This land, as laid out by Ezekiel, will be divided into thirteen longitudinal strips, sixty miles long, and twenty broad. In the very centre will be a portion, some fifty miles square, which will be divided and apportioned to what is called the holy oblation—namely, in the very middle will be the temple, a mile square, or larger than ever the whole city of Jerusalem has yet been. Then the city will be ten miles square. On one side will be a portion for the priests; on another, a portion for the Levites; and on the other two sides, the prince’s or king’s portion. This portion, which will be on the East and West sides, will be sixty miles long by ten broad, or some 600 miles
square. But it is clear he will need it, for he will not be supported by taxes. He will have to judge the land. He cannot take any more land. He will have to support his own family. No public grant to his children. He will have to be liberal with the temple. He will have sixty miles of sea coast to defend and sixty miles of land frontier to protect, and thus cover some of the weaker tribes. The city will have 720 square miles as a suburb, in which to raise supplies specially for itself. It will in reality be in two parts—one called by the prophets the profane; here will the commercial business be done. The other part will be sacred. Into it strangers will not enter; it will be holy—a quiet habitation. “There the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no gaily with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby.” The city proper will be some thirty miles North of the present city of Jerusalem.
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN.
Discourse XVI.
“SIGNS OF THE TIMES”—THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM—FORCES OF RUSSIA AND ENGLAND—PRESENT LOCALITY OF ANCIENT NATIONS—ORIGIN OF AMERICAN REPUBLICANISM—FEDERATION OF THE NATIONS COMING—EVOLUTION AND DEVOLUTION.
“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”—Daniel xii. 12.
So according to the prophet Daniel there is a time to come in which it will be blessed to live. The prophecies of Daniel are generally of a material character—that is, they have special reference to this world politically, and to this end he had direct and special reference to certain kingdoms in existence at the time of writing, as well as others that were to come into being. Of all the prophets he concerns himself the most with positive data of the rise and fall of nations. The figures of the data used, we freely confess, are difficult to understand and interpret. The Church and times are greatly in need of some man competent on this point. All prophetic students know the diversity and confusion in this department of theology. Of all the difficult departments of theology none exceed the numerical. The numerical symbolism of the Bible is as yet but little understood. True, indeed, we are improving. Aided by Providence, we are enabled to interpret some dates by data—that is, certain events occurring locate us and point out the prophetic period we are in. Like the captain who is unable by his certain and usual modes of calculating to find his whereabouts, does so by currents, the Gulf-stream, islands, colour of waters, &c., did we know the exact quantity of Daniel’s two thousand and three hundred days, his times, time, and half
a time, his seventy weeks, his thousand two hundred and ninety days, and the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, then we could deal with the prophecies with a definitiveness to which as yet we are strangers.
The times, however, are peculiarly interesting from the very fact that the Church is waking up to the importance of prophetic study. “Coming events cast their shadows before,” is a trite but true saying, and here as true as anywhere. Men feel in their fears and hopes the pressure of prophecy. The Church is remarkably anxious and unrest. Governments are suspicious and confused. The populace are restless and threatening. Indeed, everything conspires in Church, State, and people, to forecast the future. A thunderstorm is felt before it is seen or heard. It shadows the mind, thrills the nerves, and pains the rheumatic limbs. Many in 1858 felt war coming in our own country. Many were at a loss to interpret their fears. Some, however, interpreted the signs of the time and sounded an alarm.
The few years to come are pregnant with angry forces. Men are busy in Russia, Germany, France, England, and America, sowing the winds, and the harvest will surely be whirlwinds. But, beyond all, the sky is clear. War ceases, commerce revives, the nations accept a settled peace, science and religion join hand in hand to prepare the wastes and woes of war. The beast is overcome, Anti-Christ is slain, and the dragon is banished from the earth. Jerusalem again rises in splendour from the grave of desolation. Again Canaan will become the glory of all lands, and Jerusalem the glory of Canaan. Here, again, after centuries of wandering, shall the throne of David find rest, and on it one of David’s seed, chosen and anointed of God, accepted of men, and served by the nations. Crowned and imperial Salem shall become the home of her long-captive sons and daughters. Israel and Judah shall meet together, and shall be one stick, one people, having one head, one throne, one city, one Lord, even Jesus. “Therefore, they shall come and
sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all” (Jeremiah xxxi. 12).