seven times" of the affliction of the Jews by the four Gentile Empires, primarily extend from B.C. 722 to A.D. 1798secondarily from Nebuchadnezzar's birth in B.C. 647 to 1874-5.

THE HEAD OF GOLD,

OR

BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

Medo-Persia conquered Babylon B.C. 538, when Cyrus slew Belshazzar. THE BREAST OF SILVER,

OR

MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE,

Which reached its full strength under
Cyrus.

Greece conquered Persia B.C. 331, at the Battle of Arbela, when Alexander the Great defeated Darius.

THE THIGHS OF BRASS,

OR

GRECIAN EMPIRE.

The Romans conquered Greece A.D. 31, at the battle of Actium, when Augustus Cæsar defeated Antony. THE LEGS OF IRON,

OR

ROMAN EMPIRE.

The Roman Empire was bounded by the Highlands, Rhine, Danube, Euphrates, and Desert of Sahara.

The two legs represent the Western half and Eastern half of the whole Roman Empire, and each of them is to be formed into five democratic-despotic kingdoms (five clay-iron toes) during the final three-and-a-half years (Dan. ii. 41; vii. 24, 25; Rev. xvii. 12).

Their ten kings will rule in a congress under Napoleon, and make war against Christians, during the final three-anda-half years (Rev. xiii. 5; xvii. 12), and then perish at Christ's descent.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PROPHETIC

IMAGE.

The Metallic Image in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, representing the history of the four great Gentile Empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. It will stand reconstructed and personified in Napoleon, as the modern_Nebuchadnezzar, at its dissolution at Armageddon. Then follows the Stone Kingdom, or Millennium (Dan. ii. 44; vii. 13, 27; Rev. xx.).-See 2nd, 19th, 20th Wonders.

COMING WONDERS.

Ar no period in the history of the world have mankind ever stood on the threshold of more eventful changes and mightier revolutions than at present. Empires that have long stood unshaken are about to be dissolved; thrones that have been firmly consolidated for many years are on the point of being cast down; and institutions that have been regarded as of immoveable stability are on the eve of their destruction.

There is a visible approach of distress of nations with perplexity: the hearts of thoughtful and reflecting persons are failing them for fear of those things that are coming on the earth; and the inquiry instinctively arises, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ?" But no satisfactory reply can be obtained except from the prophetic predictions in Daniel and Revelation; which conclusively and irresistibly demonstrate that "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known what shall be in the latter days."

Inexpressibly exalted is the position occupied by that individual who, taking these unfoldings of the divine mind as a lamp to his feet and a light to his path, is enabled to contemplate the impressive scene of which this earth will soon be the arena, with hopefulness and undisturbed composure, seeing the end from the beginning. It resembles one of the venerable seers of former ages beholding, from the summit of some distant rock, the accomplishment of one of his own predictions. While with solemn awe he rivets his gaze upon the dismantled temples and the desolated habitations of those who once scorned his admonitory voice, but whose pride has been brought low by the retributive judgments of famine, pestilence, or the sword, it transcends the powers of conception to imagine the sublime elevation of his spirit as he witnesses the realization of what had beforehand been portrayed to his divinely illuminated mind, and marks the futility of human opposition to the onward-rolling chariot-wheels of Jehovah's purposes. Most sublime is the attitude of those who can courageously

overstep the rubicon limit of the present, and, passing into the unexplored regions of the distant future, can, with the torch of prophetic truth, discover the predestined arrangement of the startling changes that now await this earth. Soaring like eagles above the dense atmosphere of human ignorance, and inspired with the heaven-born gift of prophetic foresight, they pierce with steady gaze into the darkness of futurity, and recognize a systematic and intelligible order in the spectral forms and mystic characters which, to the carnal and gross perceptions of the unenlightened, appear indistinguishably chaotic and confused.

Many ignorant persons suppose that the TIME of the end of this dispensation and of the second coming of Christ is altogether hidden from human discovery, but "they err, not knowing the Scriptures," which distinctly intimate that the time of the end shall be revealed to watchful Christians by the prophecies. And in addition to the chronological dates and prophetic signs of the times which convergently point to this epoch as the period of the final crisis, there is especially to be a seven-years' covenant made between the Jews and the last universal king, exactly seven years and two and a half months before the End, so that the epoch of the consummation will then become very precisely foreshown.

And within this prophetic period of seven years and two and a half months, the greater part of Daniel and Revelation will undergo its ultimate literalday fulfilment, which has been hitherto foreshadowed by its typical yearday accomplishment by way of rehearsal on the larger scale. The wonderful events that will then come to pass may be suitably considered under the classified arrangement of Forty Coming Wonders.

1 Amos iii. 7; Matt. xxiv. 32-43; John xv. 15; 2 Pet. i. 19; 1 Thess. v. 4. The text in Mark xiii. 32, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father," was spoken in the present tense before the ascension and glorification of Christ, and before the Pentecostal descent of the Holy Spirit, and before the gift of the Book of Revelation sixty years afterwards. It is a text that cannot apply to the present time, because it cannot now be said that the Son does not know the day and hour of his own aovent. The words, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons," likewise were spoken only to the people of those days (Acts i. 8). The prophetic daten of the 6,000, 2,520, 2,500, 2,300, 1,335, 1,260, are all understood to end between 1866 and 1875, in their yearday fulfilment (Dan. iv. 16; viii. 14; xii. 7, 12; Rev. xi. 3; xii. 6).

41

FIRST YEAR.

FIRST WONDER.

(Taking place seven years and two and a half months before the Battle of Armageddon, and descent of Christ on Mount Olivet, and the Millennium.*)

INAUGURATED NATIONAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS TO PALESTINE BY A SEVEN YEARS' COVENANT OR LEAGUE TO BE MADE BETWEEN MANY OF THEM AND THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON III. IN FINAL FULFILMENT OF DANIEL'S PREDICTED SEVENTIETH WEEK CONCERNING THE JEWS AND JERUSALEM.

It will indeed be a wonder to behold the children of Israel, who have for many centuries been downtrodden and treated as outcasts among the nations, again flocking to their fatherland, and their nationality recognized by the European powers, whose governments in past ages have so grievously oppressed them. Yet, according to various Scripture predictions, this astonishing spectacle must soon be witnessed.

And in connection with its occurrence, the prophetic events that will now be remarked upon, may be briefly expressed in the following syllogistic form:

The Last Head of the Roman Empire is to make a Sevenyears' Covenant with the Jews, in fulfilment of Daniel's Seventieth Week.

But Louis Napoleon is the Last Head of the Roman Empire. Therefore Louis Napoleon will make a Seven years' Covenant with the Jews.

* The seven years is of course the period mentioned in Dan. ix. 27, as reaching from the covenant to the consummation, and the extra two and a half months is the seventy-five additional days mentioned in Dan. xii. 12, where 1,335 days are mentioned-being 75 days more than the 1,260 days, or latter three and a half years of the seven years described in Dan. xii. 7. The whole prophecy of seventy weeks is explained much more fully in the third chapter of the Author's treatise on Louis Napoleon.