know, have escaped the notice of those who have considered

the passage.

And why, it will be said, why in a prophecy which gives an outline of the previous and subsequent history of the Jews, from Nehemiah's return to the second coming of Christ, should no allusion be made to the week above named? Why is there no reference whatever to a period of such paramount interest, and in every way so linked with the destinies of the nation, both as regards their present rejection and their future forgiveness? In accounting for the silence of Scripture on a point of such moment, let us just take a view of the first and second coming of Christ, with the peculiar and distinctive characteristics of each; and we shall find that there is a meaning in this of far deeper significance than if this period had filled the most prominent place in the prophecy.

Our Lord at his first coming, through the testimony of John, in the first place, and next in his own blessed person, was presented to Israel as having sole claim to the throne of his fathers. On his part ALL THINGS WERE READY; and he only waited for his people to own and receive him, as the consolation, the deliverer of Israel, in order at once to take to himself his great power and reign. True, it was decreed, in the secret counsels of God, that the Lamb should be slain, seeing that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Still, on the other hand, Israel was guilty of disallowing the claims of their king to his throne, of putting their Messiah to death; and for this they themselves have been rejected,—for this the Lord has given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

At the second coming of Christ, on the other hand, his recep

after in this place cannot be understood to mean strictly the time immediately after, but in a large indefinite sense to denote the whole next week which after followed; for otherwise his coming and his cutting off must have happened at the same time, both together, and no intermediate space would have been left for his ministry; for in the verse preceding it is positively said, 'That from the going forth of the commandment, to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the prince, should be seven and threescore and two weeks;' and therefore, if at the end of the same sixty-two weeks he should be cut off also, then his coming and his cutting off must have happened both together, at the same time; and the consequence which I have mentioned must necessarily follow, i. e. that no intermediate space would have been left for his ministry, which cannot be said. The word after must, therefore, mean the whole week after, at the end of which Christ, the Messiah named in that prophecy, was cut off by his death on the cross."-Page 282.

tion no longer depending, as of old, on the will of his people, but on his own irresistible grace, it will not be a question whether Messiah shall reign, seeing that his people shall be willing in the day of his power. The Spirit of God will make them thus willing. They shall look on him whom they have pierced; they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. And this will take place, as we gather from this prophecy, at the close of these seventy weeks of Daniel. Then the transgression of Israel will be finished-the Holy of holies anointed.

And so also, if we look back to the cutting off of Messiah, we shall find that this also occurred critically at the close of the very same period of time, just SEVENTY WEEKS after the going forth of Nehemiah's commission to restore and to build Jerusalem. This will be found to be true, if to the seven and threescore and two weeks aforesaid, we add the period of the testimony of John and of Jesus-the unnoticed week, as I term it, of Messiah's rejection.

The truth is, all things, I repeat it, on the part of the Lord, were now ready. This we gather from his words as he set out on his ministry. "THE TIME IS FULFILLED," said Jesus, anticipatively speaking, assuredly meaning the period here spoken of, which had to end before the kingdom should be presented to Israel. Hence we find the Son of David himself at the head of his little band of disciples, offering himself to the nation at large, to see if they would own and receive him as the One to whom the finger of prophecy had pointed for ages. And for a little moment, we there see they did bid him welcome. A loyal burst from the multitude seemed to show that all was ripe for the kingdom, and that the long-lost glory of Israel was about to shine forth from Jerusalem over the face of the earth. "Hosanna to the Son of David," they cried at the moment; but this cry soon died away, and their voices were heard, but a few days after this, calling out for his blood. Such was in truth the welcome which Jesus met with in Israel. Their hearts might be stirred for a little, but all the while they saw no beauty in Jesus that they should desire him. And thus though, in one sense, the hour had actually come when the Son of man should be glorified (John xii. 23), still it had not come in another. Though "the set time," according to the voice of the Psalmist, "to favour Zion" was at hand (Ps. cii. 13); though the term of seventy weeks

had actually and literally expired; still the weeks of Daniel, the period here foretold by the angel, lie unfinished as yet, inasmuch as hatred, rejection, and death, were all that then awaited the Lord at the hand of his people.

This leads us to see why the week of the testimony of John and of Jesus is here passed over in silence, and left as an utter blank in the prophecy. It was in an especial sense a time of long-suffering, a season of mercy, when the Lord for the last time was giving Israel a trial, when the voice of the Baptist, as foretold by Isaiah, (chap. xl.) the voice of him who was more than a prophet, the very herald of the kingdom if they would but have received him, was lifted up in the wilderness calling on Israel to repent, and to look for the promised Messiah. It was the time too, when, according to Isaiah, again (chap. lxi.), the blessed Jesus himself, after John had been imprisoned, came forth as the Lord's anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that were bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the true year of jubilee. But all was in vain, for John was beheaded-Messiah cut off. And though, even after his death and resurrection, when he had ascended to heaven, he was offered again, still all was in vain : they had not only spoken against, but they had slain the Son of man; and they now sinned again in rejecting the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the glory of Christ at the right hand of God. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that (or, "in order that") the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." Such was the testimony of Peter after the ascension of Jesus, showing that Israel as a nation was called to repentance; and that had they as such only given heed to the call, then the very blood of that victim whom their own hands had slain would have availed in their favor. May we not say that in this case this prophecy would have been fulfilled, the time of Israel's blessing accomcomplished. But they would not repent. They who had no eye for the beauty of Jesus, had surely no ear for the voice of the Spirit, speak to them as he might of pardon and blessing. They despised him and his testimony, and for this there was no forgiveness. Israel was thenceforth rejected, and that name of reproach-the name of "Loammi,"-was written upon them. For this reason, therefore, the period of proffered blessing to Israel is

*

of grace can

celled.

now, as it were, CANCELLED, BLOTTED OUT, altogether, from the The week course of those times and seasons which, according to the ancient law of the nation, (Levit. xxv.) marked Israel as the elect people of God, and instead of ushering in, as it should have done, the true year of jubilee, the time of refreshing, is merged as it were, in the long and dreary interval of Israel's present estrangement from the God of his fathers, during which the land is keeping its sabbaths, while the sabbath itself, during these ages of desolation and of sorrow, is no longer a sign between God and his people. Thus, I repeat it, this prophecy, which traces the history of Israel from the days of Nehemiah down to the second coming of Christ, in token of the righteous anger of God, leaves this week altogether unnoticed,—that is, leaves it unnoticed, because it is cancelled; and not only so, but everything connected therewith, except just the first offer of blessing to Israel through Messiah the prince at the beginning, and then the cutting off of Messiah the prince at the close; the former showing what God, the latter what man is, and that while one is willing to bless, the other has no heart for the blessing.

During this present period of Israel's blindness the Lord does not slumber; he is now dealing in grace with the world at large, taking out from among the Gentiles a people for his name, the Church of the firstborn; and the Church looking back on the past history of Israel, knows the beauty and value of him whom they have rejected; and to her the details of the week as they are given in the Gospels, from the first appearance of John to the rejection of Christ, is the most interesting and conspicuous point in the whole of this world's history. But to Israel this period is lost, a present blank in their history. Thus, therefore, to them there is no reckoning of months or of years;-no sabbaths, no jubilees now, nothing whatever to mark, in the slightest degree, any oneness of interest between God and his people, that people to whom the sabbath once blessedly stood as a sign of his favour. But just on the eve of the second coming of Christ, after Israel (unsanctioned by God, it is true) will have returned to the land of their fathers, "the times and the seasons," as it were, will revive, and be numbered again as of old according to the law of the Lord. This we gather from the fact that

"We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet; neither is there any amongst us that knoweth how long." Ps. lxxiv. 9.

F

Parallel between John

with the two

weeks.

the "ONE WEEK" of this prophecy will come in at the end, in order to complete the full term of seventy weeks, and at the same time to supply the place of the FORFEITED WEek.

This last week of Daniel detached from the rest, being the great crisis in the history of the world, previous to the setting up of the kingdom, the period of Israel's ripened apostacy will be one of deep and awful interest, of unparalleled judgment: and between this and the forfeited week there will be a sort of moral coincidence as well as of palpable contrast, inasmuch as one was the period when the true Messiah came forth and was rejected, the other will be the time when a false Messiah will rise, and be received by the Jews as the hope of their nation. I shall, however, speak of this more at length when I reach this part of our subject.

And now as throwing further light on this subject, and as and Elias, in proving that this is not a solitary instance of this sort of double connection fulfilment of prophecy, I next turn to consider the testimony of John and of Elias, the forerunners of Christ at his first and second appearance. Their's is, we shall find, exactly a parallel case, these prophets standing precisely as to their testimony in the same relation one to the other, that the two weeks above named do in the purpose of God.

In Malachi iv. we read, in connection with the Lord's second coming, as follows: "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord," words which we need not say will yet be fulfilled. But in the meantime, when Christ at his first coming presented himself to his people, claiming their allegiance as the heir of the throne, he was preceded by one who "in the spirit and power of Elias came to prepare the way of the Lord, to make his paths strait. Of him it was that the Lord said, “If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come."

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It was all a contingency, it depended on this-had John been received, (his reception involving that too of him to whom he came to bear witness,) he would have really proved what he ostensibly was, the harbinger of the kingdom-the very Eliasand no other would then have been needed to announce the coming glory of Christ, which would in that case even then have been revealed. But John and his testimony, as in the case of Jesus himself, have been alike set at nought; and hence the Elias