out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon." Where now are the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites ?-Do they exist as tribes or nations? But in ch. 12 : 7, we learn the time when all these predictions shall come to a close.

"And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever, 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 things shall be finished."

To corroborate this understanding of the text, and to bring the testimony to a point, let us extract a few passages from the words of Christ, as recorded by Matthew, chaps. 23, 24, 25. After stating the manner in which the Jews would treat his messengers, and the dreadful inquest for blood which would follow, he adds, "Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." What things should happen to that generation? Answer. Those things which formed the burden of that portion of Daniel's prophecy to which we have just alluded. Their house was to be left desolate, the very catastrophe to which the prophecy points. "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Do you ask how this is the accomplishment of the prediction ?" When YE therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the HOLY PLACE, (whoso readeth let him UNDERSTAND, then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountains." Why should they flee, and why did the believers in Christ flee to Pella? Answer, they believed him when he declared- "there shall be ⚫ great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time," which is an evident quota

tion from Dan. 12: 1, already recited. Added to this is a confirmation strong as testimony can make it, for Christ adds, "no, nor ever shall be." So far is the evidence conclusive, not only in reference to the prophecy of Daniel, as not extending beyond the epoch to which the Saviour alluded, but he repeats the declaration with peculiar emphasis-" Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till ALL these things be fulfilled."

That these dreadful calamities came upon the Jews in the generation in which Christ lived and was crucified, is evident from the well authenticated history of Josephus, who says

"If all the misfortunes of all nations from the beginning of the world were compared with those which befel the Jews, they would appear much less in comparison. The destruction of this people, exceeded all the destructions God or man ever brought on the world." He calculates 1,100,000 were destroyed in the siege, 237,000 who perished in other places, besides innumerable multitudes swept away by famine and pestilence, of which no calculation could be made. Above 2,000 laid violent hands on themselves. Ninety-seven thousand were sold slaves. Eleven

thousand were starved to death under one leader. A lady of rank was seen to murder and eat her own child. Manneus, a Jew, who fled to Titus, affirmed that from the beginning of the siege on the 14th of April, to the 1st of July, 115,880 dead bodies had been carried out through one gate, of which the keeping had been committed to him. Many respectable deserters assured Titus that not less than 600,000 poor, had been cast out at the different gates; and while he beheld the dead piled under the walls, raised his hands to heaven, and protested he had not been the cause of this deplorable calamity. Moreover, the Jews who had been vanquished by the army of Ves

pasian, having fled to their ships, were pursued by a horrible tempest, which dashed their vessels against each other, and against the rocks, so that the raging billows were literally stained with blood, and 4,200 dead bodies were strewed along the shore."

We have now seen that the time to which Daniel alluded, was the destruction of Jerusalem-that this happened in the year 70 of the Christian era, as attested by Josephus, and that the quotation from the prophet, made and applied by the Messiah to the generation which then existed, was fulfilled. Either, then, the prophecy of Daniel had already been fulfilled, which will not be contended, or it was fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jewish nation. If we say that it still waits forits accomplishment, we make void the words of him who declared that such a time of trouble should never be repeated, and thus render scripture a mere nehushtan.

I will now advert to the last verse of the 25th chapter, or the substance of the text with which we commenced. What the prophet terms awaking to everlasting life, is here termed life eternal, and the import is most obviously the same. If sufficient have been said to identify the prophecies of Daniel and Christ, the catastrophe is one. The time is beyond controversy the same, and the everlasting punishment of one passage, is most manifestly, the shame and everlasting contempt of the other. Daniel says, or writes as directed, "when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, [the Jews most certainly] all these things shall be FINISHED." How then do professed christians carry all these events into the coming world, in the face of this testimony? Christ but repeated, in clearer language, the prediction of the prophet, who never intimated, by a single expression, even a future state of immortal existence. But you may observe, that not in a single

instance, does either Daniel or Christ, speak of this event as affecting any but the Jews, or Daniel's people. And it is also observable, that a repetition of the prophecy could not contain any thing not found in its first promulgation. It may be plainer expressed, but addition of facts would not constitute a repetition, but a new prophecy. That the Jews, either in the prophetic or apostolic age, understood any thing more by the term everlasting punishment, than a temporal calamity, cannot be shown, either by sacred or profane history; and that life eternal is any where used by New Testament writers, for a state of felicity beyond the grave, is easier said than proved. Until the proof is adduced, the testimony of Christ may satisfy us, that this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Eternal life is enjoyed in this world, as is evident by various testimonies. Not only do we read, "He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life, but an apostle directs to lay hold on eternal life," as a thing within our reach, even here. But the point is strengthened by the statement, that "no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." Now if eternal life were not enjoyed by some, the expression in regard to a murderer would be perfectly senseless, and utterly unintelligible.

I shall now attempt to remove some objections which arise from the question of the disciples, and the reply of our Lord. They ask, When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Here let us remark, that no one word had dropped from their master rela'tive to the consummation of all things, or a dissolution of this globe. He had stated that the temple should be utterly destroyed, and the city laid waste. These circumstances would scatter the inhabitants, and close the Mosaic dispensation. Nothing could impress a

Jew more strongly than this. They, as a nation, had already been carried captive, and the horrors of captivity, in those days, and that to pagan nations, may not easily be conceived by those who have not seen the catastrophe staring them in the face. But it requires no extraordinary efforts of imagination to picture the disciples as anxiously intent on so dreadful a circumstance. Their anxiety is evidenced by the questions growing out of our Lord's declaration relative to the end of the age or dispensation, which he pronounced as coming to a close. Is it then, using the canon of scripture reverently, to wrest the language of the disciples to a purpose utterly foreign, both to the preceding and succeeding context? That the signs of his coming, and the end of the aion, (age, not world,) were one, is evident by his answer. Among other tokens, he states that the gospel shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come. Concerning this prediction, Mr. Thompson, in his lectures on 2 Thes. 1: 6, 10, has the following remarks, on such authority as you will not readily dispute.

"Of the fulfilment of this prediction, the epistles of Paul, addressed to the chistians of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Thessalonica; and those of Peter, to those in Pontus, Cappadocia, and Bythinia, are standing monuments. Paul tells the Romans their faith was spoken of throughout the word; and the Colossians, that the gospel had been preached to every creature under heaven. The Acts of the Apostles, written seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem, attests the fact, that the gospel had been preached to all the then known world. Bishop Newton observes, that the history of the church shows, that before the destruction of Jerusalem, the gospel had been propagated northward to Scythia, southward to Ethiopia, eastward to India, and westward to Spain and