tion and blessing at last?* It is utterly silent. The cycles roll on as before, but are wholly unmarked by any such token of favour on the part of the Lord to his people; nor will they till the fourth and last of them ends; or (RECKONING TIME BY THE JUBILEES ONLY) till FORTY YEARS have elapsed will they return to the land of their fathers. Then the remnant of Israel, the children of those who have sinned, will learn the value of that which their fathers despised. Thus we see in all this how the sin and the punishment agree: we see FORTY JUBILEES PROFANED on the one hand, and FORTY JUBILEES LOST on the other; just as the FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, the fruits of Israel's transgression, correspond with the FORTY DAYS OF THEIR SIN, 66 EACH DAY FOR A YEAR," as we are told. But here I am aware that an objection will arise as to what I have stated, namely, that the Jubilee was not given to Israel till the time of their redemption from Egypt; and hence that from Abraham to Christ I am not thus entitled to count so many as forty. This is quite true; but while I allow it, I also contend that if the actual ordinance did not exist all that time, it had a place in the thoughts of the Lord, who from the beginning had his heart upon that to which it bore witness. And not only so, but his purpose was more or less made known to his people all through. The Sabbath in Eden, what was it but a pledge, like the Jubilee afterwards, which itself was a Sabbath, of the future rest of creation? Then the prophetic word of Lamech, when his son Noah was born, the type of Christ, the true restorer of all things, spoke the same language: "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." (Gen. v. 29.) Then, after this, the covenant established with Noah after the flood-God's promise to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob,—all told the same tale; all spoke of future blessing and rest, of the time of restitution of all things. But did man, even the Lord's people themselves, ever fully enter into his mind as to this? Never; the whole of man's history bears witness to this sorrowful truth. Each failed in his day. Even Abraham himself, whose * The Jubilee Trumpet was doubtless one of the two silver trumpets spoken of in Numbers x. These, as before said, (see page 57,) exist now only in effigy on the triumphal arch of the conqueror Titus. What a speaking witness is this of the departure of Israel's glory, of their loss of the Jubilee. faith was so blessed, despised the pleasant land for a season, when, as soon as a famine arose, failing to trust the Lord for the supply that he needed, he departed from Canaan, where he ought to have dwelt, and went down into Egypt. Thus if the actual ordinance was not despised, it was so in principle; and hence the Lord is dealing at present with Israel as though, through the four cycles above named, this mystical year had thus often passed over them without finding them either willing or able to understand its true import. As a parallel case, we may remember that the Jews were not actually and personally guilty of all the righteous blood shed from the time of Abel down to the time of Zecharias, but they were so in principle. They allowed the deeds of their fathers, and for this they were punished. So, in this instance, Israel just does the same: they allow the deeds of their fathers, from the time of Abraham downward, in profaning God's Sabbath, in despising the Jubilee, and hence they are suffering accordingly. All this may remind us of the Lord's ways in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, when, as we have seen, the seventy years of Israel's captivity answered to the number of Sabbaths comprised within the cycle of Seventy Weeks, and how the land in the way of judgment was then doomed to lie waste, because Israel at the due season would not allow it to rest in the way that the Lord had appointed. (See page 88.) Then there is another point. Forty we find is a number very common in Scripture, in connection with Moses especially. He was 40 years old when he was first made known to his people; 40 years he spent in Midian, away from his brethren; and then 40 years more he was leading them through the wilderness. Then, again, he twice was 40 days with the Lord in the mount. Besides which the Lord himself was afterwards 40 days in the wilderness tempted by Satan. And will it be going too far to speak of the 40 stripes to which the judge was restricted in chastising a criminal, and to say that perhaps this also bears on the subject, showing perhaps the Lord's measure of punishment, as in the above case of the Jubilee, in chastising the nation? just throw out these hints as to the number in question, leaving them for the consideration of others in connection with this 13th and 14th of Numbers. I TWO QUESTIONS ANTICIPATED-FIRST, AS TO THE DAY AND ed. AND now before I proceed, let me answer a question which 1st Quesnaturally arises with regard to the time of the end; namely, tion answerwhether by limiting the present age to four cycles or two thousand years, I have not thereby fixed the time of the Lord's second coming. To this I reply, that I have no such intention, nor would I venture to do so, seeing that the Lord himself has declared "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man." Mark xiii. 32. But while this is the case, are there not also in scripture certain notices whereby we are entitled to judge, not definitely of "the day or the hour," but of the time in a broad general way? Observe, however, I speak of the Lord's coming with regard not to the Church of God but to the world; because the Church, as I have often remarked, being independent of the times and the seasons, will be caught up to the Lord, as I surely believe, (1 Cor. xv. 51—52, and 1 Thess. iv. 16-18,) before these ages run out, there to wait in heaven with him, so as to form his train when he returns to the earth. As to the time then when Israel's sorrows will end and the Millennium begin, we find in the sabbath appointed in Eden, and renewed in Israel afterwards, a clear intimation that the seventh age of the world will be the time of its rest. This all will allow; and from hence we may judge in a general way as to where we stand at this juncture. In this way, 1st, the world was four thousand years old at the first coming of Christ; 2dly, we have entered already on the nineteenth century since then; and 3dly, the Millennium will open, as I said, with the seventh age of the world. Thus by putting these three facts * Here I beg to offer a thought on this subject, at variance in one sense with what is stated above, and which to many, I doubt not, will at first sight seem strange, but which to me, I confess, appears to be quite in harmony with the Lord's ways with regard to His people, the Jews; and at the same time, to fall in with the subject in question. The age of the world, at the first coming of Christ, according to our authorized version of the Bible, is commonly thought to have been about four thousand years; and, as expressed in THE CHART, I have so represented it, (see plate 2, figure 7). Then, on the other hand, the Septuagint makes it about five thousand five hundred. Now as to the former of these views, I strongly suspect, that actually and historically it is not correct, but that what is affirmed by some is quite true,—namely, that the Jewish elders, after the crucifixion of Christ, corrupted the Chronology of together we may judge in a general way of the time. I refrain however, from attempting to determine too much, because with the above scripture before me (Mark xiii. 32) reserve on this point I feel is most safe. Besides I know not how the Lord may see fit, for some reasons of his own, to lengthen or shorten the the time, so as to baffle all human calculation on this point. He has done so before, as we have seen; because we may remember, while dispensationally there were 490 years between Moses and Solomon, and the same between Solomon and Nehemiah, the time, in both cases, was really longer-namely, 621 years in the one case, and 560 in the other. So, for aught we can tell, while dispensationally, in order to fill out the great week of time, the space between the first and last advent may be fixed to two thousand years, the Lord surely leaves himself free in some way either to lengthen or abridge it. He has, as we have seen, in the above cases lengthened the periods, and he will also, for his elect's sake, shorten the time of Israel's sorrows. Of this I have spoken before: I only refer to the fact, in order to show that time, like every thing else, is at his sovereign disposal, and that the Lord has surely resources far above our limited thoughts. And now before I turn from this part of the subject, there is one thing which I would mention. It is this. Where shall we place the last week of Daniel? Will it form a part of the fourth and last cycle above named, or stand on a separate week by itself? This question alone, without any thing further, must the earlier ages of the world, hoping, by thus shortening the time, to prove that their Messiah, who was expected by all at the very period he came, had not appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And as to the latter, I suspect that while it approaches nearer the fact, still it falls short of the truth, and that the real age of the world is greater than is commonly believed; my belief, in a word, to come to the point, is, that the world was SIX THOUSAND YEARS OLD at the first coming of Christ. My reasons for this are as follows:-The seventh day and the seventh year, in Old Testament Scripture, pointed to the millennial rest of the kingdom, which all agree in expecting in the seven-thousandth year of the world. Now, at the first advent of Christ, he came with an offer of blessing and rest to his people, the Jews: he came offering the Sabbath to man, were he only willing to accept of the blessing. Now this being the case, does it appear to be according to the usual way of the Lord thus to depart from his own established original order? Does it seem likely that he would have thus come at the crisis between the fourth and fifth, instead of that between the sixth and the seventh thousandth year of the world? To me, judging of the whole bearing of Scripture on this point, it appears as if it must of necessity have been that six thousand years of failure and sorrow had passed over the children of men, and, that then, at the end of that time, on the eve of the Sabbatic age of the world, the deliverer, the redeemer, the Lord of the Sabbath, was sent with an offer of mercy to man; and |