of mercy to the Jews: it will be a sign of the Divine Indignation against them having ceased. And, accordingly, no sooner is it said at the last verse of chapter xi. "He shall come to his end, and none shall help him," but it is immediately added, in the first verse of the following chapter, "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the Great Prince, which standeth up for the children of thy people." Thus, the place which the End of "the King" occupies in the chronological series of predicted events is plainly marked. It will occur previouly, but very near to the time, when Michael shall stand up for the Jews; when God's Indignation against them having terminated, and the season of his returning mercy being arrived, the preparation of a way for their deliverance will more directly

commence.

Nothing, however, had as yet been definitively communicated to Daniel respecting the time when these interesting events would take place. It had merely been told him, that they would occur within some part of the period of the "Time of the End." With the view, therefore, of giving him some clearer information on this point, one of two Angels who stood by, asked, in his hearing (obviously for the purpose that he might hear the reply), "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" "When the man

clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, held up his right hand and his left hand unto Heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever; that it will be for a time, times, and a half: and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the Holy People, all these things shall be finished." This answer, however, did not fully meet the exigency of the case. It informed Daniel, indeed, that the period of God's Indignation against his people would include the 1260 years revealed in a former vision ; and that their final deliverance (for this was meant by the phrase of "accomplishing the scattering of them") would not take place till the whole mystery of God should be finished. But it still left him in ignorance as to the time when this Indignation should cease; and of the length of the interval which would have occurred between it and the termination of the 1260 years. He, therefore, himself renewed the inquiry; and having said, "O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things ?" received this further revelation: "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, shall be 1290 days." The date from which these days (i. e. years) are to be reckoned, together with that of the period of 1335 years subsequently mentioned, must evidently be the same as that from which the

other period of 1260 years begin: consequently, "the taking away of the daily sacrifice, and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate," specified here as the date from which these several periods commence, cannot in this place refer, as it did in the thirty-first verse of the preceding chapter, to the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, by the Romans under Titus; but it must be understood as relating to the same event, which had been already described in a preceding vision by the phrase of "the Saints being given into the hand of the Little Horn;" i. e. the spiritual desolation of the true Temple, the Church of God, by the introduction and establishment of Papal corruption, superstition, and idolatry. From this event the Angel dates 1290 years, and thus indirectly divides the period, "the Time of the End," into two parts; the first consisting of thirty, the second of forty-five years; but he omits to state the particular object which induced him to make this division, and the specific circumstance by which the expiration of the thirty years will be marked. What then may we conjecture this circumstance to be, but the very event concerning which Daniel so naturally desired information, namely, the ceasing of the divine Indignation against Israel; or, in other words, the commencement of that series of events,

by which the scattering of the holy people will in due time be accomplished? This event, then, as it was now revealed, was to take place thirty years after the termination of the 1260 years; and, consequently, forty-five years, as the subsequent communication shows, before the arrival of the Time of Blessedness; when the purposes of God should be fulfilled, and the whole series of events, in relation to the deliverance of Israel, be consummated. With such precision is the date of this occurrence, "the End of the King," no less than its particular place in the chronological arrangement, marked out by the prophecy.

CHAP. XX.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

applying to Napoleon that part of the prophecy which has been explained in the preceding chapter, we cannot but be struck with its strong resemblance to the circumstances which marked the termination of his eventful history. He prospered, till he had laid prostrate in succession every papal throne, and had desolated and impoverished every kingdom of the Beast. Spain and Portugal were the last among them who became the objects of his unprovoked invasion; and no sooner had he inflicted the Divine judgment on these countries, than his commission terminated, and he began to experience disaster and defeat. The Russian expedition gave the first intimation of his change of fortunes. But it was in the Peninsula that the attack commenced, which, though feeble in its beginning, led to events which ultimately produced his fall. Thus, the king of the south pushed at him.* Indeed, the

* See the note in the preceding chapter, page 132.