and prophecy, and to annoint the most Holy. 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks. * * * * 26. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary **** 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even unto the consummation."

It is generally conceded that the seventy weeks are each seven years; hence the period mentioned is four hundred and ninety years, rather than the seventy literal years of Jeremiah xxix, 10, from which fact, and from others which need not be referred to, it is evident that the Danielic seventy weeks do not date from 588 B. C., that is from the destruction of Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah, and end in the unimportant year 98 B. C. Also it is evident that the seven weeks of verse 25 precede the three score and two weeks of verse 26.

The foundations of the temple were laid in 535 B. C., by Zerubbabel, and sacrifices were offered upon the altar; but only in the seventh of Artaxerxes, 457, B. C., was the Levitical law imposed upon the people. Dr. Miller began the

seventy weeks with the supposed first year of the twenty-three hundred years, therefore in 457 B. C. Thus he reached the end of sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years, in 26 A. D. Messiah was crucified in A. D. 31 +,correct time, and so was cut off in the midst of the seventieth week, the period of his ministry being three and a half years, during which he confirmed the covenant with his followers. By his sacrifice, that of the altar was abolished; and, as punishment to the nation, the place of the altar sacrifice was made desolate by the Roman power.

To find the end of the twenty-three hundred years, Dr. Miller reckoned by Julian years, whereas the prophets reckoned by lunar years. As for the sixty-nine and one-half weeks, or four hundred and eighty-six and one-half lunar years, we hold that to bring them to 31 +, A. D., the date 457 B. C., must be changed to 444 B. C., when the code of the written law was promulgated, or about the time when Nehemiah obtained permission to go up to Jerusalem in the twentieth of Artaxerxes. That in his prophecies Daniel used the Babylonian year is unlikely, since this would fix the beginning ⚫of the seventy weeks in the fourteenth of Artaxerxes, an unimportant year.

The years 1843-4 and many others passing without unusual happenings, the followers of Dr. Miller were forced to believe that his interpretation of the words: "Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,"

was faulty because, according to their notion, the sanctuary indicated by the prophet was not an earthly one, but in fact the one in Heaven mentioned by Paul in Hebrews ix, 23. So these. believers in the sleep of the dead are committed to the absurd theory that since 1844, an investigative judgment of the human race has been going on, and that the worthy, for "six thousand years," that is from Adam onward, are undergoing bloodcleansing in the heavenly sanctuary, so that with Daniel they may awaken and stand each in his lot in Paradise. Is it only a coincidence that the four hundred and ninety years of Israel's final probation, which terminated in the seventieth week, correspond with the seventy times seven times that the disciple of Jesus was admonished to forgive the offender?

ness.

The Jewish people were given seventy weeks in which to put down transgressions, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for righteousThis reconciliation, or forgiveness, would be accomplished yearly by the means commanded through Moses, and for four hundred and ninety years. Then righteousness everlasting could be brought in through the annointing of that which was most Holy, not the temple, not the inner sanctuary, nor the altar; but in fact the Messiah. According to the prophecy of verse 26, that consummation was not to be, for Israel's crowning sin would be committed in the half of the seventieth

week. Therefore at that time the doom of the nation would be sealed. Knowing all this and more, Jesus wept over the self-destroyed city of Jerusalem.

We are now ready to find analogies touching the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years of final probation allowed the Jews from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to 31 +, A. D. In Exodus xxii, 1, it is written: "If any man shall steal a sheep and kill it, or sell it, he shall restore four sheep for a sheep." At the end of the four hundred and ninety years the Jews killed one whom John had proclaimed as the Lamb of God. Hence the punishment would continue for four times four hundred and ninety years, or nineteen hundred and sixty lunar years, or their equivalent nineteen hundred and two and two-eighths solar years dating from 31 +, A. D. Therefore, in about 1933 the restored Jewish people should be reckoned as of importance in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah, "For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up."

CHAPTER X

HAPTER x is an introduction to the final

CHAP

vision of Daniel, found in Chapters xi and xii. From the description in verses 5-6, which is much like that in Revelation i, 13-15, it is evident that Gabriel in his archangelic majesty approached the prophet to enlighten him. This glorious appearance indicated that the prophecy (the appointed time of which was long) would prove of very great importance; but Daniel fainted and fell to the ground, whereat the angel touched him and raised him up on his knees and the palms of his hands. Then with reassuring words the angel told Daniel to stand upright. This signified that, as prophet of God, Daniel should not abase himself, even in the presence of the great ones of the spiritual world.

In Revelation xxii, 8-9, the status of a prophet is again indicated. When John would fall down and worship Gabriel, the mighty one cautioned him saying: "See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets."

The time mentioned in these words of verse 13, "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: " we identify with the three weeks of Daniel's fasting and prayer. It has been conjectured that, in some way unexplained, Gabriel sought to influence Cyrus the king in the