Page Line 112N WALTER WYNN AND J. A. BROWN. Sec. 2. maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days" (Last three verses of the Book of Daniel). A.D. 622 is the acknowledged commencing date of Mohammedanism, which all commentators say is "the abomination that maketh desolate." Adding 1,335 lunar years brings us to the year 1917. Mr. Wynn writes: "The years 1916-17 will be terrible for their tribulations and spiritual darkness. During this period Turkey will fall, and 10 shortly after, or even in the midst of those dark days, Christ may come." J. A. Brown, in "Eventide," published in 1832, stated that the 1,260 and 1,335 years of Daniel 12, ver. 7-12, were the 1,260 and 1,335 lunar years of Mohammedanism, which, according to the 1 Mohammedan calendar, end in 1844 and 1917. He therefore predicted that there would be a distinct decline in the persecuting power of Mohammedanism about the 1st of April, 1844, as being the end of the 2,300 years mentioned by Daniel. This prediction was fulfilled by an occurrence the importance of which 2 can only be realised by those acquainted with Turkish affairs at the time. On the 21st of March, 1844, the Sultan signed a decree abolishing the beheading of Mohammedans who became Christians, and granting religious toleration. Pastor Russell, who made a speciality of prophecy, was the head 2 of a very large organisation, the importance of which can be judged by the fact that over 5,000,000 copies of one of his books and several million copies of another have already been published. He is the first, as far as I am aware, to draw public attention to the "Sabbath day cycle" method of prophecy. Leviticus shows that the Jews had a Sabbath every seventh day. A cycle of seven Sabbaths consecutively, namely, forty-nine Sabbaths, were followed by the fiftieth Sabbath, called the Jubilee. This fell once a year, and was called Pentecost. After every six years, the following year, the seventh, was a "Sabbath year." Seven of these cycles of seven years, namely, forty-nine years, were followed by a "Jubilee year," the fiftieth year. This is what Pastor Russell calls the typical cycle of fifty years. In "The Time is at Hand" he writes: "Every fiftieth year, counting from the time of their entrance into Canaan, was to Israel a year of Jubilee, a time of rejoicing and restitution, in which broken families were reunited and lost homesteads were restored " (see Lev. 25, ver. 8-13). He also writes: "This is the type of the great antitype, the millenial age of restitution," and says: "The fiftieth year after entering Canaan was the first typical Jubilee." If we take the end of a cycle of fifty cycles of fifty years, viz.: 2,500 years, we come to what Pastor Russell calls a Jubilee of Jubilees, Earth's Great Jubilee, or Times of Restitution," the times of restitution of all things" (Acts 3, ver. 21), the so-called "end of the world." He B Sec. 2. Page Line writes: "All types must be continually repeated until their antitypes appear; the keeping of a type is not the fulfilling of it, the fulfilling is reached when the type ceases, being displaced by the reality, the antitype." This is the commencement of the end of the 2,500 years, 5 the commencement of the Jubilee of Jubilees. He also writes: "Following this divinely indicated method of reckoning, wonderful results open before us. . . 50 by 50 equals 2,500 years, the length of that great cycle which began to count when Israel's last typical Jubilee ended, and which must culminate in the 10 great antitypical Jubilee. . . . Reckoning from the beginning of the seventy years' desolation under Babylon (Jer. 25, ver. 11)—the taking of the Jews into captivity in Babylon commenced a fresh era in their history-the Great Cycle ends with the year 1875 A.D." Six cycles of seven years each from 1875 brings up to 1917 the 15 commencement of the seventh cycle. Pastor Russell says also:* "We have clear evidence of the fact that our Lord's second advent was due when the Times of Restitution were due to begin, namely, October, 1874." This, in the Christian chronology, is the spring of the year 1875. This was the year when the knowledge which 20 constitutes the second coming of Christ was publicly given to the world in "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy. In this book was first published the scientific explanation of the miracles of Jesus the Christ, and it was shown that they were due to the inevitable action of a universal spiritual 25 law and performed through a knowledge of scientific right thinking.. The cycle of cycles, or 2,500 years that he deals with, starts from the last Jubilee kept by Israel prior to the Babylonish captivity and ends in the Jewish year 1874-5, at which date he says: "Our Lord's second advent was due to begin restitution work,' " and quotes: 30 The harvest of the earth is ripe " (Rev. 14, ver. 15); is the end of the world" (Matt. 13, ver. 39). The harvest According to Pastor Russell, the Christian year 1875 was to be followed by a period called the " harvest," which was to last for forty years. This is a time of reaping, testing and reckoning, and 35 the commencement of Armageddon, when the "true saints were "not only to preach the truth, but also to put into operation the great work of restitution for the world.' Pastor Russell concludes by telling us that the great Judge has come, and we are now living in the time of the end." 40 45 Pastor Russell and his many followers are daily expecting the great world change, and that at any moment Christ may appear, when the thousand years' millennium will start, not recognising that the word "thousand" used prophetically in the Bible does not mean a thousand," but means an unknown number." Pastor Russell that how long the world will last after the " gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" (Matt. 24, ver. 14) no one can tell, but that "this Time of the End is to culminate in the greatest time of trouble the world has ever *See also "Thy Kingdom Come," by Pastor Russell. says Page Line Sec. 2. known, the kingdom of Christ is even now being set up, while the kingdoms and systems of men are crumbling to their utter destruction. The glorious day is soon to break, although clouds of thick darkness yet obscure the glory from all eyes, except the eyes of faith." Something more than mere "faith" is required, namely, "faith founded upon knowledge." This is the more exact meaning of the Greek word "pistis," translated faith" in the New Testament. Harold Norris, a modern writer on prophecy, points out that the period of seven times," which is recognised by all the 10 authorities as a period of 2,520 years (360 by 7), the end of which marks the universal Second Coming of the Christ, dates from the rise of the kingdom of Babylon to supreme world power, and the commencement of the subjection of the kingdom of Judah. Mr. Norris, writing a few years ago, came to the conclusion that the end 15 of this period and therefore the date of the universal "Second Coming of Christ" would be "approximately within the epoch of October, 1917, to April, 1919, A.D., and probably about the spring of the year 1918. He also stated that the final time of tribulation preceding this would commence in the epoch of April, 1914, to October, 1915." ("When will Our Lord Return?" pp. 46-53.) It will be seen that he was correct in the latter portion of his anticipation, and he may prove to be equally correct in the former portion. 20 According to Mr. Norris the period of 1917-1918 is the termination of three great prophetic periods. These have been clearly set out 25 in the Bible. It is the termination of the 1,260 plus 1,260 plus 75 lunar years from 602-1 B.C., when Judah became tributary to Babylon; secondly, it is the termination of the 2,520 solar years from 604-3 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar saw the vision of the great image, which Dr. Grattan Guinness speaks of as a very principal 30 starting point"; and, thirdly, the termination of the 1,335 lunar years from 622 A.D., the commencement of Mohammedanism, which commentators speak of as the "abomination of desolation." Mr. Norris, in a letter to me, dealing with the above prophecies of Daniel, says that he doubles 1,260 years because when the man clothed in linen" in the middle of the river (Dan. 12, ver. 7) stated that the time to the end of these wonders was going to be for a time, times and a-half," he held up both hands, and was speaking to two men, one on either side of the bank of the river (see verse 5), and that this showed that the period of time, times and a-half, or 1,260 years, had to be doubled. 35 40 At first Mohammed's teachings were such as to make the writer of the Apocalypse, when foretelling the Saracenic invasion in Chapter 9, speak in these words of him, "I saw a star." His later teachings made him add the words "fall from heaven." It is little known that 45 the Saracenic invasion was preceded by a threat by Mohammed that he would attack Rome unless the priests gave up the worship of stones, pictures, bones of saints, etc., and worshipped the one true God. Mohammed found that the Arabians were too material, Sec. 2. and, instead of trying to lift them and being crucified like Jesus, who set the seal on his teachings by his resurrection, he fell to their level, with disastrous results to humanity. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D., in "The Bible, its Origin and Nature," speaking of the Koran, says, "In the later deliverance it is painfully apparent that Muhammad invented supposed revelations to suit his own convenience and minister to his own pleasures." At the present time many of the Mohammedans are reaching out for truth, and their intense earnestness and belief in God should 1 help them greatly to recognise the truth, the truth that sets man free. Mr. Norris also points out that by adding the prophetic period of the 120 years of peace granted to the world before the flood, to the date of the closing years of the French Revolution, we again come to 1917-18, the closing years of the world's revolutionary horrors. He takes 120 years as the final third of a time" (360 years), this being a repetition of "the 120 years of grace granted to the world before the Flood" (Gen. 6, ver. 3), and "the 120 years of grace" left to the Kingdom of Judah after the warning of the fall of the : Kingdom of Israel. Also, by adding the 79 years of the Captivity period to the year 1847-48, the date of the second downfall of the temporal power of the Papacy, we come to the downfall of all evil. Further, if we add the 40 years of probation experienced by the children of Israel, to 1877 A.D., the year of the defeat and dismemberment of Turkey - the head of the Mohammedan → desolation of abomination "-through the Russo-Turkish War, we reach 1917, the final destruction of all desolation of abomination.* So does history repeat itself in a series of cycles of events of a similar character, but steadily improving as time goes on, and steadily shortening in the length of each cycle. At the same time the evil does not reduce, but appears to increase, as there is the same amount of evil crowded into a shorter space of time through the shortening of the successive cycles or periods. The Final Seven Years of Evil. came A few years before the first edition of "Life Understood' out, I commenced to look into the Bible prophecies on the subject, and found references right throughout to the final seven years period of the world. These seven years are divided into two portions of 3 years each, spoken of in the Bible as 1,260 days, 42 months, 3 years, 3 days, etc. Many commentators have been misled by the fact that there are two periods of three and a-half years, referred to no less than seven times in the Bible, together making up the final seven years of evil. The Loosing of the Devil. I found also that the loosing of the devil, of which John speaks, took place at the commencement of the seven year period, but This has now been fulfilled by the Turks having been driven out of Jerusalem, in December, 1917. Page Line Page Line Sec. 2. could not see what it was of importance that took place in 1910 that could be spoken of as the loosing of the devil. In 5 20 Comparatively recently I wrote to one of the most successful mental workers in America, asking whether she had any verification of the end coming in 1917. She wrote back that it was difficult to form any definite conclusion, but, if anything, she thought it ought to come earlier, namely, three and a-half years from the date of Mrs. Eddy's death on December 3rd, 1910. Directly I read the letter I saw what the loosing of the devil was. At Mrs. Eddy's death the control for good that she exercised over 10 the Christian Scientists was lost. So accurate had her advice been in the past that there was no necessity for her to give any instructions; a request was sufficient to be at once followed by the thousands of Christian Scientists throughout the world. addition, there were many, like myself, who were not members of 15 the Christian Science organisation, but who, through study of her writings, and investigation of her life, had formed so high an opinion of her ability, that they also would at once follow any advice given by her. She had such power of reading thought that in these latter days she could have told us exactly what evils to work against, and when to commence working against them, and in a few days could have had hundreds of thousands of the best workers throughout the world united in a solid band to reduce the particular trouble in front of us that she had specified. For instance, in the middle of the Russo-Japanese War, a letter 25 appeared from her, dated June 13th, 1905, as follows: "I request that every member of The Mother Church of Christ Scientist, in Boston, pray each day for the amicable settlement of the war between Russia and Japan." I at once ceased to take any more patients, and thousands of others must also have given all their spare time to this work. A fortnight later, a letter from her, dated June 27th, was published, in which she said: "I now request that the members of my church cease special prayer for the peace of nations." A fortnight later, a letter, dated July 22nd, appeared, in which she explained that no special prayer for peace was necessary, "because a spiritual foresight of the nations' drama presented itself." Peace negotiations were formally opened on August 9th, having unofficially started earlier, and peace was signed on the 23rd. An earlier request would have resulted in a somewhat speedier termination of the war, but a greater diminution of the healing work being done all over the world. I estimate that about 100,000 people were not taken as patients during the fortnight, owing to the practitioners giving so much time to praying for the cessation of the War. 30 35 10 45 The year 1910 is recognised by many occultists as the commencement of a new era, and "F. E. H.," in "The Latter Days, with Evidence from the Great Pyramid," published in 1895, writes, on page 32: "The termination of the Grand Gallery, 1,910 inches, gives the 3rd of December, 1910, as the end of the present era.” This date, which was the day of Mrs. Eddy's death, has been 50 |