fining the Gospel, describes it to be "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."* Thus the Jew possesses not only an equality of right, but even a priority of claim over the Gentile. He may reject the offer, but with that rejection we have nothing to do. It is our duty to make it; and we cannot decline the performance of this duty without incurring the guilt of violating a divine command.

Besides, however the Jews may be cast away nationally, they never were excluded individually. There was always what St. Paul calls "a remnant according to the election of grace." To that remnant, then, it is our duty to proclaim the Gospel, leaving the application of its truths to God. The same Apostle also assures us that "blindness in part is happened unto Israel." If total blindness had befallen them, our labours would indeed be unprofitable. But so long as it is a "blindness in part" only, let us proffer the glad tidings of salvation to the remaining portion, and thus present the double trophy of both Jew and Gentile at the cross of the Saviour.

II. We have to consider "the times of the

*Rom. i. 16.

† Rom. ii. 5.

Rom. ii. 25..

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Gentiles," in its peculiar and prophetic sense; or the time during which Jerusalem is be "trodden down by the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

This period is more particularly predicted by the prophet Daniel, and is a determinate portion of time, marked by the Church being in a depressed state, and in the power of its enemies. Its termination, or "the time of the end,"* is to be distinguished by signal judgments against these oppressors; by their entire overthrow; and also by the restoration and conversion of God's ancient people: "And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."+ This prophetic period is twice mentioned in Daniel, and occurs five times in the Apocalypse. In Dan. vii. 25, it is called, "A time, times, and the dividing of time, or three years and an half;" and in Dan. xii. 7, "Time, times, and an half." In Rev. xi. 2, we have a corresponding number: "The holy city shall they tread underfoot forty and two months." In Rev. xi. 3, it is stated "they (the two witnesses) shall prophesy a thousand and two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth." And again, in Rev. xii. 6, "And the woman (the Church) fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place pre

pared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days."

All these prophetical periods, though varying in expression, denote the same duration of time. In the symbolical language of Scripture, a day signifies a year. The ordinary Jewish year consisted of 360 days, therefore three years and a half make exactly 1260 days. In like manner the Jewish month consisted of 30 days, and 42 months contain 1260 days. All of the above numbers, when reduced to their integral parts, make one and the same period of 1260 days.

already quoted. AcMede, this prophetic

Allusion is made to a similar period in Luke xxi. 24, which we have cording to Horsley and season signifies the latter period of the Gentile monarchies, at the end of which the awful convulsions of the nations are to commence, preceding the Restoration and Conversion of Israel.

I shall not here enter into the controversy as to the precise time from whence this prophetic period takes its date. According to Mr. Faber, the year 606 is assigned as the proper era when

* See Numbers xiv. 33: "forty days," each day for a year, "even forty years." Ezek. iv. 4-6: "I have appointed thee each day for a year." This mode of computation is also fully esta blished by the celebrated seventy weeks in Dan. ix. 24, which is proved to be a period of 490 years.

the Papal Apostacy and Mahometan Imposture are supposed simultaneously to have arisen. This interpretation brings us to the year 1866, as the termination of the times of the Gentiles, and the period for the conversion of the Jews. Mr. Cuninghame fixes an earlier date, and specifies such powerful arguments in favour of that supposition as to render it highly probable.*

Whatever may be the real date, the signs of the times are too extraordinary not to awaken the conviction that an eventful crisis is drawing near. The signs of the times are perhaps, after all, the safest guide, and the most conclusive. Time is the best interpreter of Prophecy. Not that we are to wait for the result, and suppress intermediate inquiry. Whatever is revealed is the proper and legitimate subject for Christian investigation. But it is more especially our duty to trace the march of events in the spirit of prayer, and with the watchfulness of the Christian; and to draw from them the conclusion to which we are directed by our Lord: "So when shall see ye these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."+

The characteristic feature predicted of this period peculiarly demands our attention, viz.

* See Cuninghame's Dissertation on the 1260 Years. † Luke xxi. 31.

"Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." "'* Jerusalem has indeed been trodden down of the Gentiles; nor could any term have been selected more expressive of the oppression, scorn, and degradation, of which for successive ages the Jews have been the unhappy victims. The page of history throughout Europe abounds with the melancholy details. The religion of the Jews formed the pretext, their wealth was the inciting motive. The solemn denunciations proclaimed in Deut. xxviii. have been indeed awfully fulfilled: "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.... And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life." (vers. 64, 65, 66.) Not only has the prophecy been fulfilled as emblematical of the nation; but Jerusalem itself, literally considered, has been trodden down of the Gentiles, and the prediction minutely accomplished: “The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which

*Luke xxi. 24.