Earlier text: The SermonWE have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."—2 Pet. 1:19. PETER records in his Epistles the scene he witnessed on Tabor. Deep and lasting must have been the impression it made upon his mind. He makes a deduction from the scene witnessed on the mount. On it I intend to ground illustrations of the future, so far as delineated in the sacred volume. But I feel it necessary to explain the words of Peter. The common reading of the passage is, "until the day-star arise in your hearts." Such, however, is not the meaning of the apostles—"a day-star" arising in a believer's heart is not a scriptural idea. The true construction of the passage, in perfect accordance with the Greek, is this: "Ye do well that ye take heed [as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise]"; there we close the brackets, and then the words, "in your hearts," refer back to the words, "take heed." Therefore the true reading of the words is, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed in your hearts, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise." Peter speaks in language which many in this generation certainly do not accept. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy;" and he adds, "Ye do"—ill? No. "Ye do"—wrong? No; but "Ye do well to take heed." Too many excellent Christians repudiate every discussion which touches the skirts, or trenches on the merest outlines, of prophetic investigation. Let us show that such an attitude is not scriptural, it is not even rational, and certainly it is not profitable to our souls or conducive to our happiness. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, all have written prophecies, some portions of which have been translated into facts, while some of their writings remain still for the future to illustrate, and the historian to record. The last discourse of Jesus to his disciples was a portrait of the things that were to come on the earth. The disciple who loved most, called the disciple of love, was chosen while an exile on Patmos, to pre-write the events of the future. Before him swept past the apocalyptic visions that are every day being translated into facts. The objection we hear constantly urged, sometimes by Christians, always by the profane, is this: Have there not been so many misinterpretations, mistakes, and miscalculations, that we are compelled to shrink from all effort to explain those predictions that relate to the future, until the future is lost in the present, and the predictions are known to be true by our seeing their fulfillment? What, I ask, would be the use of such a theory? When the whole earth shall be covered with the glory of Tabor, we shall not need evidence that God is God, or that the New Testament is true. We shall then read its magnificent pages in the original splendor in which they were once written, and we shall have the evidence of our senses that all God ever revealed is true. But the misinterpretations of the past ought not to be dissuasions from our attempting what we can prove to be a clear and an obvious duty. In the laying of the Atlantic telegraph, the failures of the past serve to stimulate better efforts for the future, as well as contain the elements of future success. Failures are not losses. Every buoy we see floating in the channel over sandbank or shipwreck makes past disaster the ground of future safety. The wrecks of the past make the voyages of the present only more certain, and less liable to peril. But if the misinterpretation of predictions be a valid reason for not attempting to understand them, will not such objection strike much further? The Bible has been misinterpreted; are we therefore to put a padlock upon it? The words of God have been perverted; are we therefore never to read them? Christianity has been turned into dark and overshadowing superstition; is Christianity therefore to be abjured, and its sublime hopes and prospects to be put in abeyance? The abuse of a thing is no valid argument against its use. The mistakes of the past ought to be reasons for greater care, more ardent prayer, but not for neglect of the subject altogether. It has been urged that the difficulties are so many that they are insuperable. We deny it. Of course the Bible does not make us prophets. The interpreters of prophecy do not assume to be so. We are interpreters of what God has written, not prophets of what he has not written. The books of Isaiah, Daniel, Revelation—the predictions scattered through the epistles—are part and parcel of the inspired word. What is a book written for? To be read. And what is the object of reading? To understand. Is it likely that God Almighty would give us a book that we are not to read, or if we read it that it will be impossible for us to understand? Let us refer to the most difficult and mysterious book in the New Testament—the Apocalypse—how does it open? Does it say, Don't cross the threshold; don't venture to read this book, for you will never be able to understand it; cease reading the New Testament at the end of the Epistle of Jude, and leave the book of the Revelation for perusal after its visions have hardened into history? No such preliminary warning is given. On the contrary, it opens saying, "Blessed is he that readeth," not unfortunate, or mistaken, or fanatical is he that readeth; but, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written within." That there may be no mistake about the possibility of understanding this book, it is further called, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." Peter says, "We have a sure word of prophecy," as sure a prediction as facts in history are real. And he says, "Ye do," not ill, but "ye do well to take heed unto it, as unto"—what? A meteor in the swamp, that misleads? a will-o'-the-wisp, that will drive or draw you you know not whither? No; but as unto "A LIGHT that shineth in a dark place," and you are to take heed to it until the bright and morning star appear upon the brow of night, and the Son of Righteousness, that set amidst the clouds of Calvary, rise amidst the splendors of everlasting day, with healing under his wings. The Saviour's longest discourse was the sermon on the mount of beatitudes, and his next longest sermon was that which he pronounced upon the mount overlooking Jerusalem, when he predicted distress of nations, perplexity, the fall of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews, and all the lights and shadows of that futurity into which we have long ago entered. It is in the course of this prophecy that the disciples said to him, What shall be the sign of thy personal advent; the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? What did the Saviour answer? Did he rebuke them? Did he say, You have no business with such subjects? Did he say, Go, and practice righteousness, and charity, and love, and truth, but crush all desire to know aught of futurity? Certainly not; he at once proceeded, in a chapter as sublime as it is rich in comfort and thought, to tell them what signs should precede his advent, what circumstances should usher it in, what shadows and clouds should lie broad, cold, and dark, upon the bosom of the earth, until the brightness of his advent came to strike them through with glory. "There shall," he said, "be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear of the things that are coming on the earth. And then"—when? just when you see these things—"then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Let us not try to be wiser than the master; read these words, and see if they only are the fanatics who try to understand them; or whether there be not some ground for suspicion that they are the fools that cast ridicule and discredit on them. The Saviour has assured his people that he will come again. He has not left us finally; we are in an interim condition, between the Christ that was crucified 1835 years ago, and the Christ that will come in the glory of his Father and with his holy angels. All Christians that repeat the apostles' creed believe that Jesus will come personally to our world—that he who breathed our atmosphere before shall breathe it again—that he who raised the dead in Palestine shall raise the dead throughout the whole globe—that he who calmed the tempestuous ocean will stretch his kingly hand over all creation, and there shall be an everlasting and unbroken calm. He will come, in the language of the angel sent to tell the sorrowing disciples upon Olivet, when they mourned his departure from them: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come—so come—in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Can words be plainer? He rose; in the air, the cloud his chariot, the shechinah his glory, and he disappeared; the cloud will be his chariot again, and he will come, in his own language, "in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory;" or, as the apostle says, "behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him." "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven"—the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. These are weighty words; we don't appreciate them as we ought. We think too much of death, too little of Him who is the Lord of life and the destroyer of death. We have nothing to do with death but to ignore it; we have everything to do with the Lord of the living, the destroyer of death, and to look for him, worship and adore him. And certainly in recent time this subject has been investigated by pious, learned, and studious minds, to an extent and with a success with which it never was investigated before. The Evangelical party in the Church of England generally concur in the duty of studying the sure word of prophecy. Growing numbers in other churches agree with them. But if none accepted the study, it would be no matter except a source of sorrow. We are to call no man "Master;" for our rule of belief is not what the most men say, or the best men think, or the fathers have written, or popes have fulminated, but to the law and the testimony; what say the Scriptures? if they speak not according to them, it is because there is no truth in them. Let this great truth sink deep into our hearts, that He who came personally to die, will come personally to reign. It is no dispute as to the meaning of the second advent; if language has any sense, if grammar is capable of construction, it must be accepted as a literal and a personal advent. How will that sublime scene, it may be very near, startle a world that has no thought of it, and no care about it. A glory in comparison with which Tabor's light was dimness, will flash to every eye, for "every eye shall see him," and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see—some departing like a vision forever; others embracing it with joy unutterable and full of glory, the salvation of our God. But whatever be the contrasting effects, his coming draweth near.—Dr. Cumming. The Book of Revelation.
By Uriah Smith
IS IT SEALED? OR CAN IT BE UNDERSTOOD?
THE last book in the inspired volume is entitled, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." Our translators in styling it "The Revelation of St. John, the Divine," contradict the very first words of the book itself, which declare it to be "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass;" and Christ, it is added, "sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." The source from which this revelation comes is thus plainly given. God, the author of all things, makes it known to Jesus Christ; Christ, through the ministry of the heavenly angles, his divine assistants, signifies it to his servant John; and John, evangelist and apostle, and now prophet, acting as amanuensis, makes it known to the church. The book itself has been described to be a "panorama of the glory of Christ." Certainly whoever reads it with any effort to form a mental conception of the imagery which it introduces, can but be deeply impressed with the grandeur, sublimity, and importance, of the scenes which are made to pass, in fascinating array, before the mind. Themes of thrilling and impressive interest, grand and lofty conceptions, sublime and magnificent description, the whole enhanced by the fact that these take hold upon the issues of the eternal world, are here calculated to awaken in the mind of the reader the most absorbing interest. And the question that will first arise, is, For whose benefit are these scenes described? Can we ascertain our relation to them, or possibly our part in them? Can they be understood? We answer, Yes; or the title of the book is itself a deception: yes; or God has declared his purpose to accomplish a work which he forshaw could never be fulfilled: yes; or he has solemnly pronounced a blessing upon an impossibility. 1. The book is called a revelation. A revelation is something which is revealed or made known. Moses has said, Deut. 29:29, that "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things which are revealed, belong unto us and our children forever." The very title of the book, then, is a clear refutation of a view which is, alas! too popular at the present day, that this book is a part of the hidden mysteries of God, and cannot be understood. A revealed mystery is a contradiction both of ideas and terms. A revelation is not something hidden and concealed; and if this is the nature of the book, it should have been called The Mystery, or, The Hidden Book; certainly not, The Revelation. 2. It is declared that God gave this Revelation to Christ, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. The expression "his servants," is very comprehensive. It includes all the followers of Christ in all time. And wherever and whenever there are any persons who are the servants of Christ, the Revelation is for them, designed to be a lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their path. But how can it show anything to Christ's followers if it cannot be understood? If, as some contend, it is an unfathomable mystery, dark and incomprehensible, so that all search for its meaning is labor lost, how does it show to the seeker after truth what is coming to pass? It would be worse than useless; for it would only create an anxiety which it would do nothing to relieve. Human tyrants have been known to post their laws so high that the people could not read them, and then punish mercilessly their violation. But God does not act thus. Would he undertake to make known to mankind some important truths, and yet fall into the worse than earthly folly of clothing them in language or in figures which human minds could not comprehend? Would he command a person to behold some distinct object, and then erect some impenetrable barrier between him and the object at which he was bidden to look? Would he give his servants a light to guide them through the gloom of night, and then throw over that light a pall so thick and heavy that not a ray of its brightness could be discovered through the obscuring folds? If he has dealt thus with us in the Revelation, then the expressly declared object of the book never can be attained, and he knew it never could be attained, when he solemnly put upon record that it was to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass. He does not thus trifle, either with himself or us. 3. The third verse of the first chapter reads: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand." A blessing pronounced upon the reading of this prophecy, when the time spent upon it would be thrown away? A blessing upon hearing it when no man can comprehend it? A blessing upon a man who will understand it, when it is impossible that any one can understand it? This would be charging God with folly. Men may assert as some have asserted, that "the study of the Revelation either finds or leaves a man mad." This is a specimen of man's judgment; but the word itself assures us that whoever undertakes the study of this book with a calm and teachable spirit, and with a sincere desire to know the truth, that he may glorify God therewith, will find himself, at length, not mad, but in the rich possession of a heavenly blessing. Yes, the Revelation may be understood. We may drink into the spirit of its soul-stirring themes till our understandings are enlightened to comprehend and appreciate them. We may gaze upon its scenes of glory till our hearts glow with the foretaste of their blessedness. We may listen to the invitation so tenderly given by the Spirit and the bride, when they say to all, Come, till our beings are fired with new zeal and new determinations to be with that enraptured throng that shall make Heaven ring at last with ascriptions of blessing and honor and glory to God and the Lamb. Let us study with new interest the sacred word; and, having laid hold upon the blessed hope which it sets before us, let us be very thorough in the work of purifying our hearts and lives, that this hope may in due time, "change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise."
URIAH SMITH. Says the National Temperance Advocate, a journal which stands in the front ranks of the temperance reform, opposing the use of tobacco as well as that of alcohol:— “It is refreshing to see in some of the religious journals a vigorous testimony borne against Mr. Spurgeon's plea for tobacco, wherein he says he has ‘felt grateful to God’ and has ‘blessed his name’ for a cigar! The London Christian World says it could ‘fill many columns with the letters it has received severely commenting on Mr. Spurgeon's remarks.’ The Boston Watchman and Reflector regrets that he has ‘made his name, if not the song of the drunkard, yet of the next akin.’ These comments reveal the growth of an opinion adverse to tobacco and strong drink against which even a most popular and honored clergyman may not do violence with impunity.”
Such omens of progress are truly refreshing, indicating, as they do, not only the advance-ment of anti-tobacco reform, but also a growing disposition to form and hold opinions independent of the sanction of either political or religious demagogues, which is always so favorable to reforms of every kind. THE worn traveler looks forward to the end of his journey in hope of rest. If returning to his family, the very point that terminates his weary way is the one of thrilling interest to him. The happy associations of his dear home induce him to press onward to his journey's end. When the night is dark, damp, and dreary, the watchman cheers his heart with the thought that "The morning cometh." And in all the range of Christian theology there is no point to which the church of Christ can look, nor any subject she can contemplate with greater pleasure and profit than the end, which brings her dear Lord back to the earth again, and calls the just of all past ages from their graves in one immortal family with joys complete. It is the grand event that consummates all her hopes, terminates the period of her trials and griefs, and introduces her eternal repose. The near approaching end is regarded by the apostle Peter as an incentive to right-doing and holy living, and a matter of such joy to the living Christian that he exhorts the church to be ever looking forward, and hastening unto that great day. "The end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." 1 Pet. 4:7. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." 2 Pet. 3:11-14. The apostle Paul, speaking of the events that mark the transition from the present age to the future glory, says that "Then cometh the end, when he [Christ] shall have delivered up the kingdom [of grace] to God, even the Father." 1 Cor. 15:24. He speaks of the resurrection of the just, and the change to immortality in verses 51, 52 of the same chapter, in these triumphant words: "Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" And the Son of God, in answer to the disciples who inquired, "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming; and of the end of the world," takes them forward in prophetic discourse to the last generation before the end, and gives a photograph of our times, and a most comforting promise to the faithful as follows: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matt. 24:12, 13. The Hebrew Daniel was carried in prophetic history down the four universal monarchies, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, to the end, in four distinct lines. The first is the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the second chapter, where the four parts of the great image represent the four great kingdoms. The second is the four beasts of the seventh chapter, which answer to the gold, silver, brass, and iron of the metalic image of the second chapter. The third is found in the eighth chapter, under the symbols of the ram, goat, and the little horn that grew exceeding great. And the fourth line is the historic prophecy of the eleventh chapter, in which the prophet is carried forward through the long period marked by the rise and fall of earthly governments to the last of which it is said in the last verse of the chapter, "He shall come to his end, and none shall help him." But the angel Gabriel who had been sent from Heaven to show Daniel these things does not leave the prophet here. In order to make it perfectly apparent that the four lines of prophecy do reach down to the end of the Christian age, the great time of trouble, the second coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, he continues as recorded in the first verses of the twelfth chapter. Verses 1-3: "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Michael is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is evident from the words of Jude where he speaks of "Michael the Archangel," verse 9, and the language of Paul, where he calls the Archangel, "the Lord himself," in 1 Thess. 4:16. The words "stand up" in this prophecy signify to reign. See Chap. 11:2, 3, 4, 7, 20, 21. At the end of the Christian age Christ will lay aside his priestly garments, put on his kingly robes, and appear in glory in the clouds of the heaven, as King of kings, and Lord of lords, to the destruction of his enemies, and the eternal redemption and salvation of all his people. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Matt. 13:43. And the faithful servants of Christ, who have laid down the gospel sickle only at the close of the reaping, will exchange worn mortality with its dusty garments for an immortal form like unto Christ's glorious body, a robe of glistening whiteness having been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and a crown of unfading glory, set with stars, eternal memorials of the sheaves gathered in the brief, toiling, weeping, reaping time. Thus those "that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Verse 4: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Prophecy is history in advance. It was not possible, from the very nature of the case, for Daniel to understand his own prophecy. He was carried forward from his time by several lines of prophecy through the four kingdoms down past the time of trouble, the second advent, and the resurrection, out into the sea of immortal rewards. But this prophecy could be of service to no one until the long period allotted to the rise and fall of earthly kingdoms should pass, and their history be written, so that the student of prophecy could compare the specifications of prophecy with history, and learn the comparative nearness of the end. The prophecy of Daniel relates with great distinctness to the first advent of Christ to suffer for the sins of man, and to his second advent in power and great glory. And that it was given for the benefit of those who should live near the time of the fulfillment of its important events, and not for the instruction of the prophet, is forcibly stated by the apostle in these words: "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister." 1 Pet. 1:10-12. The careful student of prophecy will not for a moment admit the absurdity that the prophetic word is so sealed up that it cannot be understood in this mortal state. And yet he will clearly see how these lines of symbolic prophecy, stretching far into the future in illustration of the rise, the character, the acts, and the fall of future kingdoms, must of necessity be sealed until the time of the end, when they are opened by the fulfillment of their own specifications, excepting those in immediate connection with the preparatory work for the coming of the Son of man. The Bible was designed to light the path of the people of God in this dark world, and not for the benefit of the saved in the future world of light and glory, where they shall have no use for it. The apostle calls especial attention to the "sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn." 2 Pet. 1:19. After the dawning, even, of the eternal day of glory, the church will have no further use for the prophetic word. Now we apply the words of David, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. 119:105. Then the narrow path of the Christian pilgrim's night will be lost in the open glory of eternal day. The lapse of time, fulfilling and unfolding prophecy, has ever brought increasing light upon the pathway of the people of God, so that it has been said, in wisdom, "The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. 4:18. But in the time of the end, the grand focal point of prophetic fulfillment, when all the lines of the prophecy meet, in the words of the angel, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Whether the words "Many shall run to and fro," be fulfilled in turning and searching to and fro in the Scriptures for light upon the fulfillment of prophecy, or by men called of God to the work, traveling to and fro with the message from God to the people upon this subject, the fulfillment is evident. Both have been done within the last half century as never before. Duffield on prophecy, p. 373, says that:— "The word translated, run to and fro, is metaphorically used to denote investigation, close, diligent, accurate observation—just as the eyes of the Lord are said to run to and fro. The reference is not to missionary exertions in particular, but to the study of the Scriptures, especially the sealed book of prophecy." "Many shall endeavor to search out the sense; and knowledge shall be increased by these means. This seems to be the meaning of this verse, though another has been put upon it, viz., 'Many shall run to and fro preaching the gospel of Christ, and therefore religious knowledge and true wisdom shall be increased.' This is true in itself; but it is not the meaning of the prophet's words." Matthew Henry says that: "They shall read it over and over, shall meditate upon it, they shall discourse of it, talk it over, sift out the meaning of it, and thus knowledge shall be increased." Gill says: "*Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased; that is towards the end of the time appointed, many shall be stirred up to inquire into these things delivered in this book, and will spare no pains or cost to get a knowledge of them; will read and study the Scriptures, and meditate on them; compare one passage with another, spiritual things with spiritual, in order to obtain the mind of Christ; will carefully peruse the writings of such, who have lived before them who have attempted anything of this kind; and will go far and near to converse with persons that have any understanding of such things; and by such means, with the blessing of God upon them, the knowledge of this book of prophecy will be increased, and things will appear plainer and clearer, the nearer the accomplishment of them is; and especially when prophecy and facts can be compared; and not only this kind of knowledge, but knowledge of all spiritual things, of all evangelical truths, and doctrines, will be abundantly enlarged at this time." We must be allowed to differ with those expositors who give the words, "and knowledge shall be increased," a general application. The angel was not sent to instruct the prophet in regard to advancement in the arts and sciences, and general improvement in the times of the end. No! He had one object only, "I am come," says Gabriel, "to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days." Chap. 10:14. The burden of the prophecy was the grand theme of the end. The words of the angel Gabriel relating to the end were just what were closed up and sealed to the time of the end, and just that which was to be unsealed by the fulfillment of prophecy, and the very question upon which knowledge would be increased. If the inquiry be raised, why should the subject of the end agitate the present generation? The answer is at hand: The very time appointed for this movement, the time of the end, has come. But to return to Daniel 12:4. Up to this time the prophet had been a silent listener. Three only had to do with the giving of the prophecy: Michael, who was Christ, Gabriel, and the prophet. "I will show thee," says Gabriel to Daniel, "that which is noted in the Scriptures of truth; and there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince." Chap. 10:21. Christ, the author and finisher of the plan of redemption, gave the prophecy to Daniel by the hand of the angel Gabriel. In a previous vision the prophet heard a voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision." Chap. 8:16. Daniel had been the pupil, Gabriel the instructor, but teaching under the direct supervision of the Son of God. Verses 5-7: "Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever, that it shall 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." Daniel is now a spectator, while three heavenly beings are before him, two of whom are in conversation concerning the end. Here we will particularly notice:— 1. That although three heavenly beings appear in the scene, one of them takes no part; leaving Christ, Gabriel, and Daniel the acting parties, in accordance with the declaration of Gabriel to the prophet: "There is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince." 2. The one clothed in linen above the waters of the river, of whom Gabriel, as inferior, makes the inquiry, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders;" and who, as superior, answers the question, with an oath of inexpressible solemnity, is the Son of God. 3. Gabriel puts the time question squarely—"How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?"—and is not rebuked for prying into the secrets of the Almighty. But instead of rebuking the angel, the Son of God so far indorses the time inquiry as to answer in an oath with both hands raised to heaven. 4. Daniel is a listener, and he is about to write a book of the things he has seen and heard. He is now being deeply impressed with the grandeur of this last scene, which seems to be introduced for the sole object of impressing the mind of the prophet of God with the fact that prophetic measurements of very grave importance are connected with the lines of symbolic prophecy which had been given to him. Some of these reach to the time of the end, while others extend to the investigative Judgment and the cleansing of the sanctuary. None of the periods reach to the appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. The longest of those periods terminated at the great disappointment in 1844, which introduced the special waiting, praying, watching time, and in which the words of our Lord have a definite application—"Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is." Definite time for the second advent is out of the question. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."