prophecies in holy scripture, which seem to concern these latter days. The article from the Times, which is numbered last in our heading list, and which professes to give a succinct sketch of the views of prophecy propounded in the Horæ Apocalypticæ, Lord Carlisle's little volume, and Dr. Cumming's last publication, on the great coming tribulation, well illustrates this. Had not a general interest been awakened on the subject, the sagacious editors of that powerful journal would never have admitted such an article into its columns. Lord Carlisle has doubtless many who sympathize with him in the solemn impressions left on his mind by the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse with reference to the coming future; as well as in the other sentiments expressed in his brief but remarkable preface:

"It has long appeared to me," says he, "that if the eighth chapter of Daniel does really stand [in the original Hebrew] as it is assumed to do in our bibles, without addition, interpolation, or corruption, these three points are established. 1. The inspiration of the sacred text. 2. The immediate superintendance of divine Providence in the order of events, and the government of the earth. 3. The high probability, when the chapter is viewed in connexion with the associated prophecies and chronologies of the books of Daniel and the Revelations, that we are even now upon the threshold of great events, and of the close of our present œconomy."

Nor is it to be wondered at, considering the extraordinary career, the present mighty power, and dark designs and character of the now reigning emperor of the French, that he should have attracted to himself the particular attention of prophetic students; and that the conviction should have impressed itself on the minds of many of them, that he is a distinct subject of prophecy, and marked out there as an appointed agent in God's providence for bringing about some of the great issues of the time of the end. Such is the case with the writers of the books numbered 2, 6, 7, 8, in our heading list. And a little work of the same bearing by the later Mr. Faber, entitled, "The Revival of the French Emperorship," may, on this point, be associated with that of his venerable and respected contemporary, Mr. Hatley Frere.

Prominent among the late publications on prophecy, under these impressions, is the second book on our list, bearing the ominous title of "ARMAGEDDON ;"* and of which the size, with its three solid octavo volumes, and fourth of appendix, contrasts curiously with the minuteness of that of Lord Carlisle. Its two main objects are thus stated in the preface, and in an advertisement now before us:-"1st, to show the imperative duty, obligatory on every Christian, of seeking, by aid of the prophetic scriptures, to discern the

* Publishing price, £3.: but to be had, we are informed, at the reduced price of £2. 28., by application to Miss Beales, daughter of the Author, at Tivoli Lodge, Cheltenham.

Vol. 59.-No. 265.

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signs of the times which bear on the promised return of our heavenly Master; 2ndly, to offer to the prophetic student, in one work, a combination of all those wondrous predictions which are associated with the closing scenes of the dispensation, and the premillennial advent of the Lord Jesus Christ." The book is remarkable for the author's earnestness of spirit in his object, and consequent laboriousness of research with a view to its enforcement and illustration. And a double and mournful interest attaches to the work, from the circumstance, that no sooner had he completed the printing of it than he was called away to Him whose advent he had been so earnestly anticipating, and whom, not having seen, he loved. We gladly reprint a part of the testimony to its value given by the venerable Dr. Marsh:

"The great excellence of the work is derived from the author's deep and prayerful study of the holy scriptures; while the extent of his reading on many subjects greatly enriches it. . . . I cannot but think that, in addition to most important information on a variety of subjects, it will be the means of awakening many as to the coming crisis, and of comforting sincere disciples in their difficulties and labours of love."

Indeed the tone of spirituality, seriousness, humility, and loving hopeful anticipation of the Lord's coming that pervades the book, is very admirable; and, under the circumstances that have been mentioned, very touching.

As regards the execution of the work, considered in reference to its elucidation of the prophecies, we regret that our commendation must be considerably qualified. We subjoin in a note an abstract of the heading titles of its several chapters, as that which may best give our readers a general idea of its contents.* And we

*Chapter i. Use and necessity of the study of prophecy: ii. Breaking without hand of the Ottoman empire (Dan. viii.); iii. Preliminary and partial return to Palestine of Judah and Benjamin; iv. Reappearing of the prophet Elijah among his countrymen, as precursor of Christ's premillennial advent; v. Vision of the great image (Dan. ii); vi. Vision of the four beasts (Dan vii.); vii. Vision of the ram and he-goat (Dan. viii.); viii. Daniel's seventy weeks (Dan. ix.); ix. Daniel's last vision (Dan. xi. xii.); x. Apocalyptic seals and trumpets; xi. Identity of Daniel's fourth beast and the sevenheaded beast of the Apocalypse with each other and with St. Paul's man of sin.

Such are the contents of the first volume. In the second we have, in chapter xii., The prophetic periods of Daniel and the Apocalypse; xiii. The premillennial resurrection of the saints;

xiv. The two Babylons; xv. Predictions of Christ's establishment of his universal kingdom on the ruins of all earthly kingdoms at his second or premillennial advent; xvi. Judgments on the beast and false prophet in the battle of Armageddon, and on Gog and his bands on the mountains of Israel; xvii. Purification of this earth by fire at Christ's coming, and the consequent new heavens and new earth; xviii. Restoration to Palestine of the remnant saved from these judgments of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Then, in the third volume, we have as follows. Chapter xix. Prophecies of the millennium; xx. Prophecies of the two Jerusalems during the millennium, the glorious earthly one, and yet more glorious heavenly; xxi. Post-millennial unbinding of Satan; xxii. Further and final change in the earth, preparatory to the coming down from heaven among

think it will be evident, from a mere inspection of this table of contents, that the arrangement is faulty. It is neither according to the chronological order of subjects, or order of the books commented on. In chapters ii., iii., iv., we find ourselves launched at once on the prophecies of the latter day concerning the breaking up of the Turkish empire, the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and reappearance among them (as expected by the author) of the prophet Elijah. Then, in the chapters following, we are carried back to the prophecies in Dan. ii. vii., respecting the mostly long past times of the four great empires, the vision in Dan. viii. of the ram and goat, respecting Persia and Macedon on the latter part of which, as illustrated in yet another chapter (ch. xii.) long afterwards, our author's previously-expressed judgment as to the probably near fall of the Turkish empire was in great measure founded. And so again, advancing to the second and third volumes, we have discussed in chapter xiii, "The pre-millennial resurrection of the saints;" then, in chapters xiv., xvi., "The two Babylons, and the judgments on the beast and false prophet," subjects which chronologically precede the millennium; and then, in chapter xix., a re-discussion of the pre-millennial question. This want of clear arrangement is to be regretted; especially on a subject which so much needs it as an exposition of prophecy.

We must also confess that a perusal of the book has left on our minds the impression of a too ready credence, on the part of the author, in matters favourably bearing on the great points affirmed in his work, and want of clear and comprehensive judgment in the estimate of argument and evidence. The words "doubtless" and its cognates occur very frequently, where a more cautious reader can scarcely but feel that there is much cause for doubting. And hence, too, in many of the particular expositions, as will be presently illustrated, a want of satisfactoriness to the conviction of the reader.

It is, as we said before, the earnestness, piety, and diligence of the writer which have most favourably impressed us in the book. Wheresoever he found anything that might illustrate, as he judged, his great subject, it seems to have been a labor of love to him to transcribe or abstract it. A good illustration of this will be seen in chapter xviii., from p. 420 to p. 472, in the second volume, where his object is to trace out the ten tribes of Israel as at present mainly located in Affghanistan, Malabar, and Abys

men of the New Jerusalem, and then God dwelling there among them for ever; xxiii. Signs which betoken that the last days are at hand.

After which, in volume iv., follow indices and sundry maps :-the first, to illustrate the seats of the lost ten tribes; the second, of Jerusalem as it now is;

the third, of the land of Israel, according to the covenant with Abraham, and locations of the twelve tribes and holy oblation, accordantly with the last prophecies of Ezekiel; the fourth being a ground plan of Ezekiel's temple; and the fifth the "Holy oblation."

sinia; countries whence in the one case the return to Palestine would be across the Euphrates, in the other across the Nile, as he thinks is predicted. Or we may refer to chapter xxiii., on the signs of the times now current, which seem to mark the nearness of the consummation. Here we have, of course, the commonly alleged signs of the drying-up of the Euphrates, the interest about the Jews, and religious agitation of mind among them, the preaching of the gospel to the world's end, the increase of knowledge, &c. &c. In illustration of which last-mentioned point our author cites long passages from Sir H. Rawlinson and Mr. Layard respecting the late discoveries in Nineveh and Babylon; also from the Rev. J. Forster respecting the Sinaitic inscriptions.* Thus, independently of its bearing on prophecy, there is much in the volumes of really interesting and instructive matter; though intermixed, we must add, with some statements of opinion, such as on mesmerism and spirit-rapping in the chapter just referred to, that are, to say the least, very questionable.

As regards the author's expository views of prophecy, he follows, to a large extent, the views of the best known historical expositors, both in Daniel and the Apocalypse. So, as to the four great successive empires symbolized in Dan. ii. and vii. as the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman; the ten Romano-Gothic kingdoms into which the fourth, or Roman, was in the fifth and sixth centuries divided, as answering to the symbolic statue's ten toes, and fourth beast's ten horns; and the little horn that rose, and was for 1260 years to lord it among them, as fulfilled in the Roman popes :-also as to the vision of the ram and he-goat of Dan. viii, as a prediction of the Persian, Greek, and, in fine, Turkish Mahometan power; the latter to be wasted at the lapse of 2300 years from its commencing date B. c. 480, as already intimated. Moreover, in the apocalyptic seals he follows some historical expositors,-expositors mistaken, we doubt not;† and in the trumpets others, more rightly, who apply them to the Gothic, Saracenic, and Turkish invasions of the Roman or Greek empires. But here commences a notable peculiarity in the Exposition. In regard both of the two witnesses that were to prophesy 1260 days in sackcloth, and in regard of the apocalyptic beast, whose

At p. 474 (Vol. iii.) the author refers to the famous forty-line inscription told of by the Comte d'Estraigues; the letters in the body of the inscription each a foot long, and those of the heading title six feet. He seems not to have been aware that much anxious search has been directed by later travellers to the discovery of this inscription, and verification of what the French count has reported about it; but hitherto in vain.

Thus. 1st seal, Progress of Christi anity, A.D. 65-313; 2nd, the demon of discord, A. D., 315-365; 3rd, Popery,

with her false balance of truth, causing a famine of the word of God, A.D. 5291789; 4th, Death and Hades, figuring infidelity of last days, A.D. 1789-1869? 5th, the martyrs' cry, A.D. 1866-1869; 6th, the day of the Lamb's wrath, A D. 1869? 7th, includes the seven trumpetjudgments, A. D. 365—1869 ?

This, in its first half, corresponds with the late Messrs, Cuninghame and Bickersteth's scheme; but which Mr. Birks, who with Bickersteth originally held it, has since abandoned. A particular examination and refutation of it will be found

defined period of power was to be similarly that of 42 months1260 days, our author supposes a double fulfilment, in year-days first, and then in literal days. It is the pope and papal empire, he considers, that is figured as having supremacy on the year-day principle for 1260 years: the two apocalyptic witnesses symbolizing the faithful ones that would, during that self-same period of years, protest for the truth of Christ's truth against them; and their death and resurrection having fulfilment (so as the Hora Apocalypticæ explains it) in the failure, and sudden revival, of the witness at the Reformation. But, besides this, at the end of the 1335 years of Daniel xii., or from after A. D. 1866, it is supposed by him that the beast under its "septimo-octave" head, which is identified with Louis Napoleon, will personally enact the part of the last and great Antichrist, while Elijah and Enoch enact personally the part of the two apocalyptic witnesses at Jerusalem; * a literal 1260 days limiting the duration of the one and the other. So our author endeavours to reconcile together the historical with what is called the futurist view; and, while associating, argues for the truth of both.

Thus the futurist prophetic system is brought before us in a somewhat new light. And since this is a system of prophetic interpretation which has of late years gained a hold on the minds. of many good men, to the entire supercession of the historical with most of its advocates, (though not so, we have seen, with the author of Armageddon,) it has seemed to us that we may perhaps do good service to the cause of christian truth by taking the present opportunity of giving a sketch of the general views propounded by this class of expositors; and then putting before our readers certain simple criteria by which they may ascertain from its own internal evidence, if we mistake not, not the groundlessness only, but the absolute impossibility of the scheme. We the rather do this, as the subject is one that has not yet been discussed, we believe, in the Christian Observer. With its fall, our author's application of it, as a kind of appendix to the historical fulfilment, must of course fall also.

The cardinal point of the futurist system is, as the name indicates, that the great Antichrist of prophecy is not the popes of

in the Appendix to the first volume of the Hora Apocalyptica. Suffice it here to inake two remarks in contravention of it. This first is, that it is obviously impossible for the prophecy of the 3rd seal to symbolize famine; predicating, as it does, an uninjured abundance of wine and oil; and barley at a price such that a three days' sufficiency of it would be then attainable by a day's labour. The second is, that no consistent explanation is here given of the sealing and palm-bearing visions. They seein to

ourselves to be clearly the second half of the 6th seal; and, so construed, have a consistent and very striking fulfilment on the other historical scheme: viz. that which refers the seals to the history of the Roman empire, and church, between St. John's time and the subversion of heathenism in the empire under Constantine and Theodosius. See the chapter on them in the Hora Apoc.

* See Armageddon, vol. ii. pp. 7082, &c.