when the Lord will save His people from the east country and from the west country (Zech. viii. 7).

These views are confirmed by the address of St James at the Council of Jerusalem: "To this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things" (Acts xv. 15-17). Here we have one definite space of time-from the throwing down of the tabernacle of David to its re-establishment.

The restoration of the throne of David will be accompanied by the restoration of a temple-ritual, but one without a high priest of the seed of Aaron: "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me" (Jer. xxxiii. 22).

This double restoration is referred to in a remarkable passage in Ezekiel: "And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end; thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him" (Ezek. xxi. 25-27). The "diadem" is high priestly mitre, not the priestly "bonnet."

the

It and

man

the crown are to be upon the head of the one Christ Jesus" in the rebuilt temple-" a priest upon

His throne" (Zech. vi. 13).

Putting together all these statements, we are required to define the times of the Gentiles as the space of time between the captivity of Zedekiah and the cutting off of the Gentile Church and the overthrow of the Gentile kingdoms.

REVELATION GIVEN TO NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR was in all respects a most remarkable man; in none more so than in being the recipient of divine revelation on three equally remarkable occasions. He had overturned the throne of David, and had broken to pieces God's temple. We might naturally have expected that he would be under the curse of God. Yet it was quite the contrary. God revealed Himself to him, and revealed His will respecting the kingdoms of the world, until the setting up of Christ's future kingdom. He was in his own person made a representative man for earthly sovereignty; and of his and his army's war against Tyre the Lord declared that Egypt should be his wages, "because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God" (Ezek. xxix. 20).

The three revelations to Nebuchadnezzar were followed by three equally remarkable confessions.

The first was a revelation of Gentile kingdoms from himself to their utter destruction. All were declared to

be from God: "The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory" (Dan. ii. 37).

Nebuchadnezzar did homage to Daniel as Jehovah's prophet, and said, "Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets" (ver. 47).

The second was a revelation of God's power in delivering His servants. In that revelation a man was seen walking with them in the fire, whom Nebuchadnezzar described as a heavenly personage. His confession on that occasion was, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (Dan. iii. 28, 29).

The third revelation showed how dependent man is upon God for the preservation of his faculties-how He is able to abase them that walk in pride. In smiting the king with madness, preserving to him his kingdom, and afterwards restoring him to reason, God gave an intimation of the bestial condition of self-willed sovereignty, and of its future restoration to the true service of God.

Nebuchadnezzar's confession of God is most remark

able:-"And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and, for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom; and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, and extol, and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase" (Dan. iv. 34–37).

In this public manner did the head of Gentile sovereignty confess the God of Israel. The Gentile nations had thus God revealed to them through Nebuchadnezzar ; His righteousness was manifested in the punishment of Israel for their sins, and His power also over all nations of men.

Here was indeed a magnificent commencement of the times of the Gentiles. God manifested to all nations the folly and sin of idolatry, and His own sole supremacy and Godhead.

CHANGE IN THE LANGUAGE OF REVELATION.

NOT only in actions, but also in words, did God manifest Himself to the Gentiles. The language of revelation, so far as Gentiles were concerned, was in Chaldee.

tongue.

God thus spoke to men in their own

The introduction of this change is marked in Daniel ii. 4:—“Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac" -Aramaic. I think it probable that this was a sort of ecclesiastical language amongst the mixed populations of the empire, just as Latin was in medieval times. It was probably the one language of literature, as Greek became, in a great degree, in the Roman Empire.

The Chaldee (ie., the Aramaic), portions of Daniel became thus a written revelation to the Gentile nations, suited to lead them back to the fuller revelation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

They form, as a separate volume, a most instructive manifestation of God:

:

1. The Great Image revealing the successive changes of Gentile empire, down to its destruction by a power not of human origin, which was to fill the earth with the kingdom of the God of heaven.

The failure of all heathen hierophants to tell the king his dream, or to interpret it to him, made eminently conspicuous the divine office of Israel's prophet.

2. The deliverance at the fiery furnace gave another