I maintain is, that, with such a case as this, probability or improbability, early lessons of man, and preconceived notions, have nought to do. One only question is to be ascertained. Hath God said it? If He have said it, shall He not do it? None, I think, will question his ability: at least our controversy is not with such. Then if He have said that He will do these things, and his power to accomplish his word is not doubted, what remains for us but simply to believe that, notwithstanding our doubtings and the apparent improbabilities of the case, He will literally accomplish what He has so particularly foretold!

But some men will say, How know we that this vision has yet to be accomplished? And if we know this, How know we that it will be accomplished at the second advent? We know that it has not yet been fulfilled, because the temple there described is unlike any which has been built since the time of Ezekiel: neither has there been any division of the land amongst the twelve tribes since that time; and the only division which took place before, was by lot in the days of Joshua, and is altogether different from it. Knowing this, we believe that it must be fulfilled after the second coming of the Lord, for the following amongst other reasons. The seed of Abraham will not be converted nationally

to Christ until that time; therefore they cannot be fitted for such a dispensation and such ordinances before his appearing. Neither can such a dispensation suit with the scriptural account of that which is to succeed the millenniary reign of righteousness and peace; for then Christ, as the Father's servant, as Solomon, shall cease to reign on the throne of his father David; for "then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; and then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him (the Father) that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." Thus we have no alternative left, as to the time for the fulfilment of this prophecy, but that which shall elapse between the national conversion of the seed of Abraham, and the giving up of the kingdom by Christ, as the Father's servant, to his Father: in other words, the time of Christ's millenniary reign of righteousness and peace. That this is the truth, chap. xlvii. bears ample testimony. The prophet having seen in vision the return of the glory of the Lord into the house, heard the Lord speaking; "And He said unto Him, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever; and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile," &c. Has the visible glory of God returned amongst

his ancients by the way of the east, or by any way? No. Is the place of his throne amongst them, and of the soles of his feet, or has He been dwelling in the midst of the children of Israel uninterruptedly? If so, When? Have they ceased to defile his holy name? Why, the name of God is blasphemed amongst them every day; for every day they dishonour Jesus of Nazareth, and God's name is in Him. They refuse to honour the Son even as they profess to honour the Father, and will not have the God-man to reign over them. But when this word shall be accomplished, all these things shall take place. If not, "how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" But am I called upon for an interpretation of the holy waters? (chap. xlvii.) I comprehend it not. Am I then to shut my eyes to the light which God gives in part because He does not vouchsafe to grant it in whole? Reader, I have not forgotten the promise, . " what thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter," and God shall reveal even this unto us.

CHAPTER V.

We have now reached the book of DANIEL, in which the first and second advents of our Lord are clearly foretold, and much also of times and seasons in connection with both. I purpose, therefore, shortly to recapitulate Daniel's testimony to the sufferings of Messiah and to "the times of restitution of all things."

Nebuchadnezzar's dream, in which he beheld "a great image," claims first our attention. That this vision was designed to include the period which should elapse between the days of Nebuchadnezzar and the second coming of Christ, is clear from the prophet's words, verse 38, to the king, "Thou art this head of gold," which shews us its commencement: and from verse 44, "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever;" where the fifth monarchy, or kingdom of our Lord and his Christ with the saints, to whom the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven is to be given, is clearly described. "For He must reign :"1

1 1 Cor. xv. 25.

"and we shall reign (with Him) on the earth." 1 This points out its close. The scenes of the transactions foretold in this vision comprise the territories of the four great empires, the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Macedonian, and the Roman.2 And the connection of the church of Christ with these parts of the earth, readily accounts for the selection of such parts of the habitable globe.

In Chap. iv. we meet with another dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the subject of which was "a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great." If the Chancellor of Cashel's interpretation of this be correct, then the dispersion of the Jews, their preservation as a distinct people amidst the different nations of the earth, and their restoration to be a "royal priesthood, an holy nation, and a peculiar people," when the veil shall be taken away from their hearts, are all symbolically set forth in this vision.3

Daniel's vision of the "four great beasts" succeeds. The rise of the " man of sin," or the papal power under the figure of the little horn,

1 Rev. v. 10.

2 See Investigator, Vol. III. p. 56. See "The Time of the End," Lect. iv. by the Rev. W. A. Holmes, B.A. Chancellor of Cashel, &c.

4 Chap. vii.

Mr. Cuninghame, of Lainshaw, addressing himself to this subject, thus writes. "It was the opinion of the Fathers, that this Little Horn represented the same power as the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition mentioned in St. Paul's prophecy.