, and will gather you out of all coun- tries, and will bring you into your own land." So in the thirty-seventh chapter, and the twenty-first and second verses, '' I will take the children of Is- rael, from among the heathen, and bring them into their own land ; I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all ; and they no more shall be two nations." Passages of similar import are scattered through the books of the prophets, and in such positive and varied terms, as to leave no excuse or palliation for unbelief. The coming of our Lord is affirmed or assumed in every possible form of expression, so varied, so full, so intelligible, by so many persons, beginning with our Lord himself, and repeated by him at least seven times ; in the Acts of the Apostles ; in the INTROD UCTOR T. 2 1 Epistle to the Corinthians ; in every chapter of both Epistles to the Thessalonians ; in Peter ; in the Apocalypse, as to preclude all possibility of doubt ; and yet we may doubt whether half the educated Christians fully believe in His second appearing. A period of universal righteousness and peace at some future time, is, with equal explicitness, fore- told by Isaiah and other sacred writers, when " the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocka- trice's den." There seems to be a general unwillingness on the part of Christian teachers, to give much attention to these interesting subjects. Many have, in for- mer times, made their observations and applied their predictions, in many cases, to the occurrences of their own times ; and their failures have caused others, as may be presumed, at this day, to be over- cautious. We are always disposed to give the im- portant events of our own times an undue promi- nence in the providence of God, which has been one of the causes of former failures ; and some too, deem it necessary, to look out for much more mysterious meanings than the great simplicity of God's word would seem to justify. Others, on the contrary, have been disposed to dwarf down to the compass of half a dozen years, those grand predictions, 22 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. which the prophet extended, in vision, to the final consummation. In the earlier days of the church, it was not only not desirable, but hardly possible for believers to comprehend the full import of the prophecies ; but every day's developments now give us new and more intelligible clues to their full understanding ; and I cannot doubt that it is our duty and our privilege to use our opportunities for elucidating the truth of God, so far as the light we have enables us to do it. I suppose my view of the mode of the fulfillment of certain prophecies differs from those generally entertained. I do not, for instance, imagine that the denunciations against the scarlet beast, neces- sarily involve the individual members of any church ; but are directed against the primary and prevalent cause of corruption. The saints were delivered into the hand of antichrist. Now it is not the saints who challenge the wrath of God, but antichrist himself. A very little change, therefore, will be needed to prepare the members of the Ro- man Catholic communion for acceptance as a true church, although the severest denunciations are proclaimed against the Spiritual Babylon. CHAPTER III. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIAH. IN what shall be said upon the subject now in hand, we propose to confine our observations entirely to the times of Daniel, and such other parts of Scripture as may tend to elucidate those times : and this, as a logical, not a theological argument. And to the perfect understanding of this pro- phecy, we must begin with the fact, which appears very clear, although denied by some learned and eminent men, that in all cases, namely, of prophecy, in this book, Daniel puts a day for a year ; although in speaking of things past, he may use the word "day" in its ordinary acceptation. For this use of the word we are not without au- thority, outside of the prophecy itself. In Num- bers, fourteenth chapter, and thirty-fourth verse, it is written, "After the number of the days, in which ye searched the land, even forty days, eack (^3) 24 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. day for a year, shall yc bear your iniquities, even forty years." So in the prophecy of Ezekiel, in the sixth verse of the fourth chapter, " Thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, forty days; I have appointed thee each day for a year.'' The ninth chapter of Daniel contains a prophecy of the coming of our Savior. This chapter com- mences with a declaration, that Daniel had learned by study, that Jerusalem was to be desolated seventy years, as foretold by Jeremiah, in the eleventh and twelfth verses of the twenty-fifth chapter. He had learned that, at the time of this prophecy, the sev- enty years of Babylonian captivity, were nearly accomplished, and he betook himself to prayer and supplication. Daniel was taken with the first cap- tives from Jerusalem ; he had lived much of his time at Babylon, and had been honored by the kings, during all his stay there, nearly seventy years. At the close of his prayer, he receives an answer from Gabriel, but upon another subject matter altogether. The angel, or as he calls him, the man Gabriel, informs him, that seventy weeks are determined, to punish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for in- iquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. In the next verse, he divides the pe- ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIAH. 25 riod of seventy Aveeks, from the going- forth of the commandment, to rebuild Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, into two parts ; the first seven weeks, and the second sixty-two ; in all sixty-nine ; and subsequently fills out the complement, by declar- ing that he shall confirm the covenant with many, for one week, in all seventy weeks. Whatever may be the conclusion as to the true meaning and force of the word *' day," it is quite incredible that all the momentous things foretold in the foregoing category, could have been performed in the nar- row space of one year and a half. The questions arising upon these few verses are numerous, and exceedingly important ; and ma}^ for the most part, be definitely and satisfactori- ly answered. But for our present purpose, we have to enquire only, as to the matter of time. How much time was indicated by " seventy weeks ?" Some have assumed that it comprehends merely four hundred and ninety days. Except the Jews, most men repudiate this limited construction, and affirm that " weeks " should be interpreted, weeks of years, that is to say, a day for a year, or seventy weeks of years ; four hundred and ninety years. We need not go into the argument, inasmuch as all, or nearly all, Christians fully believe in this ex- 2 26 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. tended meaning of the phi'ase. Indeed, one of the strongest arguments for the divine mission of our Lord, drawn from the Old Testament prophecies, is based upon this very interpretation. The " seven weeks " are the forty -nine )^ears con- sumed in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The ''sixty- nine weeks," or four hundred and eighty -three years, to the commencement of the public ministry of our Lord, and the " one week," the sevejn^years of that ministry. Assuming such to have been the true meaning of this part of Daniel's prophecy, the inference, if he was an honest man, is conclusive, that he uses, namely, the same *' days " for " years " to convey the same or similar ideas, throughout his whole prophec)^ And hence we deduce the very great importance of this part of his writings, at this late day, independent of its direct reference to and prevision of the coming of our Lord. As the design of this argument is to ascertain, if possible, the duration of the several periods indi- cated by Daniel, by the phrase " a time, times and half a time," " 1260," " 1290," " 1335 " days, and also " 2300 " days, and similar expressions, and their commencement and probable termination, it is not proposed to examine those parts of the prophecy, which are presumed to have been accomplished, nor to recapitulate arguments used heretofore by ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIAH. 27 commentators for or against our own views ; but leaving others to disagree, we shall fall back upon their authority in such things as seem to need no further elucidation. In the ninth chapter Daniel uses the term "weeks " — " seventy weeks." In the seventh " times " — "time, times and the dividing of time." And in the twelfth " days" — " one thousand two hundred and ninety days." Some have inferred from this, that in the one case, he uses a day for a year, and in the other does not. In order to make out the term of years in the ninth chapter, it is necessary first to resolve the weeks into days. "Seventy weeks" — that is to say, seventy times seven — 490 days. And then to resolve them again into years : that is, a year for a day. In the twelfth chapter, the prophet has al- ready resolved the time into days ; but these writ- ers argue that, as he does not require us to go through both processes required in the ninth chap- ter — " days " here do not mean the same as in the other case. We have no controversy on this matter, each must judge for himself; but it seems to be a dis- tinction without a difference. If weeks resolved into days, means so many years as there are days, in the ninth chapter, the writer cannot discover 28 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. any reason for changing the meaning of " days " in the twelfth, and Daniel can be relieved from the imputation of deception in no other way. V CHAPTER IV. THE SUBJECTION OF THE SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. IN the seventh chapter, Daniel brings down his history, through the Roman empire, till the be- ginning of the Romish Heirarchy. The twenty- fourth verse is as follows : " The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise ; and another shall arise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings." For the proof that the " little horn," the same as this king, " diverse from the first," repre- sents the Romish Heirarchy, or we should rather "^ say, the usurpations of the See of Rome, we refer to those writers who have treated of this matter at large, for more than a hundred years past. The twenty -fifth verse says, "He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws ; and they (the saints) shall be given (^9) 30 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. into his hand until a time, times and the dividing' of time." The identit)'^ of the Roman Pontiff, here delineated, cannot be mistaken. But passing over the evidence of this, of which the older books are full, our design is to show more clearly and sat- isfactorily the period designated by the phrase "time, times and the dividing of time;" when it commenced and when it will end. INIost of those commentators who adopt the opin- ion that the word "day" is used for a year, by Daniel, fix the commencement of that epoch, and it seems with unquestionable truth, when the Em- peror Phocas constituted Boniface, Universal Bish- op and supreme head of the Church. This was the year 607. Previous to that time, the Patriarchs of Constantinople had been seeking from the Roman emperors a confirmation of the same dignity to them. At that time Gregory, sometimes called Gregory the Great, was Bishop of Rome, and pre- ceding him was Pelagius. The opinions of these two Roman prelates, immediately preceding the creation of a universal bishop, are very significant and not a little curious. We will first quote a para- graph from Archbishop Laud : " About this time broke out the ambition of Jo/ui, Patriarch of Con- stantinople, affecting to be universal bishop. He was countenanced in this by Mauritius the em- SUBJECTION OF SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. 31 peror ; but sorely opposed by Pelagius and St. Gregory, insomuch that St. Gregory plainly says this pride of his shows that the times of anticJirist were near. So as yet (and this was near upon the point of six hundred years after Christ), there was no universal bishop ; no one monarch over the militant church. But Mauritius being deposed and murdered by Phocas, Phocas conferred upon Boniface the Third that very honor, that two of his predecessors had declaimed against, as mon- strous and blasphe7iious, if not antichristian. Where, by the way, either these two popes, Pelagius and St. Gregory, erred in this weighty business, about an universal bishop, over the whole church ; or, if they did not err, Boniface and the rest which, after him, took it upon them, were in- their very prede- cessors' judgment, antichristian." We will now take a quotation from the writings of each of them, Pelagius and Gregory. Pelagius says : '' Let John take notice of this himself, that unless he quickly correct his error, he shall be excommunicated by us. Do not you also attend to the name of universality, which he unlawfully usurps to himself. Let none of the pa- triarchs use so profane an appellation. You see, dear brethren, what it is that is coming upon us presently ; while such perverse beginnings break 32 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. out, even among the sacerdotal order. For this is near to him, concerning whom it is thus written, ' He is king over all the children of pride.' " St. Gregory says : " My companion of the sacer- dotal order, John, endeavors to have the title of tiniversal bishop. Let such a name of blasphemy be banished from the hearts of Christians. Now I say, with assurance, that whosoever calls himself the U7iiversal priest, or desires to be so called, he is the forerunner of antichrist, in his insolence. But be- cause, as we now see, the end of the world is ap- proaching, the enemy of mankind has appeared in his forerunner; that he may have those very priests his forerunners in this proud title, who ought to oppose him, by living well and humbly." It is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that this 1 260 years commenced with the year 607, with- out doing violence to the known facts of history. Nevertheless, there have been eminent and acute- minded men, who refer the whole prophecy to the short period of Antiochus Epiphanes ; and, conse- quently, give the words of the prophet their nat- ural and common signification, using the word "day" here for a natural day. This is an easy mode of disposing of a great prophecy. But there can be no satisfactory solution of it upon such a theory. Others may satisfy themselves that God SUBJECTION OF SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. 33 would communicate so grand and glorious a reve- lation, under such marvellous surroundings, affect- ing the interests of comparatively a few people, during three or half a dozen years. But we must insist that a priori, independent of all other consid- erations, we should hold the wonderful display of God's glory in his manifestation to Daniel incon- sistent with such a theory, But besides this, throughout the whole prophecy, we find inter- woven the most incontestable evidence, that it was intended to foreshadow coming events, down to the time when the judgment shall sit ; and with no desire to controvert any preconceived notions, we may be permitted to notice what appears to be a very great inconsistency in those who hold this di- minutive doctrine. They all admit that the seventy weeks mentioned in the ninth chapter cover a pe- riod of 490 years ; that is to say, that the prophet there uses a day prophetically for a year. Now it seems like charging Daniel with intentional decep- tion, if he, in speaking of a prophetical time in one vision, uses " days" for " years," and then in another vision, in the same series of prophecies, uses days in their common acceptation ; and this view of the case becomes the more impressive, on the theory that the ninth chapter is but the first of a consecu- tive series of visions, all the others resulting there- 2* 34: THE TIMES OF DANIEL. from, and all forming but one connected chain of prophecy, relating- to the Christian dispensation, from the birth of Christ down to the time of his second appearance. If, then, the commencement of this division of time shall prove to have been the date supposed, namely, when Boniface was decreed by Phocas to be the supreme head of the church ; as that occur- red in the year 607 (erroneously assumed by many authors to have been in 606) of the Christian era ; and if our views be correct as to the length of time expressed by the phrase, " time, times and half a time ;" then the saints shall be delivered out of the hand of the antichristian power in the year, or about the year of our Lord 1867. We may here observe, that we should not consider a variance or discrepancy of one or two years, in so long a lapse of time, as of any considerable importance. But from the time Boniface assumed his antichristian office and functions, the time of their continuance will be 1260 years. The closing verses of this sev- enth chapter, seem to announce the universal reign of righteousness on the earth — the commencement of the millennium. We are not to presume, however, for there is nothing to sustain the presumption, that this happy period will commence immediately after the fall of antichrist ; for there are yet many SUBJECTION OF SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. 35 important events, foretold, and to be accomplished before the fullness of that glorious dispensation shall be ushered in. '' The kingdom and the great- ness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and all dominions shall obey and serve him." CHAPTER V. THE ANSWER OF PALMONI — TWENTY-FOUR HUN- DRED YEARS. IT will be observed that while the fact, that the saints shall be delivered into the hands of anti- christ is foretold in clear and perfectly intelligible terms, and its duration, the era of its commence- ment is not stated, nor does chapter seventh give any fact from which it may be discovered by any possible course of argument. But in the eighth chapter the prophet gives a clue by which nearly all the times mentioned by him may be ascertained. After a most wonderful development of future events, comprehending the twin delusions of Rome and Mahomet, all comprised in a few words, the prophet heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which had spoken, " How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden un- (36) TEE TWENTY-FOUE HUKBRED YExiliS. 37 der foot?" The answer is given in the briefest and apparently most intelligible terms : " Unto two thousand and three hundred daj^s ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." The term of 1260 years, as expressed in the preceding vision, in the seventh chapter, could give no insight into the date of its termination, inasmuch as the time when the saints of the Most High should be delivered into the hands of the antichristian power was not known- It was only foretold that the} should remain sub- ject to that grinding and withering despotism so long. This answer of " Pa/;uo;ii,'' the zvonderful number er, is intended to give a clue to discover the termination of the other period, as the two incon- testably end at the same time. Its conclusion was anxiously expected by Bible students, and with great plausibility, about the year 1747, as this would accomplish 2300 years from the date of Daniel's prophecy. But as no such events happened at or near that time, as might have reasonably been an- ticipated, they were greatly disappointed ; as those have been who had fixed upon sundry later peri- ods. So that at this time the best and most reliable commentators have generally settled down upon the conviction that, as Daniel has not given us any epoch from which the 2300 years is to be calcu- lated, we must remain in ignorance, until the great 38 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. things foretold by him shall have been accomplish- ed. Now this conclusion seems to be in direct op- position to the Divine mind. A form of words de- livered to us by the Omniscient, which we cannot understand, would appear to be unworthy of the Great Teacher. Besides, we are assured that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for our instruction. Wherein, then, would be the instruction conveyed to us by such a form of words, which we could not understand ? And more than this, and at the close of this prophecy of Daniel, we are assured that '* none of the wicked shall understand ; but the wise shall understand." And our Saviour, quoting from this very prophecy, exclaims, " Whoso readeth, let him understand." To me there seems no more logical conclusion than that God intended that we should understand this prophecy, from time to time, as it is fulfilled, and reasonably before, and has given us the means and the power so to understand it. In all the other prophecies of Daniel relating to time, except in one parallel case, he has given the epoch , or a reference to some other epoch from which to reckon the event. The seventy weeks of years were to commence at the going forth of the com mandment to rebuild Jerusalem. The 1260 years were to commence from the deliverv of the saints THE TWENTY-FOUR HUNDRED TEARS. 39 into the power of antichrist ; but nowhere does he specify any point of time, from which to date the beginning of the 2300 years. It seems, therefore, a necessary inference, that this term must begin at the date of the prophecy. This seems also to be the plain meaning of the language used, " How long shall be the vision?" "Unto" (or better " until") " two thousand and three hundred" (days) "years." From what time? Obviously from the date of the present speaking. Judging of the ques- tion, intrinsically, without reference to outside oc- currences, no one could give it any other meaning. This vision appeared to Daniel, according to Archbishop Usher, about the year 553 before Christ. Proceeding from that date, and 2300 years would have ended in the year 1747. But no event occur- red in the ecclesiastical world, at or near that time which especially arrested the attention of men ; and as it cannot be presumed that God would suggest to Daniel so grand a vision, without any adequate result, we are constrained to believe that there is some error in chronology which needs revision and correction. On inquiry, we learn that in this place the version of the Septuagint differs from the He- brew text. There, the time to the end, in the an- swer given, is 2400 years ; and in many points of difference, this version is considered by learned 40 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. men quite as reliable as the other. If, then, we as- sume the correctness of the Septuagint reading, the period of 2400 years would have expired in the year 1847. -'^s the last six chapters of this proph- ecy of Daniel relate exclusively to ecclesiastical and sacred matters, never mentioning mere secular concerns, except when closely connected with, or necessary to the explanation of the other, we must look to the religious world for an elucidation of this prophec}'. The question presented was double, of which more will be said hereafter. The answer reached but one : " Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." This answer refers to the Roman Hierarchy. We are thus led to inquire whether any event occurred about the year 1847, affecting the power of the Pope concurrent with the answer given in this portion of the prophec3^ About the close of 1846, a revolution took place at Rome. Resistance was made, and successfully made to the domination of the Roman Pontiff. His own people rose, almost unanimously, against him, and expelled him from the eternal city ; so that, in 1848, he sought refuge and safety in the dominions of a neighboring power, making his re- sidence at Gacta, v/ithin the territories of the King of Naples. Had this revolution succeeded, as its authors designed it should, it would seem to have TEE TWENTY-FOUR HUNDRED TEARS. 41 been a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy to the let- ter. But the Pope was very soon taken under the patronage of France, and by the power of France returned to Rome, where he has been kept in power until the present time ; thus effectually frus- trating the designs of the people of Rome, by whose efforts he had been expelled from that city. This is certainly a very extraordinary condition of things ; and, in reference to a subsequent vision of the prophet, we cannot give it too much impor- tance. Just 2400 years after the prophecy ; by the Romans themselves ; by his own ecclesiastical sub- jects ; by a people who, for more than 1200 years, had sustained and supported the temporal and spiritual power of the Pope, he was expelled and made an outcast from the imperial city. So far as they could do it, they had deposed the Pope, and utterly annihilated his antichristian existence. Why, then, we inquire, was not his power ab- solutely broken, and the persecution of the saints forever ended? Because, and only because, the French army " withstood " the purpose and efforts of his own subjects. That army " withstood " the people of Rome, by restoring their banished Pope, and by supporting him there, in the seat of his power, against their will, from then to the present time, 1867. It would be strange, indeed, if such a 42 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. prophecy as this should, at the moment of its fulfill- ment, be thwarted and frustrated thus by a foreign government, and nothing foreshado\vi-ng such a re- sult appear in the prophecy. CHAPTER VI. CHRONOLOGICAL CORRECTIONS. THE tenth chapter commences as follows : " In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia." This has been assumed by almost all biblical stu- dents, on the authority of Archbishop Usher, to have been in the year 534 before Christ ; which has also been assumed, on like authority, to have been the time of the vision, that is, the third year of Cyrus, king of the consolidated kingdom of Persia. It becomes necessary here to break off the regular course of our argument, to correct two errors in this chronology. It may be affirmed, with perfect contidence, that Daniel was not living at the time specified, 534 B. c. The last verse of the first chapter of this prophecy is in these words : " And Daniel con- tinued even unto the first year of king Cyrus." The obvious meaning attached to this phrase is, (43) 44 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. that he died in that year. As it is presumed that Daniel himself did not write it, but his compiler, \ undoubtedly after his death, it would be absurd for him to say that he lived unto the first year if he knew that he lived to and after the third. It would be still more absurd to make this statement when, in the prophecy itself, a little further on, ap- peared the fact that he was alive two years later. This absurdity appears even more glaring when we examine the Septuagint reading. The word translated " continued " is in Greek egeneto, which might be better rendered " was alive," meaning very nearly, though not quite the same. But the word eos, translated " unto," means more properly " until," which is somewhat inconsistent with the fact that he lived years thereafter. The reader may here, very properly, inquire, What, then, is the meaning of the introductory paragraph before quoted ? We will endeavor to make it plain to the perception of every one. The introduction to the eighth chapter is as fol- lows: " In the third year of the reign of king Bel- shazzar." This seems to have been universally assumed, and appears always to be noted in Bible references as the year 553 B.C. Some authorities (Mr. Hales among them), however, place the be- ginning of Belshazzar's reign in the year 558 B. c, CHRONOLOGICAL CORRECTIONS. 45 while Calmet fixes it in 555. In either case, it is impossible that the third year of his reign should fall upon any portion of the year 553. The larger portion would fall within the year 555 or 552; but making allowance for the difference between the Jewish calendar and our own, a considerable part might fall within the year 554, which we assume, for our present purpose, to be the correct reading. Let us now pass over to Cyrus. According to the commonly received opinion, he began his reign in Persia, 559 B.C. (or according to Calmet, 554); over Media 551, and over his consolidated empire of Persia, Media and Babylon, in 536. It is generally assumed that he commenced his reign over Persia proper in 559. Almost all writers rely upon the authority of Xenophon. But how- ever reliable Xenophon may be in other matters, his account seems, in tl^^s particular, very uncer- tain. According to Rollin, who takes Xenophon for his authority throughout, " the years of Cyrus' reign are computed differently. Some make it thirty years, beginning from his first setting out from Persia, at the head of an army, to succor his uncle Cyaxeres ; others make it to be but seven years, because they date it only from the time when, by the death of Cyaxeres and Cambyses, he became sole monarch of the whole empire." In- 46 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. deed, relying upon the account of that historian alone, it would be difficult to fix upon any date. Upon this point Herodotus appears to be much more clear, intelligible and reliable. His account is as follows : " He (Cyrus) next attacked and took Sardis, and made Croesus prisoner (b. c. $^6). He besieged and took the City of Babylon, B.C. 538, which he entered by diverting the course of the Euphrates, and leading his army into the city by the dry bed of the river. At last he carried his arms against the Massagetae, and was defeated and slain by Tomyris, their queen, B.C. 529. who had his head cut off and put into a leathern bag full of human blood." "He had reigned twenty -nine years." If, then, you add the 29 years of his reign to 529, the year before Christ in which he was killed, it shows that he commenced his reign in the year 553, Such being the case, it will be seen that the third year of Cyrus, as well as the third of Belshaz- zar (making allowance for the difference between the Jewish calendar and our own), might fall partly on the five hundred and fift)''-fourth year B. c. Let us now return to the prophecy of Daniel. ** In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia." Was this the year 534 B.C.? We cannot so understand it. In the eighth chapter he had recorded a vision CHRONOLOGICAL CORRECTIONS. 47 which appeared to him " in the third year of king Belshazzar." In the tenth chapter he is about to narrate another vision, but relating to the same subject, and supplementary thereto. He then, in this first verse, refers to the former vision, viz : " In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia." Here, apparently, may seem to be a discrepancy, but one easily explained. Daniel's residence was at Babylon. In those days, the epoch of almost all time was the commencement of the reign of the existing sovereign. If, therefore, Daniel was at the court of Babylon, it would be correct, and most natural that, in writing an account of his vision, he should use the epoch of the Babylonians, which was the beginning of Belshazzar's reign ; and, when, afterwards, being at the court of Cyrus, and having occasion to refer to the same event, it was equally natural and proper that he should use the epoch of the Persians, which was the reign of Cyrus. His vision, therefore, as related in the eighth chapter, is correctly stated to have occur- red '' in the third year of king Belshazzar ;" and the same vision is, with like propriety, stated in the tenth chapter, to have occurred " in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia," when referred to at a subsequent period, he then being at the court of Cyrus. This view of the case seems to be fully 48 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. confirmed by the fact, that, a little further on, in the first verse of the eleventh chapter, and in the same vision, Daniel refers to a former vision, by the use of similar phraseology, "Also I, in the first year of Darius the Mede," in which there seems to be no room for doubt that he refers to the vision related in the ninth chapter, and not to that which he was about to record. The greater importance of these seemingly frivolous changes in the receiv- ed chronology, will appear in subsequent chapters. CHAPTER VII. ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 24OO YEARS. IN the tenth chapter of Daniel we have the record of a vision, the significance of which seems to have been strangely overlooked by com- mentators, and sometimes as strangely misunder- stood ; for while, in all the preceding visions, they have interpreted prophetical days to mean natural years, here, in a continuation of the same proph- ecy, they almost, if not entirely, without exception, have given that time its natural and not pro- phetical meaning ; and thus confining the whole purport of one of these grand visions of Daniel to the insignificant space of three natural weeks, and in which trifling space of time some unknown barbarian is the chief actor. As we before proved, Daniel commences this chapter with a reference to the former vision, and adds, " The thing was true, but the time was long." 3 (+9) 50 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. Now, either or all these propositions, taken sepa- rately and independently, mean nothing. First, He affirms that a " thing " was revealed to him in the third year of Cyrus. This adds nothing to what had appeared before. Second, He affirms that " the thing," or, better, " prophecy was true." As an abstract proposition this would seem quite unnecessary ; for if any one doubted his former record, this new asseveration would scarce remove the doubt. And, Third, " The time appointed was long." It would certainly need no prophet to convince the most skeptical that 2300 or 2400 years was a long time, and such a gratuitous affirmation of it would be deemed quite absurd. This statement in the first verse is evidently an introduction to what he is about to relate, and is thus presented, that this vision may be the better understood. He first states that he had a revela- tion in the third year of Cyrus, of which he had made a record. He then affirms that this former revelation was true, in all essential particulars ; but he had probably learned that in some non-essen- tials, or in its full import, it might be misappre- hended. He then follows up this statement with the further and important part of the preface, namely, " But the time appointed was long," thus ADDITIOJS^ OF 21 TO THE 2,400 TEARS. 51 showing very clearly that whatever of his former revelation might seem incorrect, or liable to mis- conception, related to time. It would seem that the whole passage would be rendered perfectly intelligible, if the last word could, consistently with the idiom of the Hebrew language, be ren- dered in the comparative degree, so as to read, " The revelation was true, but the time was longer." Not, however, being acquainted with the Hebrew, and knowing no authority for such a change, we adopt the English reading as it is, simply implying that whatever correction is to be made, relates to time. " In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks." It is not necessary, for any purpose connected with our theory, to affirm that he mourned full twenty-one years, because he is not now prophecying, but merely relating a current event ; and yet it would seem to imply some incon- sistency in him to use the same terms wi^h a different meaning, even in the recital of a fact. The only significance belonging to it, however, arises out of the circumstance, that the time pre- cisely coincides with that of the subsequent proph- ecy, as will appear. In the prophetical portion of this chapter there is but one revelation of the slightest importance 52 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. communicated ; and singularly enough that revela- tion appears to have been passed over with little reflection, and with no apparent effort to give it an}^ significance, or to reconcile any supposed dis- crepancy in the former vision. Now, bearing in mind our view of the intent of the prefatory verse of the chapter, let us try to fathom the purport of this hitherto obscure passage. Daniel saw a man clothed in linen, who spoke encouragingly to him : " Then said he unto me. Fear not Daniel ; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia, withstood me one and tiucnty days.'' For some rea- son, which it is not necessary for us to know, or wise to inquire into, the vision related in the eighth chapter only reached to the first great blow aimed at the Romish Hierarchy, although in the sevq^ith chapter he had very explicitly stated that " they shall take away his dominion to con- sume and to destroy it unto the end." This phrase, " consume unto the end," necessarily implies a slow process of waste or decomposition. To waste slowly is a just meaning of consume. In this sense it is used in other places in the Scriptures. Job says, " My llcsh is consumed nway.'' So Zechariah : ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 2,400 YEAES. 53 "Their flesh, their eyes, their tongue, shall consiiine away ; " and in the Psalms, " The wicked shall perish, they shall consumed In these, and other instances, it is obvious that " consiune " does not imply instantaneous destruction, but protracted dissolution. Now, the revelation in this tenth chapter was designed to inform Daniel that the first blow which would be struck in 2400 years, would not be fatal, but only a prelude to the final, catastrophe, as it must "consume and destroy unto the end ;" that through the interposition of a foreign power, after this first blow, the power of antichrist would be partially restored ; and thus to advise him that the facts of coming history, as dis- closed to him in the prophecy, would be all true in their fulfillment ; yet that the time required for the entire destruction of the power of antichrist would be longer, by twenty-one j'-ears, than that before mentioned ; during which it would consume and be destroyed. Now, compare this prophecy as presented, with the actual state of things in Rome, as exhibited in the fourth chapter of this argu- ment. Near the close of 1846, or beginning of 1847, exactly 2400 years from the date of Daniel's prophecy in the eighth chapter, a rebellion broke out in the states of the church, in consequence of which, the Pope abdicated and fled beyond the 54 TUB TIMES OF DANIEL. frontier of his own dominions. By the favor of a foreign prince he, a fugitive, found an asylum at Gaeta; and from that time to this (1867) he has had no existence, as sovereign pontiff, but such as he has derived from the intervention of France. The decree for the destruction of antichrist had gone forth, but precisely in accordance with the prophetic announcement, the utter and final ex- •tinction of his antichristian power was postponed one-and-twenty years, during which he and his power were to consume and be destroyed. Let us now recapitulate. The saints were de- livered into the hands of the papal antichrist, in the year 607, by the decree of Phocas They are to remain subject to his power, " a time, times, and the dividing of time," 1260 years, or until the year 1867. The "wonderful numberer," in reply to a complex question, answers only to that part of it relating to the continuance of the antichristian power ; that it should continue until the expiration of 2400 years, which would end, beginning as we have before shown it ought to begin, at the year 554 before Christ, in the year 1846 of the Christian era ; and now in the tenth chapter, Daniel is again informed that the perfect accomplishment of this vision will be " withstood " by the king of Persia, (that is, by France, as we shall show,) for a period ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 2,400 TEARS. 55 of twenty-one years ; which being added to the former term of 2400, brings us down to the year 1867; and thus these two predictions are made with sufficient exactness to synchronize, which all commentators agree should be the case. CHAPTER VIIL THE SYMBOL OF THE RAM WITH HORNS. WE now approach the scrutiny of that prob- lem, which appears to be the most inex- pUcable of the whole prophecy, namely, that the power interposing in behalf of the Pope, was right- fully France, and not Persia, as would seem prima- facie from the text of Daniel to have been neces- sary. Upon this point we give our view of the case ; and so leave each one to judge whether it be worthy of further consideration. We are too much prone, in construing prophecy, to take the literal meaning, rather than seek the truth which is often veiled under symbolical ex- pressions. As an instance, let us quote that one which is relied upon more confidently as a literal fulfillment, than any other, Alexander, namely, as the rough goat in the eighth chapter; and Media and Persia, as the ram. We object to this first, for the reason, that if it be so, Daniel's vision (56) THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 57 is history and not prophecy ; the history being a httle antedated. Second, we cannot discover the exact parallehsm between the prophecy and the supposed fulfiUment, in the case of Alexander. Third, it leaves a chasm between the ram and the fifth horn of the goat of near a thousand years; while it seems quite certain that they should be nearl}', or quite cotemporaneous. And fourth, it is hardly consistent with the scope of the proph- ecy, that so much should be devoted to matters involving only the secular interests of nations of barbarians. In the time of Daniel, Persia was, relatively, a powerful kingdom, and so continued for more than two hundred years ; but from the year 330 B. c, or thereabouts, until the present time, with the excep- tion of a short but most important period, of vv^hich more will be said hereafter, it has been perfectly insignificant, and for many years hardly known in its influence upon the Christian world. If, then, the view taken in this argument of the 2400 years be correct, and that it could not expire, with the twent3^-one years added, until the present time, it seems incredible that Persia should be literally intended in the paragraph under discussion. And it should be also borne in mind that Daniel is here propliesying and not relating history. It must be 3"" 58 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. presumed, therefore, that he employs prophetic language, which though sometimes used in its lit- eral sense, is most commonly couched in terms not so easily comprehended. It is often, if not always, the design so to express the meaning that it will prove true, but not immediately be understood. And again, so dark and inexplicable have seemed these references to the prince of the kingdom of Persia, that respectable commentators have ad- vanced a great deal about tutelary and guardian angels presiding over different countries ; as if they strove, one against the othei', each for his favorite state ; which must be deemed very inconsistent with the principles of Christianity, and indeed more befitting a system of Paganism ; and merely shows to what shifts good men are sometimes driven to evade an acknowledged difficulty. The explication herein given may appear quite as absurd, especially as in a most essential point it directly contravenes the theory heretofore gener- ally adopted by expositors. We learn from those competent to instruct, that the original name of " Persia," and which compre- hended all Media, is derived from the same root, in the Hebrew, as the word "ram ;" and that the difference between them is very minute. In refer- ence to the peculiar genius of the Hebrew Ian- THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH H0BN8. 59 guage, we quote from Parkhurst's Preface to the Hebrew Lexicon : " It will be demonstratively evi- dent to any one, who will attentively examine the subject, that the Hebrew language is ' ideal / or that from a certain and that no great number of primitive and apparently arbitrary words, called roots, and usually expressive of some idea or notion taken from nature, that is, from the external objects around us, or from our own constitution by our senses or feelings, all the other words of that tongue are derived or grammatically formed ; and that IV her ever the radical letters are the same, the leading iden or notion runs through all the deflections of the zvord, hozvever numerous or diversified'' The whole country then known as that of the Elamites, or Persia, bore a name in Hebrew almost identically the same with " ram," Mr. Meade, in his third book, conjectures that the Hebrew word for " ram," and that for *' Persia," both springing from the same root, and both implying somewhat of strength, tJie one is not improperly made the type of tJie otlier. His use of that fact, however, differs much from ours. We assume, then, that in this and other instances, the prophet used the term " Per- sia" typically, and in such a manner as to express the true meaning on his part ; at the same time preserving the mystic sense so common and neces- 6o THE TIMES OF DANIEL. sary in all the prophecies. Hence is drawn the conclusion, that " the ram with horns" was not lit- erally the kingdom of Media and Persia, but in fact the Roman Hierarchy. And if the explanation had not been given in the latter part of the chapter (ambiguous as it seems to be), few would have en- tertained a doubt of this application. And here we observe that the " ram" is not usually represented as having izvo horns. By reference to our English f version, it will appear that before the seventh verse, wherever " two" is used, no such word is found in the original, nor is it found in the Septuagint. In the third verse one horn is represented higher than " the other," which might with equal propriety be rendered " than another ;" and in the seventh verse, where we are informed that the goat broke his horns, it is not as translated, " two horns," but "both horns." It would seem, therefore, that am- biguity was purposely adopted. In one, and the most obvious aspect, the Hierachy had two, and but two, horns. But in another aspect, certainly not less important, he had more than two, varying in number, from time to time, so that it would be impossible to fix upon any number, at any one time, as applicable to the whole period. His " two" horns were his temporal power on the one side, and his ecclesiastical despotism on the other. The ecclesi- THE SYMBOL OF THE EAM WITH HORNS. 6 1 astical was certainly higher than the secular ; and in the most obvious sense, these were represented as two horns. On the other hand, when the power of the transgressors had come to the full, the Hier- archy stretched its ecclesiastical domination over all the countries of Europe, and wherever the Ro- man Catholic religion prevailed. During a large portion of this 1260 years, there was no single sec- ular despotism in Europe so absolute within its own dominions as the Pope over them all. In this view of the case, every kingdom thus situated was most emphatically a horn of the Hierarchy. And so while it was perfectly correct to describe it as having two horns in the one case, it was equally correct to describe it as the ram with horns ; that is, an indefinite number of horns, in the o*"her case. It will appear, by and by, in treating of the downfall of Mahometanism, how exceedingly ap- propriate is the he-goat, as an emblem of that pow- er. Scarcely less appropriate is the selection of the "ram," as a type of the Roman pontiff, or rath- er of Romanism as an ecclesiastical system. In speaking of his followers, Christ describes them as his ''fold," his ''sheep ;" and of those who are not, as "goats." The term sheep, then, in an enlarged sense, would comprise all nominally Christian countries; while "goats" would com- 62 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. prehend all others. But while sheep are distin- guished by their quiet and peaceful habits, there is no more choleric and bellicose animal than the "ram;'' and from all these premises, we conclude that the ram described in the first part of chapter eight refers to the Roman hierarchy, and that the word ** Persia," is used typically for the " ram," in the passage now under consideration ; namely, the thirteenth verse of the tenth chapter. It will be observed that the power that " with- stood " the angel, is not the " king of Persia," but " the prince of the kingdom of the Persians," Arch- on basilcias Person. The proper meaning of arch- on is chief, or principal. Let us apply this to the case in hand. The angel was sent to destroy anti- christ, the Roman hierarchy. But " the chief of the kingdom of the ram " " withstood " him twen- ty-one years. The question now arises, who was the chief of the kingdom of the ram ? or the prin- cipal horn of the ecclesiastical power of the Ro- man hierarchy ? Beyond all controversy, twenty years ago, and until now, France was the " chief" of this kingdom. France then was truly the "prince of the kingdom of the ram," which, ac- cording to the prophecy, should " withstand " the angel twenty-one years ; and this is precisely the time that France has withstood the will of the Ro- TEE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 63 man people, and, we may add, the desire of almost all Christendom, to consume and destroy the power of the Hierarchy. We may then conclude from this analysis and comparison of all these premises, pro- phetical and secular, that the 1,260 years, for which the saints were delivered into the power of anti- christ, will end in the present year 1867. NOTE TO CHAPTER VIII. To any one who shall peruse this treatise, it will be obvious that the whole argument is hinged upon the existence of a single fact ; namely, that the saints were delivered into the hands of the little horn — that is, the Roman church — for a time, times and the dividing of time (Dan. vii. 28), in the year 607, and that that period expired in 1867. And the writer freely admits that if this proposi- tion is not substantially true, his whole argument falls to the ground. Much the largest portion of it was written be- fore 1867 ; and the whole was completed, in almost precisely its present form (excepting the loth chap- ter), before the end of the month of February of that year. Imperative circumstances have postponed its 64 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. publication until now ; and the question becomes all-important, Has the event anticipated, and upon which the whole value of the argument depends, been accomplished ? That is to say, did the period of 1260 years end in 1867, or, substantially, as it was supposed it would ? That an extended duration, affecting millions of persons, scattered over half the globe, should com- mence and be perfected in all its fullness, among all these millions, in a single day or a single year; or that the power of antichrist should subject them all to his dominion in a single year, seems not only improbable but impossible. The subjection of the whole Christian world to one controlling and per- secuting power, must be a work of time ; and we may well assume, if it were yet to occur, that it would proceed from small beginnings, and so by constant and persevering encroachments, finally attain its zenith of despotic dominion ; and then, af- ter an interval, gradually decline and finally perish. From the introduction of Christianity, for about 400 years, pagan persecution was endured almost universally. After that there was a period of com- parative peace and quietness. It was at this time that the Bishop of Rome began to claim superior- ity over other prelates. But it was by slow degrees that his pretensions secured obedience. THE SYMBOL OF THE RAM WITH HORNS. 65 The fact that the Bishops of Rome, Antioch and Alexandria, presided over primitive and apostolic churches, gave to them a kind of pre-eminence over others, even as early as the fourth century. " About the close of that century, the Bishop of Rome surpassed all his brethren in the magnifi- cence and splendor of the church over which he presided ; in the riches of his revenue and posses- sions ; in the number and variety of his ministers ; in his credit with the people, and in his sumptu- ous and splendid manner of living." " In the fifth century a variety of circumstances united in augmenting the power and authority of the Bishop of Rome ; though he had not as yet assumed or claimed the dignity of supreme law- giver and judge of the whole Christian church." " Although the Roman Pontiffs artfully availed themselves of every circumstance that could con- tribute to their obtaining universal dominion, yet it is certain that towards the close of the sixth century the emperors, and the nations in general, were far from being willing to bear with patience the yoke of servitude which the See of Rome was arrogantly imposing upon the Christian church." Now, assuming the Roman Pontiff to be the power into whose hands the saints were to be de- livered, it will appear very certain from the ex- (£ THE TIMES OF DANIEL. tracts above given, that that consummation had not yet arrived ; although he had made great strides towards attaining the desired end. For two hundred years the successive occupants of the See of Rome had constantly been making en- croachments upon the liberty of the Christian church ; and — as the " little horn " — had undoubt- edly secured a very large despotic power ; but it is quite evident that something more was necessary to make the '' delivery " of the saints into the power of the hierarchy complete. It was in this condition of affairs, that in 607 Phocas constituted Boniface III. universal Bishop, thus investing him with a new, abnormal, temporal authority ; and this was the commencement of the absolute Papal supremacy — the 1260 years, as has been shown in Chapter IV. of this treatise. At this point we step aside from the general scope of our argument, to note what appears like a discrepancy in the view of some who have com- mented upon Daniel and St. John. It is generally admitted that the power of the Roman church is symbolized in Daniel by the " lit- tle horn " rising up among the ten. It is also held that the same church is symbolized in the Revelation of St. John, by " another beast coming up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb." TEE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH nOBNS. 6/ Is not the apparent discrepancy reconciled in this manner ? The power and influence of the Bishop of Rome had been gradually and constantly grow- ing in Italy, during two hundred years, until it had become altogether the most potent ecclesias- tical dominion on earth, overriding some of the secular governments of Italy. It might, then, with great propriety, be described as a " little horn." In 607, Phocas, by his decree, constituted this same Bishop of Rome supreme head of the church, not in Italy only, but over all the Christian world. It will be observed that this dignity so conferred, while it left the Bishop of Rome in possession of all his usurped authority — by the change in the character of his jurisdiction, and by investing him with a vast quasi temporal power — effected an en- tire revolution in the nature and condition of his government. While he was before only Bishop of Rome, he is now Supreme and Universal Pontiff. From this time the simple symbol of a " little horn," would not fairly represent the Bishop in his double sovereign capacity ; but " the beast coming up out of the earth having horns like a lamb," would most admirably symbolize the same Bishop invested with his new power and pontifical robes, just emerging into supreme sovereignty. 6S THE TIMES OF DANIEL. Before, he only exercised the dominion usurped by an ambitious prelate ; now, he reigns clothed with (what would in those times have been con- sidered) the legitimate authority of a temporal as well as spiritual potentate. From this time the power of that government, ecclesiastical and temporal, continued to increase, until it had grasped and absorbed nearly the en- tire sovereignty in all the nations of the civilized world. For centuries every potentate in Europe trembled at the rebuke of the Pope, and his " emis- aries and abettors in the persons of priests, monks, and Jesuits were spread over all the world as frogs were in the houses, the bed-chambers, the ovens and the kneading-troughs of the Eg3^ptians." In fact, there was no sovereign in Europe who could wield half the power in his own dominions, as the heirarchy over them all : and during all this long, dark period, no one dared to utter a sentiment not in accordance with the teachings of Rome ; and no one could do it without subjecting himself to all the pains and penalties which a cruel and re- lentless despotism could inflict. Ignorance, super- stition, credulity and persecution, for ages pre- served this empire over the consciences, the per- sons, the property, and the liberties of mankind. It is now near 400 years since this stupendous THE SYMBOL OF THE RAM WITH UOIiNS. 69 fabric of power on the one side, and delusion on the other, began to crumble and fall away, but no era has marked its utter overthrow until the pre- sent time. Before the )^ear 1867 nearly all Europe had be- come emancipated from the thraldom of Rome, except Spain and Austria ; and now the one, by voluntary action, and the other, by a violent revo- lution, have shaken themselves free from the yoke of bondage, it may be presumed forever, leaving really no more power in the hierarchy than the Bishop of Rome possessed before the decree of Phocas. The period of 1260 years seems to have closed up in a most signal and remarkable manner, so as to leave no shred of doubt that this is truly the period referred to by the prophet. The whole sum of 1260 years has been divided into three portions of almost equal length. From the date of the decree of Phocas, it was 400 years, or very near that, before the heriarchy became, by gradual usurpations, almost omnipotent over the conscience and person. For the 400 or 500 suc- ceeding years, that power was supreme over all the Christian world, and now for 400 )^ears it has been, as gradually as it arose, crumbling away, until at the very date anticipated, the last hold of perse- cution has surrendered. 70 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. The bull of the Pope calling an Oiciimenical Council to be held in 1869, is itself abundant proof of the utter subversion of the persecuting power (however the will may remain) of the Hierarchy. At the time the preceding chapter was written, it was supposed the 1260 years would have closed up with the end of the year 1867, while the final consummation did not occur until some months later. In relation to this apparent discrepancy, it may be remarked that had no correction of the common chronology been made, but that of our Bibles been adopted, the 2421 years would have ended with the year 1868. And, while the decree of Phocas was granted in 607, Boniface himself, being in a feeble condition, died before the close of that year; so that, in fact, the execution of the decree could not have been begun before 608 : and, indeed, his successor was not appointed until that year. But putting aside this explanation, it is a suffi- cient answer, that in periods of time so long as 2421, and 1260 )''ears, the variation of half or two- thirds of a year is remarkable only for its so exact correspondence with the anticipated event. Here, with more than its usual force, may we quote the maxim of law, " De minimis non curat lex!' THE SYMBOL OF TEE BAM WITH HORNS, ji • POSTSCRIPT, JANUARY, 1871. Since the above note was written, new and ex- traordinary developments have appeared, which seem to require a further notice. , According to my argument, the 2,421 years / closed up in 1868, as the only nations which had / continued to submit to the papal authority then freed themselves from the yoke of ecclesiastical despotism. The Roman Pontiff thus divested of his supremacy, retained in Rome no more or larger power than, as the "■ little horn," he possessed be- fore the decree of Phocas, thus fulfilling the terms of the prophecy. During the 3^ear 1870, two events have occured calculated to deeply enlist the public interest — the one, the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome ; the other, the occupation of Rome by the Italian government. As the last was a necessary result of the preceding occurrences, it needs no comment. But that the French army remained within the walls of Rome, avowedly to protect the Pope from overthrow, precisely twenty-one years, is certainly a fact worthy of notice, when taken in connection with my argument written more than three years before the close of that term. But it 72 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. is also noticeable that the twenty-one years of the possession of Rome by the French army, was not coeval with the twenty-one years added in my argument to the 2400, as it commenced and ended two years later, or a little more. Whether this is a true variation, and the prophecy was intended to meet both contingencies, or whether the discrep- ancy may be removed by further study, is not cer- tain. But when we consider the difficulties of an- cient chronology, we may well presume that so small a disagreement will ultimately be cleared up and disappear. And even now, so far as the 2421 years are concerned, the whole variation would vanish by adopting the chronology of Calmet, who fixes the beginning of Belshazzar's reign at 555 B.C., and that of Cyrus at 554, or a little earlier. Adopting this as our starting point, and the 2421 years would end in 1870. As yet, however, I am not prepared to change my former position in this respect. CHAPTER IX. THE SYMBOL OF THE HE-GOAT. BUT it is quite apparent, as has been before remarked, that the question put by the saint comprises much more than was answered by "Palmoni," ''the wonderful numberer." Let us put the questions into their proper form : " How long shall be the vision, First, Concerning the daily sacrifice, and ^ Second, Concerning the transgression of desola- tion, to give both, First, The sanctuary, and Second, The host, to be trodden under foot ?" The answer is intended, most clearly, to meet but one of these inquiries, " Unto two thousand and 4 (73) 74 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. four hundred (days) years. Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." If my former exposition be correct, this answer refers only and exclusively to anti- christian Rome. We are now prepared to pursue our investiga- tions to elucidate the other part of this doubly duplicated question. " How long shall be the vision concerning the transgression of desolation, to give the host to be trodden under foot f' Having disposed of the " ram," we now proceed to investigate the typical meaning of the "he-goat." We may assume, and it is so affirmed in the eighth chapter, that the time of this he-goat was cotemporaneous with the commencement of the power of the " ram." In the 3'ear of our Lord 590, Chosroes II. ascended the throne of Persia. He became a very powerful sovereign and unscru- pulous in all his movements. He carried his arms into Judea, Libya and Egypt. He was equally suc- cessful in his wars against the Roman Emperors. In A. D. 61 1, his army conquered nearly all Greece. He laid all Palestine waste, took the city of Jeru- salem ; and " here the Persians committed such outrageous acts, as the horror of them is not to be expressed. They sold 90,000 Christians to the Jews, who did not buy them with an intent to use them as the universal consent of nations requires TEE SYMBOL OF THE HE- GOAT. 75 captives should be used, but, inventing unheard of torments, put them to cruel death," and " not con- tent with their devastations in Asia, they rolled on like an irresistible stream, and overwhelmed Egypt, pillaging Alexandria." His army carried their conquest to the very gates of Constantinople, plun- dering, murdering, and committing every species of violence upon the unhappy inhabitants until nothing but the Bosphorus saved that city from ruin. " These violent irruptions of the Persians, in which they scattered destruction all around, roused up the Emperor, and made him think of some method to obstruct or prevent them. He once more sent his embassadors to Chosroes who, in most earnest terms, represented to him how highly he was en- gaged to the empire, and entreated him to accept of a peace, ?//^;^ wliatcver conditions he should think fit }ii77iself. But the barbarian grew more insolent, from his submission, and affronted not only the em- peror and empire, but blasphemed God himself, for he arrogantly replied tliat he would give ear to no terms of accommodation, till he{Heraclius and his people) had solemnly re7iounced their crucified Savior, and public- ly adored the sun, the great god of the Persians^ This was in the year 618. From this time the destinies of war changed ; and although Chosroes raised many armies, which fought many battles and made 76 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. some conquests, yet the Emperor Heraclius was most commonly successful, until, finally, he drove Chosroes a fugitive from his palace, which was pillaged and burnt by the Roman soldiers ; and now his eldest son seized the sovereignty, stopped Chosroes in his flight, caused eighteen of his sons to be massacred before his face, threw him into a dungeon, where every indignity was heaped upon him which malice could devise ; and, after five days, death put an end to his sufferings, which happened in the year of our Lord 628 : and very soon the Persian Empire was broken up, and afterwards sub- jected to the Arabian Caliphs. This history of Chosroes is but an enlarged ac- count of the he-goat : " And as I was considering, behold a he-goat came from the west, on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground ; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes ; and he came to the ram that had horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power, and I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns, and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him, and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the THE SYMBOL OF THE HE-GOAT. 77 he-goat waxed very great ; and when he was strong the great horn was broken, and for it came up four notable ones, towards the four winds of heaven." There does seem here to be an inconsistency. The he-goat is said to come from the west ; while, in respect to the Christian portion of the world, Chosroes came from the east. The word here trans- lated '' west," is in the Septuagint Libos, preceded by the preposition "^/^," usually translated "from." Nevertheless it sometimes means "against," or " athwart," either of which would remove all diffi- culty. The Greek word " Lips," " Libos," is both a common noun, and a proper name. In this place we shall examine it only as a common noun. As such, it may undoubtedly, be correctly trans- lated " south-west " as a point of the compass ; it is so translated in the twelfth verse of the twenty- seventh chapter of the Acts. The word "Lips" with combinations represents every point of the compass between the south and the west ; but neither the south nor west. It may be here remarked that Alexander did not go from the west towards Persia, but from the north-west, and if you give " Lips " its true meaning, the point would be nearly at right angles to the route from Macedonia to Persia. 78 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. Another meaning of " Lips " as a common noun is, Latin, Pctra ; English, "a place full of rocks or stones." How truly this would represent Persia may be seen by a quotation from a modern geography. " The distinguishing features of this country are a deficiency of rivers, and a multitude of mountains ; its plains, where they occur, are generally desert." " The mountains of this country, which are for the most part rocky, without wood or plants, are in- terspersed with valleys, some of which are stony and sandy." Another writer says, " The most re- markable features of Persia are its chains of rocky mountains ; its long, arid, riverless valleys, and the still more extensive salt or sandy deserts. There is a magnificent range, which, striking off from the Caucasus, accompanies the course of the Georgian river Kour, crosses it to the west of the plains of Mogan, covers Karabaug and Karadaug with a gloomy assemblage of black peaks. These are the principal stocks, from whence arise the multitude of ramifications, that cover the surface of Persia with a net-work, as it were, of rocky lines," Another says, " It (Persia) has been termed a country of moun- tains ; and a large portion of it is certainly mountain- ous." " The aspect of the Persian mountains ispccu- liarly bare and forbidding, rising abruptly from THE SYMBOL OF THE HE- GOAT. 79 the plain, and presenting nothing to the eye but large masses of gray rocks, piled upon each other." Chardin says, speaking of the desert of Car- mania : " At some distance from the coast the ground rises, and the interior of the country, to- wards the north, is intersected by numerous moun- tain ranges. The soil upon these mountains is very dry and barren ; and though there are some fertile valleys among them, they are generall)/- fit only for the residence of nomadic shepherds. This part of Persia was the original seat of the eonquerors of Asia, where they were inured to hardship and privation ^ There is, perhaps, no other country in the world, so large in extent, which so exactly answers to " a country full of rocks." This he-goat, we are informed, is the " king of Grecia." From this passage all writers, for twenty centuries, have jumped to the conclusion that Alexander, namely, was symbolized by " tJie he- goat,'' assuming that he was " king of Grecia^ To this we demur ; for Alexander was no more king of Grecia than Chosroes — nay, he had not so good a claim to the title. Alexander was king of Macedonia ; and whatever may be the modern di- visions, in early times Macedonia was not Greece nor a part of Greece. So late as the time of the apostles, we are told " Paul called unto him the 8o THE TIMES OF DANIEL. disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece.'" Thus clearly showing that, at that time, Macedonia and Greece were recog- nized as distinct countries. And more than this, Alexander himself never even claimed to be the kiiig of Greece. Rollin says : *' He (Alexander) summon- ed at Corinth the assembly of the several states and free cities of Greece, to obtain from them the same supreme command against the Persians as had been granted his father, a little before his death. The deliberations of the assembly were very short ; and that prince was unanimously ap- pointed generalissimo against the Persians." To a superficial observer, this explanation of the he-goat, namely, that he was king of Grecia, given by the angel, would seem to set at rest the claim that Chosroes was identical with the he-goat. But when we consider that, for a long time, Chosroes' empire comprised nearly all Greece proper, al- though a Persian prince, it does not seem so strange that he should be called " king of Grecia'' And then when we remember that this word Grecia, in scripture, often comprehends all the countries inhabited by the descendants of Javan, and, further, that " after the time of Alexander the THE SYMBOL OF THE HE-GOAT. 8 1 Great, when the Greeks became masters of Egypt, Syria and the countries beyond the Euphrates, the Jews included all gentiles under the name of Greeks," it would appear to have been unexcep- tionably appropriate to speak of Chosroes as the '^ kijig of Grecia ;'' far more so than Alexander. Assuming the he-goat to be emblematical of Chosroes, and the " little horn which waxed ex- ceeding great " his Mahometan successors, the type appears to have been selected with unequal- led propriety. The words translated " he-goat," are " o tragos aigon /" a he-goat not only, but, liter- ally, " a he-goat of the she-goats." In the king- / dom of Persia, in the time of Chosroes, polygamy ' prevailed, he himself having a seraglio of numer- ous wives ; and the same custom, under the sway of Mahometanism, prevails until the present time. The he-goat is often used, even till this day, as an emblem of all that is lascivious and wanton ; and when described, as in this phrase, as " a he-goat of the she-goats," it would seem impossible to avoid the conclusion that its reference is to Chosroes and his Turkish and Mahometan successors, with their polygamous harems. 4* CHAPTER X. SOMEWHAT MORE OF THE RAM AND HE-GOAT. AS this question — Who were symbolized by the he-goat with one horn ; and the ram with horns? — is one of the fundafnental problems of the prophecy of Daniel ; and as, for thousands of years, no one seems to have entertained a doubt that Alexander was the he-goat and Persia the ram, it will doubtless be deemed by all a bold, and by many an irreverent, assault upon fixed facts of prophecy and history to aim at any change in the world-wide belief so long and so firmly held. But is it not possible that one grand error in this crucial point has heretofore obscured the prophecy of Daniel, with that impenetrable vail which all students have been anxious to remove, and which has been the cause of so many disappointments ? What appeared applicable, in the course of the argument, has been already written. Something further may tend to strengthen our hypothesis. (82) MORE OF TEE BAM AND HE- GOAT. 83 The Greek word '' Lips" is both a common noun and a proper name. Its meaning- as a common noun has received sufficient comment in the last chapter. We shall now notice it as the proper name of some wind. We have a variety of such names, as "sirocco," "simoom," and others. The name of a wind necessarily implies that the wind so named has a distinct identity, and usually blows in a cer- tain direction for a fixed and somewhat lengthened period, as three months, or six months, though some receive their names only because of some dis- agreeable or positive quality. The question here for us to solve is the location of the wind, desig- nated in the Greek by the name " Lips," " Libos." The word " Libonotos" was the name of a wind blowing east of Africa, and south of Asia. This could be no other than the southern monsoon. In relation to this monsoon, we are told that, " in the tract between Sumatra and the African coast, and from three degrees south latitude, quite north- ward to the Asiatic coast, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Bengal, the monsoons blow from September to April on the north-east, and from March to October on the south-west." " The trade winds in some parts are subject to a change of direction every six months, and are then called monsoons. When the northern hemisphere is ex- 84 TBE TIMES OF DANIEL. posed to the sun's rays, Arabia, Persia, India and China being greatly heated, raise the temperature of the atmosphere that covers them, and the cooler air from the regions south rushes towards the parts. It will therefore follow, that for one six months the trade wind is, in this instance, produced by a current of air rushing from the equatorial re- gions." And another writer says : " It is in the Indian seas, however, and especially in the vicinity of the great Asiatic continent, that the disturbing influence of the land is most clearly exhibited, issu- ing in a complete reversal of the north-east trade during a considerable portion of the year ; and the production oi monsoons, that is, of winds which blow half the year in one, and the other half in a con- trary direction." The south-west monsoon commences north of the equator, and, driving in a north-east direction from the coast of Africa, passes over the south-east desert of Arabia, and thence over the southern part of Persia. To return to " Libonotos." It is composed of two Greek words, namely, " Lips," or " Libos," the genitive, and '' Notos," south. Now, as we know that " Lips" is the name of a ivind, and, connected with Notos, it means the " southern monsoon ;" if we separate Notos, southern, it leaves only Libos — MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- 00 AT. 85 monsoon. As this southern monsoon originates near the coast of Africa, and pervades Southern Persia, we can hardly escape the conclusion that '^ Apo Libos" [if a proper name here] should be ren- dered " from the region or direction of the mon- soons." And as the monsoon could be reached from the Holy Land, and from other countries most interested in the prophecy, in no other direction by land, than through Persia (except over the des- ert of Arabia), it seems a just conclusion that the country from which the he-goat must come was that very land ruled by Chosroes. It is a significant coincidence that " Libos," a common noun, describes Persia so perfectly as "a country full of rocks," while " Libos," a proper name, seems to point, unmistakably, to the same country as the locality of the monsoons. One mode of proof, to sustain the position that the he-goat symbolized Macedonia, is certainly unique. The writer, a firm believer in that position, pre- sents his proposition as follows : " The prophet Daniel describes Macedonia, under the emblem of a goat with one horn ; and // is therefore of great consequence, that this symbol should be proved to be that proper to Macedonia ; for if this country had no such emblem belonging to it, we must look to an- other kingdom for a fulfillment of the prophecy, 86 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. which would be contrary to history, and would produce inextricable confusion." It must strike every one, that in this short extract the writer ig- nores inductive reasoning and begs the question two or three times over. The only cases cited to prove that the one-horned goat was the symbol of Macedonia, are, 1st, In the reign of Archelius, of Macedon, " there occurs on the reverse of a coin of that kingdom the head of a goat having one horn." 2d, " An ancient bronze figure of a goat with one horn was dug up in Asia Minor T' Now as Asia Minor had often been conquered by the Persians, and at one time been in their posses- sion for twelve successive years, why should it be taken for granted that this bronze figure was Mace- donian rather than Persian ? Macedonia was nearer to Asia Minor, to be sure, but, under the circum- stances, the probabilities that the figure was Per- sian, were far greater than that it was Macedonian. 3d. Another fact is mentioned as of very great significance: "In one of the Pilasters oi Persepolis, a goat is represented with an immense horn grow- ing out of the middle of the forehead ; and a man in Persian dress, is seen by his side, holding the horn with his left hand ; by zvJiicJi is signified the sub- jection of Macedon. '' Every one must see that here MORE OF THE RAM AND HE-GOAT. 87 the question is begged again. These are the only instances given, although it is added that Mr. Combe observes that not only many of the individual towns in Macedon employed this type, but the kingdom itself " was represented also by a goat, with this particularity, that it had but one horn." On the other hand, we are told that " Persia was represented by a ram." Ammianus Marcellinus ac- quaints us, that " the king of Persia, when at the head of his army, wore a ram's head made of gold." And then we are further informed that " the type of Persia, the ram, is observable on a very ancient coin, undoubtedly Persian, in Dr. Hunter's collec- tion." It will be observed that here again the ques- tion is begged, and the item of evidence depends upon the opinion that the coin was Persian, while, prima facie, the great probability is that it was As- syrian or Babylonian. Mr. Combe further says (after giving a represen- tation of a head of a ram and a one-horned goat) : *' It will be seen by the drawing I have made of this gem, that nothing more nor less is meant by the ram's head with two horns, and the goat's head with one, than the kingdoms of Macedonia and Persia represented under their appropriate sym- bols." This again begs the question ; but if the application be correct, the probability appears just 88 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. as strong that the one horn represented Persia as the contrary. The resources of the writer have been very limited, indeed, so far as numismatics are concern- ed. But his investigations have resulted thus : In Rees' Cyclopaedia, under " Medals," we find this statement : " It was in the reign of Servius TuUius that the first Roman coins appeared, which were large pieces of brass, rudely impressed, only on one side, with the figure of an ox, a ram, or some other animal." This was near 700 years be- fore Christ. There is a copper medal, of the reign of Britannicus, in Captain Smyth's collection, upon the reverse of which is the figure of a ram. This was not far from the Christian era. In Calmet there is given the copy of a medal " in proof that Macedonia was divided into several provinces (four, at least,) when under the Roman government." This, therefore, was undoubtedly a Macedonian medal. This medal has the head of a ram on one side ; and a complete ram, reclining, on the reverse. Here are three distinct cases where the ram, with horns, was used symbolically by the Eastern or Western Empires. In addition to the above, a significant fact is mentioned by Bishop Chandler, who observes that MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 89 " princes and nations being of old painted by their symbols, which Procopius calls GNorismata, they came afterwards to be distinguished by writers with the names of their symbols as by their ap- pellations. Yet Alexander derived himself from Jupiter Ammon, and he and his successors had two rains horns on their coins, the very description of the former beast." We are further told that " Jupiter Ammon was usually represented under the figure of a ram ; though, in some medals, he appears of a human shape, having only two ram's horns growing out beneath his ears." And accordingly Alexander and his successors placed the symbol of a ram's horns around their ears, which may be seen on various coins and medals, which may be fairly set off against the story of Ammianus Marcellinus. Turning now to Persia, we have given before all the proof within our reach of the ram as a Persian symbol. The figure of a ram is found among the sculptures of Persepolis, but it is placed indis- criminately along with lions, deer, bulls, horses and camels, with no mark of distinction what- ever. On the other hand, goats and other animals with one horn are found sculptured everywhere. Mr. Combe gives the instance before quoted, of " a 90 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. goat with an immense horn growing out of the middle of his forehead." " In the general procession which adorns the palace of Persepolis, there appears the emblem of two goats, each having one horn." This is found in other instances, especially upon the pillars around the porticoes. Among the ornaments of the palace are many hundred figures sculptured in basso relievo. Le Bru}^ gives the following account of some of those upon the pilasters : " Under a portal of the west is the figure of a man hunting a bull, who has one Jiorn in his fore- head.'' " The second portal discovers the figure of a man carved in the same manner, with a deer, that greatly resembles a lion, having a horn in his fore- head.'' " The same representations are to be seen under the portal to the north, with this exception, that, instead of the deer, there is a great lion." " There are also two other figures on each side in the two niches to the south, one of which grasps the horn of a goat with one hand." "Another of these sculptures also represents a man who, with one hand, seizes the (single) horn of an animal which he has attacked." MOBE OF THE BAM AND HE- GOAT. 91 Here are a great variety of sculptures represent- ing an animal with one horn, of which many are goats. Can we draw any other inference from these facts than that the one-horned animal was a symbol adopted and recognized by Persia ? And we are supported in this opinion by the unquestionable fact, that Media, then an integral part of Persia, was so symbolized. The author before quoted says : *' This (the two goats with one horn each sculptured at Persepolis) would be extremely embarrassing if we did not know that these two Medias being, as they were, in some respects, but one province, though divid- ed, so they were represented by two goats walk- ing together." He therefore concludes that " Me- dia was symbolized by the single-horned goat, a7id that the Macedonians, being derived fron tJience, retained the symbol of their original country ^ Without stopping to comment upon the obvious fact that the conclusion is altogether too far-fetch- ed to be of any value, we suggest whether, as Media and Persia had become consolidated into one nation, it would not be far more reasonable to assume that the consolidated nation had adopted the original and national symbol of one of them. The one-horned goat was a frequent symbol with the Assyrians, and Layard has the remark, that, at 92 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. " the period of the fall of the Assyrian empire, and of the rise of the kingdoms of Babylon and Persia, the arts passed from Assyria to the sister nations." In conclusion, while the writer does not place as much confidence as some others in any numismat- ical arguments or those drawn from sculptures, the}^ nevertheless do appear much more to strength- en his view of the case than the other. There is a passage which, giving its popular meaning, may seem to conflict with our view in an important particular. The passage is in the second verse of the eleventh chapter, and is as follows : " Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia ; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all : and by his strength through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia." The fourth king is commonly supposed to refer to Xerxes. If you begin with Cyrus, Xerxes was the fifth king, and the language seems to imply that he is the first ; and, if so, the text does not refer to Xerxes. That king has been called " the great." In what did his greatness consist ? He raised an army, if we may believe the historian, of over 2,000,000 of men. But the greatness of this army proved his utter unworthiness of the title given him. His vast army was successfully re- sisted at Thermopylae by 300 Spartans and iioo MORE OF THE RAM AND HE-GOAT. 93 Thespians and Thebans, until betrayed by a villain. He burnt the empty houses of Athens, and got sadly beaten in the battle of Salamis ; and here ends his mihtary history. " In his precipitate re- treat he left behind him all his riches and magnifi- cence." We suggest whether the word king here does not really mean dynasty, provided we are to un- derstand the language literally. Cyrus was king of Persia at the time of Daniel's prophecy. Thus, the A^chcemenian dynasty ended with Darius Codomannus, and was succeeded by Alexander and the Seleiician, 324 B. c. In 255 the Parthians founded the third Persian dynasty — the Arsanca7i of classic writers. This dynasty lasted till A. D. 226, under thirty-four monarchs. In the beginning of the third century, " Adishir, of the Persians, founded the Sasanian dynasty, which, under twenty-eight or twenty-nine kings continued upwards of 400 years." Near the close of this (fourth) dynasty reigned Ckosroes, styled " the great," '* who is considered by the Persians a model of justice, generosity and sound policy. His reign of forty-eight years — from A .D. 531 to 579, was the golden age of mod- ern Persia." " He received, as tokens of homage, ambassadors. 94 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. with rich presents, from the (greatest potentates of the East, at his splendid palace at Ctesiphon, one of the wonders of that part of the world." " His empire extended from the Red Sea to the Indus." His grandson, Chosroes W., " is still more cele- brated in the East for his luxury and magnificence ; and Oriental history abounds in tales of his palaces, his superb thrones, his ininicnse treasures, his un- rivalled poets and musicians, his 50,000 Arab horses and his 3,000 beautiful women." And, speaking of Dastagerd, Chosroes' capital, the writer says : " Its marvelous beauty and pomp have been extolled by visitors and poets ; and even grave historians speak minutely of its paradise (or park), containing pheasants, peacocks, ostriches ; roebucks and wild goats ; of its lions, tigers, des- tined for the pleasure of the chase ; of the 960 ele- phants, 20,000 camels, 6,000 mules and horses ; of the 6,000 guards that watched before the gates ; of the 12,000 slaves and 3,000 women subjected to his caprices and passions; of the precious metals, gems, silks, aromatics in a hundred subterranean vaults of the palace ; of its 30,000 hangings, 40,000 columns, and of its cupola, with 1,000 globes of gold, imitating the motion of the planets and the constellations of the zodiac." Even the writer of the "Arabian Nights " refers MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 95 to his riches : " The lady Zobeide pulled off from her neck a necklace worth the treasures of a Chos- roes." We have before 4iad occasion to refer to the power, conquests and cruel treatment of both Jews and Christians of the second Chosroes ; and as this was the fourth dynasty from and including Cyrus, we submit to the judgment of the reader whether the " fourth king," far richer than they all, does not apply to this dynasty with much more pro- priety than to the luckless Xerxes. The war between Heraclius and Chosroes was considered as much a religious as a civil war ; and, being destitute of means to repel the enemy, Her- aclius " had recourse to the clergy, who were more immediately concerned in this quarrel ; of whom, therefore, he borrowed all the vessels of gold and silver belonging to the churches of Constantinople, which he coined into money, wherewith to pay his soldiers, who were marching to fight in defence of their lives, their liberties and religion." It will further be remembered, that, in the sev- enth verse of the eighth chapter, the prophet states that he saw the he-goat '■'come close Jinto the ramy Now this phraseology seems to imply very decidedly, that whatever power is referred to, did not overrun the country of the ram, only coming 96 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. near to it ; but, by some other means or mode, broke his power, humbled and trampled him under foot. Alexander not only came close unto Media and Persia, but overrun them* both ; and, not stop- ping there, conquered immense territories beyond them. His thus passing over and subjugating Me- dia and Persia, and then carrying his conquests a thousand miles beyond, seems to be very imper- fectly described by the phrase " cajue close tmtor It is also stated by the prophet, " that the he- goat waxed very great ; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken." The breaking of a horn seems to imply something more than a nat- ural death. It can mean nothing less than a power violently destroyed, or greatly humbled by another power. But Alexander died in the plenitude of his prosperity, in his own bed, leaving his king- dom the most powerful on earth. There is no author who more confidently main- tains that the he-goat was Alexander, than RoUin ; and,. in order to substantiate his position, he cites from Daniel, that " the great horn was broken ; and there came up four notable ones, towards the four winds of heaven ;" and then shows how Alex- ander's domains were divided — not by any vio- lence, but b}^ mutual consent. " In Europe," he says, " Thrace and the adjacent regions were con- MOBE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 97 veyed to Lysimachus ;" " and Macedonia, Epirus and Greece were allotted to Antipater and Crat- erus." " In Africa, Egypt and the other conquests of Alexander in Libya and Cyrenaica, were assign- ed to Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, with that part of Arabia which borders on Egypt." " In Lesser Asia, Lycia, Pamphylia and the greater Phrygia, were given to Antigonus ; Cavia to Cassander;" "■ Lydia to Menander ;" " the Lesser Phrygia to Leonatus ;" "Armenia to Neoptolemus ;" " Cappa- docia and Paphlagonia to Eumenes ;" " Syria and Phoenicia fell to Leomedon ;" " one of the two Me- dias to Atropates," " and the other to Perdiccas ;" " Persia was assigned to Peucestes ;" " Babylonia to Archon ;" " Mesopotamia to Arcesilas;" " Parthia and Arcania to Phrataphernes ; " Bactriana and Sogdiana to Philip." " The other regions v/ere divided among other generals whose names are now but little known." Thus, instead of the four horns which were to come up out of the great broken horn of Alexander, we see his empire peaceably distributed to, at least, eighteen sovereigns, and it would be difficult to select out of these the four more notable than some other four, equally so. Indeed, it is difficult to dis- cover, in any possible aspect, the least resemblance between the disintegration of the empire of Alex- 5 gS TifE TIMES OF DANIEL. ander and the prophetic end of the he-goat. It is true that thirty years after the death of Alex- ander his former dominions were measurably re- united, and a part of them formed nominally into four governments. But, after a very short time, the whole were again reduced to a chaotic stat&, and out of them there arose nothing like the fifth horn till after the lapse of 900 years. Let us now turn to this part of the history of Chosroes, and ascertain how far the actual exploits and the succession of that monarch correspond with the prophecy. We are told that " during the life of Maurice " (Roman emperor) " peace was preserved between the two nations " (Persia and the empire). " But on his assassination by Phocas in 602, Chosroes took up arms to revenge the death of his benefactor ; and in the space of fourteen years subdued almost all the provinces of the Greek empire. In 611 Antioch was taken ; in the following year Cesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, fell into the hands of the Persians ; in 614 the whole of Palestine was subdued ; in 616 Egypt was conquered, and Alexandria was taken by Chosroes 'iimself, while another Persian army subdued the whole of Asia Minor, and advanced as far as the Bosphorus. The Roman empire was on the brink of ruin. The capture of Alexandria had deprived MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 99 the inhabitants of Constantinople of their usual supply of corn ; the northern barbarians ravaged the European provinces, while the powerful Per- sian army on the Bosphorus was making prepara- tions for the siege of the imperial city. His vic- torious troops remained encamped for twelve )'ears in the vicinity of Constantinople." He reduced Heraclius and the empire to the very lowest con- dition of abject humility, and fairly " stamped upon them,'' insomuch that Heraclius offered to make peace with him on any terms he would propose. But it will be observed that Heraclius was not actually subdued, nor the Roman Empire, prop- erly speaking, actually invaded ; but Chosroes with his Persian hosts " came close iinto " the very capi- tal of the Empire. At the time of Chosroes' in- vasion, very near, if not quite, half the Christians in the world were found in Asia. These were all subjected by Chosroes, and the cruel and diabol- ical manner in which he maltreated and murdered them as Christians, could not be better expressed than by the casting down, and stamping upon them. The great difficulty Avith the prophecy lies in the explanation given by the angel : " The ram which thou sawest, having (two) horns (are) the kings of Media and Persia." Upon this it may be remarked lOO THE TIMES OF DANIEL. that a horn is always the emblem of power. At the time of the conquest of Persia by Alexander, Media was not a power, nor in any way independent ; it had been absorbed in the empire of Persia. It would, therefore, seem no more proper to repre- sent it as a distinct horn, than the other provinces, which had, successively, been conquered and ab- sorbed into that state. But it is a well authenti- cated fact, that after the subversion of Media, and her incorporation into Persia, very many of the customs of Media were adopted by Persia ; and it seems almost certain that the symbol of a one- horned goat was so adopted ; and this presump- tion is much strengthened by the inscription of this emblem so often appearing about the palace of Persepolis. A well-informed writer says : " Madai was the third son of Japheth, and father of the Medes." " But," he adds, " some suppose that Media is too distant from the other countries peopled by Ja- pheth, and cannot be comprehended under the name of the ' Isles of the Gentiles,' which were allotted to the sons of Japheth." And again, Calmet says," " Media, a country east of Assyria, which is supposed to have been peo- pled by the descendants of Madai, son of Japheth. The Greeks maintain that this country (Media) takes MORE OF THE BAM AND HE- 00 AT. loi its name from Mediis, son oi Medea; and truly if what has been said, under the article ' Madai,' may be relied on, or if this son of Japheth peopled Mace- donia, we must seek another origin for the people of Media." In another place in Calmet we find, " Gomer was probably the father of the Cimbri, Magog of the Scythians, and Madai of the Mace- donians." We have cited these authorities to show how strong the testimony is that Macedonia was, and Media was not, peopled by the descendants of Madai ; for if Media was not, then the prophecy does not at all refer to the Medes ; but if Macedo- nia was, as the word Madai is used by the prophet, the whole force of the argument is transferred from Media to Macedonia : and so, as at that time the Roman Empire had been extended to the Bos- phorus, and included Macedonia as well as all Greece, and the civil government had been trans- ferred from Rome to Constantinople, while the ecclesiastical [the little horn] remained at Rome, it would not be inappropriate to symbolize the Eastern Empire by the horn of Macedonia, it being a representative kingdom of that part of the em- pire. On this very important point, we may be per- mitted to adduce another piece of corroborative 102 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. evidence of our correctness, in supposing the ram to symbolize the hierarchy. In Mr. Faber's essay on the symboHcal language of prophecy, he re- marks : " In the rich imagery of Daniel and St. John, different symbols are used to signify the same thing ; but no one symbol is ever used to express different things, unless such different things have a manifest analogical resemblance to each other." Let us bear this rule in mind while we examine the following paragraph from the Apocalypse, 19th chap, nth verse: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Upon this Bishop Newton says, " The beast with two horns like a lamb, is the Roman hierarchy." This appearance of the hierarchy, as a lamb with two horns, refers to that ecclesiastical power in its early state of existence, before it had attained the power of coercion and persecution. At that time, as a Christian institution, while it was, as yet, only reaching after absolute authority over the minds and bodies of men, it was ver}^ aptly repre- sented as a lamb, a lamb, however, 7uith horns ; that is to say, a lamb which, in the ordinary course of events, and by the regular process of nature, would in a little time become a full-grown ram. Adopting the rule of symbols laid down by Faber, MORE OF TUE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 103 and the comment of Newton upon the passage cited, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion, that the ram in Daniel, standing before the river, with horns, or, if you please, " with two horns," represents the hierarchy, or, as then constituted, the whole Christian world, under the domination of the Pope of Rome, and according to Faber, could not represent Persia. CHAPTER XL THE HOLY CITY TRODDEN DOWN OF THE GEN- TILES 1260 YEARS. AFTER the death of Chosroes his empire fell to pieces, and formed the separate national- ities of Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and the country between Persia and Europe, which became a part of the Roman Empire ; thus constituting four horns where but one had existed before, all of them suffi- ciently notable. This condition of affairs, how- ever, continued but a very short time, for out of one of them, namely, Arabia, " came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great." To this is added in our version, " toward the south, and to- ward the east, and toward the pleasant land." The Septuagint has it ''pros noton pros duimniin — " to- ward the south with power." The one translation answers our purpose as well as the other. If the Septuagint reading be adopted, the whole passage will read, " And out of one of them, towards the (104) THE nOLY CITY TBODDEN DOWN. 105 south, came forth, with power, a little horn, which waxed exceeding great." Let it be remembered that Chosroes was over- thrown and his kingdom destroyed in 628. About the year 607 Mahomet first concocted his baleful enterprise, and soon thereafter commenced his public ministry, propagating his pernicious doc- trines among his own countrymen in Arabia, where the heresy spi"ead with incredible rapidity, gaining adherents in vast multitudes. The people were buried in profound ignorance, and divided into a multitude of sects, all pagan and idolatrous. When he found his doctrine almost universally received there, he placed himself at the head of a company of thieves and fugitive slaves, who fled from all parts to him, allured by a promise he had given of protecting them, and by a law he had taught and published that it was the zvill and command of God that all men should be free. By the help of these proselytes he assumed a sovereign power, and de- clared himself both king and prophet of the Sara- cens. " Such was his success, that with these feeble beginnings he subjected all Arabia, and having overcome the Persians in the year 632, seized on the government also. The Saracens, finding them- selves masters of that country, made incursions 5* I06 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. into Palestine. Jerusalem held out against Aumar for two years together, but surrendered at last in the year 637." In Smith's Dictionary, article " Jerusalem," we are told " the patriarch Sophronius surrendered to the Khaliff Omar in person, A. D. 637. The Kha- liff, after ratifying the terms of capitulation, en- tered the cit}^ and was met at the gates by the patriarch. Sophronius received him with the un- courteous exclamation, ' Verily, this is the abom- ination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.' " Now, let us bear in mind that having ascertained that the sanctuary should be cleansed, that is anti- christ overthrown by the collapse of the Roman hierarchy in the year 1867, our design now is to ascertain also w^hen we may expect a like catas- trophe to the Mahometan sovereignty, at least in the Holy Land. And learning that Jerusalem fell a prey to the Saracens in the year 637, we turn to the gospel of Luke, chap. 21 and 24th verse, where we find our Lord informing his disciples that " Jeru- salem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." Hav- ing learned, then, that Jerusalem was captured by the Saracens, most emphatically " Gentiles," in the year 637, and having also been informed that that THE HOLY CITY TRODDEN DOWN. 107 city shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, we in- quire again, with deep interest, if there be in all Scripture any clue to the length of time that this subjection shall continue. Pursuing our inquiry, we turn to the second verse of the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse, where the revelator gives an answer to this precise question : " The Holy City shall be trodden under foot (of the Gentiles) forty and two months," or 1260 prophetical years. We thus learn, in the most concise and definite terms, exactly when this Mahometan despotism will cease in the country of Palestine ; that is to say, in 1260 years from the year 637—1897, at which time we may anticipate, with great confidence, the entire annihilation of the Mahometan power. To pursue this inquiry a little further, the " Host" was to be trodden under foot. It is well known that " Host" is used by way of abbreviation for hostia, a victim or sacrifice offered to the Deity. " In this sense * Host' is more immediately under- stood of the person of the word incarnate, who was offered up a host, or hostia, to the Father on the cross, for the sins of mankind." Without intending to go into any elaborate explication of this matter, we submit that the desecration of the Holy City and all its sacred associations and surroundings, and I08 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. the contempt with which Christ and his doctrines and followers have been treated, and the persecu- tions they have endured from the Saracens and the Mahometans, may well be presumed to be referred to by the angel when he spoke of the " Host" being trodden under foot, and that the same events are foreshadowed in these expressions by Daniel, our Saviour and St. John. Adding no more here, oc- casion will be offered to refer to the same matter in the sequel. CHAPTER XII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. WE cannot doubt that the eleventh chapter of Daniel is almost entirely devoted to a foreshadowing of the various religious wars and revolutions which have taken place, and will occur, between the first taking away the daily sacrifice, and the setting up the abomination that maketh desolate in the year 607, and the overthrow of Ma- hometanism ; including the wars of the crusades, and the frequent and desolating incursions of the Mahometans into Europe. But it does not fall within the scope of our design to attempt an eluci- dation of this portion of the prophecy, or to use it any further than is necessary to the full understand- ing of our theory. It is hardly possible for any one to doubt that the " mighty king" described in the third verse of this chapter is the same with the " he-goat" in the (109) no THE TIMES OF DANIEL. fifth verse of the eighth chapter ; and the revela- tions in the fourth and fifth verses of this chapter point to the same transactions with those from the sixth to the ninth inclusive, in the eighth chapter. If the former explication of those verses in our eighth chapter be correct, then here the eleventh chapter introduces, most appropriately, again the Mahometan power, which through the succeeding 1260 years was to exercise so marvellous an influ- ence upon the Christian world, and especially upon the Holy Land. " And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will." If we mistake not, this refers to Chosroes, king of Persia, in his earl}^ prosperity. " And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven." After he had become the terror of the Christian world, Heraclius, the emperor, in a very short time utterly demolished him and his kingdom. "And not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion, which he ruled ; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those." We have, in a former chapter, seen how completely Chosroes' empire was subverted and " divided toward the four winds ;" and how the succession passed " not to his posterity," " nor according to his dominion, TEE HOLT CITY TRODDEN DOWN. m which he ruled ;" but that it was plucked up by Heraclius and afterwards passed under the domin- ion of the Arabian caliphs. Men may differ in their appreciation of these matters; but, seemingly, it must impress every one that these descriptions in Daniel are almost perfect photographs of Chosroes and the subsequent Saracenic and Mahometan caliphs. Passing over the intermediate portions of chapter eleven, which seem to be unmistakable descriptions of what are sometimes denominated holy wars, or the wars between the nominally Chris- tian and the Mahometan and infidel nations, we proceed to a consideration of the last verse in the chapter, which quite as unmistakably refers to the Mahometan power in possession of Pales- tine. " And he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain ; yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him." The meaning of this passage appears too plain to admit of any elucidation. The chapter commences with a brief account of the origin of the Mahometan sway in the Holy Land, and in the countries adjacent; and after recounting, among other things, their various successes and defeats, it ends with the affirmation that this power was at last fully established in that land ; and then closes 112 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. emphatically with the statement that *' he shall come to his end and none shall help him." Our present aim is to prove by cumulative evi- dence when this Mahometan sway shall come to its end. We have before learned from Scripture that the Holy City shall be trodden down by the Gen- tiles 1260 years. The fact is also affirmed by Dan- iel in the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter. Now it will be borne in mind that the eleventh chapter is devoted mostly if not altogether to those matters in which the Mahometan power was chiefly concerned ; and that it begins and ends with refer- ence to the same power. Another matter is then advanced, which we shall soon discuss, beginning at that same period, between which and the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter, nothing of any impor- tance is revealed affecting time. But in the sixth verse, some one inquires of an angel, " How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" The prophet says : " I heard the man clothed in linen, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, that ' it shall be for a time, times and a half.' " Under these circumstances it cannot be believed that this period of 1260 years synchronizes with the same period mentioned in the twenty-fifth verse TEE HOLT CITY TRODDEN DOWN 113 of the seventh chapter. It has already been proved that that refers to the time during which the saints were dehvered into the hand and held by the power of antichrist, commencing when the daily sacrifice was taken away, and ending at the cleans- ing of the sanctuary in 1867. But this in the twelfth chapter as clearly refers to the question not an- swered by Palmoni in the thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter : " How long shall the host be trod- den under foot ?" The question in the sixth verse of the twelfth chapter is not in the same form, but doubtless refers to that, as well as to other matters, as recorded in the beginning of the twelfth chap- ter: "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ?" Now we have already learned from pro- fane history, that Jerusalem was conquered by the Saracens in the year 6^)^, and the passages quoted from the New Testament, as well as this now under consideration, prove that it must be trodden down of the Gentiles 1260 years, which will end in 1897. In the eleventh verse of the twelfth chapter we are told that from " the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be ' a thousand two hun- dred and ninety (days) years.' " It appears, there- fore, that from the time when Boniface was consti-\ tuted Universal Bishop, and Mahomet concocted/ 114 ^^^ TIMES OF DANIEL. his heresy, to the year in which it has been proved Jerusalem will have been trodden down of the Gentiles 1260 years ; that is, from the year 607 to the year 1897 is the time mentioned in this elev- enth verse, namely 1290 years. If this be not the true exposition of this passage, the coincidences are certainly most remarkable. We state, then, these propositions, which seem to be most clearly proved. First, The saints were delivered into the power of antichrist in the year 607, and, consequently, will be delivered out of his hands by his overthrow in 1867. And, Second, The Holy Land, and especially Jerusa- lem (the " Host"), were commenced to be trodden imder foot of the Gentiles in 637 ; and, conse- quently, will be delivered from their oppression in 1897. CHAPTER XIII. THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. WE will now proceed to the consideration of some other events, recorded in this proph- ecy, of the most stupendous importance, but de- pending for the period of their fulfillment, not upon any specified epoch ; but the time of their develop- ment being in each case a corollary or sequence from those others which have heretofore been con- sidered at large. The closing paragraph of the eleventh chapter declares, that " he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain ; yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him." In the beginning of the next (i2th) chapter, the prophet presents in the most vivid colors the scenes which are immediately to follow the overthrow of Mahometanism and speed- ily to usher in the millennium. ("S) Il6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. " At that time," that is to sa}-, at the time when the Mahometan power in Palestine shall come to an end, " at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting' life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." These four or five distinct propositions are not necessarily coincident in time ; but follow each, probably, in the order of arrangement. Truly, to comprehend their momentous import, in the mind of the prophet, we must place ourselves at his stand-point. Let us pause, then, here a moment to contemplate his peculiar and soul-stirring position. Himself an exile from his country, he looks for- ward, in vision, through a period of more than two thousand years, and sees Jerusalem, the Holy City, the place beloved beyond all others by all Jews, whether present there or absent — he sees Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Palestine, the Land of Canaan, ages before promised to his nation, conquered by a ncAV race of Pagans, " Gentiles," whose very exist- ence, as a people, commenced centuries after he RESTORATION OF TEE JEWS. 117 saw this amazing vision. He sees this new power plant his tabernacles and erect his mosques be- tween the seas, even in Jerusalem, the glorious holy- mountain. He sees this resistless power enforce, by fire and sword, his own detestable heresies, for a long series of ages ; but having before given a short summary of intervening events, deems it necessary here only to note the final decline and fall of that power by which the beloved land had so long been trodden in the dust. He describes this great event with characteristic and chastened brevity, but extraordinary power. " He shall come to his end and none shall help him." His eye now ranges down the vista of time, until the power that conquered and desolated the Holy City has fallen, never to rise again. But another event of equal, if not more thrilling interest, now flashes upon his vision, apparently without any lapse of intermedi- ate time, after the destruction of Mahometanism. "At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy peo- ple," evidently signifying some event propitious to the rising fortunes of the Jewish nation, and these soul-stirring spectacles are followed immediately by a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. How long this period would continue, he was not here told ; Il8 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. but it is quite evident that it must last for a se- ries of years, to afford room for the fulfillment of all the troubles predicted. And then follows the announcement which must have been most trying to the faith of an early Hebrew, as the resurrection of the dead had been preached to them, if at all, in dubious and uncertain terms : " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And then follows the other announce- ment — to him, of all others, the most interesting — that at the close of a time, times and half a time, 1260 years, from the same epoch, the subjugation of Jerusalem, there shall be an end to the dispersion of God's chosen people, and all the stupendous events in the future, which have been revealed him, shall be accomplished. It is not possible for our imaginations to conceive of the glorious ecstacy of the prophet, at the close of these marvellous and astounding revelations. At a single view he sees his own people, through successive ages, scattered over the four quarters of the world, enduring the threatened punishment of God, in their persecutions, humiliations and suffer- ings unexampled in the history of our race ; and then, at the close, he sees them restored to their own country, and exalted in the favor of God fai RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 119 above aught that they experienced in the most prosperous periods of their ancient history. We cannot doubt that his feehngs of excitement and ccstacy very far transcended those which he assures us he experienced on a former occasion, not half so thrilling as the present : " I, Daniel, fainted and was sick ; and I was astonished at the vision ; I set my face toward the ground and I became dumb." CHAPTER XIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. IN former times the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was universally believed, and formed a theme of constant public prayer. This custom has fallen very much into disuse ; not be- cause the subject matter has become less interest- ing in itself, but from a lessened attention to it, growing out of the fact that so many anticipations, founded upon the prophecies, have been disap- pointed. For this reason let us group together a few paragraphs touching the subject, as found in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah, the 23d chapter and 7th and 8th verses : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say. The Lord liveth,which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from (120) RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 121 all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." A similar passage is found in Ezekiel, 36th chapter and 24th verse : " For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of «// countries, and will bring you into your own land." In the 21st and 22d verses of the 37th chapter, we are told : " Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land ; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all ; and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." In the 3d chap- ter of Hosea, the 4th and 5th verses, we are in- formed that " the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. After- wards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." Now, it is possible that some will say that all these, and numerous other prophecies of a like import, were fulfilled' in the restoration of the Jews after the Babylonian captivity. Without spending time 6 122 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. and space to controvert such a theory, we quote again from Amos, 9th chapter and 14th and 15th verses : " I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vine- yards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them ; and I v/ill plant them upon their land ; and ihcy shall no more be pulled 02it of tJicir land \\\\\c\\ I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." Whatever may be thought of other passages quoted, it is quite cer- tain that this cannot apply to the Jews in any pe- riod of their past history. Their present disper- sion over the whole world is sufficient to refute any such proposition. Other passages appear to be quite as decisive as this, as in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, 23d, 24th, 25th verses : " Neither shall they defile themselves any more with idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with an}^ of their transgressions ; but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; so shall they be my people and I will be their God : and David my servant shall be king over them ; and they shall have one shep- herd, and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even they BESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 123 and their children and their children's children forever ; and my servant Daviei shall be their prince forever.'" There seems no power of language, and no stretch of imagination, which can make this de- scription agree with the past history of the Jews. As a conclusion to these extracts, a quotation from Mr. Whiston's '' Essay on the Revelation of Saint John," will be very apphcable and appropri- ate : " Upon this occasion it will be fit to set down old Tobit's most famous prophecy, or rather inter- pretation of the more ancient prophecies, relating to the present grand dispersion of the Jews, and to their so much expected restoration ; which pro- phecies have been so often misunderstood by our late Christian commentators. And this passage is the more remarkable because of its great antiquity, being wi-itten some time before several books of the Old Testament ; and because, in the vulgar Greek cop3^ part of the most material point is omitted, and can now only be restored from a most ancient Hebrew version made from the original Chaldee, which version is still extant. The pas- sage is this : " As to our brethren the Israelites who dwell at Jerusalem, they shall all be carried captive and Jerusalem shall be laid in heaps ; and the house of God shall be desolate for a small time. Then shall the children of Israel ascend and re- 124 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. build the city and the temple ; but not according to the former building. And there shall they in- habit many days, until an age be completed. And then shall they depart again to an exceeding great captivity. But there also shall the Holy Blessed God be mindful of them, and shall gather them from the four parts of the world. Then shall Jeru- salem the Holy City be restored with curious and stately building. And the temple also shall be magnificently built, never to be destroyed again forever and ever, as the prophets have foretold. Then shall these nations be converted ; they shall worship the Lord, and shall cast away the im- ages of their gods ; and by a confessing of him shall give praises to his great name. He also shall exalt the name of his people before all na- tions." If it be conceded that the Jews will be restored to their own land, these questions present them- selves for our further consideration ; namely, Will the whole of those who claim to be the children of Abraham, now scattered to the four winds of heaven, and amounting in the aggregate to 5,000,- 000, be returned to the land of their ancestors ? Or, will only such as shall be converted to Christianity thus be restored ? And, whichever may be the case, when will this restoration be accomplished ? Rea- BESTOEATION OF THE JEWS. 125 soning a priori, wc should say, without hesitation, that none could be returned to the Holy Land, but such as shall have cast off the Jewish religion and embraced Christianity ; for their unbelief in a cru- cified Saviour, and the despite they have done him, have undoubtedly been the chief causes of their dispersion. Would it, then, be consistent with divine justice, and with the examples of God's treatment of sinners in all ages, to so severely pun- ish the Hebrew race, as he has done, for near two thousand years, for a sin, and then, without any repentance for that sin, now remit the penalty to those who are certainly equally guilty in their un- belief? It may be, and, indeed, is, quite possible, that the whole Hebrew race shall repent and em- brace Christianity, before the time for their restora- tion shall have expired ; though such a universal repentance is not in accordance with our frequent experience. In support of this view of the case, a multitude of passages might be quoted from other propheti- cal books than Daniel ; a few will suffice. In the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah, beginning with the thirteenth verse : " Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers," " because the palaces shall be forsaken," " the forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild asses, a pas- 126 TUE TIMES OF DANIEL. turc of flocks, //;//// the Spirit be poured out tipon us from on high!' " Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruit- ful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings and quiet resting places." In the ninth chapter of Jere- miah, the sixteenth verse, it is said : " I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known ;" and then in the twenty-third chapter, fifth and sixth verses : " Be- hold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judg- ment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name, whereby he shall be called. The Lord Our Righteousness." In the thirty -first chapter of Jeremiah, tenth and eleventh verses, it is written : " He that scattereth Israel, will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Israel." Verse thirty- third : " This shall be the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and RESTORATION OF TEE JEWS. 127 the)' shall be my people. They shall all Jcnoiv mc from the least unto the greatest, saith the Lord ; for T will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." So, too, in the paragraph be- fore quoted from Hosea, third chapter and fifth verse : " Afterwards shall the children of Israel re- turn and seek the Lord their God, and David, their king ; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness, in the latter days." It seems, judging from these and such like statements, often repeated, that either all the Jews will be converted, before the day of their return, or only those who have so repented and believed, will be restored. We are now prepared to analyze carefully the scope and meaning of the paragraphs relating to this matter in the tv/elfth chapter of Daniel ; from which we shall be able also, probably, to throw some additional light upon the question just pre- sented. The first statement is in the first verse : ''At that time,'' that is, simultaneously or immedi- ately after the overthrow of Mahometanism — ''At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of my people." This plainly imports that the time has now ar- rived, in the course of Providence, when some- thing favorable — some happy change is about to be meted out to the people of the Jews. In the T28 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. close of the same verse, we are further informed that " at that time thy people (that is, the Jews,) shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Taking into consideration all the prophecies asserting the dispersion of that people ; their sufferings during the long ages of that dispersion ; and the promises of their final restoration, there can be no doubt that this an- nouncement of the prophet, relates to their return, and fixes its commencement or preparation most inconfestably, namely, immediately after the fall of Mahometanism in Palestine, which has been shown will occur in the year of our Lord 1897. The last sentence of the verse seems to confirm fully the former view expressed, of the restoration only of those who have cast off Judaism and become Chris- tians : " Every one that shall be found written in the book," namely, all such as shall be converted to Christianity. Here, however, it will be observed that, intermediate in this verse, between the clause in which it is affirmed that "at that time" Michael shall stand up for the Jews, and the last one, "at that time," thy people shall be delivered, another clause is interposed, as follows : " And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation." ''At that titne,'' in the commence- ment of the verse, refers undoubtedly to the de- EESTOBATION OF THE JEWS. 129 struction of the Mahometan power only ; while the use of the same phrase at the close of the verse, as evidently refers to the whole time of trouble, which will continue for a number of years. In itself, it is of small consequence whether their restoration is accomplished in one or forty years ; but we should presume, a priori, that the transition state would occupy a considerable time ; for the collection of half a milhon or five millions of people, from "the north country and from all countries," and their transportation by land and sea, to one point, would necessarily extend through a series of years. This is, however, a matter upon which no words need be wasted, inasmuch as intrinsically it is of very little importance w^hen viewed in the light of their dispersion through so many ages. CHAPTER XV. THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. TO many, and probably the larger part of those who give but a casual attention to this sub- ject, the twelfth chapter of Daniel seems a con- fused, incongruous and unintelligible mass of facts and dates, and in very many cases, the investiga- tion of its meaning has been abandoned, as hope- lessly obscure. But there is no portion of Revela- tion which will not pay for a diligent and careful research ; and in our study of this chapter, al- though the conclusions reached, may be very much one side of the true interpretation of the predic- tions of the prophet, nevertheless they may, per- haps, be of some use, as a means of directing the minds of other enquirers into a truer path, and thus, at some future time of eliciting a more satis- factory explication of the great truths embodied therein. We have, heretofore, endeavored to prove, by (130) THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 131 argument, founded upon specific prophecies, and if our premises be granted, it seems we have logi- cally proved, that the twin delusions of Rome and Mahomet will terminate, so far as the supreme and ruling oppressive power is concerned, the one in 1867, and the other in 1897. And this great event, so far as the Mahometan domination over Palestine and the Holy City is concerned, was expressly af- firmed in the last verse of the eleventh chapter: " He shall come to his end, and none shall help him." It will be observed, however, that although we have established the fact that this will occur in 1897, the prophecies, on which this date is fixed, are not found in Daniel, so far as our investigations have yet gone, but upon the declaration of Christ and of Saint John in the Apocalypse. Laying aside for the present all reference to them, we now propose to confine our enquiry, as to time, to this prophecy of Daniel, barely calling in the aid of a single fact of profane history. In the first two verses of the twelfth chapter we find a collection of most wonderful events foretold, all depending, in no small degree, upon the fact expressed in the last verse of the eleventh chapter, for their respective times of accomplishment ; and now here a question of great interest arises, whcth- 132 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. cr it be possible, by aii}^ fair course of argument, to fix with precision the several dates of the mo- mentous events foreshown in this last chapter. Claiming no infallibility, we only desire a fair con- sideration of the positions we take in carrying out to their just conclusions, our theory of Daniel's prophecy. We begin then with the year 607 and 637, as two fixed epochs, from which we are to make our de- ductions and reasonings of all the periods men- tioned in this chapter, namely, the year 607, that in which the sanctuary was desecrated and the abomination of desolation set up, and 637, that in which the Host — the Holy City was first trod- den under foot of the gentiles. And here, for the clearer illustration of the events recorded, we take occasion to submit a fact, which the course of our previous investigations has not rendered it neces- sary for us particularly to consider. It has often been claimed, by those who have written upon the subject, that Mahomet commenced the propagation of his heresy in the year 606, It doubtless occurred at or about that time. He was born in 569. Ac- cording to some authorities 572. And historians inform us that he begun his public ministry in the fortieth year of his age, and it may be presumed that his system was inaugurated not long before TEE TWELFTH CHAP TEE OF DANIEL. 133 the year 608. Without therefore pretending to fix the date of the birth of that pernicious heres)^ with historical exactness, we may assume with as much confidence as properly belongs to the subject, that this occurred in the year 607 or 608, or the same year that the Bishop of Rome was created by Pho- cas Sovereign Pontiff: If this were so, the dupli- cated questions, as stated in the thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter, were with very great propriety placed in such juxtaposition ; for the two great matters about which the enquiries were made, namely, the desecration of the sanctuary and the setting up of the transgression of desolation, would have had their origin cotemporaneously. The ques- tions were : " How long shall be the vision con- cerning first, the daily sacrifice, and second, the transgression of desolation, to give both, first, the sanctuary, and second, the Host, to be trodden under foot." Now, if our view of these questions be correct, it will be seen at once, that one answer would not meet both questions ; for the sanctuary must be cleansed, a considerable time before the Host ceases to be trodden under foot. And so Palmoni expressly limits his answer to the first question — Two thousand (four) hundred (years), then shall the sanctuary be cleansed — thus leaving the other question unanswered. 134 ^'liE TIMES OF DANIEL. Passing now again over to the twelfth chapter, " At that time," with which the first verse begins, is fixed and known the moment we can ascertain when the power mentioned in the preceding chap- ter shall come to his end. We now pass on to the question proposed in the sixth verse of the twelfth chapter. " How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" Before this question was put, a great variety of intensely interesting matter had been disclosed to the amazed vision of the prophet ; and it will be borne in mind that the things recorded in the eleventh as well as the twelfth chapters, were all manifested to him in one and the same vision. In this vision he had first been enlightened as to the domination of the Mahometans over the Holy Land, through the whole period of that domination to its close, and this comprises the whole of the eleventh chapter ; he then goes on in the twelfth chapter, the first two verses, with the briefest possi- ble statement of the other wonderful events to oc- cur thereafter. At this point of time the question is asked : " How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" We remark here, that, in this case, as in the thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter, it was impossible for one answer to meet the whole ques- tion, because matters were covered by the question which would end at different times. Such being THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 135 the case, we inquire, to which of these times would the angel naturally give his first answer? Cer- tainly to the matter first presented to the prophet in this vision — that is the matter contained in the eleventh chapter. To this we add, that it was im- possible that he should answer in any other way ; for the very revelation itself shows that the last verse of the eleventh chapter closed up one series of revelations ; while the first verse of the twelfth chapter as plainly commenced another series. A single answer, therefore, carrying the time down to the conclusion of the last series, would, at least, greatly mislead the inquirer. Another considera- tion certainly fixes it upon the first series ; for the other answer, which we shall soon consider, uses a negative pregnant of unanswerable force. We therefore find the answer given in perfect consistency with this hypothesis. " I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, that it shall be for a time, times and a half." It will be observed that to this period of 1260 years, there is givxn neither begin- ning nor ending, which, upon any other presump- tion than that we have made, would amount to no answer at all ; but upon our theory it is perfectly 136 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. complete, for it declares that the Mahometan dom- ination shall continue over the Holy Land for a time, times and a half; precisely coinciding also with the declaration in the second verse of the eleventh chapter of the Revelations, " The Holy City shall be trodden down of the Gentiles forty- and-two months;" in both cases, 1260 years. Having thus disposed of the first answer of the angel, with a reasonable degree of confidence in the correctness of our interpretation, we proceed to the consideration of the other answer to the same question. Any one carefully studying the text, will perceive that although there are several matters proposed and unfolded to Daniel in this vision, yet they are all divisible, as to time, into two parts, and only two, the first coming down to the end of the eleventh chapter; the other com- prehending all the rest. Having answered the first so distinctl)'', as we have before shown, the angel now, with equal perspicuousness, though without fixing the exact date, replies to the other branch of the question. Indeed, although no date be spe- cifically stated, yet inferentially the time is fixed with perfect exactness. " W/icii he shall have accom- plished to scatter the power of the Holy people, all these things shall be finished." Upon this we first remark, that the phrase " Holy people," does not THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 137 mean a people free from sin, but that nation which has long been distinguished as the chosen people of God ; and again, that there can be no possible doubt that the man clothed in linen intended to divide the time into two portions ; the " time, times and a half," comprising one, and all subsequent to that constituting the other portion. The matters developed in the same " time, times and a half," forming one class ; and all the other matters dis- closed forming the other class. First, there shall be a ''time, times, and a half." And then, after that, ^' when'' he shall have accomplished his own purposes in scattering his chosen people, "«// these things shall be finished ;" and this is in perfect con- sistency with the revelations in the former part of the chapter. With the eleventh chapter ends all disclosures in relation to the subjects therein dis- cussed ; with the twelfth, new matters are proposed ; first, the standing up of Michael " for the children of thy people." Second, the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. And then, as the last act in this most amazing drama, " Thy people shall be delivered." It is true, another scene of overwhelming interest follows this in the text ; " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ;" but in point of fact it is evident that this is concurrent with the final closing up of 138 TUE TIMES OF DANIEL. the restoration of the Jews. We are thus apprised, with a surprising degree of positiveness and cer- tainty, that the moment that this great event shall have been accomplished, to wit, the final restora- fion of the Jews, all the other events foretold by Daniel shall be finished. Another event is fore- told of not less thrilling interest than either of the preceding, but which it was not necessary for us before to notice : At that time, cotemporaneously with the close of all these soul -stirring events, Daniel was further informed that " they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever." The commencement of this period of happiness for the blessed and chosen would be the exact time when " many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake." CHAPTER XVI. 1290 AND 1335 YEARS. BUT it is apparent from what has been said, that up to the present time, nothing has been disclosed by the angel or shown by our argument, fixing the day and year when " all these things shall be finished." We know, to be sure, that they will be accomplished concurrently with another event ; but, so far, we have had no express revelation by Daniel, disclosing in what year of our present era these events shall be finished. At this point we are told by Daniel, that he heard but understood not. " Then, said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things ?" He is now addressed by the angel : " Go thy way, Dan- iel, for the words are closed up, and sealed till the time of the end." But although he thus assured Daniel that all future prophecy on these matters was scaled up, he nevertheless did not withhold some further information in answer to this last (139) 140 TUE TIMES OF DANIEL. question ; not a new or further prophecy, but a few words by way of explanation of what had gone before ; that is to say, he makes his two answers to the former questions more intclHgible. The former answer to the first matter suggested was given, without specifying either beginning or ending, a " time, times and a half." Now, in giving further information, he is precise and specific, both as to beginning and ending, and to furnish corrob- orative proof, and at the same time leave no doubt of his meaning, he goes back to a fixed and per- fectly well understood epoch, as before presented in the eighth chapter, and makes that his starting point, and not the time when Jerusalem surren- dered to Aumar, which was the time referred to in his first answer, as well as by John in the Apoca- lypse. He now answers again : " From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up." The first of these has already been proved to be the sur- render of the whole Christian church to the des- potic government of one man, Boniface, and his suc- cessors ; and as to the last, if our postulate be well ; founded, that the heresy of Mahomet, namely, was 1 inaugurated in the year 607, then certainly this \ abomination of desolation was set up, in the same year, and this coupling them together, would be 1290 xiND 1335 YEARS. 141 perfectly in accordance with the fact. '* From the time that the daily sacrifice was taken away," (the supremacy of Boniface, 607,) " and the abomination that maketh desolate set up," (the inception of Ma- hometanism, also in 607,) " there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety " years. This seems to refer to the same matter in the first answer, before given, namely, the term and fall of the Mahometan power in the Holy Land ; both should therefore terminate at the same time, and if they do, it would afford no slight presumption that they are both right. According to our former argument, , the " time, times and a half," 1260 years from the sub- jection of Jerusalem, should end in the year 1897; so now here, too, 1290 years from the year 607, the time the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the abomination of desolation set up, will end in the same year. It is not at all probable that from, or in a state of prosperity and power, this great empire of the Turks will be crushed in a day. Empires, like liv- ing beings, have their birth and growth and decay. Setting aside exceptional cases, the period of the decay of nations runs through a series of years ; they consume, waste away, and are destroyed. In this case, it cannot be presumed that the great em- pire of Turkey will pass from a condition of power 142 THE TIMES OF DAXIEL. and prosperity to utter annihilation in a single year. We may rather expect that the Euphrates will dry up, will disappear after a season of years of decadence. In this case, we may well presume that much of this process of decay will precede, rather than succeed the designated period. A peculiarity of Daniel in communicating his facts is worthy of notice. In the seventh chapter, he informs us that the saints should be delivered into the hands of the little horn, " for a time, times and the dividing of time," thereby indicating that the. Church should be subjected to the Roman tyranny for a period of 1260 years; but he here gives neither the time of beginning nor ending. But in the next chapter he declares that the sanc- tuary shall be cleansed in 2400 years, from the time of his then present speaking, and then afterwards adds twenty-one years ; thus fixing the time at which the subjection of the saints shall cease, with perfect exactness, namely the year 1867. Precisely parallel with this is his mode of instruc- tion, as to the domination of Mahometanism, in the twelfth chapter. In the seventh verse he informs us that " it will be for a time, times and a half," giv- ing no indications when it will commence, or when it will end. But precisely as before, he afterwards shows by a different statement of the same facts, 1290 .l^VD 1335 YEARS. 143 exactly when this " time, times and a half" will end, namely, in 1290 years after the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the transgression of desolation set up. There certainly is a very remarkable par- allelism between the two cases. A similar mode of presenting the fact is observed also in the other great disclosure of time. When he first gives an account of the closing up of the Chris- tian dispensation, in the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter, he leaves the date entirely unexplained, except by reference to the accomplishment of an- other event : " W/icn he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." Although here the fact be affirmed with undoubted certainty, and the time will ultimately be certainly known, yet relying upon this prediction alone, it could not be known until the day of its fulfillment. But following this up, as he did in the other cases, he informs us in the following paragraph of the exact time when it shall be fulfilled. It is true, this time could not have been known to Daniel and students of his age, nor of any age, until Phocas' decree, except by a pro- cess of argument and reasoning scarcely to have been expected ; yet to those who have lived since, it might have been known with great confidence, at any period of time. CHAPTER XVII. TWELFTH CHAPTER, TWELFTH VERSE. TO the first question, " How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ?" the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, had given two answers, neither of which, however, would enable one standing in Daniel's position to fix any definite date. To the second question, "What shall be the end of these things ?" he has already given the further and needed information, explanatory of the first answer to the first question. The second answer to the first question was, " W/icn he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, «// these things shall be finished." He is now about to elucidate again this answer in the I2th verse, which he does by declaring, "Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty " years. This is unquestionably intended as supple- {'44) TWELFTH CHAPTER, TWELFTH VEIiSE. 145 mentary to the second answer to the first question, and to shed further hght on the subject of that answer. The man clothed in linen, under the sol- emn oath he had taken, commenced the first of these two answers, by giving a stand-point from which to make his computation of the duration of the period now under investigation, " from the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up," from which epoch he had already made his first reckon- ing of " a thousan^ two hundred and ninety " years. He then proceeds in such terms as to leave no room for doubt, that in his next reckoning he dates from the same epoch ; so that if the sentence were made full and complete, without reference to the former answer, it would read, '* Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty " years, from the time when the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abom- ination that maketh desolate set up ; thus giving us just as distinct a perception of the time to this blessed period, as had already been given of the time of the overthrow of Mahometanism in the Holy Land. If this view of the case be correct, then we have a flood of light poured upon the other parts of this chapter ; for it will present this aspect : We are informed, first, that there shall be a time 7 146 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. of unspeakable trouble ; next, that " at that time " the people of the Jews will be delivered. We are then told that when this great event, the restora- tion of the Jews, shall be accomplished, all these things foretold by Daniel " shall be finished." And now in this 12th verse we are further informed, by the man clothed in linen, upon the waters of the river, under the obligation of a most solemn oath, that there will be a blessed time — undoubtedly, taking all these predictions together, referring to the very same event — there will, be a blessed time i" 1335 years, after the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate shall be set up, which we have shown, will be in the year of our Lord 1942. We have now reached that point of our argu- ment where we can make our computations of each several time expressed or implied. It has been shown that the Mahometan, who has planted the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, " shall come to his end" in the year 1897. Daniel w^as tlien in- formed that " Michael shall stand up for the chil- dren of thy people ;" and next, and immediately coincident with that, " there shall be a time of trouble," and this time of trouble will continue until the same people sliall be delivered, which we TWELFTH Cn AFTER, TWELFTU VERSE. 147 have shown, will be in the year 1942. Hence the inference is irresistible, that the time from the com- mencement to the end of the restoration will con- sume forty -five years ; and the time of trouble will have precisely the same coincident duration ; and during which, or more probably at the close of this momentous era, "■ many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." It would appear probable, judging from the phra- seology above, that this is not the general resurrec- tion ; for not all, but many, shall awake, thus impl}"- ing that there are others who will not now awake. With a slight variation, which may be OAving to some error in the translation, this seems to agree perfectly with the prediction, on the same theme, in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, where the first resurrection is distinctly announced, while we have the assurance that the rest of the dead lived not again, " until the thousand years were finished," or until the close of the millennium. The scope of our argument does not allow of any protracted comment upon the subject of the second resurrection ; this lies altogether beyond what is called the Christian dispensation, at least so far as the revelation of Daniel extends, and, con- sequently, altogether beyond our assigned limits. CHAPTER XVIII. THE CLOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. AS Daniel probably comprehended the true meaning of these prophecies, when their lan- guage was merely repeated to him, no better than we should have done at that distant period, he says, that on hearing these solemn announcements, he understood not, and then exclaimed : " Oh ! my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" As the previous questions put by the prophet, or which he heard, differed essentially from each oth- er, so this one is entirely different, in substance, from any of the others. For while the others re- lated almost exclusively to time, this, on its face, made no allusion to time. " What sliall be the end of these things?" comprises very much more than they ; as not only time, but the closing scenes of all the amazing revelations unfolded to him, in vision, down to the end of the Christian dispensa- (148) CLOSE OF CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 149 tion, arc comprehended in this last question. He is now informed that his position, or character, as the prophet of God, ceases, and that no further vision will appear to him, " The words are closed up, and sealed till the time of the end." There will be no new prophecy, on the matters which have been committed to Daniel, until their final accom- plishment. The angel nevertheless answers the prophet's question, before closing up the words, by giving him the assurance that from the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abom- ination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be " one thousand two hundred and ninety (days) years." We remark here, that in this and the next verse he is giving to Daniel a summary, in few words, of all that has been communicated to him, through successive years, and in a variety of visions, all culminating in the same point, the final consummation of time, as connected with our pres- ent dispensation. And as, after the announcement of our Savior, the delivery of the saints into the hand of the antichristian power was the beginning of this series of prophecies, he takes that as his epoch from which he computes all these subse- quent events. We now approach the last and, to all Christians, the most interesting, but most diffi- cult to explain, of all the terms of years presented 150 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. for our contemplaticjii in this most wonderful rev- elation of Daniel. " Blessed is he that waiteth and Cometh to the thousand three hundred and hve and thirty (days) years." This period undoubt- edly commences at the same time as the last, and will consequently end forty-five years after that, or, as a corollaiy from our former argument, in the year 1942. It will be observed that the solemn oath of the angel extends down to the announce- ment of the "blessed" period; or the end of the time of our present dispensation. This calls forci- bly to our recollection a similar oath and parallel passage recorded in the Revelation, prescribing ex- actly the same result. In the tenth chapter: " The angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are ; and the earth and tjie things that therein are ; and the sea and the things that arc therein, that there should be time no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." In all the other cases of prescribed terms of time, some great event is foretold or recognized ; but here we arc simply informed that he is " bless- CLOSE OF CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 151 ed" who Cometh to the end of the prescribed time. We may therefore, with much confidence, conchide that the termination of this period will usher in the morning of the millennium. It now appears that the lapse of time between the commencement of the Hebrew restoration and this final consummation of the Christian dispensation will be forty - five years. And the inquiry presents itself, What will happen, in the course of Providence, during this intermediate period ? Judging from the varied ref- erences to this specific time, in the Scriptures, our inference is that it must be a period of astonishing and most marvellous disclosures. In the first verse of the twelfth chapter we are told that immediately after the overthrow of the Mahometan power, " there shall be a time of trouble, such as there never was since there was a nation, even to that same time." The connection of this paragraph with the preceding part of the same verse, and with the last verse of the preceding chapter, together with the concluding sentence of this same verse, shows conclusively, that this time of trouble will begin with the introduction of — or a preparation for — the restoration of the Jews in 1897, and will continue during the subsequent forty-five 3^ears, until the " blessed " period, which begins in the 3'ear one thousand three hundred and 152 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. five and thirty years after the constitution of Boni- face Universal Bishop in 607, and the commence- ment of Mahomet's ministry, that is, the year 1942. CHAPTER XIX. ADDITIONAL AND CORROBORATIVE PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. IT is now proposed further to elucidate some portions of this prophecy of Daniel, from other books of Scripture where reference is evidently made to the same subjects treated of by Daniel. In the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, in verses ten and eleven, we have an account of the pouring out of the fifth vial upon the seat of the beast. The occurrences which have taken place at Rome, in these times, going back to the year 1846, and so continuing down to the present day, are depicted with wonderful exactness in these two verses. As has been before shown, an effort was made by the Romans themselves to overthrow the papal govern- ment in 1846, which resulted in the expulsion of Pio Nono from Rome in 1847. The two verses re- ferred to are as follows : " And the fifth angel 7* (153) 154 ^-^-^ TIMES OF DANIEL. poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast ; and his kingdom was full of darkness ; and they gnawed their tongues for pain ; and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds." By way of illustration of these graphic descriptions, let us here look at an *' Encyclical letter" from the Pope soon after these disturbances: " To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops in communion with the Holy See : Venerable Brethren, The sedi- tious movements which have lately broken out in Italy against the authority of legitimate princes, in countries nearest to the States of the Church, have invaded some of our jirovinccs like the flames of a conflagration. Excited by this fatal example, and by intrigues abroad, they have thrown off our pa- ternal rule, and in spite of their small numbers, the adherents of the revolt demand that they shall be subjected to that one of the Italian governments which of late years has been the adversary of the church, of its legitimate rights and of its sacred ministers. Reproving and deploring the acts of rebellion, by which a portion only of the people in those disturbed provinces disregard with so much injustice our zeal and our paternal care, and declar- ing publicly that the temporal sovereignty, which the most perfidious enemies of the church of Christ PROOFS FBOM OTUER SCRIPTURES. 155 are endeavoring to wrest from it, is necessary to the Holy See, in order that it may exercise, with- out any obstacle, its sacred power for the welfare of religion, we address you. Venerable Brethren,' this present letter, in order to seek in the midst of such serious disturbances of public peace, some con- solation for our sorroiu. On this occasion we ex- hort you to see to the accomplishment of the pre- scription, which we read was formerly given by Moses to Aaron, the sovereign pontiff of the He- brews : Take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense and go quickly unto the congregation and make an atonement for them, for there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun Moreover, we solemnly declare that, possessed of the power from above which God, moved by the praj^ers of the faithful, will confer on our weakness, we will brave all perils and undergo all trials, sooner than fail in any respect in our apos- tolic duty, or do anything whatever against the sanctity of the oath by which we bound ourselves, when we were raised by God's will to the supreme seat of the Prince of the Apostles." In this the pontiff declares that the plague has begun ; and then it equall}^ appears that he repented not of his deeds. Hereupon the sixth angel poured out his vial 156 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. upon the great river Euphrates ; and the water thereof was dried up, "that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." It has been herein •before shown how the Mahometan power " shall come to his end, and none shall help him" — that is to say, shall gradually waste away, and in due time be totally annihilated, in accordance with the proph- cc}^ of Daniel ; so now here the very same thing is foreshadowed in the Revelation, under the type of the river Euphrates being dried up, and in imme- diate proximity, following in both cases the de- struction of antichrist. No one can reasonably doubt the reference, both in Daniel and St. John, to the same occurrences. It admits of more doubt precisely what is intended by "the way of the kings of the east being prepared." It is suggested, whether, b}' the " kings of the east," in this place is not meant the chosen people of God ; and if so, the drying up of the Mahometan despotism would surely prepare the way for their return to their own land. In behalf of the above suggestion, it may be argued with great force that we should give to the language of a writer, as near as possible, the same meaning in one paragraph which is its obvious meaning in another. Proceeding upon this principle, vv^e look back to the first chapter of the Apocalypse, and, commencing with the fifth PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 157 verse, we read, " And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings mid priests unto God." That the word kings is not used here m its common, secular acceptation is very apparent ; and it is almost equally apparent that its use in the above sense would justify its application to the regenerated Jews, on their return to the Holy Land. Now it will be borne m mind that Daniel de- clares, that immediately after the dissolution of the Mahometan power, and, indeed, linked to it, "there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time." So here, in the Apocalypse, the very next event fore- told, as following the drying up of the Euphrates, and as a part of the same vial, the Revelator says : " I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Pro- phet ;" and in the sixteenth verse, " He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon." And then the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air ; and there came a great voice out of the temple of Heaven from the throne, saying, " It is done." And then comes on 15$ THE TIMES OF DANIEL. precisely the time of trouble mentioned more briefly by Daniel : " There were voices, and thun- derings, and lightnings ; and there was a great earthquake, such as there was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great." " And the cities of the nations fell ; and great Bab3"lon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce- ness of his wrath." " And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent : and men blasphemed God be- cause of the plague of the hail ; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." This account ap- pears perfectly to corroborate the same events fore- told by Daniel, ages before it was written by St. John in the Island of Patmos. Yet it is given here in language, and even in ideas so totally different, as to remove all suspicion that he was in any way cop)'- ing from the predictions of the earlier prophets. We may also quote here, as an authority, corre- sponding to the prophecy of the same terrible woes, from our Savior, in explaining certain ques- tions put by the apostles, of which more will be said hereafter. " Immediately after the tribulation 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 PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 159 shall be shaken ; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." This most evidently relates to the same subject, and agrees with both Daniel and the Apocalypse, in the substance of the prophecy. These days of tribulation are alluded to, or described by nearly all the prophets, in lan- guage at once varied and most impressive. In the seventh chapter of Daniel the prophet is shown at one glance, the close of the amazing scenes de- picted in all his visions : " I beheld," says he, " till the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool ; his throne was the fiery flame, and his wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ; the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame." In Zechariah, 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters, we have a graphic narration, not only of the sor- rows and tribulations to which the people will be subjected ; but also an affecting account of the ap- pearance of our Savior among his people, and of the happy influences his presence will have upon l6o THE TIMES OF DANIEL. them. " Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of tremblin<^ unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem, and in that day will I make Je- rusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gath- ered together against it. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness." " In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left. And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and he that is feeble among them, at that day shall be as David. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusa- lem, x\nd I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication ; and the}^ shall look upon me whom they have pierced ; and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son ; and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in bitterness for his first-born." rr.oGFS F1W2J otllh lct.iptures. i6i So, too, the same thing is strikingly presented in Joel, second chapter: " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain : let all the inhabitants of the land tremble : for the day of the Lord cometh, it is nigh at hand : a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains ; a great people and a strong : a fire devoureth before them, and be- hind them a flame burneth : the land is as the gar- den of Eden before them ; and behind them a deso- late wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Before their faces the people shall be much pained, the earth shall quake before them : the heavens shall tremble. The sun and moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdrav/ their shining. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great ; for he is strong and exe- cuteth his word ; for the da)'- of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it ? And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." " Let the nations be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehosaphat ; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in 1 62 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down, for the press is full, for the fats ov^erflow : for their wickedness is great : tlie sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall with- draw their shining." We add another like description from the nine- teenth chapter of Revelations : " And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True ; and in righteousness doth he judge and make war ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns ; and he had a name written that no man knew but himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood ; and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in linen white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierce- ness and wrath of Almighty God. 7\nd he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun : and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. Come and gather yourselves to- gether unto the supper of the great God, that ye PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 163 may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had re- ceived the mark of the beast, and them that wor- shiped his image : these were both cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth." An explanation of the various symbols used in this and other passages, does not fall within the scope of this argument. It is sufficient for my pur- pose to know that they foreshadow unspeakable woes, and are quoted only to illustrate the sliort paragraph from Daniel, " There shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time." The word here rendered " trou- ble," really has a much more intensified significa- tion in the original. Its first and most proper meaning is " throwing" or " dashing to the ground," and while there will be "troubles" such as have 164 TUE TIMES OF DANIEL. never before been, individually, witnessed among men, in addition to that, the whole fabric of society will be dashed to atoms ; of which more will be found in the subsequent chapter. CHAPTER XX. SECOND PETER, THIRD CHAPTER, TENTH VERSE. IT is now proposed to examine a passage in the second Epistle of Peter, in the third chapter, which is manifestly only another phase of the same terrific consummation, and which seems to have been greatly misunderstood. The passage espe- cially referred to is the tenth verse, " But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which, the heavens shal^. pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Before any comments are made upon this passage, it will be proper to give some of the opinions heretofore entertained of it. The very judicious Mr. Scott says : " At that im- portant catastrophe, the heavens and all the host of them, (so far at least as connected with this earth and its inhabitants,) will pass away and rush into (165) 1 66 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. confusion and destruction with a tremendous noise, of which thunder, earthquakes and all other con- vulsions of nature are wholly inadequate to give the least conception. Then all the elements of which the earth and its atmosphere, and all the lu- minaries connected with it, are composed, shall melt with intense heat." He has much more of the same complexion, but this will suffice. The good Doctor Doddridge takes a similar view, but expresses it very briefly : " The elements of which this goodly frame of nature is composed, being set on fire, shall be dissolved, and the earth and all its works shall be burnt up, so that none of the orna- ments of nature or of art shall any longer continue ; but the whole shall be one undistinguished heap of smoking desolation." The excellent Matthew Henry treats of it in much the same style, though he seems to A^erge somcAyhat nearer towards what must be the true meaning. One commentator says the visible heavens will pass away " with a great whiz." Another calls it "the hissing sound of a dart passing through the air ; the flight of birds ; the soft motion of the winds; the running of a chariot ; the rolling of an impetuous torrent ; the noise of soldiers running to battle ; the crackling of a wide-spread fire ; the rushing sound of a vio- lent storm or tempest." Another remarks of the 2 PETER 3 : 10. 167 " elements," some say " air," others, " the stars." One refers it (" elements") to the heavens, which goes before, and explains it of the electric matter, sulphurous vapors, and whatever floats in the air, together with the air itself" Another says, " Sup- pose the earth, air and water shall be subdued by the prevalence of fire ; and their stamina or first constituent principles quite altered thereby ; then it may very properly be said, the elements being on fire shall be dissolved or melted!' These quotations are sufficient to show the views which have almost or quite universally been entertained of the mean- ing of this passage in Peter. They are altogether of a literal character. For a layman to offer an opinion against such authorities may seem very presumptuous, but the conviction cannot be re- moved that a much more satisfactory and momen- tous significance belongs to the passage. As this prediction of Peter undoubtedly refers to the same sublime and fearful tragedy, often repeated under various symbolical forms, in the Scriptures, we will endeavor to ascertain here the meaning of certain symbols used in the prophecy. In the eighteenth verse of the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation, while recounting the troubles to occur in the period between the commencement of the Restoration of the Jews and the close of the forty- 1 68 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. five years, among other things mentioned, the Rev- elator says, " there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth." It ma^ be presumed that few would give the word " earth- quake" its literal signification, and suppose it meant a shaking of the physical globe ; such a notion would hardly be consistent with the context or with the general matter of the Revelation. " Earth- quake," in the symbolical language of Scripture, is by all commentators defined to signify some great civil or religious convulsion. Mr. Fabcr has it, " An earthquake is a sudden convulsion in an em- pire, violently oversetting the existing order of things." We must then understand, by this tre- mendous earthquake, such as was not known since men were upon the earth, the greatest possible rev- olution in the whole fabric of human society. There are other symbols as striking and impressive as this, such as, " the sun shall be darkened," " the moon turned into blood," and the like, all doubtless referring to the same fearful' event ; but this one is sufficient for our present purpose. We begin our inquiries, then, as to the true meaning of the passage under consideration, with the knowledge that such a stupendous revolution is to happen at the time referred to by the apostle ; a revolution subvertinir all the civil and rcliirious 2 PETER 3 : 10. 169 governments in the world. We must also under- stand the fact, which seems to have been over- looked by all who have written on the subject, that this passage of Peter, namely, is as absolutely a prophecy as that of Daniel or Saint John. " In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise." In prophecy, then, what is the true mean- ing of " heavens," as a symbol ? Sir Isaac Newton has given a catalogue of symbols, with their inter- pretations. From him we learn that " the symbol- ical heaven comprehends the sun, the moon, and the stars. In the language of symbols, the sun of a kingdom is the government of that kingdom." There is no known difference of opinion among stu- dents on this matter. But if " heaven," in symbol- ical language, signifies the government of a king- dom, or, by parity of reason, any other govern- ment, then, most assuredly, "the heavens," applied in the same way, comprehends something more than one government. In the case before us, the apostle has evidently been discoursing, not of any particular government or country, but of the in- terests of all mankind. It therefore seems to be a necessary sequence, that in using the term "the heavens" prophetically here, he intended to apply it, and did so apply it, to represent all the govern- ments of the world. This being conceded, we read 8 I70 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. the passage thus : " After terrible convulsions the governments of the world will be subverted and pass away," for what purpose and to what end we shall see in the sequel, " And the elements shall melt with fervent heat." While it is easy to show that this proposition is usually misunderstood, it ma}^ be readily admitted that its true meaning is more obscure than the former, and admits of more doubt of its exact sig- nification. While it is clear that the " heavens " in the other case has no allusion to the visible firma- ment ; so no more has the word " elements " any relation to what was formerly supposed to be the simple physical constituents of this world — earth, air, fire and water. The Greek word here trans- lated " elements," is stoichcia. This word is used in the epistles six times. In Galatians, 4th chap- ter and 3d verse, " Even so we when we were chil- dren were in bondage under the clcnicnis of the world." And in the 9th verse of the same chapter, " But that now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye de- sire again to be in bondage." Now, whatever any may suppose the true meaning, none can affirm that the word here translated elements, really means the properties of physical nature. 2 PETER 3 : 10. 171 Another place where the same word is used is Colossians, 2d chapter and 8th verse, " Beware lest any man spoil you, through philosophy or vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And in the 20th verse of the same chapter, "Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances (touch not, taste not, han- dle not, which all are to perish in the using), after the commandment and doctrines of men ?" Here it seems quite as apparent that the same Greek word translated " rudiments," does not refer in any manner to the physical elements of our earth. The same Greek word is found in the 5th chapter of Hebrews, 12th verse, where it is translated " prin- ciples " — " Ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God." We may then inquire, with some degree of curios- ity, why, in the only other place where the word is used, that now under consideration, it should have a popular meaning assigned to it so totally different from what it receives in every other place where it is used ? It might be surmised, only to be in keeping with the popular understanding of the preceding sentence. For if the visible heavens, whatever might be understood by the term, were 172 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. to pass away " with a great whiz," why should not also the " elements " of which the solid earth is composed, and all its surroundings, be melted with fervent heat? In two of the cases cited above from the epistles, the word stoiclicia evidently means re- ligious ordinances or ritualistic ceremonies. In the others it has a meaning somewhat different. It is translated " principles," " elements," or " beggarly elements " " of the world, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage." As no one could desire to be in bondage to the four physical elements, we must look further for the signification here. The " ele- ments," or " beggarly elements," in this place doubt- less refer to those worldly attractions of wealth, pleasure, etc., to which the children of this world are liable to be inordinately attached, and by which to be destroyed. It is quite possible that both these meanings are here included in the word " elements." But for the sake of simplicity, we confine our view of it to religious ordinances and ritualistic ceremonies in their ecclesiastical aspect. The proper meaning of the Greek word translated " shall melt," is " loosed," " unloosed," or " dis- charged," and it may with perfect propriety be rendered " abrogated." The word rendered " fer- vent heat," is more difficult of explanation. It means ** being inflamed " or " excited," and may 2 PETER 3 : 10. 173 be used in a moral as well as a physical sense. In construing the sentence, the only difficulty seems to be that we have to give an active sense to an inactive subject. Ceremonies and ordinances could not with propriety be said to be inflamed ; and as the word appears to be used only for intensifying the sense, we may omit it, leaving the phrase to read, " all human ordinances, ritualisms and legal ceremonies shall be abrogated." The other clause in the verse reads, " The earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." " The earth," according to Sir Isaac Newton, when taken in a temporal sense, imports, in the abstract, the terri- torial dominions of any Pagan or irreligious em- pire." " In a spiritual sense, a state of Paganism or apostacy." This is unquestionably its general meaning. In the 46th Psalm, the sixth verse, we have, " The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved : He uttered his voice, the earth melted." Here we have not only the meaning of the word *' earth,'' but also an opportunity to form a definite appreciation of the word " melt," as used in this connection. It can be, so far as appears, applied only to the destruction of the heathen. In the loth Psalm, i8th verse, we find, *' To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the * earth ' may no more oppress." In a broad sense 174 TEE TIMES OB' DANIEL. then, the " earth " symbohcally includes all who are at enmity with God. The phrase, " shall be burnt up," may with equal propriety be translated, " shall be consumed." The whole paragraph would then read, " All the enemies of God shall be con- sumed." This construction seems to be fully sup- ported by various passages of Scripture. Malachi in the fourth chapter says : " Behold, the day com- eth that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all they that do wickedly, shall be stubble ; and the day that cometh shall bum than up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch," " And ye shall tread down the wicked ; for tJiey shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts." There can, then, be no reasonable doubt that this whole passage is a figurative de- scription in glowing colors of the same time of trouble mentioned by Daniel, resulting in the sub- version of all secular governments, the eradication of all ritualistic ceremonies and ordinances, the overthrow of all ecclesiastical domination, and the utter destruction of the wicked, who shall, at the given time, be upon the earth. With a like purport a passage may be cited from the Revela- tion, apph cable to the same time ; that is, the final close of our present dispensation : " And the beast 3 PETER 3: 10. 1 75 was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he de- ceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that had worshiped his image. These were both cast into a lake of fire, burning Avith brimstone." If the view of this passage in Peter, thus pre- sented, be correct, then the whole paragraph will read as follows : '' The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which, in the midst of terrific convulsions, the governments of the world shall all be subverted, and pass away ; legal ordi- nances and ritualistic ceremonies shall be abro- gated, ecclesiastical tyranny abolished, and all the enemies of God shall be consumed." " Neverthe- less we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- eousness." So says Peter, and in almost the same words says the Revelator : " I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed avvay, and there was no more sea." "The sea," we are again informed on the authority of Newton, " ever turbulent and restless, represents nations in a tumultuous and revolution- ary state." " And I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And 176 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Be- hold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell luith them, and they shall be his people, and God himself sJiall be with them, and be their God. And he ... . showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." " And I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." Such, then, seem to be the amazing scenes which are to be enacted upon our earth during and immediately after the time of " trouble such as there never was since there was a nation." CHAPTER XXI. CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. WE now turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, recording the answer of our Savior to certain questions of his disciples, relat- ing among other things, principally to his own sec- ond coming and the end of the world. " Jesus said to his disciples. See ye not all these things ? Verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." " And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying. Tell us, zvJicn shall these things be ? and what shall be the sig7i of thy coming ? and of the end of the world ?" Or, as it is in the original, " the consummation of time." Here were three distinct questions proposed, which, it would seem, the disciples confounded together, at least, as to time. The first related to the temple ; the second, 8^ (177) 178 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. to Christ ; and the third, to the end of our present dispensation. All these questions were answered separately, distinctly and in a manner that admit- ted of no doubtful construction. Though they are not answered seriatim, an examination of them shall be in the order in which they are proposed. While looking- about Jerusalem, and at the temple, Jesus had told them that " not one stone should be left upon another, that should not be thrown down." Their first question related back to this statement, " When shall these things be ?" In the fifteenth verse of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, our Savior tmdoubtedly answers this question: " When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." We now turn back to Daniel to ascertain to what our Lord refers. We there find several para- graphs in diflferent places, in the prophecy, em- bodying nearly the same idea or fact. At pres- ent we have only to do with one of them. We have endeavored in a former chapter to show that the " transgression of desolation," mentioned in the thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter, refers to oc- currences which did not take place until centuries after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. To CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 179 what, then, does our Lord refer in his quotation in this conversation with his disciples ? It will be remembered that in the ninth chapter, Daniel re- cords a vision, showing forth the time of the corn- ing of the Saviour and of his ministry, and then says : '* After threescore and two weeks shall Mes- siah be cut off, but not for himself: 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 for the overspreading of abomi- nations, he shall make it desolate, even until the con- summation shall be poured upon the desolated It will be perceived that the desolation here spoken of immediately follows, in the same vision, the com- ing, ministry and death of our Lord, and thence may well be presumed to allude to the terrible oc- currences to take place immediately thereafter. And to this our Lord undoubtedly refers. In an- swer therefore to the first question, he cites this prophecy, and warns them, that when they shall see this abomination of desolation, they must ex- pect to witness the fulfillment of his prediction, that there shall not be left one stone upon another ; undoubtedly referring to the desolation brought upon Jerusalem, by the army of Titus ; and after- wards of Adrian. " In the second year of the reign l8o TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. of Vespatian, a. d. 70, the city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of Titus. It was then given up to be plundered by the soldiers, and most of the inhabi- tants were put to the sword. In conformity to the orders of Titus, the city was destroyed to its foun- dations ; and even the ruins of the temple were demolished. A plowshare, it is said, was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpet- ual interdiction." Subsequently many Jews re- turned, and rebuilt some parts of the city ; but " in process of time the Jews incensed Adrian, by their turbulent disposition, and he resolved to level the city of Jerusalem with the ground, that is, those buildings which the Jews had erected, to destroy those towers that were left by Titus," " and to sow salt on the ground on which the city had stood. Thus did Titus and Adrian, whatever were their motives, literally fulfill the prediction of our Sav- ior, that neither in the cit}'' nor in the temple, should one stone be left upon another." This is a full, definite and perfect answer to the first ques- tion of the disciples. The second question propounded by them was. " What shall be the sign of thy coming ?" The com- ments upon the answer to the first question, by our Lord, are continued to the close of the twenty- second verse. Afterwards, he discourses upon the GEBIST'S AWSWEE TO HIS DISCIPLES. i8l same subject, but to a more remote period. " Then," which would be much better, more easily under- stood, and equally correct, " Thereafter, or " After that," if any man shall say unto you, Lo ! here is Christ ; or Lo ! there : believe it not : For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." In the same conversation, as recorded by Luke, he says : '* They," the people of Jerusalem, at the desolation of Titus, " shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all na- tions ;" and then his discourse proceeds, as evidently before, probably intentionally, without much regard to order or system to the history of Jerusalem at a later period. " And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." This, as has been shown, in a for- mer chapter, refers to the possession of Palestine by the Saracens and Turks ; and now, reverting to the question of the disciples, " What shall be the sign of thy coming?" and also recollecting the terrible scourges which are to fall upon our race during the forty-five years predicted by Daniel, He says : ** There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars ; and upon the earth, dis- tress of nations ; men's hearts failing them for fear, 1 82 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. and for looking after those things which are com- ing on the earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken," exactly corresponding with what has be- fore been said in the third chapter of the second of Peter: "And then," (that is, afterwards,) "shall ap- pear the sign of the Son of man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Could he have made his answer more clear and intelligible, unless, indeed, he had gone beyond the disciples' inquiry, and given the day and year of our era of his actual appearance ? We now come to the third and last question, "What" [shall be the sign] "of the end of the world ?" or more properly, " the consummation of time." His answer to this is as brief and explicit as it well could be. " Tiiis gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations ; and then shall the end eoine'' No stronger argument for missions to the heathen can be adduced than is comprised in this short sen- tence. Here Ave are informed, by an authority which cannot be disputed, that there has not been an age since he lived in which it was not abso- lutely at the will of the Christians of the existing generation to bring about the end of the world or CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 183 the close of our dispensation. But on this point all Christians appear, until a few years, to have been thoughtless in the extreme, making no, or ver}^ little, effort to fulfill Christ's last command to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The desire to convert mankind is doubtless a strong im- pelling motive and a very powerful one to prose- cute foreign missions. Biit if this were the only one, there would be room for discouragement. The efforts of the most self-denying and laborious ministers may be futile. Missionaries have been known to preach for nearly twenty years without a convert ; and if we cast a look over Christian countries, we see so small a part of the existing population evangelically pious, that the most de- termined zeal might flag if the conversion of the world was the end required by God. But there is no such command given here. Christ's injunction upon his disciples is imperative, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And then here he solemnly affirms that ''this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations. And this is all. We are not to wait a single day for the conversion of the world. '■'TJien shall the end come." The command and the prom- ise are equally obligatory and full, even if a single heathen had never been or never should be con- 1 84 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. verted ; and whether one shall ever be converted or not, every Christian is bound by the most solemn obligations to labor to effect this end — the procla- mation of the gospel to all nations. So far as the effect is concerned, our duty being done, we have no responsibility. That the preaching of the gos- pel will not be altogether successful, we may well infer from the intimation everywhere given in Scripture, that at the great day of the Lord, im- mense numbers will still be his enemies, and will be turned into hell. " This generation," says our Savior, " shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." The word "generation" as used here, has occasioned a good deal of doubt and difficulty, which might easily have been removed. It has largely been under- stood as only meaning an ordinary age of man, while the original word, although correctly trans- lated " generation," ordinarily, yet may, with per- fect propriety, in this place be " dispensation" — the word meaning " an age," in its largest sense, as the "golden age," the "age of chivalry," etc.; so the paragraph should read : " This dispensation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Speaking of the same amazing occurrences, just recited by our Lord, the prophet Joel in the sec- ond chapter and tenth verse, says : " The earth shall CHMIST'S AN'8W:EIi TO HIS DISCIPLES. 185 quake before them ; the heavens shall tremble ; the sun and moon shall be dark ; and the stars shall withdraw their shining ; and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army ; for his camp is very great ; for he is strong that executeth his words ; for the day of the Lord is very terrible, and who can abide it?" So in the thirtieth verse, " And I will show won- ders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." So in the gospel according to Mark, thirteenth chapter and twenty-fourth verse, we have the same conversa- tion ol Christ with his disciples as quoted from Matthew, varying somewhat in phraseology : " But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken." And to the same purport is the statement in the sixth chapter of the Revelation, from the twelfth to the seven- teenth verse, inclusive. Recurring again to the explanation of the Scriptural symbols we find, "the symbolical heaven, when interpreted temporally, signifies the whole body politic. As such it com- prehends the sun, or the sovereign power, whereso- 1 86 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. ever it be lodged ; the moon, or the people, which is the allegorical wife of the sovereign power, and the stars, or the princes and nobles of the realm." " Such being the case, the blackening of the sun, the turning the moon into blood, the falling of the stars and the departing of the heavens like a scroll, will mean either the subversion of a kingdom or the subversion of an empire, according as the tenor of the prophecy shall require." A consideration of all these prophecies brings us to the conclusion that there will be a period, according to Daniel, of forty-five years, in which — and in this he is cor- roborated by numerous other prophecies — there will be a condition of the world involving unexam- pled tumults and convulsions, with unspeakable tribulations ; that immediately after these troubles shall have passed, and consequent upon them, all the governments of the world, secular and ecclesi- astical, will be subverted and extinguished, and all the enemies of God consumed ; and all this, that the whole earth may be purified as by fire, and the new Jerusalem prepared for a reign of righteous- ness, when the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it." " And He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among tJiemr CHAPTER XXII. THE COMING OF OUR LORD. WE now approach the consummation and glorious cHmacteric of God's Christian dispensation to men. While Christ himself tells us that immediately after those tribulations the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, the prophet Joel sa)^s what might seem, at first sight, contradictory ; namely, that " the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." This is, however, in perfect consistency with all the events so minutely and graphically recorded. First come the forty-five years of trouble, such as has not been known since men inhabited our world. Then in the order of events follows the subversion of the whole fabric of society, civil and ecclesiastical. "And then," says our Savior, in (187) 1 88 TUE TIMES OF DANIEL. the 30th verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew,. " and then shall appear the sign of the Soo of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn : and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory : and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." In the second of Thessalo- nians, first chapter and 7th and 8th verses: "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." It will be seen from these quotations, that while Joel in his prophecy refers to the terrible tribulations which precede the coming of our Savior, and desolate the world for the period of forty-five years, our Savior in his discourse refers to the equally, and, perhaps, still more, awful woes, which succeed his coming : the first relating more particuFarly to the tumults and convulsions of a secular nature, while the last evi- dently relates to the judgment of Christ, taking vengeance on those who know not God. The whole of this scene of tribulation and sor- row and anguish, simultaneously with the coming of our Lord, is strikingly presented to us in the TEE COMING OF OUR LORD. 189 6th chapter of Revelation, verses 12th to the end of the chapter, inclusive : " And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo ! there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair ; and the moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind ; and the heaven departed as a scroll when it its rolled together ; and every mountain and island were removed out of their places ; and the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and the rocks. Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" The coming of our Lord is further exemplified by St. Paul in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, the 4th chapter and 15th verse : " For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep." " For (at this eventful period) the Lord himself shall de- scend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of 190 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. the archangel, and 'with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." In the minds of many the second appearance of our Lord has not only been questioned, but has become apocryphal. In addition to the unanswer- able inference from what has been already written, several more passages from the books of the New Testament may be cited. In the 27th verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew, our Lord himself says : " For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the Avest, so shall also the com- ing of the Son of man be." And in the 25th chap- ter and 31st verse, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shep- herd divideth his sheep from the goats." In the Acts of the Apostles, in the 9th verse of the ist chapter, we are told that while the apostles beheld, " he was taken up*, and a cloud received him out of their sight," " and while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up. into heaven? This same Jesits, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen THE COMING OF OUR LORD. 191 him go into heaven." In the first of Corinthians, first chapter and seventh verse, Paul says : " So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." So in the first chapter of the first of Thessalonians, tenth verse, " And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead." Also the nineteenth verse of the second chapter : " For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing ? Are not even )'e in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his com- ing?" And in the thirteenth verse of the third chapter : " To the end he may establish your hearts, unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all his saints." In the twenty-third verse of the fifth chapter, he says : '* And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- less, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." To the same purport, in the second of Thessalo- nians, first chapter and seventh verse : " When the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven w^ith his mighty angels, in flaming fire." And in the eighth verse of the second chapter : " Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall de- stroy with the brightness of his coming." So in the fifth verse of the third chapter : " And the Lord 192 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ" In the Epistle of James, fifth chapter and seventh and eighth verses : " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." " Establish your hearts, for the com- ing of the Lord draweth nigh." In the second chapter of the first of John, twenty-eighth verse : " And now, little children, abide in him ; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming." The mere reading these, and like passages scat- tered through the New Testament, seem to convey instant conviction to the mind, that they shadow forth the time mentioned by Daniel, when he says : " Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty years." CHAPTER XXIII. THE MILLENNIUM. IN the twentieth chapter of the Revelation of Saint John, and sixth verse, we are informed in language very similar to that of Daniel : " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrec- tion. On such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." This is what is usually denominated the millennium. Of the state and condition of this period, it would gratify our curiosity, at least, could we be more fully advised than Revelation enlightens us. But it cannot be denied, that while the fact of such a consummation is affirmed, with unquestionable cer- tainty, very meagre information is communicated to us in relation to the peculiar conditions which surround God's people during its blessed continu- ance. In the first and second verses of the same 9 (193) 194 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. chapter, it is said ; " I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." And in the fourth verse : " I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them ; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his im- age, neither had received his mark upon their fore- heads, or in their hands ; and they lived and reign- ed with Christ a thousand years." That "great serpent, the Devil and Satan," tempted our first par- ents to their mortal sin ; and from that time till the present, he has been going about like a " roaring lion," seeking whom he might devour. As one of the grand features of this blessed season, no single fact could be more appropriate, necessary and bliss- ful than the dispossession of Satan of his power, so long exercised to the ruin of vast multitudes of our race. Although in Daniel nothing is said which defines the duration of this period, yet the correspondence between his vision in the seventh chapter and this of St. John is very striking and impressive : " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose gar- THE MILLENNIUM. 1 95 ment was white as snow, and the hair of his head hke the pure wool ; his throne was the fiery flame, his wheels burning fire ; a fiery stream issued and came forth before him ; thousand thousands minis- tered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thou- sand stood before him ; the judgment was set and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake ; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame." " I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him do- minion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him." The six- teenth chapter of Isaiah would seem to meet the contingencies of no other period of the world's his- tory : '^ Violence shall no more be heard in th}- land ; wasting nor destruction within thy borders ; but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and th} gates praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day ; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down ; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine 196 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all right- eous ; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." So the like facts are reaffirmed in the sixty-fifth chapter : " Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth ; and the former shall not be re- membered, nor come into mind. Be ye glad and rejoice forever: for behold I create Jerusalem a re- joicing and her people a joy ; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Isaiah also in the eleventh chap- ter refers in strong terms to the same blessed pe- riod : " The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The suckina;- child shall play upon the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den ; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." In Zechariah we are told " the Lord shall be king over all the earth." But nearly all we can learn of this happy period, we gather from the Apocalypse : " After this I be- held, and lo ! a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peo- ple and tongues, stood before the throne and before THE MILLENNIUM. ig; the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, say- ing, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.'' We repeat what was before quoted of this symbol from Faber: "The sea, ever turbulent and restless, represents nations in a tumultviary or revolutionary state." This indicates a condition of perfect peace, when swords shall be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning- hooks. " And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dzvell tvitJi them, and they shall be his people ; and God himself shall be with them and be their God." " And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high moun- tain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jeru- salem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God ; and I saw no temple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light there- 1 98 TUE TIMES OF DANIEL. of. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." " And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face ; and there shall be no night there." Such is the condition, so far as known, of God's people during this succession of blissful years. In the third verse of the twentieth chapter of Revelation, we are told that after this happy ex- perience of a thousand years, in which Satan had been bound, crippled, and, doubtless, divested of all power to influence and pervert mankind, " he must be loosed a little season." And in the seventh verse and onward : "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go about to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Ma- gog, to gather them together to battle." How ear- nestly soever we may desire to pry into the polity and condition of this world at the time and before Gog and Magog shall thus meet in deadly conflict, we cannot even frame a theory applicable to it, inas- much as He, who has revealed so much, has seen fit to close up the books, and leave us in ignorance. Our aspirations must therefore cease with the close of our own dispensation, and all the rest of our THE MILLENNIUM. 1 99 knowledge must be derived from the fruition of Heaven, as it may be hereafter experienced, or from some future revelation. CHAPTER XXIV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. HAVING thus given our views of this most wonderful prophecy, so far as the " times " mentioned by Daniel are concerned, we have now only to present a summary of our argument, that the reader may the more perfectly comprehend our whole theory. The first six chapters of Dan- iel relate to matters entirely distinct from those which are revealed in the last six ; which last six alone form the subject of consideration in this ar- gument. Beginning with the ninth chapter, Daniel there informs us, that in the first year of Darius the Mede, namely the year 560 before Christ, " he set his face unto the Lord," evidently making supplication as to matters relating to the seventy years of the des- olation of Jerusalem. He received an answer, but upon a subject differing greatly from that which (200) SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 20 1 formed the burden of his prayer. He is informed of the birth, ministry and death of Messiah, that he shall be cut off, but not for himself. He also fore- tells the destruction of Jerusalem, soon after, and the " overspreading of abominations " " until the consummation shall be poured upon the desolate." Upon this we present no new view, as all Chris- tians have, from the first, so far as known, agreed in their application and fulfillment. Here commences our departure from the system of interpretation heretofore given by those who have taken the subject in hand. Our theory assumes that the last six chapters of Daniel relate to, and only to, the Christian dispensation, except- ing so far as other matters become incidentally and closely connected with the purposes of that dispen- sation, and that, treated in this light, the prophecy becomes a symmetrical and almost perfect photo- graph of the trials, successes, discouragements, per- secutions and final victory of God's people. Two years after the vision recorded in the ninth chapter, namely, in the first year of the reign of Bel- shazzar, he had another vision, with a part of which, relating, as is supposed, to Roman history, previous to the delivery of the saints into the power of anti- christ, we do not meddle, as it is one-side of the plan herein proposed. After those revelations, sud- 9* 202 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. denly his vision extended down to the very close of the Christian dispensation, until the final victory of the " Ancient of days." At his request an inter- pretation was given, resulting in the same victorious conclusion : " I beheld until the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them ; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." In his explanation the person of whom Daniel inquir- ed informed him that he (the same persecuting power) " shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws ; and they shall be given into his hand, until a time, and times and the dividing of time. But the judg- ment shall sit, and they shall take away his do- minion to consume and to destroy it unto the end." Assuming the delivery of thje saints into the hand of this persecuting power to have been the invest- ing of Boniface with the Supreme Pontificate, in the year 607, it seems a necessary consequence that this power must be consumed and finally des- troyed in the year 1867. In the eighth chapter, he has recorded another vision principally relating to the " ram " and " he- goat," and after giving an accountof their victories SUMMABY AXD CONCLUSION. 203 and defents, Daniel is informed that the sanctuary shall be cleansed in (according to the Septuagint) two thousand four hundred years. And he is again informed by a vision in the tenth chapter that the time for consuming will last twenty-one years, which two thousand four hundred and twenty-one years, from the time the answer was given, would end in the year 1867, coinciding exactly with the end of the former time, times and half a time. Thus the period alluded to and foretold is shown by two distinct processes of reasoning, founded upon two distinct prophecies, and should end in the same year 1867. The next great event in the history of the church is the rise and j)rogress of Mahometanism, and its overspreading and subjecting to its domination the Holy Land. It is shown that the Holy City, Jer- usalem, was subjugated by the Mahometan power in 637, and from Christ and St. John, as well as from Daniel, that this subjugation shall continue for the space of 1260 3^ears. In Daniel, twelfth chapter and seventh verse, we are assured that this dom- ination shall continue for a " time, times and a half; " while in the Revelation of St. John we are told that the Holy City shall be trodden down of the gentiles "forty and two months," which, in prophetic language, implies the same time exactly. 204 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. But in addition to these two processes of proof, founded upon two widely different prophecies, Daniel, as if to leave us without excuse for misun- derstanding him, in the answer to another question is informed that it shall be 1290 years, not from the taking- of Jerusalem, from which epoch the former time must be reckoned, but " from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away," and the abomination that maketh desolate be set up. Now as we have proved, in discoursing upon another por- tion of the prophecy, that this was when Boniface was made Universal Bishop, in 607, the 1290 will end in 1897, precisely the time when, according to St. John, Jerusalem shall cease to be trodden down of the Gentiles. Here are three distinct prophecies, made at different times, by two different prophets, under very different circumstances, all culminating in precisely the same year of our era. The main part of the eleventh chapter is, it can- not be doubted, devoted to what is commonly known as the " Holy Wars," in which the Saracens and Turks have acted so distinguished a part. The third, fourth and fifth verses are so clearly drawn as to leave, apparently, no room for doubt that they are intended to describe the wars and ruin of Chos- roes and the initiation of the power of the Caliphs over Palestine. We are then told, in the sixteenth SUMMAHY AND CONCLUSION. 205 verse: " He shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed ;"' and after recount- ing- moi-e battles, in the thirty-sixth verse, he " shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished ; for that that is determined shall be done." And then in the forty-fifth verse, apparently after all contro- versy has ceased, and he has planted the taberna- cles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, we are further assured that " he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." It will thus be seen that these six chapters of Daniel, commencing with the ninth and including the seventh and eighth, after giving an account of the Messiah and the consequent and immediate woes of Jerusalem, relate almost entirely to the twin delusions of Rome and Mahomet, referring to little else but what was incidentally and necessa- rily connected with them. In the twelfth chapter he condenses more amaz- ing and soul-stirring events than may be found in any other chapter in all the Bible. First, Daniel was informed that at the close, and simultaneously with the overthrow of the Mahometan power in Palestine, " Michael shall stand up, who standeth for the children of thy people ;" giving him assur- ance that at that time a change will commence in the destinies of the Jews, and that change will be 2o6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. a happy one, and sustained by a power that cannot be resisted. Second, He was informed that at that time "should commence also a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation ;" by the phrase- ology clearly indicating that this trouble will not be limited in its operation to a single nation. This time of trouble is referred to and enlarged upon by almost every prophet, both of the Old and New Testament ; it is presented in every possible form of description, using the most powerful and im- pressive symbols, and evidently extending its bale- ful influence and withering calamities to all t!ie people of the earth. Thirdly, He was further informed that at that time, and probably during the continuance and at the close of these tribulations, " th}^ people," that is, the people of the Jews, " shall be delivered," " every one that shall be found written in the book." Of this restoration of the Je\vs, the other prophets are full; but precisely how long these troubles and the process of restoration will last, wc are not in- formed, except inferentially, from a subsequent statement of Daniel, v/hich, however, seems to be very decisive. In tho, fourth place, we are further informed that at that time, either during this time of unspeakable SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 207 woe to our race, or immediately thereafter, " many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." The same astounding event appears to be recognized and reaffirmed in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse : "I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the wit- ness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and (those) which had not worshiped the beast, neither his im- age, neither had received his mark upon their fore- heads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." Fifth, Passing over the " time, times and a half," in the seventh verse, which has been sufficiently considered before, we find an angel, clothed in linen, under the most solemn oath ever taken, swearing by Him that liveth forever and ever, that when he shall have accomplished his own purposes, in the dispersion of his people, that is, when their restor- ation shall have been completed, then '^ all these things shall be finished^ Sixth, Again passing over another prophecy of 1290 years, which has been sufficiently commented upon, we come to the last and crowning- announce- 2o8 TUB TIMES OF DANIEL. ment of his whole prophecy : " Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days" (years). If the premises assumed in this argument be well taken, and the reasoning be not defective, this blessed consummation must be fulfilled in or about the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty-two, or forty-five years after the time mentioned in the first verse, which seems to be unmistakably fixed in the year 1897, and then will Jesus Christ the righteous exercise unlimited " do- minion from sea to sea and from the river to the end of the earth." " Let every kindred, every tribe On this terrestrial ball. To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all." THE END. 9;^ J DATE DUE HIGHSMITH # 45220 The t,mes^of*Dan.el. An argument. , Theoloq.cal Semmary-Speer Library 1012 00029 1320