passage of the Pison. The whole land of Havilah occupied. The men of Togarmah rally at Gihon. Fierce fighting in Eden. The invaders defeated in the mountains of Ararat. For according to ancient names of people and country, such was the fact. It is comforting to all God’s people to know from His Word that there is a time of peace; that there is a golden age in the near future. Dr. McKay has the Christian idea in his poem:
“There is a good time coming, boys,
Wait a little longer;
Let us aid it all we can,
Every woman, every man,
The good time coming.”
When will the 1,335 days of years, spoken of in the text, end? We answer, About the year 1957. And why that year? Because these days evidently date there, beginning from the time the daily sacrifice is taken away and the city trodden under foot. The little goat horn of Daniel viii. 9 stands, we have before shown you, for Turkey. “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the South, and toward the East, and toward the pleasant land.” It stands for Mahommedanism, which was to overturn Christianity for a given period, a time, times, and a half time, or in figures, 1260. Now Mahommed was accepted and crowned at Mecca in the year 622. If we add 1260 and 622, we have 1882—a time that is very plainly pointed out in the Pyramid. Daniel says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city,” Jerusalem. These weeks put into prophetic years make 490, which, of course, brings us to the time when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus. Daniel asked how long the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and transgression of desolation to give the sanctuary and people to be trodden down? The answer was, Unto 2,300 days, taking a day for a year. Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70. Take this from 490
and we have 420. Now these 420 years taken from 2,300 will bring 1880. Then the sanctuary is to be cleansed—that is, Jerusalem will be in the possession of England. She now is.
From about 1880, or 1882, England will possess Jerusalem. In the twelfth chapter of Daniel, eleventh verse, we find thirty days added to the 1,200, making 1,290; these added thirty years denote the time England will have to contend for her right to Palestine. It will finally be acknowledged, however, by all nations. In 1935 the battle of Armageddon will end, but Palestine will not be fully settled down to a peaceful possession till 1957. Then the government will be fully established and acknowledged all over the world. The kings and Gentile nations will have gone up to Jerusalem and given in their adherence. Then all the world will be federated to David’s throne. The year 1957 I arrive at by the same rule as the other—1,335 when added to 622, makes 1,957. “Blessed,” says Daniel, “are they who see that time.”
The world is to undergo some marvellous changes these next few years—mechanically, politically, socially, and morally; the telephone, the phonograph, the microphone, the telemachole and coming improvements will transform our modes of labour and learning beyond our present conception. God times inventions and improvements to the advancement of His kingdom.
I do not regard inventions as mere accidents, but as the outcoming of a Divine intent through human agencies. Watts and Wesley both did good service for the Church and the world. Edison and others of kindred minds are scientific prophets. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” All is made subservient to the progress of the kingdom of heaven. The doctrine of the evolution of man as taught by Darwin is neither complimentary to man or God; but the doctrine of devolution is. Man is a developing creature; a creature who takes centuries to grow in. The devolution of God is through man by means of all the increasing facilities
and agencies that make man stronger, wiser, and better. The secret powers and forces of nature are revealed to man in the ratio of his ability to apply them, on the same scale as we instruct our children.
In the latter days, or the period spoken of by Daniel, nature will be Divinely prompted with an impulse of generosity not now known, for then men will be wise enough, strong enough, and good enough, to use the same and not abuse. The prophetic teachings glow with promises of regaling plenty, peace and good will in those days. “I will multiply upon you man and beasts; and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. xxxvi. 11). Again: “I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye receive no more reproach of famine, among the heathen.” I submit and believe that all this God will do by what men are pleased to call natural law. The Divine will not rudely break in upon His own established laws.
Sin impairs the energy and growth of man, and so infringes upon Nature. As man frees himself from the bondage and sequences of sin, he will rise higher and higher in his command and authority over Nature’s forces. Three several times the earth has been cursed, which curse is gradually removed as man returns unto his God in loving and obedient service. “And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength” (Gen. iv. 11). The secret of a world’s wealth and peace lies here, and it were well if reformers and agitators understood this. For they work best who work in harmony with God and His laws.