enough about astronomy to know when the sun shined, and to know day from night, and winter from summer; and they knew enough to make up the deficiency in their current years by intercalary months or days, as the case required; just as we should have to do at a broker's in exchanging money on which there might be 5 or 10 per cent discount, to get par money,-we must add enough to ours to make it of equal value with his. They always had the true solar year as much as we have, whether their current year included the whole of it or not; and they always contrived some way to keep the current and natural year along together, near enough at least not to lose more than a whole year every century.

These lost years are all nonsense, and would never have been mentioned but by men whose " arrogance, egotism and ignorance" are of a sufficiently "large amount" to disqualify them to perceive that they have lost their reckoning. Rollin tells us, (vol. ii. p. 627, Harpers' Edition,)

"Though all nations may not agree with one another in the manner of determining their years, some regulating them by the motion of the sun, and others by that of the moon, they, however, generally use the solar year in chronology. It seems at first, that as the lunar years are shorter than the solar, that inequality should produce some error in chronological calculations. But it is to be observed, that the nations who used lunar years, added a certain number of intercalary days to make thein agree with the solar which makes them correspond with each other; or at least, if there be any difference, it may be neglected, when the question is only to determine the year in which a fact happened.”

But the years used in the Bible history were undoubtedly Jewish years, so that we know exactly the "difference" to be considered, and what allowance to make for lost time. Horne, vol. iii. pp. 166, 167, 297.

"The ecclesiastical or sacred year began in March, or on the first day of the month Nisan, because at that time they departed out of Egypt." "The Jewish months were originally calculated from the first appearance of the moon, on which the Feast of the New Moon, or beginning of months (as the He

brews termed it) was celebrated. Exod. xii. 2; Num. x. 10; xxviii. 11." "The Jewish months being regulated by the phases or appearances of the moon, their years were consequently lunar years, consisting of twelve lunations, or 354 days and 8 hours; but as the Jewish festivals were held not only on certain fixed days of the month, but also at certain seasons of the year, consequently great confusion would, in process of time, arise by this method of calculating the spring month sometimes falling in the middle of winter, it became necessary to accommodate the lunar to solar years, in order that their months, and consequently their festivals, might always fall at the same season. For this purpose, the Jews added a whole month to the year, as often as it was necessary; which occurred commonly once in three years, and sometimes once in two years. This intercalary month was added at the end of the ecclesiastical year after the month Adar, and was therefore called Ve-Adar, or the second Adar."

Now by regulating the "lunar years" so as to correspond with the "solar," their years must, of necessity, at every nineteenth, correspond, "within an hour and a half," with the same number of solar years, a "difference" which would not amount to one month in six thousand years;* so that the "scheme" of the

*The Lunar Cycle, called also the Golden Number, is the revolution of nineteen years, at the end of which the moon returns, within an hour and a half, to the same point with the sun, and begins its lunations again in the same order as at first." Rollin, vol. 2, p. 627.

"From the very time of the original institution of the Passover, the observance of it was fixed to the fourteenth day of the first month Nisan, otherwise denominated Abib, or the month of green ears, at which time in Judea the harvest was beginning and, in a similar manner, the feast of tabernacles was fixed to the middle of the seventh month Tisri, and to the time of the ending of the vintage. Now, these feasts were thus observed-The Passover they celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan or Abib by killing the paschal lamb: the fifteenth was the first of the days of unleavened bread, and was ordained to be kept as a sabbath: and on the morrow after this sabbath, as being the beginning of the barley-harvest, they were directed to bring a sheaf of the first-fruits for a wave-offering before the Lord. The feast of tabernacles they celebrated on the fifteenth day of Tisri: and this festival was also called the feast of ingathering, because it was cel ebrated after they had gathered in their corn and their wine.

P. B. and its worthy coadjutors, "which takes us back to the year 1817, when the world would have been destroyed," will afford no relief to their " readers," except to those whose "ignorance" may be of a sufficient" degree" to disqualify them to appreciate the "wonderful" "arrogance" and "egotism" of

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the writers.

PROPHETIC AND SOLAR YEARS.

"But does not Mr. Miller reckon some years at 360 and some at 365 days?" No-unless you refer to the prophetic years, as distinguished from chronological or historical years. In history and chronology__no other years are ever used but true solar years. Prophetic years, generally called "times" in scripture, are always of 360 days. God has so explained them in his word (compare Rev. xii. 6 and 14); and the

If then the ancient Jewish year consisted of no more than 360 days, and if it were neither annually lengthened by the addition of five supernumerary days, nor occasionally regulated by monthly intercalations, it is evident, that all the months, and among them the months Abib and Tisri, must have rapidly revolved through the several seasons of the year. Hence it is equally evident, since the Passover and the feast of tabernacles were fixed, the one to the fourteenth day of Abib and the other to the fifteenth day of Tisri, that they must similarly have revolved through the seasons. Such being the case, how would it be possible to observe the ordinances of the law, when the months Abib and Tisri had passed into opposite seasons of the solar year? How could the Jews, in the climate of Judea, offer the first fruits of their harvest after the Passover, when the month Abib, in which it was celebrated, had passed into autumn or winter? And how could they observe the feast of tabernacles, as a feast of the ingathering of their corn and their wine, in the month of Tisri, when that month had passed into spring or summer? It is plain, that, unless Abib and Tisri always kept their places in the solar year, unless Abib were always a vernal month and Tisri an autumnal month, the Passover and the feast of tabernacles could not have been duly observed. And hence it is equally plain, that the ancient Jews could not have reckoned by years of 360 days without some expedient to make those years fall in with solar years." Faber, vol. i. pp. 12-14.

history of fulfilled prophecy corresponds with that explanation.

When these two modes of time are used in reckoning, prophetic years are never put alongside of solar years as if they were to be matched together as years; i. e. it is not to be supposed that the seven times, for instance, are to be matched with seven solar years :-nor, as some have thought, are we, 1st, to suppose the days in the prophetic period indicates a corresponding number of solar years; and 2d, that the period thus obtained is to be compared with the same number of prophetic years; and 3d, to get at the result, deduct the difference between the prophetic and solar years from the whole period; but prophetic or symbolic times are always interpreted to mean as many true solar years as there are days in the period considered. "Each day" of the prophetic period represents a true solar year-there being 2520 days in 7 times, understood symbolically, the period expresses 2520 true solar years. Prophetic time is the measure, true time the article to be measured. There is the same difference between the measure and the article to be measured in this case that there is in all other cases: the measure is an arbitrary abstract rule, by which the natural and real thing is to be measured off for use.

DIFFERENCE IN THE DATES OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

It has been supposed again that the difference of four years, between the true date of the birth of Christ and A. D., affects the exact application of one of the most important prophetic periods, the 2300 days or years of Daniel viii. The 70 weeks, a part of this period, terminated when "Messiah" was 66 cut off" to make reconciliation for iniquity," "and to anoint the Most Holy." One week, or seven years, he was to confirm the covenant with many." In determining this question-How did Christ confirm the covenant_one week, or seven years?-it has been ascertained, from what the sacred historians say of the age of Christ when he commenced his ministry, (Luke iii. 1-23 ;

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Mark i. 6-15; Acts x. 36, 37,) and of the facts connected with his birth and death, that he was 37 years of age when" cut off"-that he was "cut off" A.D. 33that he was born four years "before the account called Anno Domini," and therefore, as he commenced his ministry at 30, he confirmed the covenant, according to the prophecy, by preaching 7 years. These facts have all been proved, not to say demonstrated. But the caviller has started a new difficulty, though others besides cavillers may have been entangled with it. It is this: "If Christ was born 4 years before A. D., and was 37 at his death, then the 70 weeks did not run out till the true A. D. 37, and the 2300 days, or years, cannot end till A. D. 1847." Now in determining the question whether the 70 weeks, as a whole, were fulfilled, so as to "seal up," or make sure "the vision" which ends at the termination of the 2300 days or years, we have nothing at all to do with the birth or age of Christ, we only want to know when he was "cut off;" as to this simple question, it matters not whether he was 20, 30, or 50 years of age at the time. In determining the question, whether Christ confirmed the covenant one week, or seven years, by his personal ministry, as we know his age when it began, we must ascertain his age at his death. In the other question, whether the 70 weeks expired at his death, we must ascertain whether it took place 70 weeks or 490 years from the going forth of the commandment referred to. The 70 weeks were so fulfilled, and God by them has sealed the vision. Christ did confirm the covenant, by his personal ministry, 7 years-he was 37 when he died, A. D. 33, and was therefore born 4 years before the "account commonly called A. D." See note D. in the Diagram.

But let not the caviller make the correction in one particular part of the calculation, in order to introduce difficulties, which, when the whole is corrected, have no existence; if the correction is to be made, it should be carried through.

Let it be understood that the 70 weeks did not run