Times And Signs: Or The Evidence That The End Is Near, continued

This result is remarkable, and confirms the supposition arising on a close consideration of Dan. 4v viz., that the seven times that literally measured Nebuchadnezzar's banishment from the empire, are also intended symbolically to measure the era of the world's alienation from God, from the time of the vision. At the end of the seven literal times, Nebuchadnezzar says, " Mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever. " How strikingly this represents the change that will come over the kingdoms of the world at the close of the symbolic seven times, when:--

" The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit " (Jer. 16v 19).

" All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name " (Psa. 136v 9).

" Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart " (Jer. 3v 17).

" Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths " (Isa. 2v 3).

" When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms to serve the Lord " (Psa. 102v 22).

" From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles " (Mal. 1v 11).

" So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun " (Isa. 59v 19).

The next period is one mentioned in connection with a vision recorded in Dan. 8v The vision was communicated in symbol, and the features of it were these:--A ram with two unequal horns was seen prevailing in a western, northern, and southern direction, when having " become great, " its career was interrupted by the advent of a he-goat from the west, with a great horn between its eyes. A collision between the two symbolic animals resulted in the utter discomfiture and down-trampling of the ram, and the aggrandisement of the goat. The goat's notable horn, however was broken immediately afterwards, and in its place, there sprang four horns, out of one of which came a fifth horn, which prospered to the destroying of all things Jewish.

The interpretation is supplied along with the vision itself, so that the symbols become highly interesting. The ram with two horns is stated (verse 20), to be the joint dynasty of Media and Persia; and the goat the kingdom of Greece, under the leadership of its " first (imperial) king " or Alexander the Great. This being so, the fight between the animals represents the war between the two powers, which resulted in the subjugation of the Persian empire, and the establishment of Grecian rule over the civilised habitable. The breaking of the notable horn is the death of Alexander, just as he completed his military triumphs; and the up-growth of four horns, the division of Alexander's empire among his four generals Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus.

Out of one of these was to appear a power which should " destroy the mighty and the holy people, " or the Jews. This identifies it as the Roman power, which, in relation to the Jewish state, made its first appearance in the territory allotted to Seleucus, and afterwards completely uprooted the Jewish power in a series of campaigns culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the nearly total extermination of the race of Jews. The vision closes with this triumph, and leaves the future in darkness, with the exception of a general intimation that the power thus destroying the mighty and the holy people should be " broken without hand. "

In the vision itself, there was nothing to represent to Daniel the length of time during which this little-horn power of the goat (described as of fierce countenance) should prevail over the kingdom of Jehovah. In a word, the length of " the times of the Gentiles " was not indicated in the symbols. This defect, however, was supplied before the vision finally closed:--

" Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, UNTO TWO THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED DAYS; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed&quot (verses 13, 14).

Now it happens that the Vatican MS. of the Septuagint reads, " 2,400 days, " which, it is said, agrees with certain MSS in possession of the Jews of Bokhara. And it is to be noticed that an " evening morning " is 24 and not 23 hours, which seems to favour the " 2,400. " We have, therefore, to choose between the two. Five hundred years ago, it would have been difficult to make an election, except in so far as other (con-terminous) dates, with which this must have been made to agree, might have assisted us in the choice. Now, however, we are enabled to decide, for the simple reason that the first reading is negatived by historic failure in the date. " 2,300 " days expired over 100 years ago, and no avenging of the sanctuary took place. But it may be said, How do you know that " 2,300 " ended over a hundred years ago? The answer is very simple. Find the commencement of any term of years, and the termination follows of itself.

Now the commencement of the period in question, is identical with the commencement of the vision itself. The question is " How long shall be THE VISION, " etc., that is, over what time will the vision just witnessed extend? This being so, we have only to ascertain the date of the first event seen in the vision, and from that date reckon the currency of the period defined as the duration of the events represented. By consulting the vision, the reader will perceive that the first event is the appearance of the Medo-Persian empire, in that particular aspect of it signified by the greater altitude of one horn of the ram over the other. The two horns are expressly declared to be representative of the two elements of the ram kingdom--the Median and the Persian. This being so, it follows that the increase of the second horn over the first in size (for it is said " the higher came up last " ) represents the more prolonged ascendency of the Persian element, which was the last to come to the throne. Darius, the Mede, reigned two years, and, dying without issue, he was succeeded by his nephew, Cyrus, the Persian, whose family retained power till the empire was overthrown by Greece 200 years later.

When Daniel saw the ram, it would appear at first, that both horns were on its head, from which it might be argued that the date of the vision's commencement would be indefinitely somewhere at the beginning of the Persian monarchy; but the supplementary statement that " the higher came up last " would suggest that Daniel was a witness of the first shooting out of the second or over-topping horn. If this is a correct deduction, " the times of the vision " would commence with the ascension of Cyrus to the throne; he being the inception of the higher horn that came up last. This would be 540 B.C. as the beginning of the days. Certainly the days did not begin earlier. They may have begun later. If the statement " the higher came up last " is an explanation, and not a description of what Daniel actually saw, the date of commencement would have to be sought for at the time when Cyrus had reigned long enough to constitute the Persian horn, as a matter of fact, the higher of the two.

Adopting 540 B.C. as the date of commencement, the erroneousness of the 2,300 reading is at once apparent; for it would give A.D. 1760 as the termination of the vision, and the time for the avenging of the sanctuary. Adopting 2,400 we get 1860 as the date of the expiry. Some may think that this must be equally a mistake with the other, as no steps, such as are contemplated in the predicted " avengement, " have yet been taken. To this it can only be remarked that supposing this to be the case, it does not show the " 2,400 days " to be wrong, but only that they have been commenced too early in fixing upon the first year of Cyrus's sole reign as the commencement, which would favour the suggestion already thrown out, that the commencement ought to be dated later on in Persian annals, when the second horn had, as a matter of history, waxed greater than the Median horn, with which the Empire commenced.

But it is not certain that nothing marks the epoch commencing 1860, as affecting the land and interests of " the holy people. " On the contrary, it is a fact of the greatest notoriety, that this is a period of great activity in connection with Palestine and the Jews.

In France, in 1860, was established " The Universal Alliance of Israelites, " a society now numbering many thousands of subscribers. In England, in 1871, " The Anglo-Jewish Association " was established in connection with the older society. And in Vienna another branch was established. Thus began that international strengthening of the bonds of brotherhood in Israel that is so notable a phenomenon of our times.

These things arose out of the earlier necessities of the Jews. In Damascus, in 1840, there was considerable robbery and persecution of the Jews by the Turkish officials, culminating in massacre. Sir Moses Montefiore went out to the East in connection with this, and received the personal thanks of Queen Victoria and a knighthood for so doing.

There are other evidences of revival in relation to Jewish affairs, which it would occupy much space to notice. Whether 1860 or a later date be the true termination of the 2,400 period, there is no doubt about the epochal ending of the period falling in the lifetime of the present generation. This is the broad fact to which we desire special attention. The period must end on this side of the marginal period already mentioned, for the simple reason that that period witnesses the process by which the result mentioned in the 2,400 vision is accomplished, viz., the cleansing or avengement of the sanctuary.

The next period can be demonstrated with greater certainty and exactitude, and coincides with the result to which the 2,400 vision leads us, thereby affording powerful collateral evidence of the correctness of the millennary-week theory, and the " seven times " method of computing the duration of the kingdom of men, and, at the same tune, establishing, with a strength that is almost irresistible, the general conclusion that in 1905 we stand in close proximity to that wonder of historic wonders, the advent of Jesus in power and great glory, to destroy them that destroy the earth, and establish " glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good will toward men. "

We refer to the four-beasts vision of Daniel. The four beasts, like the four-metals of the image, are explained to mean the four great imperial dynasties, under which mankind should successively be ruled with something like universal dominion (Dan. 7v 17, 23). Attention is specially directed to the fourth beast, as it is in connection with it more particularly that the chronological considerations of the vision arise. This is universally admitted to be representative of the Roman empire, which, in relation to the Babylonish, was " the fourth kingdom " (verse 23).

On the head of the fourth beast were ten horns. This number was augmented by the appearance of an eleventh, which, however, by its aggressive acts, speedily diminished the whole number to eight. The eleventh horn was distinguished from its neighbours in having eyes and mouth, a " stout look, " and a hostile propensity about it, which displaced three of the first horns to make way for itself. It employed its mouth in " speaking great words against the Most High " and used its power against the Almighty, ultimately bringing about the perdition of the whole body corporate of which it formed a part. This, however, was not an instantaneous result; the horn prevailed for a period before retribution came. The testimony is:--

" He shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand UNTIL A TIME AND TIMES, AND THE DIVIDING OF TIME " (Dan. 7v 25).

The conclusion of this period is marked by an event as follows:--

" I beheld, then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame " (verse 11). " The same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom " (verses 21, 22). " The Judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end " (verse 26).

Now the import of this symbolism is evident enough. The body of the beast being the Roman empire, it follows that the Roman empire (notwithstanding historical vicissitudes) was in some form to continue till the arrival of " the Ancient of Days " to destroy it, an event still in the future: but as an undivided kingdom it was not to continue: the ten horns on the head of the beast show this. The interpretation is: " the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise. " Kings represent dominions, and hence the appearance of ten kings in the head of the beast shows that, ultimately, the Roman empire of undivided magnitude, instead of continuing to be controlled by a single imperial will, as the body of a beast is by its head, was to be broken up into ten separate royalties or kingdoms, obeying so many separate political wills, and sustaining independent political existence, though forming part and parcel of the Roman system of nations.

This fact is not less clearly apparent in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the image. The legs of iron represent the autonomy of the empire in its prosperous days; the feet, a mixture of iron and clay, and divided into ten toes, symbolise the later stage of Roman history--a stage embracing the " modern " era up to the present time, and a little beyond--a stage in which the power and territory of the Roman empire are distributed among rival states and monarchs who have sprung out of her political embers.

The chronology of the fourth-beast symbol is determinable by the career of the little horn. The fourth-beast system was to continue, at least, a time, times, and a half, from the time the little horn made its appearance, after the end of which, it was to be destroyed by divine judgment, and the dominion transferred to the saints. Hence, if we can identify the little horn in history, and fix the date of its appearance, we shall be enabled to arrive at a correct conclusion as to the arrival of the time of the fourth-beast destroying judgment to take effect in the coming of the Ancient of Days, in the person of Jesus to put an end to the arrogant blasphemies which prevail for time, times, and a half. To do this, we must give a little attention to the appearance of the ten horns of the fourth beast, as the ten horns precede the advent of the little horn power. This takes us back to what is called " the fall of the Roman empire, " when " the fourth kingdom " passed from its imperial to its divided and multiregal phase.

Here we contemplate a protracted period of bloody revolution. The Roman arms, after centuries of resistless prowess, had lost their terror through the effeminacy of a race accustomed to victory and luxury, and the misgovernment of emperors, who ruled for private advantage instead of the public weal. The consequence was, that the rapacious hordes of Northern Europe and Asia, attracted to the tottering empire, like birds of prey to a rotting carcase, came down in clouds upon the fertile and cultivated countries of the south, and though held back for a time, ultimately broke through every barrier, and defeating the Roman armies, capturing the Roman fortresses, and ultimately sacking the proud empire City herself, put an end to the mightiest dominion that ever ruled the civilised habitable. This, however (which took more than a century to accomplish), though a destruction of what was considered the Roman empire, was but the introduction of the clay amongst the iron, not the displacing of the iron by the clay.

The northern nations were too lacking in genius, either social or political, to substitute a new order of society for that which they found among the civilised peoples of Rome. They were a vigorous, but an uncivilised race, and substantially fell in with the Roman order of things. True, there was an attempt by the Vandals, to abolish everything Roman and assimilate the conquered empire to the institutions of its barbarian conquerors; but this movement soon gave way before a reaction, which demanded and hastened the restoration of Roman civilisation.

The clay intermingled itself with the iron, and was, ultimately moulded into shape by the stronger element. This is the time at which we are to look for the ten horns; for the ten horns in the beast vision represent the same aspect of the fourth kingdom, as the clay and iron ten-toed feet of the image vision. It is reasonable to assume that as soon as the Roman beast ceased to be controlled by its own head it passed into the ten-horned state of government; that is, as soon as imperial Rome fell, as soon as the central government of the empire was destroyed, the empire passed into the dismembered state represented by the ten horns. If this be a reasonable assumption, we ought to find in her dismemberment a number of political divisions answering to the number of the horns.

In considering this matter, we are met with the fact that the barbarian nations, on overturning the Roman Empire, did not unite themselves under one government, and set up a new empire. They scattered themselves among the provinces of Roman Europe, and settled in such countries as were according to their liking, each nation setting up its own government independently of all the rest. In this way there sprang up a number of separate kingdoms in the territory formerly ruled by the undivided Roman sceptre; that is, several distinct horns sprang out of the head of the beast. The question is how many? Daniel says ten, and history says ten.

Sir Isaac Newton gives the following enumeration of the states that sprang up under the barbarian nations after the overthrow of Rome: 1--Vandals and Alans (under one government, occupying Spain and Africa); 2--Suevians (another part of Spain); 3--Visigoths; 4--Alans (France); 5--Burgundians; 6--Franks (separate from the Alans); 7--Britons; 8--Huns; 9--Lombards; 10--Ravenna. This enumeration is broadly taken and confined to Roman territory. It takes no account of minor divisions, such as the dukedoms (dignified by the name of kingdoms) into which Britain was divided, or the petty factions that were here and there to be found in connection with other States. It only takes note of the conspicuous and great divisions of political power, properly considered " kingdoms, " that followed the downfall of Rome, in Roman territory. It takes no cognisance of Asiatic dominion, or of any political phenomenon beyond the limits of the fourth-beast territory; and in this the discerning reader will say Sir Isaac Newton only adhered to the necessities imposed upon all interpreters of the vision itself.

Dr. Brewster, in his " Life of Sir Isaac Newton " (pp. 227, 228), paraphrasing Sir Isaac's views on the subject, observes: " Some of these kingdoms at length fell, and new ones sprang up; but, whatever was their subsequent number, they still retain the name of the ten kings from their first number. "

Machiavelli, in his history of Florence, enumerates ten kingdoms, into which the Roman empire was dismembered by the incursions of the northern nations. This list* is as follows: 1--Ostrogoths (in Moesia); 2--the Visigoths (in Pannonia); 3--Suevis and Alans (in Gascoigne and Spain); 4--The Vandals (in Africa); 5--the Franks (in France); 6--the Burgundians (in Burgundy); 7--the Herlui and Turingi (in Italy); 8--the Saxons and Angles (in Britain); 9--the Huns (in Hungary); 10--the Lombards (at first upon the Danube, and afterwards in Italy). This enumeration appears to differ a little from that adopted by Sir Isaac Newton, but a close comparison will reveal a resemblance between the two, amounting to identity.

* This list does not appear as a list in Machiavelli's book, but has the form of an account, extending over several pages, of which this is a condensation.--Author.

The only substantial difference is the exclusion of the Ostro-goths in Moesia (answering to the southern border of the empire of Austria) from the list of Sir Isaac Newton; but this difference is more a difference in the way of reckoning than in the actual enumeration of the ten kingdoms. Machiavelli's may be the true list, and Newton's may be reconcilable with it, by reckoning the nations of the Alans one kingdom instead of two, as Sir Isaac counts them, which would make room for the Ostrogoths as one of the ten. On the other hand, it is possible, though less likely, that the Ostrogoths may have been part and parcel of the adjoining Visigoth state of Pannonia, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, answering to the Mediterranean seaboard of Austria.

In any case, the identification of the ten horns is complete. The process is not circumvented by minor difficulties, arising from the obscurities of ancient records, which can never overthrow the broad fact that the territory of the Roman empire, after the overthrow of the Roman Imperial power, was divided into a number of political sections, more or less answering to the number ten. The diversity of race and tribe existing in Europe at the time, in no way interferes with the fact of a decimal division of political power. There were, no doubt, many more nationalities than ten; but this no more disproves their political division into ten parts, than does the existence of the English, Scotch, and Irish in Great Britain disprove the political unity of the three kingdoms.

The vision predicts the uprise of ten kingdoms in the territory of the Roman Empire. We would, therefore, argue a priori, that there must have been that number in the States that made their appearance when the unity of the empire was dissolved, whatever the obscurity of history might indicate to the contrary. But, fortunately, we do no violence to history in believing that the vision was realised. History shows us a number of kingdoms, so nearly approximating to the prophetic number, that two in dependent historical writers give us the exact number; and it must be remembered that one of these two--Machiavelli--was not writing for the illustration of prophecy--of which there is no reason to believe he knew anything--but simply in exercise of his function as an impartial recorder of historical facts.

The ten horns appeared about the fifth and sixth centuries, but were afterwards reduced and multiplied in number by the revolutions of war. It is evident, however, that they reappear at the time that the fourth-beast system as a whole is destroyed by divine judgment. This is apparent by the later visions, seen by John in the Isle of Patmos, in which the fourth beast of Daniel is divided up into several beasts, for the purpose of illustrating subordinate and internal features of the system represented. According to these, we find that ten horns figure conspicuously at the end, as well as the beginning, of the little horn (time, times, and a half) era (Rev. 17v 12, 14). " The ten horns which thou sawest (on the head of the scarlet-coloured beast, verse 3) are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. "

Here there is no mention of an eleventh horn plucking up three of the ten by the roots, because it refers to an entirely different period of history from that represented by the ten horns on the head of Daniel's fourth beast. It shows us the constitution and attitude of the beast at the time the Lamb, as the Ancient of Days, comes to give its body to the burning flame of destroying war, from which it appears that the original ten-horned phase of Daniel's fourth beast is to be resuscitated, at the era of its destruction, and not only resuscitated, but established on the basis of corporate unity. That is to say the ten kingdoms into which the fourth beast system is to be divided at the end, are to unite in a unanimous policy, under a single head. They are to give their power and strength to the little horn blaspheming power (separately symbolised as a scarlet-coloured beast), for the purpose of carrying on war against Jesus when he has manifested himself in the earth as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

The beast will thus act once more as a living unity, but this time, a ten-horned unity--a confederacy of the kings of the Roman territory, formed for the purpose of mutual self-defence against the power which will have threateningly appeared in the east, and of whose real nature they will be entirely ignorant, until overwhelmed in the fearful whirlwind of His destroying anger (Jer. 30v 23, 24).

These facts enable us not only to reconcile Daniel's fourth beast with the visions of John, but to make use of all together, in forming a complete picture of the purpose of God, as unfolded in the past, and yet remaining to be fulfilled in " the end afore determined. "

They teach us that the ten-horned phase of the Roman system of nations has relation to two epochs in its existence; first, when its imperial unity disappeared in the " fall of the Roman Empire, " and the second, when that unity is restored, for the purpose of a united effort against " that determined, " which is to be " poured upon the desolate. "

We have now to enquire if history affords any parallel to the uprise of an eleventh political power in the Roman system, subsequent to the appearance of the ten, and of the uprooting by it of three of its predecessors, and the assumption by it of an arrogant dictatorial attitude toward the other powers, as sym-bolised by the eleventh horn, having a stout look and a mouth speaking great words of blasphemy.

The merest retrospective glance affords the answer. The eye falls upon a power answering all the requirements of the prophecy; and the eye has not to search for it. It is not a second-rate object in the historical retrospect. It looms up in the past with over-shadowing breadth; it fills the whole picture with its imposing figure; which though no longer a recognised power in the political system of Europe, by reason of the termination of its allotted " time, times, and an half, " is still conspicuous as a religious element. Do we require to mention the power to which these remarks apply? Its name will instinctively spring to the reader's lips--THE PAPACY.

The Papacy appeared in the territory of the Roman or fourth beast, after the division of the empire by the barbarians of the north--that is (symbolically), after the ten horns had appeared. It was not till the beginning of the seventh century, that the Bishop of Rome--till that time a mere diocesan, an ecclesiastic among other ecclesiastics--was constituted by imperial edict, universal bishop or pope--the supreme pontiff of the State religion. The decree which finally elevated him to this position was issued by the emperor Phocas, from Constantinople (the mouth of the Dragon which gave the Papistical beast his power, and his seat, and his great authority: Rev. 13v 2).