"O JEHOVAH, hear; O JEHOVAH, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name."

And Daniel says, while he was thus presenting his supplication before the JEHOVAH his God, the man Gabriel touched him about the time of the evening oblation, and said, "I am come to give thee wisdom and understanding, therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision."

"Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy."

These seventy weeks, according to the calculation of the Jews, mean weeks of days, seven times seventy, 70 × 7=490, precisely the period to the advent of Christ. In this one verse are included in striking and plain language, the doctrine of sin, forgiveness, and a righteousness brought home to us. The wonderful clearness of this prophecy is its most striking feature. No words could make it plainer.

"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 threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."

This period, calculated in the same way, makes four hundred and eighty-three years, seven years less than in the preceding verse; and if this be compared

with Ezra vi., with the commands of the two kings, Cyrus and Darius, to return and restore Jerusalem, the difference in the two dates will be explained, or with the decree of Artaxerxes, in Ezra vii. 13. Human chronology varies, but the mind of the Spirit is precision itself, although we cannot always trace it.

"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." This would be after four hundred and thirty-four years, and I think it dates from the time when the house of the Lord was finished, in the sixth year of the reign of the second Darius (Ezra vi. 15). This vision of Daniel was in the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede (Dan. ix. 1; v. 31). But this was not the Darius mentioned by Ezra in this sixth chapter. It is enough for us to know the Spirit was specific in detail, although at this distance of time we cannot trace all that was signified: it would be vain for any one to attempt it. "The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." In some of my works I have said I thought "the most Holy," mentioned in the twenty-fourth verse, meant the anointing of the Christian Church by the Pentecostal baptism, after Christ. But I am inclined to think it meant Christ: "Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows (Psa. xlv. 7; lxxxix. 20). And hence in Daniel, immediately the name Messiah, the Anointed One. He was cut off, "the Just for the unjust." The Romans did come, as here predicted, and also in

the seventh chapter and seventh verse-"the people of the prince"-our Saviour referred to that power when He said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me," nothing with which to accuse Him-no sin. The Roman power at that time was an incarnation of Satan. The city and the temple were destroyed, as here foretold. The New Testament is just the response to this prophecy: "There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Mark xiii. 2). And see His words concerning the holy city (Luke xix. 42-44). Unto the end of the war desolations are determined. "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel (Matt. xxiv. 15; Dan. ix. 26, 27). Christ did confirm the covenant by bringing in the covenant of God the Spirit. sacrifice and the offering to His own body, once for all. our Lord's passion, as in Isa. liii. But whence this revelation to Daniel-how elicited? The chapter we have gone through supplies the answer. He had gone to the word and to the testimony; to the Fountain Head for light and knowledge; and as the angel said, I am come to give them to you. Daniel first made a solemn confession of sin; then he went to the covenant, to the prophecy of Jeremiah, which we have seen to be grand in the extreme in the word of JEHOVAH; then he went to the law of Moses; to JEHOVAH for Himself; and hence this flood of light, this answer from JEHOVAH, this revelation of Himself. Daniel's prayer (Dan. ii. 17-21) was earnest, and in faith, and obtained a happy answer;

And He did cause the cease, by the offering of Thus closes the week of

but it was not like this prayer in the ninth chapter, nor was the answer as glorious as here. He had grasped the light of the great name, and the Anointed One, or "the Christ of God," stood revealed. "Seek the JEHOVAH and His strength: seek His face evermore.'

I am sorry my object here is not to explain prophecy, but to exhibit it, God in Christ in the name JEHOVAH. The next chapter is a lucid page of history, of now fulfilled prophecy. Suffice it here to say, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Being of Rev. i. 8, 13, 17, 18, appeared to Daniel. If the two chapters are read, the Being will be seen to be the same, and the eleventh chapter is a long page of history.

"O Daniel, a man greatly beloved!" If we had not been told this, could we have believed Daniel was beloved by the Almighty ? In his youth taken from his home and his country; a captive and a prisoner in a foreign court; seventy years a captive in the most voluptuous city in the world; condemned to the lions' den; and now perhaps ninety years of age, a hoary veteran, and still captive in the great Babylon. "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved!" Yes, but why this severe dealing of the Almighty, from youth to age, under His chastening hand? Does it not seem a mockery? No, this severe dealing was just because he was beloved, greatly beloved. But what was there to subdue, what to evolve, that Daniel's life was one of chastisement ? I think we may find the answer in a few words. The throne of the kingdoms of this world, set up in his heart, was to be dethroned; and the throne of the kingdom of the Messiah set up

there. The restoration of a temporal kingdom has always been the one idea of the Jews; and perhaps this long striving of the Spirit was to dispossess Daniel's mind of that idea. He was a prince of the royal house of Judah, and he must be taught the true nature of the kingdom of God. Gabriel spake to him of "the Messiah the Prince," and the visions of the fourth and seventh chapters might not be only to teach pagan kings, but to enlighten and to enlarge the prophet's own mind.

"O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

"And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine 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.

"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."