“Mr. M. ‘Do not those two denote the same period of time?’
“Min. ‘Yes.’
“Mr. M. ‘Then must not the time given in answer to the question be the same as the 1260 days?’
“The minister acknowledged it must be so.
“Mr. M. pointed him to the various places where the same period is presented under different forms,—forty-two months, 1260 days, time, times, and half a time—and showed him how 30 days to a month, and 12 months to a year, would make 3½ years, equal to 1260 days. He then asked him if we might not know that God had revealed the time to the resurrection in days.
“He said, Yes; but asked if we could know how to reckon them.
“Mr. M. pointed him to Dan. 7:25, the time of the continuance of the saints in the hands of the little horn, a period of the same length, and asked if that could denote simply 1260 days; ‘for’ said he, ‘you know that they persecuted the saints more than so many literal days.’
“This he admitted; but asked, if not literal days, what they were.
“Mr. M. showed him that the language was symbolical; that if it had been given in literal time, it would have had a bad effect on past generations, as they would have seen that the judgment could not come in their day, and they might not have lived in continual readiness for it, as they should do. He then referred to Num. 14: 34, and Eze. 4:6, where God has appointed a day for a year; showed him how the 70 weeks were fulfilled in 490 years—as many years as there were days in 70 weeks—and showed there were just 1260 years from the time the decree of Justinian went into effect, A. D. 538, to 1798, when the papacy was subverted by Napoleon.
“The minister acknowledged the pertinency of these references, and confessed that the time sworn to by Christ must denote 1260 years.