succession of 33). The next thing to find is the unit of measurement, and since Christ's life 33.3 = a week, and therefore a day of this week is 4-76190 cannot do better than take that number as our unit. Then we have Times. years, we 4-76190 × 159-4705863 = 759383 74450980302238095, and to reduce this sum to solar years we must divide it by 1.0145617, which is the proportion between a year and a Time, and we obtain as quotient 748484-480, which is precisely the time, even to an hour, deduced from the Book of Revelation !! This number is composed as follows: Holy Completion in Heaven = = 7 x 100 x 1000 = 7,00,000 Completion of the World in Heaven = 4 x 12 x 1000=48000 = 4 × 12 x 10 = 480 World complete spiritually and worldly There is also another peculiarity connected with it. The numbers run in the following manner: Holy Completion before the Creation; the 1st world; new life; the 2nd world; new life; the whole world-life; the 3rd world; new life; completion of the world-life!! Can any one now doubt the inspiration of Revelation or of Esdras? If he does, nothing can possibly convince him, for he will not believe. Can any one doubt the existence of a material world and life to come? If he does, how can he explain this wonderful precision in the mathematical part of the Bible? Mathematics we know is the only exact science, and truly God is the most exact of mathematicians. CHAPTER XV. CONCLUSION. THE Word Conclusion is written, but how shall I commence this chapter? Here, for the first time in the course of my writing, do I feel hesitation. I am about to put the finishing words to a book which is unlike any other book that any other man has ever written; I am going to proclaim to the whole world that I know that which, according to universal belief, "no man knoweth ;" I am going to provide the world with the future means of proving me either an inspired prophet of God, or a mad presumptuous fool! Who am I that I should speak so boldly on the future? that I should dare to write so conclusively on a subject which has puzzled the most learned of Divines; who am I that can do this, and yet feel no fear? I am not a Bishop who might have obtained this knowledge after forty years' patient search of the Scriptures; many say I am not even a good churchman; perhaps they are right! what then? a layman might also find the truth if he were to study the Bible a whole lifetime, so say our preachers; but have I done so? not so; four months ago I was as learned in, and as ignorant of, the Bible as most men now are; I knew positively nothing of the future; and, I fear, I doubted everything. Am I ashamed to confess this? no, I am ashamed that it was so, not to confess it; and, alas! I fear there are very few now living who would have the conscience to cast the first stone at me. I am bound to confess it; if I did not do so, others might say that this is a work of study and patient research, the fruit of a clever farseeing brain. Can I admit this? God forbid! No one who knows me can believe that my own intellect has done this; however much I may feel disinclined to assert its inspiration, I cannot take any credit to my own brain for it. What else then can I think? from whence came this knowledge? Some, of course, perhaps most people, will say that my words are all nonsense; that my brain is probably diseased; that my dreaming even of inspiration is impious. What do I say myself? I believe my brain to be perfectly sound and clear, I believe my words to be perfectly true, and I do not believe that they are my own. I see in this the obedience of God Himself to certain laws which He has Himself framed. Long ago did the Son of God thank the Father, "Lord "of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these 66 things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed "them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed "good in thy sight."* Long before that the psalmist sang, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast "thou ordained strength:"+ and what does St. Paul say, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to "confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak "things of the world to confound the things which are "mighty and base things of the world, and things "which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things *. Matt. xi. 25, 26. + Psalms viii. 2. which are not, to bring to nought things that are:" and why?"That no flesh should glory in his presence."* And shall I glory then? Again I say, God forbid ! To Him, "the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever," for having revealed His secrets now, whilst it is yet day. And if I think the Spirit of God alone has revealed the certainty of the last day; what then do I think of others? Is there inspiration in the "Hora Apocalyptica"? Undoubtedly there is; and yet I disagree with it in some particulars; true: but "one star differeth from another star in glory," God works out His ends gradually-He ordains that the shadow shall grow gradually more and more distinct, till it is suddenly replaced by the reality. I do not mean that I have full inspiration, for I have it not. So far as I have gone, my ideas and interpretations are inspired. Still there are many things too hard for me to understand; others will yet arise who will make things clearer than what I can hope to do: my mission will have been accomplished (for the present at least,) when the singularity of an attempt to fix the very day and hour of Christ's advent will have attracted the attention of the whole world to that advent. St. Paul says, "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?" and is not this the very reason why prophecy is so much neglected? The chronological mistakes and uncertainties of writers on prophecy have been seized on by the world as their excuse for ridiculing the subject; and was it not this that first attracted my attention in the Hore? People ought to be more +1 Cor. xv. 41. * 1 Cor. i. 27-29. N 1 Cor. xiv. 8. charitable, and forgive errors of detail if the general exposition is true; but they do not do so, and they have some excuse. If the trumpeter is not quite clear what call he is sounding, who will prepare himself to battle? Feeling this myself, I have endeavoured to prove that the prophecies are not so loosely worded, that we are unable to fix on the day of their fulfilment within three quarters of a century: I have fixed the year, the day, and the hour. Believing it fully myself, I sound the call clearly and distinctly, that all who hear me may prepare for battle. And here is where I fail. I ask myself what right have I to preach to others what they shall do, and what they shall leave undone. I have not even the authority to preach given to the youngest member of the Ecclesiastical order. It is more fitting that they should preach to me, than I to them. I will not speak words of my own then, I will quote to you the words of God and the holy apostles, the founders of the Church, whom all are bound to obey. It is Jesus who says, "Occupy till I come."+ We have each of us a duty to do in that state of life in which it has pleased God to place us. Let us do that duty; in a worldly point of view, let us live on as if there were no such thing as the end drawing near. The father who neglects the education of his children, the child who neglects his duties, who sees "no good" in learning or doing anything now; the rulers and ministers who neglect the interests of the nation confided to their care, the people who disobey the commands of their lawful Sovereign, and of those put in authority over them, all who in any one tittle neglect their plain and unmistake * Luke xix. 13. |