The

just as the eyes of the Lord are said to run to and fro. reference is not to missionary exertions in particular, but to the study of the Scriptures, especially, the sealed book of prophecy."—Duffield on Prophecies, p. 373.

2 .in universa terra discurrentes מטר טטיס בכל הארץ.

Chron. xvi. 9. Metaph. percurrere librum, i. e. perscrutari.

Dan. xii. 4.—Gesenius.

PROOF V. Dan. xii. 8—10. "Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way Daniel; for the words are closed up, and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." Understand what? Evidently that which Daniel sought after, viz., "the end of these things."

The declaration that "none of the wicked shall un- . derstand," must not be construed to mean a mere theoretical understanding, but a realizing of the awful nature of the scenes that are to burst upon the world. I fear some are deceiving themselves here. See 1 Cor. xiii. 2.

PROOF VI. Dan. xii. 11, 12. "And from the time that the daily shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that [anxiously, and with earnest desire] waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." According to Professor Seixas, of New York, one of the best of Hebrew scholars, the original text implies waiting with earnest desire, and I have given his translation.

In the above we have explicit statements of definite time, whether to be interpreted symbolically or literally matters not. Now why this definiteness, unless the fulfilment is to correspond with the prophecy in respect to time as well as other particulars? Moreover, why was any revelation of these definite times made to man, unless either that he should believe them before fulfilment, and thus be prepared for the events they date, and

such as are immediately to follow; or that he should, on the fulfilment, be enabled by the time, as well as other points in the prophecy, to see exactly in what age of the world he is living, what peculiar duties the times place upon him, and to prepare for the next events foretold by the seer? Again, the very definiteness of the time mentioned, and the explicitness of the statements, prove conclusively that, at the proper time for understanding these prophecies, there will be nothing necessarily uncertain about the true time from which to date the commencement of the periods. Thus Christians will be able to know when the 1290 and 1335 days begin, and when they expire. To believe otherwise is to charge God with pretending to make explicit in revelation, what by his Providence he has left necessarily inexplicit—with tantalizing us, by making us think we have what we have not, and directing us repeatedly to the prophecies as being sure guides to which we should take heed, when, according to this view, they are no guides at all. Recollect, we have before proved that all prophecies may be understood before the end.

There are only two views respecting the event to occur at the end of the 1335 days. One makes it a millennium of triumph on the part of the church previous to the end. This view is contradicted by the next verse, and by the second chap. of Isaiah, which says the land will be full of idols and lofty looks when the day of God shall come; also by Jer. xxxi.; Rev. ix. 20, 21; xi. 18; Ps. ii. 9, and many other texts ;—in fact, by the whole gospel, which is adapted to a church militant, and not a church triumphant,—to believers suffering tribulation, and not enjoying millennial repose. But I have not room here to enter into a discussion of this question. Suffice it to say, that until Dan. vii. 21, 22, and 2 Thess. ii. 8, can be harmonized with the idea of such a millennium, I must believe this doctrine to be a device of Satan to keep men from preparing for the end.

However, even if this interpretation be correct,

Christians would be able to discern about the time for the end. For, according to this view, after the millennium Satan is to be loosed for only a little season.

So, let

The other view makes the blessed event to be "the redemption of the purchased possession,' " and giving "reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great. This view harmonizes with the 13th verse, which speaks of Daniel's death and resurrection, and with the whole context; and, if it be correct, we shall certainly be able to know beforehand the time for the end. either interpretation be correct, our argument remains. PROOF VII. Amos iii. 7. “ Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." See also Is. xliv. 7, 8. No reason has been given why the word "nothing" should not be taken in an unlimited sense, as respects judgments or deliverances of God's people. If, however, any wish to regard it as limited, they must admit the implication to be that in many cases—in all the leading events in the history of the church—the secret has been revealed to the prophets, (plural, implying different revelations to different individuals.) Consequently we cannot but believe that in respect to the event of events his secret has been in like manner revealed.

PROOF VIII. Rom. xiii. 11, 12. "Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand." This text, as also 1 Pet. iv. 7, in connexion with the prophecies of the several events to occur between the days of the apostles and the end of the world, enables us to discern about the time for the end. All admit that we have in the prophecies a summary of the leading events in the history of the church down to the judgment. These foretold events are landmarks all along the way of time to its very end. Now, why these landmarks, unless to tell us whereabouts on the road we are, and when we are approaching the end? Even if this was not their original design, they answer

this purpose also. For, when we have come to the last landmark, we must know that the end is near. The whole period of time, from the days of the apostles till the day of judgment, was short, compared with the age of the world at that time. The day of Judgment was comparatively at hand. Now, of the events to occur since then, 1260 years were to be occupied by those connected with the Man of Sin, who was not revealed until about five hundred years after the apostles wrote. Of course there can be but little time remaining for the events to follow his captivity; and, when the last has occurred, we may infer that the Judgment is very near.

Will our opponents give a satisfactory reason why the exact duration of the Man of Sin is revealed? I cannot believe that it was to increase the evidence of the authenticity of the Bible and divinity of the Christian religion; for that is unnecessary. It remains, then, to choose between these two reasons: 1. To prepare the church for the event itself; or, 2, to give the church an intimation of the time to the end. If the first be assumed as the reason, analogy leads us to infer that if times are revealed to prepare the church for lesser events, they are also revealed to prepare her for the greatest of all events.

PROOF IX. Eph. i. 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." Notice here. 1. What is to be done, viz., the gathering in one of all the saints, both quick and dead. 2. When this is to be done, viz., when the fulness of times (plural) has come. Now, the fulness of times evidently means, when all the periods of time prophesied of have been filled up. But we shall be able to interpret all the prophecies before the end comes, and this text leads us to infer it will come as soon as the prophetic periods have all expired. See Luke xxi. 24.

PROOF X. In 1 Thess. ch. iv. Paul had been speaking of the end of the world, and how Christians,

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then living, would be changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He then goes on, in the 5th chapter, to say that there is no need to write "of the times and seasons;" because the brethren know very well that to those who say peace and safety, this day of the Lord, of which he had been speaking, will come as a thief in the night. But, [he adds] ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." He afterwards says, "I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren." It seems to have been pre-eminently a general epistle to all Christians till the end of the world; and this passage seems to me to teach clearly that all true Christians have a sure word of prophecy, to which, if they take heed as to a light shining in a dark place, they need not be in darkness respecting the time for the end.

PROOF XI. In Heb. ix. 28, we are told, of Christ, that "unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." A little farther on the apostle gives this earnest exhortation, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith, without wavering not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together; as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more AS YE SEE THE DAY APPROACHING."

As no prophecy of the Scripture is of private interpretation, so, we believe, the New Testament is to be understood in a sense at least as broad as the language seems to imply, and is not to be narrowed down to agree with man's little theories. Some apply this to the destruction of Jerusalem; but, when the Christians saw that day approaching, they were to forsake their accustomed assemblies, and flee to the mountains. We shall therefore apply it to the "day of Christ," when he shall descend from heaven with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first"—on which topic Paul speaks so freely to the Thessalonians Read Heb. x. 25 to 37.

Now, we enquire, how can a day be seen approaching,