during which these churches were deprived of their autonomy, would be just the three and a half days that God's two witnesses lay slain in the streets of the great city. At the accession of Elizabeth they revived again in the sight of their enemies, and the tenth part of the city fell. That is one of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire had become divided was lost to the Papacy. The history of those times could not be more plainly written than in that part of the Apocalypse referring to this matter. Under Elizabeth the English disowned forever all allegiance to the Pope. And in the eleventh year of the reign of Elizabeth, Pope Pius V., recognizing the English nation as irretrievably lost to the Papacy, assumed to excommunicate Elizabeth and her political adherents, from the Catholic Church.

(4.) Another curious historical Analogue has been pointed out by the Rev. Dr. Mahan in his "Mystic Numbers." Likening the destruction of Jerusalem to the flood, he finds a period of waiting of 120 years before that event, just as there was 120 years before the flood wherein the ark was a preparing. But he fails to point out that the beginning of this hundred and twenty years was synchronous with the rise of the Imperial form of Roman power. It was the Roman Empire that destroyed Jerusalem, and this Empire was just 120 years in preparation, as the ark was 120 years in building. Thus we find that the 120 years of waiting before the destruction of Jerusalem begins at the same time with the rise of the 1260 years of the political power of the Roman Empire, and just 666 years before the rise of the 1260 years of the spiritual power of the Roman Empire.

It is now time to turn to the consideration of another line of proof entirely disconnected from what we have been explaining. There is a mystic number in the Old Testament also, that has not been hitherto interpreted; the 2300 days of the Prophet Daniel. All the other prophetic periods have been understood to mean a year for a day. With strange inconsistency interpreters have insisted that this number foretold only literal days, and have confined it to Antiochus Epiphanes. There seems to be no reason for this, further than the fact that if it be understood as a year for a day, no suitable terminus a que, or starting point could be found for the period.

This number is found in the 8th chapter of the Prophet Daniel, in connection with the vision that describes the rise and dominion of the Medo-Persian, and Macedonian Empires. On accepted views no starting point for the period could be found that would cause its end to synchronize with that of any accepted prophetic period.

By closely examining the context, it will be seen that these 2300 days do not include the period of the Medo-Persian and Macedonian supremacy, but a period of oppression for the Church that was to begin during the time of that supremacy.

Now what increases the difficulty, is the well-known fact, that the founder of the Medo-Persian dynasty inaugurated and his successors carried out a policy favorable to the church. But this apparent difficulty is what shall guide us to the solution. For if we can find out when this favorable policy came to its end, we shall ascertain when the period of oppression began that was to continue for 2300 years.

A careful examination of Persian history will show that Darius Nothus was the first monarch who failed to carry out the favorable policy begun by Cyrus. The accession of this monarch will therefore mark the beginning of the 2300 years of affliction for the church. This King ascended the throne according to some authorities in the year 423 B. C. The end of this period brings us to A. D. 1877, the same date that was arrived at by the previous computation as the end of the 1260 years of Papal supremacy.

If we are to attach any value to the primitive tradition, testified to by the author of the so-called Epistle of Barnabas, that "in six thousand years the Lord will bring all things to an end," and this seven thousandth year of the world will constitute the sabbath of the world, then another proof is found that our interpretation is correct. That is if we acknowledge that the chronology of the Rev. Dr. Mahan is, what he claims it to be, the only correct Biblical chronology. He makes the Six Thousandth year of the world to coincide with the year 1876 of the Christian Era. One year before the date at which we had arrived, which is practically the same thing, for it is not at all likely that a year of the world begins at the same point in the solar year that our calendar year begins with.

Still further. If we accept the idea of Faber that the seven times of Nebuchadnezzar denotes the whole period of the Church's Erastian career from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar to the end of the 1260 years of the Prophets Daniel and St. John, 2520 years in all, constituting two moieties of 1260 years each, then a further confirmation is found. For if we say that the second moiety began in A. D. 617, then the first moiety or the entire period of 2520 years began B. C. 643.

The date of Nebuchadnezzar's birth is known only inferentially. He was about 40 years of age at the time of his accession, and he was married in the year B. C. 625. His accession was 604 B. C., which would make him 39 years of age, provided that he was born in 643 B. C. He would also have been 18 years old at the time of his marriage, which is not far from the average age of Eastern princes at the time of their marriage.

There are several different ways of spelling the name of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible. The article in Smith's Bible Dictionary makes the statement that the native orthography of his name was Nabu-kuduri-retsur, in Hebrew letters this would be as follows:

נבו-כודורי-רצור

The numerical value of which letters is 606. This is the year B. C. in which he invaded Palestine and took the city of Jerusalem, which date was-as far as the Jews were concerned-to them the beginning of his reign.

The longer Hebrew etymology yields the number 573. If in keeping with the preceding etymology this refers to the corresponding year B.C., it must mark some important event twelve years before the death of Nebuchadnezzar. This must have been his madness, which has prophetic value, as being the type of the seven times of the Gentiles.

The shorter Hebrew etymology yields the number 423. Now if this refers to the corresponding year B. C., it would synchronize with the accession of Darius Nothus, when the favorable policy of Cyrus was abolished and the true gentile policy towards the church was resumed. Thus designating Darius Nothus as the heir of Nebuchadnezzar in oppressing the church.

If therefore the seven times of Nebuchadnezzar, the 2300 days of the prophet Daniel and the 1260 years of Daniel and St. John,

all end with the year 1877, ought there not to be some present indications that the end is nigh? We have already alluded to the time of the end-360 years-beginning with the year of grace

1517.

But there is one other indication. The seven prophetic times were typified at the outset by the seven literal years of Nebuchadnezzar's madness. If we take the promulgation of the Decree of infallibility of the Pope as the beginning of seven literal years of the Papal madness, then these literal years would have their end July 18th, 1877.

The predictions of European statesmen shall not be quoted here. But they are well known as foretelling the speedy and inevitable overthrow of the Papacy.

If we date the rise of the Mahometan apostasy from the time of the Hegira 622, then that power would come to its end in 1882, five years after the end of the Papacy, then that which letteth being taken out of the way, at the end of the 1290 years, or 30 years after the destruction of the Papacy, and 25 years after the destruction of the Mahomedan power, the Jews might return to their own land, and at the end of the 1335 years of the prophet Daniel, there might be the reunion of Christendom, with Jerusalem as the religious capital of the world. At which time there would be celebrated the great feast of tabernacles, and the marriage supper of the Lamb.

We are well aware that all this theory may be wrong. The year 1877 may pass by and leave the Papacy stronger than it is to-day But we think the basis of the computation as good as that of any interpreter; and if it should turn out to be right, then we want the credit of it. If it turns out to be wrong, we shall have incurred no disgrace, but will be found in the honorable company of such men as Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Joseph Meade, and the Rev. George Stanley Faber, D. D. It is surely better to have studied prophecy and to fail in such society, than not to have studied it at all, and not to fail.

At any-rate the computations and the coincidences are surely interesting, and no one who loves the word of God can fail to be edified with the curiousness of them. For if the wonderful things that we have shown, turn out not to be the fulfillment of the prophecies, how passing wonderful must their real fulfillment be!

E. S. WILSON.

IMPORTANCE AND RESULTS OF

MR. GLADSTONE'S CONTROVERSY WITH ROME.

We have placed at the end of this article a list of pamphlets, to indicate to the reader the sources from which he may gather a complete knowledge of Mr. Gladstone's controversy with the Vatican, not to present an exhaustive criticism of each one. Our purpose is to show the importance of this discussion and to gather up some of the results which have been already reached in the clash of arms.

Though there is no present danger in this country or in England that the Vatican Decrees are to come into active conflict with the civil power, the question which Mr. Gladstone has raised, whether it is possible for the Roman Catholic to render that civil allegiance which belongs to his country without disobeying the Pope, is really the question of the hour in Europe, and is being rapidly lifted out of speculative discussion into the category of political fact. Mr. Disraeli as "Lothair" exposed the system of intrigue which honeycombs the Roman Church, and Mr. Capes and Mr. Ffoulkes have each borne personal witness to a system whose methods are the opposite of English, and which constantly arouses the suspicion of unfair dealing in Protestant minds. Mr. Gladstone, so notably fond of fair dealing that he has been accused of unfaithfulness to the Anglican Church, in his desire to measure out Justice to his Roman Catholic fellow countrymen, has at last wakened up to the fact that the Pope lays his hands upon the Anglo Roman Bishops and they upon their laity, and that the laity vote according to instructions, as also the Roman laity are said to do in this country, and that the claims of Papal sovereignty are no spent thunder-bolts of power. The control of the votes of