which John saw placed in rows on each side of the river of the water of life. Now in interpreting this figurative language, the reader might not be certain whether the passage applies to the church militant, or to the church triumphant. That point, however, is at once decided by a reference to Rev. ii. 7, where we find that the blessings represented by the productions of the tree of life are promised to the church militant, but enjoyed by the church triumphant. "To him that overcometh," says our Lord in vision, "will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Thus John heard of the tree of life before he saw it; and was prepared to understand some portion of the visions of God.

like Paul, writes to the churches as an inspired EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENT. Thus after stating the contents and importance of the subject he had to communicate, he proceeds with his epistle by saying," John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace from HIM WHO IS, AND WAS, AND IS TO COME:-and from THE SEVEN SPIRITS which are before HIS throne;—and from JESUS CHRIST." Now as the seven spirits are here said to be before the throne of the glorious personage first mentioned, we have in Rev. vii. 10, a decisive clue to that Divine Being in the following language: "Salvation to our GOD who sitteth on the THRONE, and to the Lamb." Thus we arrive at a satisfactory conclusion respecting two of the sources from which Grace and Peace are invoked; namely,

Not only, however, are illustrative passages to be found in the same book, but they also occur in different books of the" GOD that sitteth on the Sacred Volume. We have just throne," and "JESUS CHRIST" seen that the apostle John had a mentioned by name in Rev. i. 2. clue to some of the visions which -Finally then, by having rehe saw; and, in some instances, he course to another book of the has himself told us the meaning. Sacred Volume, we ascertain the For instance, in Rev. iv. 5, he only remaining source from which first tells us that he saw "seven such Divine benedictions are inlamps of fire burning before the voked by the Sacred Writers. throne," and then, in the cha- Thus in 2 Cor. xiii. 14, the aposracter of an inspired NARRATOR, tle Paul, in his invocation of he tells us the meaning of the spiritual blessings, has a referseven lamps. They are," says ence to THREE Divine personhe," the seven spirits of God." ages in the following decisive Now this remark of John's in language: "The grace of the close connexion with the vision-Lord Jesus Christ, and the love ary objects recorded, is an im- of God, and the communion of portant link in the chain that the HOLY GHOST, be with you conducts to a right interpreta- all." Hence by the aid of Divine tion. But the next inquiry is, truth itself, we learn that the What is meant by "the seven seven Lamps of Fire are the Spirits of God?" In seeking a DIVINE SPIRIT.-Again in Heb. satisfactory answer to this ques- xi. 10, we read that Abraham tion, we are led to another por- "looked for THE CITY which tion of John's own language con- hath THE FOUNDATIONS, whose -tained in Rev. i. 4, where John, builder and maker is God." Now

A YEAR" and so Ezekiel was instructed that 390 days meant 390 years, and that 40 days meant 40 years. On this prin ciple, therefore, seventy weeks being 490 days, must be interpreted 490 years.-The Scriptures too carry us one step farther, by identifying the extreme points of the 490 years with un

the Greek article before the word we learn from Sacred History for city and also before the word that no Saviour came within sixfor foundations, points out such teen months of that publication. a particular city as we no where The question, however, reread of but in Rev. xxi. For turns; and we are led to ask, there, and there alone, we read" If the period is thus evidently of THE FOUNDATIONS of the to be understood figuratively, celestial city. Hence we con- what is the proper interpretation clude that the passage here of such figurative language?" quoted from the Epistle to the Now here we are again wonderHebrews has a direct reference fully aided by Scripture, for we to John's vision, or was an in- have a precedent quite in point. spired anticipation of it; and Thus in Ezek. iv. 6, we read that hence we ascertain not only that Jehovah said to Ezekiel, "I have Abraham had a hope full of im-appointed thee EACH DAY FOR mortality, but that the happiness he had in view is the very thing represented by the Apocalyptical city with the twelve foundations. The Sacred Volume, however, not only furnishes light itself, but it also sanctions the perusal of other writings, and gives encouragement to the study and application of natural science: for, in fact, the Scriptures can-inspired Chronology. Thus the not otherwise accomplish their commencement of the period is design. In proof of this asser- stated to have been in the tion we need only advert to the SEVENTH YEAR of Artaxerxes;† prophecy of the seventy weeks and for the time of the public recorded by Daniel,* from which ministry of our Lord we are it appears that those weeks were furnished with a clue in the acto commence with the grant of count of the passovers he attendan edict for rebuilding Jerusalem; ed, and by the precise date of and that they were to extend to the commission given by God to a time when the Messiah should John the Baptist, as in Luke iii. perform the great work of re- 1, 2, we read, "In the FIF demption. Now the volume of TEENTH YEAR of Tiberius Ceinspiration furnishes us with three sar the word of God came to particulars to aid us in the inter- John the son of Zacharias in the pretation of this prophecy; and wilderness."-When, however, we then it leaves us to the aid of proceed to the elucidation of the uninspired writers. prophecy by ascertaining the interval that elapsed between the extreme points of time here specified, the Scriptures furnish us with no materials. Without the aid of uninspired writers, there. fore, there is no man upon earth who can show that the prophecy of the seventy weeks was fulfilled.

In the first place, we learn from the Sacred Scriptures that the seventy weeks were NOT fulfilled LITERALLY. For seventy weeks comprise only about a year and four months: and though we read of the publication of the edict in question, yet

*See Dan, ix, 24.

+ See Ezra vii. 8, 9, and 11-26,

To proceed then to uninspired Chronology, we find that the seventh year of Artaxerxes began on the 16th of December in the year 459 before the Christian Era, according to a computation of the Era of Nabonassar, which was adopted by Heathen Nations in that age of the world. It

darkness, however, could not be
the result of an eclipse of the
sun, as such an eclipse cannot
produce darkness for more than
a few minutes. Nor could even
such an eclipse happen when
Jesus was crucified, for we as-
certain from the Evangelists that
that event happened at the time
of Passover: and we learn from
Josephus that the sacrifices for
that feast were slain on the four-
teenth day of the moon, or when
she was near the full, as Philo
expresses the same fact. As
therefore no Solar Eclipse can
happen but at the New Moon,
we are irresistibly led to assert
that the DARKNESS at the cruci-
fixion, was an extraordinary ope-
ration of Divine power: and we
are still further informed that the
darkness was accompanied by
an EARTHQUAKE.1-Now, by
a reference to uninspired history,
we find a remarkable coincidence
with the accounts recorded in
the New Testament. For Phlegon,
a Heathen Chronologer, in the
13th Book of his Chronicle has
written to this effect: "In the

should be observed too that the Chronology derived from this Era of Nabonassar is so verified by Eclipses and Occultations which we ourselves may calculate, that we feel as much certainty in computing the years of the kings of Babylon or Persia as in reckoning those of his late Majesty George the third. On such grounds we conclude that the 490 years began in the year 458; for Ezra commenced his journey to Jerusalem on the first day of the first Jewish month, which month conld not receive its existence till the Spring of the Year. Reckoning, therefore, on the principle that the Year One before the Christian Era introduced the Year of our Lord ONE, the 490 years must have been completed at the beginning of" FOURTH YEAR of the 102nd the first Jewish Month in the year of our Lord THIRTY-THREE; or, according to the Greek Chronology, the 490 years must have expired in the FOURTH YEAR of the 102nd Olympiad, which year began about Midsummer in the year of our Lord THIRTYTwo, and ended about Midsummer in the year THIRTY-THREE. Now the seventy weeks of Daniel were to terminate with the Messiah's bringing in " everlasting righteousness;" and the Sacred Writers inform us that at this momentous crisis there was DARKNESS over all the land from the SIXTH hour (or day) till the ninth hour.* *See Matt. xxvii. 45.

mid

This

Olympiad there was a GREATER ECLIPSE OF THE SUN than any that had happened previous to that time; and it became NIGHT at the SIXTH HOUR of the day, insomuch that the stars appeared

From a computation of the effect the greatest possible duration of a of all real possibilities, it appears that total eclipse of the sun on our globe is four minutes and nineteen seconds at the Poles, and seven minutes and fifty-one seconds at the Equator, and between these extremes in the other

parts of the earth. Before the totality, indeed, there is a great diminution of light for two or three minutes, and also for the same length of time after the sun's re-appearance: but the least visible portion of the sun's disc has a tendency to produce day-light.

See Matt. xxvii. 51.

in the sky. There was also a GREAT EARTHQUAKE in Bithynia, and it threw down a great number of buildings in the city of Nice."

that the Paschal Lamb was slain on the FOURTEENTH DAY according to the Moon when the Sun was in ARIES. In the next place then, we must have recourse Thus then there is a striking to Astronomical Tables,* from harmony between the Sacred which we compute that, in the Oracles and uninspired history, year of our Lord thirty-three, the with respect to the hour at which Sun entered Aries on the 22nd of the darkness commenced, and to March at one minute past four the earthquake which accom- in the afternoon, according to panied that darkness, and also Solar or Apparent Time at Greento the unprecedented character of wich; and we also find that the the phænomenon. But in esta- Sun continued in Aries till the blishing the identity of the re- 22nd of April, on which day he spective accounts, it is proper to entered Taurus at 19 minutes proceed still further. It may be after five in the afternoon. After observed, therefore, that by com- obtaining these results we find puting from our Modern Astro- that the New Moon preceding nomical Tables which have been the passover happened on March brought to an unprecedented ap- the 19th at 48 minutes after ten proximation towards perfection, in the forenoon. According to it appears that there was no total our mode of reckoning, therefore, eclipse of the sun at mid-day, or the fourteenth day of the moon at any other time of the day, when the sun was in Aries, coineither at Jerusalem or in Bithynia, cided with Wednesday the first in any part of the fourth year of of April. But by referring to the 102nd Olympiad. Nor can the Gospels we learn that our it be said that the darkness was Lord was crucified on a Friday, occasioned by a thick fog, or by or the day before the Jewish exceedingly dense clouds; for Sabbath.t Now as it is also Phlegon says, "the stars appear- evident that the Jews attended ed." Hence we are led to con- to the passover on that day, it clude that what this Greek wri- follows that the reckoning to ter calls a great eclipse of the which Josephus refers, began sun was an obscuration of that from the first re-appearance of luminary by causes that consti- the moon after the change: and, tuted the event a prodigy and in the land of Judæa, the passfrom the astonishing coincidence over moon in the year 33, would of Scripture with profane records, be first visible on Friday evening, we are at once led to consider March the 20th. For on that the respective accounts as apply-evening the Moon did not set at ing to one and the same event. Jerusalem till 19 minutes after As Phlegon, therefore, points seven, apparent time at Jerusaout the year, and the Evangelists the time of the year, we are brought to the time of PASSOVER in the year THIRTY-THREE, as the time of the three hours' dark

*The Tables used in these computations are Delambre's Solar Tables, and Burckhardt's Lunar Tables, the Secular Equations being computed for the particular times according to the formulæ of Laplace.

+ See Mark xv. 42.-Luke xxiii. 54. -John xix. 31.

See John xviii, 28, and xix. 14,

From the preceding premises we conclude that our Lord was crucified on FRIDAY the THIRD Having thus glanced at the of APRIL, in the year of our Lord sources of illustration which af THIRTY-THREE, and thus we fect the figurative language of are furnished with 490 years ex- Scripture in common with what actly for Daniel's seventy weeks. is literal, it is now proper to con-But even if this reasoning re-sider the range and limits of inspecting the year of the cruci- terpretation when the language fixion were altogether incorrect, is figurative. yet we have other sources of information that will make us absolutely certain within a year