fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.” This tribulation was to begin with Jerusalem, and to be consummated on all the nations that had fought against Jerusalem; "For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts," v. 29.

The

The overthrow of all these nations is in connection with the second advent of Christ, and is therefore a parallel passage with Zech. xiv. 3; for, according to the 38th verse, it is when the Lord hath forsaken his covert as a lion," or, as our Savior expresses it, when He shall come as the lightning from heaven." prophet is also commanded to prophesy" against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the

earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." Jer. xxv. 30 -33. In this prophesy, no intimation is given when the judgment was to begin, on the city which is called by the name of the Lord; but in the 9th chapter of Daniel, when that prophet had been considering the 25th of Jeremiah, and had seen that God had fulfilled the seventy years which were predicted in the 11th and 12th verses of that chapter, that he would accomplish the desolations of Jerusalem, he was shown more fully the distance of time between the two events.

Fifteen years previous to that event, Daniel had had the vision recorded in the 8th of Dan.; which at the time was all explained to him, with the exception of what was denoted by the little horn, and the length of the 2300 days. He was told that the vision was to continue 2300 days, and then the sanctuary was to be cleansed. Daniel, however, says that he was astonished at the vision, but none understood it ; and it is evident from the explanation that had been given, that his ignorance was owing to the mystery respecting the time. His ignorance of that event seems to have continued, until he contemplated the fulfillment of the seventy years, as predicted in Jeremiah 25th. According to that prediction, "these nations" were to serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years

are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations." Jer. XXV. 11, 12. This was fulfilled in that night in which was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Medían took the kingdom." Dan. v. 30, 31.

Daniel then evidently supposed, that with the accomplishment of these seventy years, were also fulfilled the 2300 days; for we find by the 17th and 18th verses of Dan. 9th, that Daniel prayed for the very event that God had promised should be fulfilled at the end of the 2300 days, viz. the cleansing of the sanctuary. "Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy SANCTUARY that is desolate, for the Lord's sake."

That Daniel was in an error at that time, is evident from an angel's being sent swiftly, even the man Gabriel, that he had seen in the vision at the beginning of his supplications, to instruct him in the vision. And he informed him, and talked with him, and said, "O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding," &c., "for thou art greatly beloved : therefore understand the matter and consider the vision.' verses 22 and 23. He informed Daniel that "seventy sevens were cut off" (for so the best scholars admit the original is,) 66 upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring

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in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." These 70 weeks, or sevens, all admit to be weeks of years, or 490 years, and to terminate in the year A. D. 33-the year our Lord was crucified. There is nothing given from which to cut off the 70 weeks, but the 2300 days, and as the angel Gabriel had come to make him understand the vision, they must be sevens of just such periods of time, as those denoted in the vision; and as the 70 weeks are proved to be weeks of years, the 2300 days from which they were cut off must be also years, and would leave 1810 years to be fulfilled from the end of the 490, which were cut off. Of these 70 weeks, Daniel was informed there would be 69 to the Messiah, and that he would confirm the covenant with many one week ; and after that "the people that shall come shall destroy the city and sanctuary, as is predicted in Jer. xxv. 18, 29, and “for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate," or desolator, as it reads in the margin, when the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth, even to the other, according to Jer. xxv. 30-33; and when the Lord shall fight against all the nations that fought against Jerusalem, as in Zech. xiv. 3. Our Savior in Luke xxi. 24, predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, and declared that it should be "trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." It is evident, therefore, from these

parallel portions of scripture, that the destruction of Jerusalem spoken of in the 2d verse of Zech. 14, was accomplished by the Romans; and that the going forth of the Lord to fight against those nations, in the day that his feet shall stand on the mount of Olives, is yet in the future, and will be fulfilled in connection with the second advent of Christ.

The prophet Zechariah then proceeds to predict, that "the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof," and the inhabitants will flee from that land. 5 v, “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal; yea ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." This must be after probation has closed, the righteous dead are raised, and the righteous living changed, and together are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, for "all the saints" come with him. From the 6th to the 11th verses inclusive, is a prediction of the restoration of the land of Palestine, and its condition when the saints are thus restored, "and the Lord shall be king over all the earth ;" and "Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited." "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark but, it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the for