end shall be the vision," and again, "I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end shall be "; namely, at the end of 2300 days, that is six years, four months and twenty days; then the vision "will speak and not lie; though it tarry wait for it. because it will surely come; it will not tarry." These words of encouragement are spoken for the benefit of the remnant of Israel who live in those times, and behold the treacherous dealer, the man of sin, devour the men that are more righteous than he, "and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them" (Hab. 1: 13-17).

He

Jesus of Nazareth is called the Holy One of God, and Peter said to Cornelius that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil, for God was with him. Jesus was anointed of God the Father by the Holy Spirit, with power to fill the offices to which he was appointed. was to be a "Prophet like unto Moses," a "Priest like unto Melchisedec," and a King like unto David." Besides, he was made Lord as well as Christ, and when the Father comes to judge the nations, he will give to his Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, when he "shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

Isaiah testifies of the fall of the Assyrian saying, "And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his Holy One for a flame, and it shall burn his thorns and his briers in one day" (Isa. 10: 17), and again the Lord says by him (verse 27), "And it shall come to pass in that day that his (the Assyrian's) burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." And Jesus himself said, "The Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man."

Christ is the Father's executive, anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, and he will execute the judgments written, first upon his own people, the rebellious house of Israel, and after that upon the nations.

THE DIVISION OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS

The seventy weeks that are drawn out upon Daniel's people and the holy city by the angel are divided into three periods of very unequal lengths, namely, sixty-two weeks, seven weeks, and one week. This is not done without a definite purpose. The longest measure, sixty-two weeks, or 434 days representing so many years, is the span that reaches from the decree of Cyrus to restore and build Jerusalem, until the cross of the Messiah, as Gabriel says, "After three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off," but the measure does not terminate at the cross but reaches down to the destruction again of the city and Temple, and the destruction of the nation by the people of the prince that should come, and here is where the seven weeks apply: forty-nine years after Messiah was cut off the desolations of the city, sanctuary, and people came by the flood of Roman armies. This still leaves one week to be accounted for.

THE LAST, OR SEVENTIETH WEEK

This last week has been a great source of perplexity to writers on Daniel's prophecies. Because Gabriel says, " He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," that is for seven years, it is commonly supposed that this period is intended to cover the time that John and Jesus preached the Gospel although there is no exact data to prove that the time that either John or Jesus preached was three years and a half. Besides, the confirming of the covenant with people in that day was not restricted to the labors of John and Jesus up to the time that he was crucified, but continued to the end of that world by the hand of the apostles, even as Mark records it, saying, "And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them confirming the word with signs following, Amen." Therefore the confirming of the covenant, or the word, was not limited to seven years but continued for more than fifty years.

But a greater difficulty than this is encountered by these writers. Gabriel says, "In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice (that is, the daily sacrifice) and the oblation to cease," for it must not be forgotten in the interpretation of the seventy weeks and what obtains therein that Gabriel in the preface tells Daniel to consider the vision in which he had appeared to him before, and that was the vision as recorded in the eighth chapter, and the sacrifice there referred to is the daily sacrifice, as it is said (verses 11-12), "By him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down and an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression" (the transgressions of Israel). Then the question is asked, "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden. under foot?" The answer is, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

Now this same event is spoken of in another vision of Daniel as follows, "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place (in the Temple) the abomination (the image) that maketh desolate " (Dan. 11:31). And this same thing is referred to by Jesus as one of the signs of his coming in the latter days, as follows, "But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing where it ought not (that is, in the Temple) [let him that readeth understand]," then they were warned to flee for their lives (Mark 13:14).

Now these testimonies concerning the daily sacrifice show what is meant when he says, "And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." The daily sacrifice and oblation consisted of two lambs of the first year that were brought as an oblation, or offering, to the Lord. These were sacrificed upon the altar, one in the morning and the other in the evening, day by day, and are therefore called the daily sacrifice. They were required to be offered day by day throughout their generations for a continual burnt offering unto the Lord. This was commanded by the Lord in the holy mount (Exod. 29: 38-42).

It is this sacrifice and oblation that he should cause to cease in the midst of

the week. Now what were the facts? Did this sacrifice cease, and was it taken away when Jesus entered upon his ministry and began to preach the Gospel? No it was not, neither when he began to preach, nor yet when he was crucified. Some suppose that it was wrong for those who believed in Jesus Christ, after he was made an offering for sin to ever after that offer any more sacrifices, seeing Christ had now been offered as the great sacrifice to which all the sacrifices referred as types and shadows. But this is a great mistake, as we have fully shown in another place.

When Paul came up to Jerusalem many years after Christ was offered up, the apostles said to him, "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of the Jews there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the law, and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs." This, Paul, upon the advice of the other apostles, denied, and showed that he also walked orderly and kept the law. Thus the ordinances of the law stood the same after Christ came as they did before he came, because the sacrifices have a retrospective, as well as a prospective bearing. Before Christ came they pointed forward as shadows to his sufferings and death as an offering for sin; but after this was accomplished, these same sacrifices were continued as before, pointing back to the one great sacrifice and teaching the same doctrine as they did formerly.

The Jews, therefore, who believed in Jesus as the Christ and had been baptized into his name for the remission of sins continued to keep the law and to celebrate the sacrifices in the Temple as aforetime, but they did so under the apostles' teaching, with the distinct understanding that their justification before God did not hinge upon that, but upon the faith of Christ, and that these offerings were but the shadows of the true substance, which is Christ.

It may therefore very properly be asked, If these things are so, then how are we to interpret and apply the last week in the seventy? We answer that question on this wise: the Angel Gabriel gave to Daniel this prophecy of the seventy weeks as a further interpretation of the vision recorded in the eighth chapter, and in that vision Gabriel said to Daniel, "Understand, O Son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision"; and again, "Behold I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end shall be."

Thus this vision has a double application, referring first to the times that extend from the decree to restore and build Jerusalem down till Jerusalem was again destroyed; and it refers again for its second and complete fulfillment to the latter days when, after the second exodus of the whole house of Israel, Jerusalem will be built again and will continue as the great city of the east until the time of the judgment, the time when the vision opens again. disclosing the remaining wonders that were not manifested when the vision opened in the former days; that is, the second time when the vision opens it will reveal the wonders that attend the resurrection of the dead and the second coming of Christ.

Therefore Gabriel in the application of the three unequal periods into which he divides the seventy weeks applies them as follows. Beginning with the longest period, which commences with the decree of Cyrus to restore and

build Jerusalem, he says, And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off," and then speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem which marks the termination of the second period, that of seven weeks, which commences at the cross where the first long period terminates, he says, " And the people of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

The seven weeks, therefore, terminate at the destruction of the city and Temple, leaving the shortest period, one week of years, still to be located; and as this week does not, and cannot be applied to cover the ministrations of John the Baptist and Jesus, inasmuch as the things that are to transpire in the midst of the week did not transpire in the days of either John or Jesus, and moreover as nothing transpired at the destruction of the city and Temple that would answer as a fulfillment of what is to be done in the last week, it follows as a matter of necessity that this week is passed over to, and fits in and finds its fulfillment in the latter days, when the vision opens the second time; that is, it applies to the time of the end in the future, as the angel pointed out, when the vision will speak and not lie.

Moreover, the fact that the last week of the seventy applies in the latter days is quite suggestive of the idea that the whole period of seventy weeks, like many other features of the vision, may also have a second application, and be drawn again upon Daniel's people and the holy city, counting from the second exodus and terminating at the time of the end, where the last week of the seventy terminates. That is, we say that in the contemplation of these things the idea suggests itself to the mind that seventy weeks of years, 490 years, may again be employed to measure the length of time that the house of Israel will dwell in the land after they are reëstablished there, up till the time of judgment when all things written in their law are to be fulfilled.

THE FIRST OPENING OF THE VISION

There is a very important fact to be noted in Daniel's second vision, and the interpretation thereof by the Angel Gabriel, as recorded in the eighth and ninth chapters. This vision did not open to reveal the wonders contained therein until Judah had dwelled long in the land after their return from the seventy years' captivity in Babylon. More than four hundred years of the seventy weeks had lapsed and passed away before the vision opened to disclose those great and notable things concerning the Messiah and what should be accomplished and brought to pass in his day as Gabriel had declared them to Daniel.

For although the interpretation of the vision of Daniel by Gabriel, as contained in the prophecy of the seventy weeks, occurred in the first year of Darius the King, yet the vision did not open until the Roman horn had arisen to supremacy in the earth. The seventy weeks commenced to run with the decree of Cyrus to restore and build Jerusalem, which was issued in the first year of his reign, but the Medo-Persian and Grecian empires, as well as the four kingdoms into which Alexander's dominions were divided, had passed away, and it was not until after the little Roman horn had made its appearance which, though small at first, waxed exceeding great toward the south and

toward the east and toward the pleasant land, that Daniel's vision was for the first time unsealed, and Shiloh appeared in the world, and the mighty works of God in the great scheme of human redemption were displayed before the eyes of men.

When the time for these things to be manifested to Israel began to draw nigh, the Angel Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, was sent again, first to announce the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ and the great work that he should do to prepare the way of the Lord, and afterward he was sent again to announce the birth and coming of Christ and the great things which should be manifested in him who revealed and made known the way of life, and showed to mankind and illustrated it in his own person, what the true and only salvation of God is, that he has provided for fallen men namely, salvation by resurrection, called "the resurrection of life."

Therefore when John had fulfilled his mission, and Jesus had entered upon and finished his Father's work, had died and brought into force the new covenant, the covenant of life, had shed his blood to wash away the sins of all the heirs of the kingdom of God and was raised again the third day for our justification, had ascended on high to sit on the right hand of God as a prince and a saviour to grant repentance and remission of sins unto men, and had sent down the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon his apostles, and when the door of salvation had been opened, first to the house of Israel and afterwards to the Gentiles (for unto the Gentiles also was granted repentance unto life), and when the apostles had preached the Gospel to every nation under heaven, the Lord working with them confirming the word with signs, wonders and miracles, I say, when these great and mighty works of God were finished, as he had declared before by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began, then the vision closed again upon the world and was sealed up until the time of the end in the latter days.

THE SECOND OPENING OF THE VISION

As it was in the former days, so will it be in the latter days; Judah dwelt long in the land after their dispersion and captivity in Babylon, even more than four centuries, before the vision opened and disclosed the wonders of the former days as they were manifested in the days of Christ and his apostles. So will it be again on the return of the whole house of Israel from their present dispersion, in the second exodus, in the latter days. They will then dwell long in the land, until they corrupt themselves and turn back again to the iniquities of their ancestors; and when the spirit of revolt begins to work among their kings, princes, priests and prophets, it will spread rapidly and become strong, for the Lord speaks of those times by the hand of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem; they are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words and they went after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers." Now inasmuch as no house of Israel has existed since Jeremiah was a prophet, it follows that this conspiracy will transpire among the two houses, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, after their return from their present dispersion.