loaaH UC-NRLF B 2 fiMl ^bfi THE STBUGGLE FAST. THE FALLACIES, ABSURDITIES, AND PRESUMPTION, THE COMING STRUGGLE," AND SIMILAR MILLENARIAN VATICINATIONS. TENTH EDITION. EDINBUEGH : MYLES MACPHAIL. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. M.D.CCCLIII. (Price Threepence.) LOAN STACK MILLENARIAN VATICINATIONS. "We had been struck of late by the sight of an immense label, affixed to shop windows and door-posts in our neighbourhood, on v/hich the words *' The Coming Struggle"* were most obtrusively, and even alarmingly prominent. As there were theatricals in the village, our first impres- sion actually was that this was the play bill for the day, and that its unusual size might (we speak seriously) betoken? the manager's or the clown's benefit. As the same words, however, greeted us on successive days, curiosity induced us to ascertain their import. Wondering whe- ther they portended another county election, of which we had heard no rumour, and which we hoped safe for seven years to^ come, we were somewhat surprised, but still more alarmed, to discover that they an- nounced the pamphlet, whose title we have given at the head of these remarks. We are naturally of a somewhat timorous disposition ; and it is therefore unnecessary to say that the treatise was purchased and read without delay. And it appears that similar curiosity or similar alarm has occasioned its perusal by numbers as well as by ourselves, for our copy is marked " Eighteenth Thousand." And yet it had been apparently only a week or two in existence ; so that by the time we write, it may probably have reached the 50th thousand. The work then is a prophetical elucidation, declaring, in the most unhesitating and decisive manner, the events (and most striking they are) of the next fifteen years. There is a strange excitement comes on one at the thought of any such revelations. No doubt, fifteen years is a long space in a man's lifetime, and the reasonable probability is, that ere that time elapses we shall have finished- our earthly course. ^ And no doubt also we have our duty laid unchangeably before us in the Bible, whether our lives are to be long or short, and come of ^ the world what may. These considerations might well keep us from being greatly moved, even in regard to revelations of '' coming struggles" during the next fifteen years, and of an " awful conflict" at their termination. But there are counter-considerations which alarm men in spite of themselves whenever any interpreter of prophecy professes to reveal its mysteries. The consideration, in short, that the events of our own day, are the especial and pecuhar subject of divine revelation, has a tendency to dis- arrange all our conduct, and to make us attend, not so much to the dis- charge of our daily duties (especially those relating to our fellowmen), as to preparation for the unprecedented, unearthly events which are to befall us. We know a lady, whose daily preparation for the millennium for several years past, has prevented her bestowing on her children the preparation necessary to fit them for the wicked world into which, if it lasts another year or two, they must enter. But yet if it be certainly true, as the author before us would have us believe, that we are immediately entering on events of importance un- paralleled in nature and result— shaking earth and heaven, and intro- * « The Coming Struggle among the Nations of the Earth : or, the Pohtical Events of the next fifteen years, described in accordance with prophecies in Eze- kiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse ; shewing also the important position Bntam will occupy during and at the end of the awful conflict."— Eighteenth Thousand.— Lon- don : Houlston and Stoneman. Pp. 32. Millenarian Vaticinations. 3 ducing a new heaven and a new earth, — if this be certainly true, we may perhaps be excused for leaving other things in abeyance. If God has revealed to us the events which are about to befall us, he has doubt- less done so for our yistruction and guidance. And though such a reve- lation would not warrant us in departing from any of the precepts of the moral law, in order to promote or to suit these events ; yet the know- ledge that such and such things were, by special divine interposition, to befall the world and ourselves forthwith, would naturally lead us to re- gard as unnecessary many of our present schemes for the education, civilization, reformation and Christianization of the world, — schemes which the events we expected would supersede. The best way of conveying a correct idea of the production in ques- tion, will be to state first the events which it tells us are to occur ; then the grounds on which they are supported ; thereafter, giving our own opinion of the pamphlet and its subject, if any opinion should then re- quire to be given. The author states the expected events under four heads. '' I. The seizure of Constantinople, and overthrow of Turkey by the Emperor of Russia." He does not specify the exact date at which this is to take place, but he says — " Considering the number and character of the events to succeed it, and the short space allowed for their performance, it must of necessity be almost immediate li/." *' II. War between France and Austria; overthrow of the latter, and consequent destruction of the Papacy." The date at which he fixes the last mentioned catastrophe is some- what contradictory ; for in one place he says, — *' The full term of his (the beast's) political and ecclesiastical existence is 1335 years, and this terminates in 1866, or about fifteen years from this period." And yet after his next division, which is, " III. The conquest of the Horns or Continental Powers by the Em- peror of Russia," He says — '' By the time the above occurrences have taken place, the fifteen years will have nearly expired." Then comes — " IV. Britain rapidly extends her eastern possessions, prevents the occupation of Judea, and completes the first stage of the restoration of the Jews." But under this last head, the author proceeds to mention events which are not included in the title of it. The " first stage of the restoration of the Jews" is thus accomplished. " Having succeeded in dethroning the Sultan, and annexing the Turkish dominions to his sway, he (the Russian Emperor) will naturally endea- vour to take possession of Palestine, as that country forms a part of the Ottoman empire. This, however, Britain cannot permit. To let him occupy this territory would be a virtual relinquishment of the eastern market, because the road to it by the Red Sea would be shut up. . . . The only way that seems likely for Britain to preserve her eastern mar- ket open in this emergenc}^, will be to place a Jewish colony in Pales- tine ; and thus it will appear that the river was dried up, in order that b 263 4 Millenariayi Vaticinofions. the kings of the east might be prepared. The drying up of the river, or the destruction of Turkey, will render it necessary for the kings of the east, or the British power which rules there, to promote the return of the Jews to their own land, by placing its mighty banner of guardian- ship over it, and holding out every inducement for the sons of Abraham to repair to it. . . . There can then be no doubt as to the fact that this country will open up a way for the despised and persecuted race of Abraham, to stand once more in their father-land, and raise anew the songs of David upon the holy hill of Zion, and it is probable th;\t the event will be brought about in some such manner as we have indicated. But first this country must seize a great amount of territory adjacent to the Holy Land. In the present state of affairs, there would neither be peace nor safety for the Jews in their own country. It will therefore be necessary to occupy Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, besides other places, in order to make these a wall of defence for the Jewish colony ; and hence the language of Jehovah to his restored people, ' I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.' By possessing these she will also lay her hands upon Edom, Moab, Ammon, and other places on the Red Sea, till at length, being shadowed on every side by the wings of this mighty power, the new commonwealth will grow and prosper, like a cedar on their own mountain of Lebanon." But this restoration of the Jews is only introductory to the final struggle between the hosts of Russia on the one hand, and the Anglo- Saxon race on the other. " But by this time the autocrat of Russia has got the nations of con- tinental Europe beneath his feet, and, like Alexander in ancient, and Napoleon in later times, he thirsts for universal conquest. . . . Turning his eyes eastward on the wealth and prosperity of the countnes under British protection, the triumphant conqueror of Europe will con- ceive the idea of spoiling them, and appropriating their goods and cattle. . . . He lays siege to the Holy City, which soon surrenders to his power, and enables him to plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. . . . Meanwhile Britain has been making strenuous efforts to stop the progress of this gigantic Napo- leon. But what can the British army do against such a host ? In the critical emergency the parent island sends a cry across the Atlantic, — ' come over and help us.' ' We are coming, brother John, we are com- ing,' is the noble reply ; . . . and soon the flower and strength of the Anglo-Saxon race meet on the sacred soil of Palestine On the one side the motley millions of Russia and the nations of con- tinental Europe, are drawn up on the slopes of the hills and the sides of the valleys toward the north ; while on the other are ranged the thou- sands of Britain and her offspring, from whose firm and regular ranks gleam forth the dark eyes of many of the sons of Abraham, determined to preserve their newly recovered city, or perish, like their ancestors of a former age, in its ruins. " All is ready. That awful pause which takes place before the shock of battle, reigns around, but ere it is broken, a strange sound is heard overhead. 'Tis the voice of the Lord that breaks the solemn stillness, and startles the assembled hosts. . . . Amid earthquakes and Millenarian Vaticinations. 5 !j:liovvers of fire the bewildered and maddened armies of the autocrat rush sword in hand, against each other, while the Israelites and their Anglo- Saxon friends gaze on the spectacle with amazement and consternation. . . . The carnage will be dreadful. Out of all the millions that came like a cloud upon the land of Israel, only a scattered and shattered remnant will return ; the great mass will be left to ' cleanse the land/ «,nd fill the valley of Hamongog with graves." That this final struggle, fifteen years hence, ushers in the Millennium, seems to be the author's belief; for he immediately adds, " We pause ^t this part of the prophecy, considering it unnecessary at the present time to enter into a minute examination of the nature or duration of the millennial period. . . . It is probable that Assyria, Persia, and Britain, will be the only three powers that will exist in the old world, besides the kingdom which the most High will establish in Jerusalem, . . . The Anglo-Saxon race must, from the very nature of their ■constitution, be a leading people. . . . They will continue to move forward the chariot wheels of the world s progression, and carry the human soul through endless stages o'' development," &c. &c. Pp. 25-28. These then are the leading events which,our author warns us, are, within the next fifteen years, to befall us ; — events certainly of thrilling interest, and which have evidently been by numbers felt to be so, as is witnessed by the sale, in an incredibly short time, of some 20,000 copies of the work that announced them. It is now time that we stated our author's proofs. These may be arranged in three divisions : — 1 . The reasons he gives for believing that now the Scriptural predic- tions of the final events in the world's history are intended to be more 'clearli/ understood than they could possibly have been at any former time, and that therefore he may explain them more warrantably than any for- mer interpreter. 2. His reasons {ox fixing fifteen years as the time which will bring about the destruction of the Papacy, and the other marvellous events he announces with such particularity. 3. ^\^ YQd&^ms, for the various particulars stated in the extracts we have given. First, He believes that now the unfulfilled prophecies may be under- stood ; whereas, formerly, they could not be so. And his reasons for so believing are these : — " In that Book (the Bible) is to be found a series of visions and pro- phecies, under which is symbolized the political history of the world, from the Babylonian Empire down to the Millennium. Unfortunately, however, as we have said, these prophecies have been, and are sadly mfs- understood. The authorised interpreters of God's revelations have hitherto failed in finding a key to unlock their mysteries ; but of this we do not complain, as we are told that the vision was to be sealed until the time of the end. What we regret, however, is, that in the face of this declaration, our divines should have attempted an explanation of these mysteries before God's time for their solution was come. They have done this, and the result is, that by their erroneous interpretations, a mass of obscurity, contradiction, absurdity, and error, has been heaped 5 Millenarian Vaticinations. upon them, which serves completely to mystify both its authors and the world. Had Fleming and others contented themselves with tracing those parts of the prophecy which were fulfilled in their day, and letl those sublime consummations mentioned in the apocalypse to be disclosed at ' the time of the end,' the present generation would not now be under the necessity of throwing off a host of commentaries and opinions, which, from early childhood, they have considered unerring. This, however, must be done. The position of the world clearly intimates that the end has come, and events now furnish an explanation of the hitherto dark visions of Daniel and John, and by a careful examination of those and other prophets, the political history of the next fifteen years is spread out before us ; nay, we are enabled to pass beyond that period, and trace almost accurately the regular course of events down to the beginning of the thousand years." pp. 4, 5. A little consideration of this passage will show that the author reasons in a complete circle. He professes to make the predictions of Scripture the key to the events on which we are entering ; and how does he ar- rive at a knowledge of these predictions of Scripture ? By a previous consideration of the events ! ! Or, at a greater length, his reasoning amounts to this : — The prophecies of Daniel and St. John reveal to us the events of these last ages. But the prophecies cannot be understood till the end has come. But the events on which we are evidently enter- ing, shew that the end of the present state of things is at hand. • There- fore, we can now understand the prophecies, and find out whether the end is at hand or no. This is all the reason that he gives in this place for believing that the end has come, and that, therefore, prophecy is unveiled. The only pro- fessedly Scriptural argument which he adduces to show that this is the end, and consequently the time for understanding these mysteries, is in a different part of the work, and is this, — he quotes Rev. xvi. 13, 14 : " And 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 prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." And he then says, " The powers that represent the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, are the Sultan, the Emperor of Austria, and the Pope ; and the frogs, or frog-power, is France — frogs being the original heraldic symbol of that nation. When, therefore, we perceive the influence of France, causing ' unclean spirits,' or evil policy, to actuate these three powers, then are we to recognise the immediate approach of the end. This period has now come. France has at this moment the Pope ^nd the Emperor in a very critical position." p. 14. All this is very unsatisfactory. But worse awaits us. Secondly, His reasons for believing, (or, at least, alleging,) that the events he announces will be embraced within the next fifteen years. Attend to the following : — " The next great error of our interpreters is in regard to the ' time, and times, and half a time,' or the duration of the beast. They clearly understand that it means a period of 1260 lunar years, but they have Millenarian Vaticinations. 7 failed to find the true commencement of this epoch. The general theory dates it from the year 6o6, when Phocas proclaimed the universal su- premacy of the Bishop of Rome. This fixes the termination of the 1 860 years in 1866,/rom which 18 2/ears must be subtracted, being the diffe- rence between solar and lunar time, thus making the time ending in 1 84.8. But the time, and times, and half a time, began earlier than this. The year 606 is the period of the ecclesiastical constitution of the beast, or the time when the dragon gave him his authorit3^ His cf«?iY constitution dates 75 years earlier, or ti-om 531, when the Justinian code was published; and this was the real beginning of the 1260 years. The reign of the beast ought therefore to have terminated about the year 1791:» or two years earlier or later, and so it did f The resurrection of the * two wit- nesses' (or civil and religious democracy) which were slain by Louis XIV., took place in 1789, or at the period of the first French revolution, and this was the first time any successful opposition was made to tho Papal power. Then the judgment began to sit, and the civil dominion of the Pope was taken away, to be ' consumed and destroyed unto the end.' And as 75 years elapsed between the establishment of the impe- rial and Papal power of the beast, so 75 years must elapse between his civil and ecclesiastical destruction. It is a mistake to suppose that the 1260 years limits the existence of the beast, it merely limits his power. The full term of his political and ecclesiastical existence is 1835 years, and this terminates in 1866, or about 15 years from this period." — pp. 10, 11. We beseech the reader's attention to the above extract ; for it con- tains a most singular and inexplicable miscalculation and absurdity. To begin with the absurdity ; he finds fault with interpreters as being guilty of a '' great error" in not correctly fixing the true commencement of the 1260 years, — the duration of the beast's power or existence. They should have made it begin 75 years earlier than 606, or in 531. This, he says, would have come to 1791* But then, after having found fault with interpreters for delaying the commencement of the I26O years 75 years too long, he compensates for any alteration he suggested, by adding 75 years at the end, which surely ought to come to the same thing so far as time is concerned. But no, for he ends it differently from what he gives as their ending ; his ending being in 1866, while he says that theirs is in 1848. And this brings us to the inexplicable blunder in calculation, of which he is guilty. Before stating it, (although it is so palpable that it hardly needs stat- ing,) we may mention that the prophetic years mentioned in the Apo- calypse and in the Old Testament prophets, (if we regard their days as years) seem evidently to consist of 12 months of SO days each, or 360 days instead of 365. Among others that might be mentioned, a com- parison of the 2d and 3d verses may be regarded as a proof of this. In estimating the extent of the I260 years then, we must take this into ac- count. And this, accordingly, most interpreters have done with more or less exactness. A complete solar year is now held to be 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds. So that the difference between 1260 prophetical (or Jewish) years, and the same number of our present 8 Millenarian Vaticinations. calendar years, is exactly 18 years, 34 days, 5 hours, and 18 minutes ; which we may for convenience call 18 years. Now, our author allows that, as it is according to the prophetic years that Scripture speaks, it is necessary to deduct 18 years from the 1260, to reduce them from pro- phetical to solar years, and so enable us to fix their duration. In other words h260 prophetical are equivalent to 1242 of our present solar years. So that if we begin at the year 6o6, this makes, as he observes, *' the true ending in 1848." But how then does he arrive at 1866 as the time of the beast's destruction ? By a most singular blunder or over- sight. He tells us that there were two beginnings of the beast's power, — one, of his civil power, in 531, and the other, of his ecclesiastical, in 6o6 ; and he intimates that, in the same way, there must be two end' ings of his power, a civil and an ecclesiastical ending, respectively 1260 years after the two beginnings. But in ascertaining these endings, he omits to deduct the IS years from ■ the 1260, although he had immediately before admitted this to be neces- sary ; and so he makes the two endings take place in 1791 and in 1866, instead of both being 18 years earher, viz. in 1773 and in 1848, as they should be from his own data. And if we take the other mode of calcu- iating the beast's duration which he hints at, namely, adding 1335 years to 531, this makes his result more inaccurate still; for 1335 pro- phetical years are only equal to 1316 solar years, and added to the year 531, would have ended at 1847. He has therefore, upon his own grounds, — by his own admission, we may say, — no authority for making 1866 the termination of the beast's existence, and consequently no reason for mentioning the ensuing fifteen years as the tiyne during which are to occur all the alarming events he describes. For, upon his own shewing, the Papacy ought to have been annihilated in 1848 ; and the Pope, far from interfering with the spiritual concerns of Protestant nations, ought to have been utterly extinct these four years past ; the Russian Emperor ought to have devastated Constantinople twenty years ago, in the time of old Mahmoud II., and since then to have made himself master of Continental Europe. Louis Philippe also ought to have assailed and vanquished Ferdinand of Austria, and then to have overrun Italy, and finally to have been overthrown by his northern brother instead of the Red Republicans. The great struggle between the Saxon race and all the world ought to have taken place years ago. The battle of Arma- geddon ought to have been fought, to the silencing of all farther disputes as to its locality and nature. In short, we ought by this time to have been two or three years into the Millennium, instead of being daily af^ flicted, as we are, with people's faults and follies, and not least with the presumption of those would-be prophets who rashly intrude into those things which they have not seen, and cannot see, vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. In regard to the case before us, what is to be thought of a writer who presumptuously misleads us so grossly? We do not merely ask. Is there any faith to be placed in him ? but. Is there no indignation due towards him ? I do not suppose him to be guilty of obtaining money on false pretences, — procuring the sale of his pamphlet by cunningly work- ing on the natural fears of the public, through the present political aspect Mlllenarian Vaticinations. [) of the world. I rather believe him to have been himself unaware of the gross blunders and fallacious reasoning he has been indulging in. But, allowing him not to be a knave, one cannot help one's anger at being impudently imposed on even by a fool ; anger at oneself, anger at the impostor, and anger at all who have countenanced his unconscious im- position. We confess, then, to some degree of anger, not only at the author, but at ourselves, and the 50,000 others who have been (most of them, it is to be hoped, only for a short tinte) imposed on by the alarm- ing title and confidential style of this book. But anger in such a case is useless, and the book will have done us good instead of harm, if it teach us to receive with more caution than has been for some years the general practice, confident and presumptuous assertions as to the end of the pre- sent. state of things, and the commencement and nature of the millen- nium. We have had such predictions of the most contradictory kind, and all professing to be based on the word of God. And many of these have demonstrated their own fallaciousness, which indeed they bear im- pressed on their front, by not being fulfilled at the expected time. Men in the height of their presumption have fixed certain dates for the Al- mighty to appear and manifest his power. But, from the observatories they have raised, they have gazed in vain for his appearance. These things reminds us of our Saviour's words, '' If any man shall say, lo, here is Christ, or, lo, there ! believe him not. In your patience possess ye your souls." And they remind us also of the unwarrantable expectation of the Lord's coming which prevailed in the first ages of the Church, and has indeed more or less existed in all ages of it, and which was to be found even in apostolic times, so that Paul besought the Thes- salonians that they should " not be soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." No doubt many centuries have elapsed since then ; but still this seems the will of heaven, " It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Enough has been re- vealed of futurity to sustain, not only individual faith with the prospect of salvation, but the hope of the collective Church, with the belief of the world's coming Christianization ; but not enough to m.ake us inattentive to our daily duties, or to dispossess us of that patience without which we cannot possess our souls. We have been led away from our proposed plan ; for, before giving our verdict on the author, we were to have mentioned the reasons he gives for the particular events he announces. To this then we shortly return. These reasons, we are sorry to say, are as unsatisfactory as those we have already considered. No doubt there are no palpable blunders in them, like those we have pointed out already ; but this results perhaps from the less definite grounds he goes upon, — detached sentences from the prophetical Scrip- tures. When an author sets himself to make an arithmetical calcula- tion, any one by a little care may see whether he is right or wrong. But the prophetical writings are themselves a region so dark, that a person may expatiate in them in various directions far apart from the true path without his errors being very perceptible. So that it requires a scheme 1 Millenarian Vaticinat'ions. of interpretation which is self-consistent and well fitting in other re~ spectSy (which we have seen this one is not, J to be at all satisfactory/ in its endeavours to build itself up by a vague and general connection with the " hard-to-be-understood " prophetical writings. An example of such a consistent scheme is that of the younger Ro- bert Fleming, the author of " the Rise and Fall of the Papacy," &c. Proceeding on the principles recognized by most Protestant commen- tators, 1. That the book of 'Revelation contains an account, however dark, of all the remarkable events in the Church's history to the end of time ; 2. That Babylon and the beast, and the last head of the beast, are figures used to represent Papal Rome ; 3. That the grand Apoca- lyptic periods of 1260 days, 42 months, and S\ times, (called a time, times, and half a time), are equivalent and synchronical, — that is, are of the same amount, and represent not different spaces, but the same space of time ; 4. That this space represents the beast's duration, or reaches from the rise to the fall of Popery ; 5. That these 1260 days are to be understood prophetically, — for the like number of years of 360 days each. — Proceeding on these principles, Fleming's chief difficulty of course is as to the date when the beast's authority may be said to have begun, that from that date he may reckon the 1260 prophetical or 1242 solar years. And after various considerations he has to come to the conclusion, that the beast's authority arose gradually or by a succession of steps. One step, he believes, was in 552, when Justinian, having reconquered Italy from the Goths, left it in a great measure to the ma- nagement of the Pope. Another and a great step was in 6o6, when the Emperor Phocas solemnly created Boniface III. Universal Bishop. " But," says Fleming, " I do not reckon the full rise of the Pope to the headship of the Empire till a later date still. For though the Pope got the title of Universal Bishop at that time, yet he was afterwards for a long time subject in temporal concerns to the Emperors. And, there- fore, I cannot reckon him to have been in a proper and full sense, head of Rome, until he was so in a secular, as well as ecclesiastical sense. And this was not until the days of Pepin, by whose consent he was made a secular prince, and a great part of Italy given to him as Peter's patrimony." And he fixes the year 758 as the time when the Pope was thus made an independent temporal prince. Now^ adding 1242 (the equivalent of 1260 prophetical years) to each of these dates, we get the three periods of 1794, 1848, and 2000 ; which Fleming (who wrote nearly a century before the first of them) believed would mark three steps ending in the downfall of the Papacy. These periods^ he is also led to connect with the pouring out of the last four vials of the Apocalyptic vision ; the 4th vial ending in 1 794^ ; the 5th, in 1848 ; and the 6th and 7th (whose outpouring is in great measure con- current) in 2000. This last space of time he supposes to include the destruction of the Turkish Empire, the renunciation of Mahometanism by the sovereigns of the east, and their subsequent proselytization to Popery and junction with Rome in the final struggle against true reli- gion immediately before the millennium. But in regard to all explana- tion of prophecies having reference to any later period than his own age, Fleming disclaims all certainty.- His words are, — " And now seeing I Millenarian Vaticinations. 11 have marked out the time we are in at present, it is time also to put a stop to our Apocalyptic thoughts, seeing no man can pretend, upon any just grounds, to calculate future times. However, seeing I have come so far, I shall adventure to present you further with some conjectural thoughts on this head ; for I am far from the presumption of some men to give them any higher character." And therefore, he very properly hesitates to decide certainly about the nature of the millennium, though he did not believe in any personal or literal coming of Christ to establish it. *^ We must not imagine," he says, " that this appearance of Christ will be a personal one, no more than his appearance in the destruction of the Jews by Vespasian and Titus was such, for the heavens must retain him until the great and last day of the consummation, or restitu- tion of all things." Fleming certainly goes far. enough in his ^' conjec- tures" as to coming events. Still his scheme is consistent throughout, and based on no palpable blunders. The only objection to it is one which must lie against all Apocalyptic interpretations — the darkness of the region traversed — the mysteriousness of the prophetical expressions. But what shall we say of the author of the work before us, who would found on these mysterious expressions a scheme demonstrably in- correct ? Upon the dark words of prophecy he founds what we have shewn amounts to nothing but a mistake. In other words, since we have shewn that, upon his own principles, the end of the final struggle ought to have taken place in 1848, it is needless to state, at least very particularly, the reasons he gives for the particulars of that struggle. Our statement of them will be very brief, but it will be easily seen, that even had his scheme been consistent and well grounded otherwise, they would have been very unsatisfactory. 1. The reasons he gives for believing in the immediate seizure of Constantinople by Russia are drawn entirely from the latter part of the 40th verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel ; but, though he does not mention it in the same place, from what he says elsewhere, he (like Fleming and most commentators), connects the 12th verse of the l6th chapter of Revelation with the fate of the Turkish Empire. 2. The reason he gives for France overthrowing Austria and the papacy is, that it is said in the 7th chapter of Daniel, " They" (the saints, i.e. the French !) '^ shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end." Let not the reader be surprised at the French being represented by the saints. Our author tells us passim that the witnesses who prophesied in sackcloth for 1 260 years were " civil and rehgious democracy," which were slain by Louis XIV. in 1789> and rose again in the person of Napoleon I. ! These saints, however, not being Anglo-Saxons, he slays at Armageddon. 3. The remaining part to be played by Russia is founded on suppo- sitions drawn from the passage already mentioned in Daniel xi. 40. 4. The exalted position of Britain is deduced from his estimation of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon intellect (we are almost tempted to ask whether he includes his own), and his chief arguments on the sub- ject are contained in the extracts we have already given. 5. His reason for believing in the restoration of the present generation of Jews, or at least the restoration of the Jews who shall be alive 1 5 j2 Millenarian Vaticinations, years hence, to Judea/in their unconverted state, is certainly equally unsatisfactory. This is a matter on which he has no doubt. And he stigmatizes as a great mistake any present attempts to convert them. He wishes to understand literally all the predictions concerning them ; and the only one which he quotes is one which, if literally understood, must make us believe that all the Jews must first be dead and_ buried before they are restored. It is Ezekiel xxxvii. 12. " Thus saith the Lord God, behold, my people, I will open your gi-aves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." It would be a wearisome and a painful task to follow our author (who is utterly unknown to us except through this production, and of whom we have no desire to know more in the same character)— it would be wearisome, painful, and needless, to follow him through any farther de- tails. . The pamphlet, strange to say, has been greatly run upon. This is sad ; for unfortunately it is a work likely to cause the sceptical and un- thinking to doubt whether we have really in Scripture any sure word of prophecy. But it ought to make thoughtful Christians regard prophecy in its true light. All Scripture is profitable, but not all for the same purpose. The devotional parts of God's word we cannot make too much the guide of our meditations ; the hortatory portions we cannot too ear- nestly investigate for direction in our daily duties ; but the unfulfilled prophetical parts are to be regarded differently. They are evidently neither to be the objects of inquisitive investigation, nor the means of our '' instruction in righteousness ;" — far less to be an arena either for the exercise of ingenuity, or for the display of unending logomachy. Their great use (besides being perhaps " profitable for reproof '—the reproof of our self-conceit, and for comforting us with the hope of the world's conversion)— their great use seems to be, to serve as a constantly accumulating evidence for the divinity of revelation by their successive fulfilment. .j i, i, • But it is not necessary on this account to lay aside the prophecies from our daily perusal. Mixed with the darkest predictions, are the most intelligible and valuable precepts. Why refuse to feed on the fruits that grow around us, because we cannot convert into food the cedars of Lebanon ? Why refuse the spiritual sustenance God has made ready for us, because there are some things which have not yet under- gone that process by which God's providence will in due time prepare them for being assimilated to our spiritual nature ? Let us believe with Saurin :—" L' Apocalypse, qui est un des plus mortifiants Ouvrages, pour un esprit avide de connaissance et de lumiere, est un^ des plus sa- tisfaisants pour un coeur avide^de maximes et de preceptes." We have only in conclusion to remark, that the anonymousauthor of this very successful attempt to gull the public and enrich himself by appealing to the fears and the curiosity of the imbecile, is reported to be a journeyman printer, whose only other lucubration is an historical sketch which we have not seen. n