employ the researches of mere human learning. To read the past in the light of inspired prophecy, to trace in every event of time some link of God's eternal counsel, and thus to learn, in every part, the grace and compassion of that Lord, who once suffered for us on the cross, and now reigns in heaven, is the high calling of the Church at the present hour. Every day and year of continued forbearance and long-suffering is only to prepare for a fuller display of holiness and love, and to add fresh elements of delight and joy to that exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which now remains for the people of God.

Such are a few of the great lessons which are forced upon our minds by the survey of this wonderful scheme of Divine Providence, revealed, thousands of years ago, to the holy prophet amidst the splendour of Babylon. The walls of Babylon are now thrown down, her plains are a desolation; a few scanty ruins alone survive from all her palaces. But the truth of the Lord, which is here revealed, endures without change. Its lessons apply to the Church at the present hour, even with a deeper interest than in former years. "For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever."

And surely all these practical truths, drawn from the prophecy, converge and meet in one further lesson, which should be applied more directly to every conscience. It is the lesson taught in the words of another prophet, in the prospect of judgment-"Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." It is repeated by the great Apostle, and addressed in a still more pointed form to every Christian. "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves." That kingdom which is here promised will not come without a solemn and eternal separation. Each part of God's word closes alike by fixing our attention on this certain truth. "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him

that serveth him not." "He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and behold I come quickly, to render to every man according as his work shall be." How little will it profit us to have our understandings enlarged by surveying the history of these empires, and our imagination awakened by the prospect here unfolded of Messiah's kingdom; and still to fall short of the promise through our own unbelief! How mournful and wretched would it be to hear the sentence pronounced against us, like the lord of Samaria, “Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof "—to be in sight of heaven's gate, and miss the entrance, to be not far from the kingdom of God, and then to sink into the outer darkness! The words of the vision, which describe to us the dissolution of the great image, should remind us of the sentence pronounced against the unbeliever. "The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

In the prospect, then, of this searching judgment, let us turn, with a simple and earnest faith, to the cross of Christ, as the only shelter that can avail. His gracious promise has been given, to assure our hearts, and banish our fears. "Him that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out." And even in the hour of judgment, to them that look for him He will appear without sin to their salvation; and the prophecy be fulfilled in their blissful experience-"A man shall be an hiding-place from the storm, a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Then, amidst the songs of angels and the joy of the universe, He will accomplish those glorious promises, rich with hope and with everlasting comfort; to plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

APPENDIX.

I.

ON THE FOUR EMPIRES IN CONNEXION WITH SACRED CHRONOLOGY.

It

IN the present volume no attempt has been made to assign the precise date or continuance of the Little Horn, or to enter on the detail of those times which are announced in the prophecy. The reason of the omission may be soon explained. I have already, in the First Elements of Sacred Prophecy,' examined at length the objections urged against the year-day theory, and developed the firm and solid evidence on which it rests. was needless, then, to traverse the ground afresh, and to enter into the proof once more in the present work. On the other hand, the question of the exact date of these times is naturally connected with all the other prophetic numbers, and can only be treated in a solid manner, by combining them all in one general survey, and taking the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks as their natural foundation. This was too large a subject to be introduced in passing, and in an elementary work. I have therefore reserved it for a distinct inquiry, for which considerable materials are collected already; but which, from its wide range, its difficulty and importance, and the various theories to be examined, it may require some time to mature. On the general question of the year-day interpretation, some valuable remarks will be found in Mr. Elliott's Commentary on the Apo

calypse, just published, an important and seasonable gift to the Church of Christ.

While the present volume, however, was in the press, a work on Sacred Chronology has appeared, of much research and learning, the Ordo Sæculorum' by the Rev. H. Browne. Its direct object is to establish a system, based on the Hebrew numbers, and the larger reckoning of the period from the Exode to the Temple; and to rear on this basis a superstructure of curious and remarkable analogies. In the general preference for the Hebrew reckoning I fully agree with the author. His detection also of a remarkable error, which vitiates many of Mr. Greswell's reasonings, is complete and decisive, and anticipates some remarks I had designed to offer on the same subject; though perhaps the correction might have been made in a gentler tone, as the error is abstract rather than doctrinal, and the author himself is not immaculate in his own reasonings.

Had the work, however, been confined to its direct object, any notice of it here would be misplaced; and any judgment on the competing systems of Mr. Cuninghame, Mr. Greswell, and the learned author, resting alike on supposed internal analogies, though in other points widely different, would be premature. But since the Introduction speaks of it as one merit of the system, that it helps to demolish' the year-day exposition, and in a distinct Appendix on the study of Prophecy, the common view of the Four Empires is cast aside; it is desirable to submit these parts to a brief analysis. Reasoning weak in itself will sometimes pass current and assume a fictitious importance, when it is coupled with strong assertions, and appears under the protecting shadow of some laborious and learned system.

There are two points which I purpose to examine in order the reasons alleged for innovating in the application of the FourEmpires, and the supposed demolition of the year-day interpretation.

I. The view of the author on the Four Empires forms a section of the last Appendix (pp. 675-679), and some remarks to the same effect may be found in other pages. 'Christians,' it is said, 'ought sooner to have learned the true interpretation of the prophecy. We are beginning to learn it slowly and reluctantly.'

1. The hypothesis honoured with this preference is, in substance, that of Mr. Maitland, borrowed in part from Ben Ezra or Lacunza. The Four Empires are supposed to be Babylon and Persia, Greece, Rome, and one that is still future. Half, however, of the original theory is abandoned, for Mr. Browne admits that the same empires are intended in both the visions.

Thus, among the six recent authors who forsake the usual view, we have now five varieties of opinion. One supposes the fourth empire, the ten horns, and the little horn, all to have risen, and only the times to be literal and future. Two others hold the empire to be that of Rome, but the eleven horns to be still future. A fourth holds the empires in the image to be perhaps as above, or perhaps Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece; but the four beasts all certainly future. A fifth makes Babylon, Greece, and Rome, as before, the three first of the image, but the four beasts probably still to arise. Finally, Mr. Browne completes the cycle of varieties; for he adopts one-half of the last hypothesis, and rejects the other, with equal confidence and decision. No wonder that the chariot of the new system moves slowly and reluctantly along, when every one of the steeds is pulling it in a different direction.

2. Let us however grasp, if possible, this Proteus theory under its latest form. The three empires, in each vision alike, are to be Babylon with Persia, Greece, and Rome. The reasons offered by previous writers for this view have been refuted already. No two of the four empires, I have shewn, are so strongly distinguished in Scripture as these which the new hypothesis would blend into one. What fresh arguments are alleged by our present author for their union?

(1.) First, it is strange that interpreters should ever have dreamt of applying this symbol (the bear) to the Persian empire. When did that power ever show itself as a ravening bear, devouring the pleasant land, the Lord's inheritance? Nothing but the exigency of system' which required, that the fourth empire should be that of Rome, could have rendered the interpretation tolerable for a moment. Certainly the attempts of the commentators are exceedingly helpless and awkward.'

Now, by the author's own exposition, the Persian empire is included in the symbol of the lion. A very acute