ness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent," and elsewhere in the same chapter, varying his language, he expresses it more clearly, "And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (Verse 6.) There can be no doubt but what John is alluding to the same event in either verse, hence the periods of time set forth in each must be the same.

The identity is now complete. The "time and times and the dividing of a time," or "time and times and half a time," equals 1260 days and agrees exactly with the "forty and two months," the months being computed after the ancient reckoning of thirty days each.

It has been shown that the "Man of Sin" who "as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God" was fulfilled in the papal power; wherefore we must conclude that all three, the man of sin, the little horn, and the beast represent one and the selfsame evil, the apostasy in charge of the papacy.

There can be no doubt that the "time, times and dividing of a time," the "1260 days" and the "forty and two months" began at the same time, seeing they allude to the same event and equal each other in their measurement. It has been proved that "the falling away" which resulted in the rise of the papal power was none other than the departure of the church into the wilderness of apostasy, wherefore we must conclude that her abode therein for 1260 days transpired while the little horn prevailed against the saints for "a time and times and the dividing of time," when the beast had made war against the saints and had "overcome them" for "forty and two months."

Thus it appears that the abode of the church in the wilderness, the rule of the man of sin, and the wearing out or overcoming of the saints by the little horn and the beast, all occurred at one and the same time. And since these events begin together they will necessarily terminate together.

By divine permission, power was given unto the beast to continue (or as some copies read, to make war) forty and two months; which, reckoning thirty days to a month, make twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days, which are 1260 years. This is the same term of time as that for which the saints were given into the hand of the little horn-"a time, and times, and the dividing of time," as already considered; it is the same as that during which "the woman clothed with the sun," when fled into the wilderness from the face of the serpent, was to be fed there "a thousand two hundred and threescore days," or "a time, and times, and half a time"; the same with that during which "the holy city" was to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles-"forty and two months" (Revelation 11: 2.) . . . The term of time is the same, and doubtless has the same point of time for its beginning, in all these several cases.-Curtis' Mystery of Iniquity, p. 383.

THE LENGTH OF TIME SIGNIFIED BY "1260 DAYS."

Our next inquiry will be to ascertain the length of time designated by the "1260 days," for it can not be that an apostasy of such stupendous results could be confined and accomplished within the above period literally interpreted. It must be that the 1260 days represent a longer period.

Indeed, it is an established characteristic of prophetic language that great events, national upheavals, and whole empires are illustrated by miniature symbols. A lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beast, for instance, portrayed the four successive empires of history, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. So, too, with the little horn; it represented the universal power of the papacy.

Maintaining, then, the custom of prophetic interpretation, we must seek for a fulfillment of the 1260 days on a larger scale. And this is indicated in the writings of Daniel himself, for in the 9th chapter, speaking of the coming and crucifixion of Christ, he tells us that it will occur upon the expiration of "seventy weeks." Now seventy weeks contain just 490 days, and it is significant that our Lord came within the limits of 490 years from the time the period began, and was crucified the very year of its fulfillment. It is apparent, therefore, that 1260 days signify so many years also.

This is how Ezekiel was instructed to interpret prophetic days; "I have appointed thee each day for a year" (4: 6), and which is strikingly supported by a very early precedent,-"After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years."Numbers 14: 34.

What a catastrophe! For 1260 long years the palsying power of the apostasy will blight by its withering touch all with whom it comes in contact. The saints shall be "overcome," existing in a "wilderness" of obscurity, helpless and emaciated, "worn out"; while the beast shall exercise unchallenged control "over all kindreds and tongues and nations." (Revelation 13: 7.)

The true church, considered as an establishment bringing forth spiritual children to Christ, she is said to reside in the wilderness for 1260 years which is typical of her being during that period in a barren and unproductive state. -Frere's Combined View, p. 82.

The apocalyptic prefiguration was fulfilled which depicted that the sunclothed woman, the symbol of the primitive Church Catholic, as fleeing gradually out of sight into the desert; there or in that state of invisibility to remain for the fated 1260 years' period.-Elliott's Destinies and Perils, p. 300.

1260 years is surely the period of these antichristian Gentiles' occupancy of the visible church, and of the true church's captivity, in spiritual Babylon, and of her abode in the wilderness. During that period, the true church can hardly be said to have any visible form, or distinct organization. It is by this antichrist that the daily sacrifice-true religion, and spiritual worship in the church, has been taken away, and the place of Christ's sanctuary, the visible church, has been cast down, trodden under foot by false professing Gentiles, who acknowledge the pope as their head, for more than twelve centuries.Case's Light on Prophecy, pp. 76, 264.

The shadow of the papacy gradually, but surely extended in all directions and fell not only upon every visible object but upon the most secret springs of human action. By its sanction kings reigned and by its fiat an army of priests, monks, friars, nuns, encamped on the soil and held the whole continent for its liege lord, the pope. Europe was covered with ecclesiastical palaces, universities, churches and cloisters as by a network which inclosed and held fast every living thing.-Dalton's Epochs, p. 86.

By a declension of the true spirit of Christianity it gradually fell away until the spirit of antichrist, through the influence of false teachers, under the Christian name, gained the ascendancy and began his dark and deplorable

reign, which continued for the space of 1260 years. During this long and gloomy period darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people so that there was not found upon earth a church which stood in the true order and power of the primitive church of Christ. For although there were many bright and powerful witnesses of the truth during the whole of that period, who testified against the growing corruptions of the times; yet in consequence of the tyrannical dominion assumed over the consciences of men, these witnesses were not suffered to build in the true order of the Church of Christ . . thus the power of the holy people was scattered.-Summary View of the United Society of Believers, Commonly called Shakers; p. 1; published by order of the ministry, 1823.

WHEN DID THE APOSTASY OF 1260 YEARS COMMENCE?

Having traced the misfortunes of the church into an apostasy for 1260 years, our next and most natural inquiry is, When shall she return? This can only be determined by ascertaining the time of her departure. Learning that, we may very easily count up 1260 years when, of course, the church will emerge from her bondage of oblivion. Having suffered the penalty imposed she will be unfettered and freed.

The apostle mentions the existence of a withholding power in his day, which restrained the revealment of the Man of Sin, "And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time."-2 Thessalonians 2: 6. He further stated that this power would continue to restrain until he, the restraining power, would be taken out of the way: "Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way."-Verse 7.

The foregoing use of the word let is a little confusing; in this instance it means to hinder. This is the earlier use of the word and as stated by Webster, it means, "to retard, to hinder, to impede, to interpose obstructions. 2 Thessalonians 2. This sense is now obsolete or nearly so." Perhaps a clearer reading is found in the Noyes', Rotherham's, Weekes', Campbell-McKnight-Doddridge, and Revised translations where "letteth" is rendered "restraineth.

We are not told here what that restraining power was. Paul evidently had good reasons for not indicating it, but "we find an almost unanimous persuasion among the Fathers that the impediment thus darkly alluded to in the written prophecy was the Roman Empire: and the reason which they give why the apostle did not venture to commit to paper is, lest any such open declaration that the Eternal Empire was destined to fall and by its overthrow to make room for the Man of Sin, should by a jealous government be construed into an act of treasonable disaffection." Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Jerome, of the early Christian fathers, are upon record confirming the foregoing," and "therefore the primitive Christians in the public offices of the church prayed for its peace and welfare as knowing that when the Roman Empire should be dissolved and broken into pieces the empire of the Man of Sin would be raised on its ruins."9

8

Faber's Sacred Calendar, vol. 1, pp. 86, 87.

Bickersteth's Guide, etc., p. 151. Bishop Hurd's Introduction, etc., vol. 2, p. 17. Guinness' Romanism and the Reformation, pp. 196, 197. 'Hion's Thoughts on Prophecy, p. 103.

But this restraining power was to be removed. The Empire of Rome was doomed. Now the overturning of an empire is usually accomplished by an enemy making inroads upon the country, destroying its government and appropriating its territory. In this manner did the Roman Empire fall. This is as Daniel describes it in the same prophecy where he speaks of the rise of the little horn. The Roman kingdom is there presented as the fourth beast, "great and terrible," and we may say in this connection that this application is so generally accepted, finding as it does a place in our public school histories, that we shall not weary the reader with already accepted matter. Suffice it to say that the four beasts seen to arise from the sea in successive order represent, as the angel said, four kings or kingdoms. (Daniel 7: 17, 23.)

Now Daniel tells us that this fourth beast had ten horns, which, as already learned, represent powers either secular or religious. In this case it refers to the ten kingdoms which arose within the Roman Empire, and overthrowing the parent government, divided its territory among themselves. These are all items of history noted by historians dealing with early events: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth . . . and the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise."-Verses 23, 24. This is not all that Daniel saw. The worst power of all was yet to come: "And another (horn) shall arise after them."-Verse 24. This is that Little Horn of which we have learned. It is the papacy. The reader will note that its rise did not precede the coming forth of the ten horns. No! It arose "after them."

...

It

This is as the Revelator John viewed the rise of the beast. does not war against the saints and overcome them until after it has developed "ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns." Consequently we must look for the division of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms before we may witness the establishment of the Little Horn of the papacy. In order, therefore, to locate the commencement of the rule of the Beast, the Little Horn, the Man of Sin, the apostasy of 1260 years, we must take up the fall of the Roman Empire and follow on until we find ten separate kingdoms ruling simultaneously in the old Roman estate. This view of the matter was entertained by the early fathers, who lived in the days preceding the division of the Roman Empire.10

10 Irenæus held that the division of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms would immediately precede the manifestation of antichrist, in his work, "Against Heresies," book 5, chapter 30, he says, "Let them await, in the first place, the division of the kingdom into ten; then, in the next place, when these kings are reigning, and beginning to set their affairs in order and advance their kingdoms, (let them learn) to acknowledge that he who shall come claiming the kingdom for himself, and shall terrify those sons of men of whom we have been speaking, having a name containing the aforesaid number (666) is truly the abomination of desolation.-Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation, p. 194.

Saint Cyril, of Jerusalem, who flourished in the fourth century, says, that "this predicted antichrist will come, when the times of the Roman Empire shall be fulfilled, and the consummation of the world shall approach. Ten kings of

The ten kingdoms effecting this division of the Roman Empire are stated by the Rev. Isaac Ashe, A. B., to be the Goths; the Ravenna; the Huns; the Romans; the Saxons; the Burgundians; the Sueves; the Franks; the Alemans; and lastly the Lombards.-The Book of Revelation, pp. 131, 132. This list is also presented by Harcourt Bland in his Apocalyptical History, pp. 310, 311.

We are aware that some slight difference exists among writers respecting the dynasties constituting the number ten, "this has been occasioned by those who have written upon the subject taking different dates or founding their report on what was the actual state of things at different periods; for we must all be aware that there is a material difference between taking our estimate from the time of those Gothic tribes first breaking in upon the several provinces of the empire and while they were roaming up and down in it harassing the people and the government before they got full power in it as kings."-William Jones, Lectures on the Apocalypse, p. 305.

The era of the dissolution of the Roman Empire was a most tempestuous time, Doctor Robertson terming it the most calamitous in the history of the world,* and it is not surprising if there were other nations than those mentioned that temporarily intruded upon the world's politics; but we must take our bearings from those kingdoms that weathered the gale, from the ten horns that were crowned, that is, established. (Revelation 13: 1.)

Messrs. Ashe and Bland, in their selection have governed themselves accordingly, Mr. Bland observing "as these ten horns are allowed by all commentators to denote ten independent kingdoms, so we must look for the date of that ascension (the ascension of the

the Romans shall arise together, in different places indeed, but they shall reign at the same time. Among these, the eleventh is antichrist, who, by magical and wicked artifice, shall seize the Roman power."-Hioan's Thoughts on Prophecy, pp. 61, 62.

Thus Tertullian, asking this question, Who is it that "letteth"? answers, "Who but the Roman State, the division of which when it is scattered among ten kings, shall bring in antichrist, and then shall that wicked one be revealed." -Literalist, vol. 2, p. 303.

Next turn we to Tertullian. And on the subject of antichrist, while agreeing with Irenæus in expecting his development chronologically after the breaking up of the Roman state into ten kings or kingdoms, all in strict accordance with the Apocalypse.-Elliott's Horæ Apocalypticæ, vol. 4, p. 280.

*If a man were called to fix upon the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most calamitous and afflicted, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death_of_Theodosius the Great, to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy, A. D. 395 to A. D. 571. The contemporary authors, who beheld that scene of desolation, labor and are at a loss for expressions to describe the horror of it. But no expressions can convey so perfect an idea of the destructive progress of the barbarians, as that which must strike an attentive observer, when he contemplates the total change which he will discover in the state of Europe, after it began to recover some degree of tranquility, towards the close of the sixth century. Very faint vestiges of the Roman policy, jurisprudence, arts, or literature remained. New forms of government, new laws, new manners, new dresses, new languages, and new names of men and countries, were everywhere introduced.-Robertson's Charles V, vol. 1, pp. 11, 12.