and gorgeous buildings can never lead the soul of a man from the dominion of lust and envy and pride. Even the old Hebrew song questions, "Ye fools, when will ye be wise?" Probably the fools will not be wise so long as they can find preachers who will tell them every Sabbath that they are wise enough already, and that all they need is a little more culture.

The attempt to elevate the race without religious motive, is not only pagan in theory, it results in a pagan morality. It is heathenish to attempt to raise man to a higher life by an appeal merely to selfishness. The design of the heathen civilization is answered if men and women have fine houses and dress, and if they have fine music, and if they read popular authors, and to some extent hear pretty essays or fierce denunciations of Christianity. But the design of the Christian civilization is answered only when holiness is promoted, when multitudes of men love God supremely, and love other men as themselves. The very theory of the pagan system is essentially immoral. The morality of the natural man, as exhibited in the first chapter of Romans, is what we look for when man is left to himself to develop as he will. It is idle to assert that this is not so; we know that it is so. The Greeks worshipped the beautiful, the human ; they were not spiritual, but carnal: they were restless; they were disappointed; they were degraded; they charged their own passions upon their gods; lust and treachery and thieving and cunning were attributed to the superior powers; men grew vile by honoring vice. Even Plato and Aristotle favored infanticide when children were deformed. Now, is not paganism the same in every age? The tendency is to lead men away from God, to diminish reverence for Him. Not the least remarkable portion of Mr. Parker's writings is the passage in which he declares that he respected the devotional feeling which led some of his Music Hall hearers to stay out of his service till after the prayer! He had also a profound respect for the devotional feeling of the Hottentots and the cannibals of the South Sea; but he had no respect for his Orthodox neighbors. Neglect of

"Swear not at

prayer is coupled with profanity. Christ says, all." But has not Ralph Waldo Emerson spoken of the fascination of "pretty blasphemies," and the "inherent strength" of "rattling oaths"? The destruction of the New-England trust in God, and reverence for His name, would in time turn New England into a mere gathering of heathen villages.

The teachings of infidels, if applied to the common life, would destroy the very foundations of common morality, and overthrow society. The tendency is to obscure the distinction between right and wrong; a tendency fatal to the very being of society. Men deny the guilt of moral error, even when it is clear that the error arises from a perverse will: how then can civil law be administered if wilful criminals are to be pronounced innocent? Men deny future punishment for the wilful errors of this life this principle would ruin society in an hour. So far as the common mind is concerned, many an old farmer at his plow is unshaken by infidel arguments, because the principles advocated would cut up society by the roots. This is the most common popular objection to infidelity, its utter impracticableness. Here, says the sturdy mechanic, is a system which has no system to it; it is trying to destroy faith in doctrines which are essential to the well-being of society: suppose there is no personal God, no immutable law, no unerring justice, and no such thing as sin, and no need of Christ or Bible, yet I know that society will perish if there is not law and penalty; a constant recognition of the fact of transgression, and an attempt to deliver men from the dominion of selfishness and passion. The necessary immorality of the theory of rationalism leads blunt men to declare that the whole system is essentially pagan.

ARTICLE IV.

THE END IN 1896.

An Examination of Daniel XII. 11-13.

LET it be premised that Daniel is peculiarly the chronological prophet. No other prophet, so much as he, professes to assign and measure out the precise times and order in which great events, epochs and crises in the world's history should Hence his book, besides being so charming as a biography, giving sketches of character of great interest, contains also more of history — genuine history to us though prophetically written than any other historical work of the same size

occur.

extant.

As proof of this we need only refer to the following passages, with their contents, and the generally received interpretations of each. Chap. ii. 37-45, chap. iv. 19-34, chap. v. 25-31 (“Thy kingdom is divided." "That night was Belshazzar slain"); chaps. vii. and viii. in full, and especially chap. ix. 24–27, and chap. 11 in full. The last chapter referred to, portraying the struggles between the Syrian and Egyptian Kingdoms, may seem to the careless peruser like jargon, or an enigma of plots and counterplots; but let him study it, and if possible with Rollin's Ancient History in his hand, and he must pronounce it wonderful, for its historical truth, condensation and correctness of detail, in all the particulars mentioned; and the like of it cannot be found in any language.

It has become almost an axiom among prophetic interpreters, that a day signifies a year in prophesy. In chap. ix. v. 24, we read, Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people. Seventy weeks equal 490 days; and it was, as chronology informs us, exactly that time from the date of the principal decree for rebuilding Jerusalem, till the time that the Messiah was crucified, and his religion established on the day of Pentecost,

thus finishing transgression, making an end of sins, making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing in an everlasting righteousness." The more minute divisions of time alluded to in the last three verses of chap. ix, do also precisely harmonize with the events predicted, though we cannot now stop to point out this marvellous Correspondence.

With the conviction that Daniel is the prophet of exact times and seasons in the fulfilment of his predictions, let us approach the last three verses of his book. These numbers cannot be used by this prophet of definite numbers, without a meaning. In v. 1, we read, "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand, two hundred and ninety days." The taking away of the daily sacrifice is generally admitted to mean the discontinuance of the Jewish daily offerings at the destruction of their temple. The "setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate" refers, doubtless, to a whole series of profanations of God's holy worship, commencing with the time mentioned by our Saviour, when the Roman eagle should be seen in the temple just before its destruction, under Titus; and including the attempted building of a temple in honor of Jupiter, by the Emperor Adrian, half a century later, on the very spot where the temple of God had stood; including also the fiercer attacks made by the Mohammedans, both upon Jewish synagogues and Christian houses of worship, converting them into mosques; and including especially that great profanation of things sacred, when temporal power was first given by the Emperor Phocas to a bishop of the Christian church, making him the supreme head of the church, the Pope of Rome. It is evident that this series of profanations and abuses are all included in this language, the "setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate," and these profanations did not culminate till the beginning of the seventh century. Indeed we may mark the precise year in history as A. D. 606, for that was the year in which the decree of Phocas placed the Pope upon the throne of

his exaltation, and in which also Mohammed began to style himself the apostle of God. Hence there can be no doubt as to the time from which these 1290 days (years) are to be reckoned. And if they commenced precisely with the year 606, they are to close precisely in the year 1896.

Let us see if this conclusion cannot be substantiated both upon scriptural grounds and by observing the present aspects of the times. In the seventh verse of chapter twelve, in answer to the question, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" that is, of the triumphs of all the anti-christian or God opposing powers on the earth, the answer is, on a most solemn oath by Him that liveth forever," "that it shall be for a time, times and a half," when all the scattering of the power of God's holy people shall at last be accomplished, and all these things, namely, the persecution of God's people, shall be finished. A time is a year in prophecy, as we read of the seven times or seven years that passed over Nebuchadnezzar in his state of insanity. A time, two times and one-half a time would the refore amount to three and one-half years, that is, forty-two months, 1260 days.

66

Then, turning to Dan. vii. 25, we notice that the time predicted during which the "little horn," or the papal power, "shall speak great words against the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws," shall be "a time, times, and the dividing of a time,”— that is, three and a half years, or forty-two months, or 1260 days. Now, receiving the Bible as the word of God, can it be without the foreordaining counsels of His infinite Mind, that we find the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of the Apostle John, confirming, in no less than five distinct passages, this exact enumeration of times, months, and days? We are told in Rev. xi. 2, that the Court of God's house and the holy city shall he trodden under foot of the Gentiles," referring spiritually to the persecutions of God's people, for forty and two months; and again in v. 3d, that