sleep, on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed shall the end be."

The special subject, therefore, of Gabriel's explanation is the last end of the indignation, and not the history of the Persians, nor of Alexander's conquests. He brings in these for elucidation merely.

"The indignation" is especially God's anger against His holy place. Its last end is the time immediately preceding its beginning to be cleansed. Isaiah says of the final Assyrian, "For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction," chap. x. 25. Gabriel then proceeds-" The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up

against the Prince of princes; but he shall he broken without hand. And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days" (Dan. viii. 20-26.)

Our first inquiry here is respecting the meaning of "the latter time of their kingdom." We learn from Daniel vii. 12 that their political life, without dominant power, was to continue to the end. They are, with Austria, "The Kings of the East"-i.e., the eastern kingdoms of Rev. xvi. 12. We are therefore now entering upon the period here predicted.

"When the transgressors are come to the full." The warnings of God's providence will be unheeded, Christendom will have filled up the measure of its iniquities. We may gather the general characteristics of this filling up from various considerations. A rejection of the renewed proclamation of the Gospel will be one: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come" (Matt. xxiv. 14). As it was with the Jewish vine, so is it to be with the Gentile one. The Gospel was preached to the synagogues in every city of the Roman empire before Jerusalem was destroyed. In Revelation xiv. 6 there is predicted a similar proclamation of the Gospel, accompanied by the warning, "The hour of His judgment is come." That proclamation is wonderfully going forth now. Italy is open, Spain is open, France has long been open, Austria is open, and even Russia and the East are more or less open. Very soon

that door will close. The Gospel will be unheeded, and men will cling to their errors.

Within the Latin dominions there will be a more intense worshipping of the Beast and his image (Rev. xiv. 9-11). The faithful ones will suffer martyrdom (Rev. xiv. 12). How far that condition will pervade other parts of Christendom is not very clear.

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Another part of the filling up of transgression is a worse doctrinal and moral condition of the Papacy, Babylon is fallen." We see the beginnings of this in the decree of the Immaculate Conception, in the recent decree of Papal infallibility, and in the present plottings of the Jesuits. A phase, rapidly hastening, will be the politico-religious union of France, Italy, and Rome in union with the Papacy as "the Beast and his image," prohibiting all religious or political freedom on pain of martyrdom. In 2 Timothy iii. 1-5, St Paul gives us another phase, viz., moral lawlessness, combined with a form of godliness.

These probably combine the elements of the fulness of transgression. It is then that "A king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." The prediction does not tell where he is to be king. It merely gives us his character. But his deeds enable us to identify him with the king of the north, of Daniel xi. 40–45, "His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people; and through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall

magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand.”

Gog, in Ezekiel xxxviii., is the person here spoken of. Russian craft personified in the then Emperor of Russia will accomplish the prediction. Gog's power appears overwhelming, but it contains within it the elements of its own dissolution. This will come more in detail before us in examining the wonderful prediction in Ezekiel xxxviii.

In this examination of Daniel vii., viii., we have the other aspect of the times of the Gentiles supplementing that given to Nebuchadnezzar.

THE SEVENTY WEEKS.

THE Seventy Weeks are an important feature of the times of the Gentiles, as setting before us the subject condition of the rebuilt temple and city, and the subsequent ruin of both.

It appears to me that one great cause of the confusion in the interpretations of the seventy weeks has arisen from considering them as seventy consecutive periods. An attentive consideration of the prediction will show at least two interruptions-one, the interval between the coming and death of Messiah, the Prince; the other, the space of time between that and the destruction of the city and the temple.

I think also that the seven weeks is not strictly a chronological era, but only the space of time occupied by the building of the temple. Nehemiah's work, which he commenced in the twentieth and completed in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, was the building of the wall of Jerusalem.

In thus separating the prediction of the building of the temple from that of the wall of Jerusalem, and taking into consideration the two intervals above stated, we are enabled to regard the prediction in the following aspect:

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Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and thy Holy City"-i.e., not seventy consecutive weeks, but seven for one purpose, sixty-two for another, and a final one after a certain interval.

The angel says, "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times.”

The seven weeks are not again mentioned, but the sixty-two are given as a chronological period: "And after sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off."

No part of the prediction specifies the building of the temple. It appears to me that one part of the divine purpose in this, is to fix our attention upon Messiah the prince. Yet by comparing what the Jews said to our Lord with this prediction, we are enabled to apply the seven weeks to the building of the temple: "Forty