Besides the general idea of a lengthened space of fiery trial to the Church of God, Daniel gets some specific dates as great finger-posts in the future history of the divine dispensations on earth, which should guide believers as to the time of the end. Moreover, his prophecies were not to be clearly understood till events evolved themselves-till the time of the end. History, as it was developed, would throw light on what was meanwhile obscure. There would be given indeed to the Church a supplement, in course of time, to the communication now made to him. The teaching of the inspired Apostles, and especially the Revelation of John, would follow up his prophecies and greatly facilitate the understanding of God's plans. Knowledge should be increased.

Still more plainly Daniel was informed, chiefly, of course, for the benefit of the Church after he was gone, that a definite time of 1260 years should be a great leading period in the future history of God's people. This was to be one of the most remarkable periods in "the times of the Gentiles." Gabriel was the revealing angel; but he got his information from the "Man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz; His body also was like the beryl, and His face as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire, and His arms and His feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of His words like the voice of a multitude" (Dan. x. 5, 6). Who could this be but our Lord Jesus Christ in His pre

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existent state? In the hearing of the prophet the ministering angel asked the Lord, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" The answer is given in the most solemn manner in the form of an oath, "holding up the right hand and the left hand to heaven, and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that it should be for a time, times, and a half" (Dan. xii. 7). This expression of three times and a half is equivalent to twelve hundred and sixty years. The number, as we learn from John, looks forward to the time of the Gentile Church, when the kingdom of God should be established under the Gospel dispensation. This is the grand, important date which affects the history of the Church of Christ. All other dates seem to hang upon the proper interpretation of its commencement and its close. There are two other dates of 1290 and 1335 years mentioned in Dan. xii. II, 12. These are to be regarded simply as supplemental to the 1260, and entirely dependent for elucidation on the explanation of the beginning and end of the other far more important number.

What was it that would happen during these 1260 years? How should it be known when they began and ended? This, according to Daniel xii. 7, was to be the duration of the "scattering of the power of the holy people." And, according to John, it was to denote the time during which "the woman received two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, to be nourished from the face of the

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serpent" (Rev. xii. 14): It immediately follows (ver. 15), "The serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood; and the earth helped the woman." The meaning evidently is, that the peculiar characteristic state of the Church of Christ during the three and a half times, or 1260 years, would be that she should be in a depressed condition,

that she should be persecuted and overpowered to such a degree as to make it seem as if she had disappeared altogether from the earth. "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. xii. 17). Again, in Rev. xiii. 5, 7, it is said, "There was given unto him (the beast with seven heads and ten horns) a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given him to continue forty and two months (1260 years). And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations." this period been reckoned by the we find it mentioned about seven forms in Daniel and Revelation together. In addition to these seven, which will be found in Dan. vii. and xii., and in Rev. xi., xii., and xiii., there is an allusion doubtless to it in Rev. x. 5, 7. And it is abundantly manifest that it is to the same number that the Saviour

So important has Spirit of God, that times in its varied

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refers in His discourse respecting the destruction of Jerusalem and His second advent, when He speaks of "the times of the Gentiles," which should be "fulfilled" at the end of the tribulations of His Church.

What, then, more particularly should occur at the beginning and the end of this remarkable date, and during its course? We may answer this question in a few propositions summarily stated, and, as far as possible, in the language of Scripture.

(1.) The commencement was to be marked by "the times and the laws" of the Church of God being given into the hands of the little (Papal) horn, which should "speak great words against the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High" (Dan. vii. 25).

(2.) The end should be distinguished by "the Ancient of Days sitting in judgment on the adverse and persecuting power, consuming and destroying it unto the end" (Dan. vii. 26).

(3.) "The witnesses, or faithful servants of Christ, were to bear their testimony in sackcloth "—in great sorrow and depression-during all that time (Rev. xi. 3). At the end of the period, events in the history of the Church would show that she began to put off her sackcloth, and assume the appearance of joyful life and action.

(4.) The mystical woman, or true Church of Christ, should be comparatively out of sight during this period; and when, in her experience, she should begin to leave her wilderness of obscurity and oppression, and to

be clad in the robes of spiritual activity, gladness, and courage, that must be the time when the period ends.

(5.) The period terminates at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and at the beginning of the pouring out of the vials (Rev. x. 5-7).

(6.) The Saviour tells us that at the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles, there should 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" (Luke xxi. 25). Great political convulsions and national troubles would be evidence of the time of the end.

(7.) In Dan. viii. 14, we find another period of 2300 years, at the close of which it is stated "the sanctuary should be cleansed." This cleansing is manifestly identified with the elevation of the Christian Church after her long course of suppression by the Roman power. This long period would seem to embrace the whole term during which the Jewish and Gentile Church together should be trodden down by the hostile powers of the world-first Pagan, then Papal. This comprehensive number must have been intended to terminate at the same time as the 1260.

These, then, are "the times of the Gentiles." It is an important inquiry, what portion of Church history. do these numbers embrace? In answering this question, we must appeal to historical occurrences. Without such an appeal we cannot ascertain when the period began. Let us, then, look to some of the leading