A Brief Exposition of the Prophecy of Daniel

28. Britain, the Moabitish Antagonist to Russia in the Latter Days

Gog and the King of the North being the same, and this same having been proved to be the Russian power, it follows that the power hostile to the king of the north and Gog must be Moabitish and the adversary of the Russian. This admitted, the next question would be, What evidence is there that the British power is that Moabitish antagonist? This, then, is the point I now propose to illustrate.

By consulting Daniel and Ezekiel it will be found, that the Gogian King of the North is excited to “great fury,” because of the reported movements of an enemy for the purpose of thwarting his designs. Having intimated that the king of the north will invade the Holy Land, Daniel continues: “But tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and make away many.” From this statement, then, it appears that the power which excites the fury of the king of the north has its station in the east and north relatively to the Holy Land. Without further information than Daniel affords it would be impossible to do more than guess at the name of the power; to relieve us therefore of this uncertainty the Spirit has informed us by p. Dan. 96 Ezekiel in what countries of the east and north the troubling power may be found.

After telling us that in the latter days Gog shall come against the mountains of Israel like a storm-cloud to cover the land, Ezekiel informs us, that this invasion will be the result of his conceiving a mischievous purpose, or “thinking an evil thought.” He then reveals to us the tenor of this evil thought which fills the heart of the Autocrat, which is notably foreshadowed by his traditional policy. “I will go up to the land of unwalled villages,” he will say; “to take a spoil, and to take a prey; and to turn my hand upon the reinhabited desolations, and upon the people gathered out of the nations which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.” He resolves to turn spoiler, extortioner, and oppressor of those Jews who will then have resettled “the tenth”^a which is about to be repeopled and browsed. The Gogian King will never abandon his policy about “the Holy Places.” It has led to the initiation of a policy which will not be abandoned till he obtains possession of them, and is extinguished in the catastrophe awaiting his presumption.

His determination to invade the Holy Land and to take forcible possession of the Holy Places then in possession of the power that will by purchase or otherwise have obtained them of the Constantinopolitan, will stir up its indignation greatly. Ezekiel tells us the name of the power and the position it assumes. His words are, “Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? Has thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” Let it be noted that the power does not say, “Art thou gone to take a spoil?” but, “Art thou come to do so?” If it were to say, “Art thou gone?” it would show that the power was beyond the limits of the Holy Land; but in saying, Art thou come? the conclusion is, that the Lion-power of Tarshish is in actual possession of, or at least the Protector of, the country.

These interrogatories put in a minatory form are the tidings out of the east and north that trouble him. They do not deter him, however, for Ezekiel relates that the invasion nevertheless ensues; and Daniel adds, with great fury for destruction. He rushes to meet his overthrow at the hand of Deity, who will thus demonstrate to all nations that no power injures Israel with impunity.

Sheba is south-southeast from Judea by the Straits of Babelmandeb. It was one of the countries trading with Tyre in ancient times in “the chief of all spices, precious stones, and gold;” and is now preëminently connected with Tyre’s daughter, who has planted her standard on its soil at Aden, the Gibraltar of the Red Sea, and key of Egypt: besides which, she has established herself in Perim, and extended the wing of her protection over Abyssinia, upon the opposite coast. Victoria may therefore be said to be the Queen of Sheba, and may possibly live (for she is young enough) to abdicate her p. Dan. 97 throne, and to lay her crown and treasures at the feet of the “greater than Solomon,” who will dispose of her and her affairs according to his will.

Dedan is another district of Arabia to the northeast of Sheba towards the Persian Gulf, and at present occupied by the Imam of Muscat. The men of Dedan are in the list given by Ezekiel of the traders in the Tyrian fairs. The Dedanim carried thither the ivory and ebony which they procured from “the many isles,” or rather coasts, to the eastward, and “precious clothes for chariots.” Thus Sheba and Dedan are those parts of Arabia which lay convenient to the ivory, gold, precious stones, and spice countries of Africa and India. Dedan has yet to come into confederacy with the Lion-Power of the east and north.

As to Tarshish, there were two regions so called in the geography of the ancients. Jehoshaphat built ships at Eziongeber, a port of the Red Sea, that they might sail thence to Tarshish. Now, it will be seen by the map that they could only sail southward towards the Strait of Babelmandeb, from which they might then steer east, or north for India. As they did not sail by compass in those days, but coastwise, they would creep round the coast of Arabia and so make for Hindostan. The voyage occupied them three years, In the days of Solomon, the trade was shared between Israel and the Tyrians; for “he had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram; once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.” These products point to India as the eastern Tarshish—a country which has always conferred maritime ascendancy on the power which has possessed its trade and been its carrier to the nations.

But there was also a Tarshish to the northwest of Judea. This appears in the case of Jonah, who embarked at Joppa, now Jaffa, on the Mediterranean, “to flee into Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.” He could only sail towards the west. Like the eastern Tarshish it was a country, not a city, whose “merchants” frequented the Tyrian fairs. Addressing Tyre, the prophet says, “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.” These metals are preëminently the products of Britain, celebrated by the Phenicians as Baratanac or “the land of tin,” as some interpret it. The merchandise of the northern Tarshish and of the eastern, identifies Britain in the north, and India in the east, with the two countries of that name.

But corroborative of this, I remark further that the Sheba and Tarshish power is represented as a Merchant-power in the words, “the Merchants of Tarshish shall say unto thee, O Gog.” Having ascertained the geography of Tarshish, it is easy to answer the question, Who are signified by its merchants? This inquiry will admit of but one answer, namely, The British East India Merchants, or commercial power, which is both the merchant and ruler of the elephant-tooth country of the east. But the association of “the young p. Dan. 98 lions of Tarshish” with the “merchants of Tarshish,” makes this still more obvious; for it represents the original constitution of the Anglo-Indian government. It is well known that this government was a sovereignty of a mixed character, being neither purely merchant nor purely imperial. The Anglo-Canadian is purely imperial, no company of merchants having any share in its direction. But the Anglo-Indian government was constituted differently, the power having been founded by a chartered company of traders, and the British government afterwards admitted to a controlling influence in its Indian management. Now the imperial constituent of the power is represented by “young lions;” that is, the Lion is the symbol of the British power, which is therefore the old lion; while those who administer the power are the young lions. The lion-power was formerly represented in the Anglo-Indian government by “the Board of Control,” and the imperial forces which served with the Company’s troops in the Indian army. The original constitution of British India has of late years been modified by the Parliament of England. The Company retains the control of its vested interests in the country; while the political and military direction is ordered by the government of the Queen, whose title is the Empress of India. The merchants of Tarshish governed India under control of the Lion-power—a constitution of things well represented on the Company’s shield of arms, whose quarterings are filled with young lions rampant, with a motto inscribed “Auspicio Senatus Angliæ.” From this data, then, it may be fairly concluded, that the combined British and Indo-merchant power is the power of the latter days, raised up of the Deity to antagonize the Russian power, so as by its policy and resistance to shape its course into the Valley of Decision, when, having confederated all Europe as its “guard,” its insatiable ambition shall prompt it to seize upon Jerusalem and to grasp at the sceptre of the east.

But the Lion-power of Britain has not yet attained the full extent marked out for it by the finger of God. The annexation of Persia and Khush, or Khushistan, to the Gogian empire, will doubtless cause England to strengthen herself in Affghanistan and Dedan, by treaty or otherwise, that she may command the entrance to the Persian Gulf, so as to prevent the King of the North from carrying war into the heart of India by land or sea. Possessing Persia and Mesopotamia, the apprehension of the dominion extending still further southward, perhaps to the very shores of the Red Sea, and so outflanking her by the Straits of Babelmandeb, will also be a powerful motive for the merchants of Tarshish and its young lions to take maritime possession of the Gulf of Persia, the Straits, and the Red Sea to Suez.

From the evidence, then, now before the reader, it is clear that the Tarshish antagonist to Gog is the British power, from which proceed the tidings that trouble the King of the North. At that time the Old World will be divided into two great adverse confederacies, of which Russia and Britain will be the powers in chief; the former p. Dan. 99 having the lordship of the earth defined,^a and the latter of the sea and its coast to a great extent. The British empire, not to mention its provinces which have no bearing upon the Gogian dominion, will then, as the “land shadowing wide with wings,” comprise the Indian Tarshish, the Muscat-Dedan, the Aden-Sheba, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Abyssinia, Nubia, Egypt, and Palestine; and perhaps all the islands of the Mediterranean, which will then vindicate its claim to its ancient name in the geography of Israel, “The Sea of Tarshish.”

The premises now before us also establish the position, that as Nebuchadnezzar’s Image is representative of the Gogian empire in full manifestation, it is impossible in the nature of things that Britain can be one of the Ten Toes; and as the Toes of the Image represent the same powers as the Ten Horns of the Fourth Beast, and of the Dragon and Ten-horned apocalyptic Beasts, neither can she be included among the powers prefigured by those symbols.

29. The Latter Days

The phrase the latter days occurs twice in the prophecy of Daniel, and therefore requires a word or two of explanation. The first place in which it is found is in chap. ii. 28, where Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that what he saw in his dream was a representation of “what shall be in the latter days;” and the other place is in chap. x. 14, where a messenger from God tells the prophet that he had come to make him understand “what” said he, “shall befall thy people (Judah) in the latter days,” as represented in the vision of the 2400 evening-morning he had seen some years before. The occurrence of the phrase in these two places establishes a connection between the breaking of the image and the things pertaining to the Jews—in other words, between the fall of the Kingdom of Babylon and the setting up of the Kingdom of God.

It is important to the understanding of the prophecy that we should know the time referred to by the phrase. To ascertain this is easy. It may be known whether they are past or future by a certain event which is to transpire in the time they indicate. The event is predicted by Hosea in these words: “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, . . . afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king; and shall fear Yahweh and his goodness in the latter days. Here is a long period indicated, termed “many days,” during which the Israelites were to be without king, prince, or sacrifice. It is evident that that period is not yet ended, because they are still without those elements of their polity. The latter days cannot therefore be in the past; for the prophet says, “afterward” they shall return and seek David and Yahweh in the latter days. The latter days, then, are after the ending of the many days, and consequently still in the future.

p. Dan. 100 The latter days are the latter years or “the time of the end;” and will be the most remarkable of any in the history of our post-diluvian world. They are denominated in Daniel, “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation to that same time.” This is conceivable when we come to understand what the scriptures testify is then to be accomplished. The empire symbolized by the political Image is to be broken to pieces, and the fragments ground to powder in the latter days; Gog is to come against the mountains of Israel in the latter days; the twelve tribes are to return to the Holy Land in the latter days; the Star that has arisen out of Jacob, and the sceptre out of Israel, “shall smite the princes of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth; and Israel shall do valiantly” in the latter days;^a “a whirlwind of Yahweh goes forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously on the head of the wicked. The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he have executed, and have performed the thoughts of his heart; in the latter days, O Israel, ye shall consider it perfectly:”^b the gathering of the peoples shall be to Shiloh in the latter days; and He shall rebuke strong nations afar off, and deliver Israel from the Assyrian in the latter days. In short, the latter days are “the Hour of Judgment” in which many of the dead are to arise, and the full measure of divine indignation shall be made manifest against “Christendom,” which has so long triumphed over God’s righteousness and truth.

30. The “Time of Trouble”

Position of the Russian and British Forces at the Advent

This terrible epoch precedes the good time celebrated traditionally in the ballads of the Gentiles. The termination of the King of the North’s career is one of the great events of the crisis. Having been stirred up to fury by the defiance hurled against him by the Anglo-Tarshish power, and in consequence invaded the Holy Land, he will take up his position “between the seas to the mountain, the glory of the holy;” that is, between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Gallilee, and from thence to the Holy City which he will invest with his forces. Thus he will be like a cloud preparing to cover the land marked out, being a distance of 70 miles from Jerusalem to the rear of his position, and about 35 miles from sea to sea. Within this area is included Jezreel and the plain of the ancient city Megiddo, celebrated in Jewish history for the great lamentation caused in Judah and Jerusalem because of the overthrow of their forces, and death of Josiah there at the hand of the Egyptians. As this was a notable national mourning, it is cited by Zechariah as an illustration of a future national lamentation at the time when “all nations shall come against Jerusalem,”^c especially as they will overspread the field p. Dan. 101 of Josiah’s disaster. The whole area that will be occupied by the king of the north is represented in the Apocalypse by this celebrated section of it; and styled ARMAGEDDON, or The Mountain, or Heap, in the Valley of Judgment.

On this area Daniel says, “the King of the North shall plant the tents of his camp.” He will then be at the head of the armies of all the nations of the Gogian confederacy gathered against Jerusalem to battle, as Zechariah and other prophets have foretold. Well garrisoned and defended as the Holy City no doubt will be by the Anglo-Tarshish power and the Jews, the city will nevertheless be taken, but not destroyed; though great calamities will be inflicted upon the inhabitants. Jerusalem being taken, there is reason to believe that the war will be continued on the other side of the Jordan in that part of Ammon which does not escape out of the hand of the King of the North. This will extend the seat of the war to Eastern Idumea or Edom in the region of Bozrah; while South Edom, Moab, and the major part of Ammon escape its ravages. This will be the position of the two armies; Gog’s extending from Egypt to Mount Carmel and the sea of Tiberias northward; and from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea; and from Carmel across the Jordan to Bozrah eastward: while the Anglo-Tarshish forces, cut off from the Mediterranean and their western fleet, will face the enemy in the northern part of Ammon, their communication with the ocean being maintained by the Red Sea.

This being the final position of the hostile armies, the reader will see the force of Isaiah’s inquiry of the blood-stained traveller, “Who is this that cometh from EDOM with dyed garments from BOZRAH? this that is glorious in his apparel, advancing in the greatness of his strength?” The army contending for the possession of Yahweh’s Land is therefore Yahweh’s enemy. In holding South Edom, the capital of which was Seir; Moab, and the major part of Ammon, etc., to Khushistan, Anglo-Tarshish will occupy a part of the territory covenanted to Abraham and Christ; while Gog at the same time holds the rest: to say nothing of “their wickedness” which “is great,” he is, because of this invasion, and coveted appropriation of the land, the enemy of Yahweh and his King; as it is written, “Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies.”

Edom then may be styled the front of the Gogian armies; and therefore when Yahweh goes forth to fight them “as when he fought in the day of battle” in old time, he strikes the first blow at Bozrah. And a terrible blow it will be, as may be conceived from the answer to another question by the same prophet, saying, “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?” “I have trodden,” says the advancing Hero, “the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment: for the Day of Vengeance is in my heart, p. Dan. 102 and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation to me; and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.”^a

From this we learn that when Isaiah sees him coming towards Jerusalem a blow had been struck, and that others remained to be inflicted; and that the Jews and their British protectors had afforded no effective coöperation in the overthrow. But who was this conquering Hero from a far country whose appearance is attended with such sudden destruction? He answers the question by saying, “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save:” or, as it is apocalyptically expressed, “The Faithful and True One, who in righteousness doth judge and make war: clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, whose name is called the Word of God.”^b Daniel styles him, “Michael the Great Commander, who standeth for Judah;” also “the Commander of commanders,” which is equivalent to “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Hosea calls him Jezreel. Ezekiel terms him Adonai Yahweh; Isaiah, “the Name of Yahweh coming from far, burning with his anger;” and Paul, the Lord Jesus revealed from heaven, taking vengeance, consuming and destroying with the brightness of his coming.

The means by which in the absence of all coöperation his own almighty arm brings salvation are terrific. The following testimonies will exhibit them: “Yahweh shall cause the glory of his voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignanation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones; for through the violence of Yahweh shall the Assyrian be beaten down which smote with a rod. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for THE KING it is prepared; He hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire, and much wood; the breath of Yahweh, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”^c

“When Yahweh shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fall together. For thus hath Yahweh spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the multitude of them: so shall Yahweh Tz’vaoth come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will Yahweh Tz’vaoth defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it. In that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and of gold. Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword,..... and his princes shall be afraid of THE ENSIGN, saith Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.”^d

And again, “Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye p. Dan. 103 people; let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of Yahweh is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he utterly destroys them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stench shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their armies shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And the Unicorns (one of the symbols of Britain) shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the Day of Yahweh’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.”^a

Furthermore, “I will call for a sword against Gōg throughout all my mountains, saith Adonai Yahweh: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, saying, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do slaughter for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth; and ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have slaughtered for you. Thus shall ye be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their Elohim from that day and forward. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, therefore I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hands of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword.”^b

“In the valley of Jehoshaphat will I sit to judge all the nations round about:”^c “and I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon them, such as they have not heard.”^d “In that day, saith Yahweh, I will smite every horse with consternation, and his rider with madness.”^e “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand p. Dan. 104 upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their orbits, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And a great tumult from Jehovah shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.”^a

Thus will the Image be smitten, the Little Horn of the Goat broken without help, and the King of the North come to his end with none to help him—a catastrophe in which the struggle ere long to begin among the nations of the Old World will be sure to end.

31. The Deliverance of Israel out of the Hand of their Enemies

“At that time thy people, Daniel, shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

The name Israel deserves our attention briefly in speaking of their deliverance. Israel signifies a Prince of God. It was the name conferred on the grandson of Abraham, who was called Jacob, or supplanter by his parents, in allusion to his posterity, who, though the descendants of the younger brother, should have the lordship over Edom, the country of Esau the elder.

When this new and divinely-bestowed name was confirmed to Jacob at Bethel, in the Holy Land, the messenger of the God of Abraham said to him, “Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And Elohim said unto him, A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed after thee will I give the land.”^b Jacob, now called Israel, as Abraham and Isaac had before him, died without realizing any of these promised blessings; nevertheless in the terminus of his mortal career he still looked for the enjoyment of them. An Israelitish Royalty in the land of Canaan, when it should be in his own possession and in that of his Seed, had been promised him of Elohim; and he believed it with full assurance of hope, “being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” The unpropitious circumstances by which he was surrounded in the Egyptian province of Goshen did not dim the brightness of his expectation for a moment. On his dying-bed, by his twelve sons surrounded, he directed their attention to the events that should happen to their posterity at a period far remote, בּאחרית היּמים bĕacharith hyyāmim, “in the uttermost part of the days,” the prophetic formula for the latter days. He predicted that Levi’s posterity should be “divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel,” because “in their anger they slew a man,” (that is, Messiah.) But in Judah he saw “the Seed” who should as king of the nation rule the land; therefore he said, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be p. Dan. 105 in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, for that Shiloh shall come, and to him (the Lawgiver) the peoples shall gather. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eyes (fountains) shall be red with wine, and his teeth (rocks) white with milk.”

But while he saw the Royalty in conquering Judah, he beheld in the life of his son Joseph a striking illustration of Him who should be the strength and glory of their nation; for as Joseph was sold by his brethren, and a long time separate from them, such also should be the fate of him upon whose head the crown of Joseph’s royalty should rest, before he should obtain the kingdom in the latter days. As Jacob predicted, “the archers have sorely grieved, shot at, and hated the posterity of Joseph;” yet “his bow abides in strength,” though long unstrung: but when the King of the North shall be broken, “the arms of Joseph’s hands shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; proceeding forth from whom is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel;” and therefore Son of God as well as Judah’s son.

The name Israel by inheritance has descended to this Royal Nation, to which all the good things, called “the goodness of Yahweh,” foreshadowed in their law, and predicted by their prophets, belong. “To Israel,” says Paul, “pertain the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises.”^a Hence, it is manifest, that one of another nation must become the subject of that “adoption” before he can become an heir of those “covenants” and “promises.” He must therefore put off his Gentilism, and become an adopted citizen of Israel’s Commonwealth: which places him upon an equal footing with the most favored of the nation.

But “they are not all Israel who are of Israel: neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.” The natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, numerous as the sand of the sea, who have gone down to the grave, are not the Israel—the generations of the nation—that shall inhabit the Holy Land when Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Christ, their Seed, and all in him, shall possess it for ever. It is only “a remnant shall be saved” of them—a remnant “who walked in the steps of that faith of their father Abraham which he had when yet uncircumcised.” This is also true of all Israelites according to the flesh, living contemporary with the overthrow of the king of the north—“a remnant will be saved;” all of them that “abide not in unbelief shall be grafted in: for the Deity is able to graft them in again;” and only He. This latter-day p. Dan. 106 remnant will be saved, however, in a different sense from that in which the remnant in the grave will experience salvation. These “awake for living ones of the aion” to possess the kingdom and glory for ever; whereas the others continuing subject to death individually are saved nationally from their down-trodden condition among the nations; and established as an independent and powerful nation in the Holy Land, under the sceptre of Jacob’s Star, whose dominion shall be acknowledged throughout the earth. Their salvation is a restoration to Canaan, and a national regeneration to newness of intellectual, moral, civil, and religious life.

All Gentiles who believe the good message concerning this kingdom and obey it, before “Michael the great prince” stands up to overthrow the King of the North, by that obedience of faith become Israelites in the higher sense. Whether dead or living, they are numbered with the remnant of the obedient “who sleep in the dust of the earth.” Believing the promises to Israel, and therefore being baptized, gives an Israelite, or one of another nation, introduction into Christ; “in whom being, they are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”^a Such are then Israelites in a sense in which the natural descendants of Abraham are not; still these do not cease to be Israelites in an inferior sense, and the subjects of deliverance from existing national degradation.

When Michael the great prince stands up for the overthrow of Israel’s enemies, he finds them and Israel shut up in unbelief—the Gentiles without faith in the kingdom; and the Jews without faith in its king; both conditions being equally fatal to a participation with Christ in the glory, honor, incorruptibility, and life, which are the special attributes of the princes of regenerated Israel. He will also find a multitude of Jews in the Holy Land as faithless in Jesus as the generation that crucified him; for it is to make a spoil of these that Gog invades the land.^b The calamities of war, however, greatly reduce their numbers. Whatever the whole number may be, it is diminished two-thirds. “In all the land, saith Yahweh, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, Yahweh is my Elohim.”^c

With this third part as a nucleus the kingdom of God begins under Michael and his associates. It is then as a grain of mustard-seed, but destined to become a great tree whose branches shall overshadow the earth. The third part refined are they of Israel belonging to the tents of Judah, of whom it is written, “Yahweh shall save the tents of Judah first,” and then Jerusalem, as appears from the reason given, “that the glory of the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, do not magnify themselves against Judah.”

p. Dan. 107 It is this third part that will “look upon Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.” They will find that Michael, the Deliverer, is Yahweh the Saviour (Jesus in Greek) whom their fathers nailed to the accursed tree; for, “One shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in thine hand? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends!”

But, while this third part is delivered consequent on the overthrow of the Gentile armies throughout the land, the deliverance of the nation still remains to be effected. Having fulfilled the prediction of Gog’s destruction, by which the Holy is avenged, Yahweh proceeds to say, “Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name.” Hence, the order of events is, first, the avenging of the holy land in the overthrow of the Gentile armies upon the mountains of Israel; secondly, the saving of the tents of Judah; thirdly, the deliverance of Jerusalem; fourthly, the bringing of the whole house of Israel not in the land at the saving of Judah’s tents into the “Wilderness of the People” to bear their shame there for forty years; and fifthly, the bringing of them from thence, “after they have borne their shame,” into the land of Israel; and making them one nation with Judah under the New Covenant, by which Yahweh’s Servant, David II., becomes their High Priest and King for a season and a time. The whole house of Israel thus united under One Head into one nation and kingdom, for the first time since the revolt of the Ten Tribes from the house of David in the third year of Solomon’s successor, is that kingdom represented by THE STONE in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, of which it is written, “In the days of these kings (of Gog’s confederacy) the Eloah of the Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never perish; and a dominion that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms; and itself shall stand for ever.” Now when this work is perfected, it is manifest that Israel will be delivered from all their enemies, and the power of the holy people no longer scattered. Yahweh says, that not one of them shall be left in their enemies’ lands, such a thorough gleaning will be made of them from among the nations. This grafting in again of Israel into their own olive tree is the horizon that bounds the view of Daniel’s telescope. There are no events beyond it revealed in his prophecy. It is the terminus of all his visions—the vanishing-point upon which all his groups of symbols terminate: so that in the seventh verse of the last chapter it is written, that the revealing angel, in answer to the question, “How long to the end of these wonders?” held up his hands to heaven, and “sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these wonders shall be finished.”

With these premises before us it will not be difficult to answer the p. Dan. 108 inquiry, Who are Daniel’s people, and their children, for whom Michael standeth up? They are the righteous dead of Israel, both native-born and adopted; secondly, the contemporary living believers who have obeyed the gospel of the kingdom; and thirdly, Judah’s third part, and the rising generation of the rest of Israel disciplined in the Wilderness of the People subsequently to the fall of Gog on Yahweh’s mountains. These all in the aggregate constitute the Saints, and the people of the Saints, for whose deliverance Michael stands up in the time of trouble. Abel and Noah; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Moses and all the prophets; the apostles and an innumerable company redeemed from among men, will then awake from their long sleep to show forth the praises of Him who will have caused them to exist incorruptible, and exalted them to reign with him upon the earth: while some others who would not that he should rule Yahweh’s people, and govern the nations, will leave the dust to wail and gnash their teeth in shame and contempt among the papal or goat nations of the west. There beyond the great gulf in exile from the Holy Land, they will be tormented among the worshipers of the Beast and his Image with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

The phrase in Daniel, “every one that is found written in the book,” has a two-fold signification; the first in regard to the righteous, both alive and dead; and the second, to Judah’s third part. Malachi affords us the interpretation in the first sense, and Isaiah in the last. Thus: “They that feared Yahweh spake often one to another; and Yahweh hearkened, and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Yahweh, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith Yahweh Tz’vaoth, in that day when I make up my jewels”^a—the day when Michael stands up for them.

Speaking of the day in which Yahweh alone shall be exalted, Isaiah says: “In that day shall the Branch of Yahweh (Judah) be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the land excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall be that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem, when Yahweh shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.”^b These will be delivered by destroying the enemy out of the Holy City; the others, by resurrection from the dead; for, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake for living ones of the Olahm—and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars in the Olahm and beyond.”

p. Dan. 10932. Resurrection to Judgment in the War of Ail-Shaddai

But, while some are to arise to the life of the Age, others are to awake from the dust of the earth “to the reproaches and abhorrence of the age.” This will be a new element in the trouble of this disastrous time. This class of Jews are doubtless those whom Jesus referred to in reproducing the words of Daniel, saying, “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man (or Michael)and shall come forth; they that have done good things UNTO a resurrection of life; and they that have done evil things UNTO a resurrection of judgment.” In these words Christ shows that coming forth from the grave precedes the attainment of rewards, and subjection to punishment. He speaks of Daniel’s “many” as the all in the graves, in certain particular graves; from which some will come forth to take forcible possession of the kingdom of Babylon; and having wrested it from its Gentile rulers, to reign over its populations with Christ for a season and time; while others come forth to participate subjectively in the judgment to be executed upon the nations, peoples, and languages subject to the fourth beast which is to be destroyed by the burning flame. Of the latter class are they to whom Jesus said, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.” This casting out is exile from the Holy Land to the countries then still in the possession of the powers, indicated as “the Beast, the False Prophet, and the kings of the earth,” and styled by Christ, “the Devil and his Angels.”^a This region of the kingdom of Babylon is separated from the Holy Land by a great gulf, called the Mediterranean, which being subject to Michael’s power, those who would repass into Judea will not be able.^b The apocalyptic name of this judicial region, or country where judgment is to be executed by the saints,^c is “a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”^d With the goat-nations of this region the resurrected exiles will be commingled, that they may there “drink of the wine of the wrath of the Deity, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb.”^e This tormenting, as I have hinted already, is “the war of the great day of God Almighty,”^f in which Christ and his associates, as the commanders of the Twelve Tribes, are engaged for the destruction of the kingdom of men. The material of the war is symbolized by “fire and brimstone;” and being brought to bear upon the objects of divine indignation by the people of the holy ones as the soldiery of Christ and his associates in command, the battle-torment is very fitly represented as being inflicted “in the presence of the holy messengers and in the presence of the Lamb.” The saints are styled ὁι ἁγιοι αγγελοι, “the holy p. Dan. 110 angels,” or messengers, because they are sent by the Ancient of Days to destroy the fourth beast, or Latin and Greek powers of Babylon. This is the judgment into which resurrection introduces those “who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Exiles among human devils and their princes, they are even there the objects of reproaches and abhorrence. Whether their miserable existence will be prolonged after the war of God Almighty against the Powers of the Gentiles shall have ceased, there is no testimony in Daniel to determine. The words of Jesus would lead one to conclude that it is not; for he says, concerning them, “Those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me;”^a or, apocalyptically, “in the presence of me, the Lamb.” When this sentence is executed upon them, death lays hold of them a second time, and they “reap corruption” as the threatened consequence of “sowing to the flesh.” Hence, not having their names written in the Book of Life, they are expelled from Paradise, “that they might not eat of the Tree of Life and live for ever.” Death is therefore the eternal consummation that awaits them—Death, consequent upon their “having their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the Second Death.”^b Thus, “the wages of sin is death; but the gracious gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ the Lord.”

A word of explanation may be deemed necessary concerning the phrase “human devils and their princes,” among whom I have said the resurrected enemies of Jesus are to be objects of abhorrence and reproach in the hour of judgment. In the heraldry of the Bible the subjects of dominions are designated and distinguished by the symbols or emblems which represent the power. Thus, the Goat is representative of Greece; therefore the Greeks and their princes are styled goats; and the Lion, of Anglo-Tarshish; therefore the British are termed “the young lions thereof.” Now, the confederacy of Gentile powers under the Autocrat of all the Russias in the latter days, is not only symbolized by Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, and called Gog; but it is also represented by “THE DRAGON,” which is to be “bound for a thousand years,” by the destruction of the fourth beast, and the taking away the dominion of the Lion-Man, the Bear, and the Leopard, for a season and time; the subjects therefore of the Dragon-dominion are Dragons. The dragon was the symbol selected by the Romans to represent their imperiality. But the Spirit of the Deity did not deem it sufficiently expressive of the character of the power, which in the time of trouble is to be an imperial organization of sin, specially manifested as the Adversary of Michael, his associates, and Israel their people. The Sin-Imperiality, having its root in the serpent-excited rebellion of the parents of our race against Yahweh Elohim, is styled “that old Serpent;” while Michael and his party, at the epoch of the binding, antagonize it as the Woman and her Seed. Hence, to express the great wickedness of the Dragon-power, and its p. Dan. 111 “enmity” to all pertaining to the Holy Land, it is “surnamed Diabolos and Satanas,” rendered in the common version “the Devil and Satan;” which is not a translation, but a transfer of the untranslated words into an English connection. The sentence in which they occur is, ὁ οφις ὁ αρχαιος ὁς εστι διαβολος και σατανας ho ophis ho archaios, hos esti diabolos kai satanas; and which in plain English signifies, “The old serpent, who is that causing to fall and an adversary.” This will have ever been characteristic of all the administrations of the Kingdom of Babylon from Nebuchadnezzar to the last of the czars, popes, emperors, and kings of the Dragon-confederacy. These are the princes, or “angels” of the Devil-and-Satan power; hence the phrase “Devil and his angels,” whose power is to be destroyed by the fiery stream issuing forth from the Ancient of Days; that is, by the consuming and destructive energy of Michael and his hosts. The power, then, being commonly styled “the Devil” in the English scriptures, all who are subject to its dominion, not being of the household of faith, are “human devils and their princes.” Their imperial chief is the head of the serpent-power, which is to be so bruised and crippled that it shall be chieftainless for a thousand years.

33. “The Wise”

“The wise shall understand.”

The war of Ail-Shaddai, which begins subsequently to the resurrection of the holy ones, does not intermit, till all the Kingdoms of imperial Babylon become theirs. As conquerors of the powers that overcame them in the days of their flesh, the praises of emancipated nations sound the fame of Israel to the ends of the earth. As a nation they become mighty and glorious above all. But if the nation be so great, what, may not be expected of those who shall have led the tribes of Jacob to victory and renown, and under the generalship of their commander-in-chief shall have brought the blessings of Abraham upon the world? Daniel anticipates this inquiry by saying, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for the olahm and beyond.” Speaking of the same period, Jesus also says, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.” It is clear, then, that when Daniel’s prediction shall come to pass, the Kingdom will have been established—the work of setting it up will have been finished; and that consequently, Israel will have been grafted into their own olive, and therefore be not only “the people of the holy ones,” but “the holy people;” a distinction not without a difference. The only place in the original of Daniel where Israel is styled “the holy people,” is in the seventh verse of the last chapter, where the time is announced at the end of which their power shall be no more in the scattered condition it now is; but when he predicted their destruction by the Little Horn and the p. Dan. 112 taking away of the evening and morning sacrifice, in the eighth chapter and twenty-fourth verse, he styled them “the people of the holy ones,” but very far from being a holy people. Well, at that time, when the people of the holy ones are a holy people; that is, at the end of the time, times, and the half of a time, or 1260 years, the wise shall shine in the Kingdom of the Eloah of the heaven. But, then, Who are the wise?

This is a very important question. It is truly a vital question to every one that reads it. As the inquiry is suggested by Daniel, would it not be proper to let him suggest the answer? This I think is expedient: certainly preferable to the suggestion emanating from myself. Let us, then, hear what he testifies. He tells us that the revealing angel said to him at the end of his discourse, “Go thou thy way, Daniel,” or desist from further inquiries, in reply to a question he put for information, but which was not granted. “I heard,” said he, “but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, when the end of these?” that is, of the time, times, and a half?—מה אחרית אלה, mā acharith aileh. He was told the reason why he could not obtain the information sought; that it was “because the words were closed up and sealed till the time of the end;” which was tantamount to saying that when the time of the end should arrive, the time-words would be no longer closed up and sealed; that is, they would speak or become intelligible: for in that time many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased. On a previous page I have shown that a time has been present with us for several years, during which many have been running to and fro, to the increase of knowledge considerably. As a result of this Daniel was informed, in effect, that his question would then be solved, and besides was given to know who should not, and who should understand it. “None of the רשׁעים rĕshāim, unjust shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” The word reshaim signifies unjustified persons as opposed to צדיקים tzaddikim, justified persons, who are “the wise.” This criticism accords with the words of Jesus, who substitutes the phrase the tzaddikim or righteous, for “the wise,” in the text already quoted; and very properly, for none can become righteous who are not circumspect of mind, intelligent, or carefully considerate of the divine testimony, which is the meaning of משׂכילים, maskilim, translated wise.

But if the wise are to be determined by those who can answer the question, “When the end of the time, times, and a half?” where shall they be found? Some ten years ago in these United States, we had a multitude of Reshaim, who claimed to be Maskilim upon the ground that they could answer the question! They published far and wide that the end would be in 1843! But time has proved that they were Reshaim, and not Maskilim; for “none of them understood.” Wisdom, however, hath her beginning in the fear of the Lord, which is precisely the alpha with which they omitted to commence their studies. “Children, I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.” It is a something to be taught, studied, and acquired. “The fear of Yahweh is the instruction of wisdom;” that way of acceptance with the Deity p. Dan. 113 which the Spirit of wisdom teaches in the holy scriptures. In the days of his flesh, Jesus was “of quick understanding in the fear of Yahweh;” and so are they who besides him are “taught of God;” and it is only they who are thus taught that are recognized as righteous; for of these is it written, “they shall be all taught of God.”^a But how doth the Deity teach men his fear? In the days of the apostles he taught them through the scriptures of the prophets, and the oral instructions of the apostles; but since their time, by the scriptures of the prophets and apostles only: for an apostle says, “The scriptures are able to make wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” And again, he says, “All scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Here then is the divine power for teaching men his wisdom. And what more do men need than to be made wise to salvation, instructed in righteousness, perfected, and thoroughly furnished for the manifestation of good works?

They must study it for themselves, thankfully availing themselves of all the help they can obtain from those who are able to teach others, and who have been taught of God before them. “If any man consent not to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus, and to the teaching which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing,” Now, he preached the gospel of the kingdom, and commanded all who believed it to be immersed. He prescribed immersion to no one else; because no one could be benefited by it who was not first a divinely instructed believer of the kingdom’s gospel. Those who have obeyed this gospel are the Tzaddikim, or justified; those who have not obeyed it are the Reshaim, or unjustified. These are not taught of the Deity; their fear of him, such as it is, is taught them by the precepts of men. The class is very large, and composed of innumerable orders, which, however diversified, have one common characteristic—they are “contentious, and obey not the truth;” they “stumble at the word, being disobedient.”^b None of these shall understand. This is the divine sentence against them, and accounts for the failure of the many learned writers upon prophecy, to say nothing of the unlearned, in the enterprise of reading correctly the past and future of the world by the light of the prophetic word: most of them lived too soon, and all of them were ignorant of the gospel; so that being Reshaim, with all their learning they could only demonstrate each other’s foolishness, without any of them succeeding in pointing out the truth.

The wise, then, of the time of the end are those who believe “the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ;” and have therefore been “immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”^c He who understands these things has laid the foundation of intelligence in the p. Dan. 114 things which Daniel heard, but understood not. Being wise, he shall understand them if he give heed thereto. This is the encouragement given; and to help them in the endeavor is the purpose of this book; that they may not be taken at unawares by the consummation that approaches rapidly.