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As none but our Lord Jesus knew the import of the end of the Law age and the beginning of the Gospel age (the apostles knew only in part and saw dimly until after Pentecost), so we can expect only the body of Christ, anointed with the same spirit, to see clearly the end of the Gospel age and its weighty import. The poor Jews and many professed Christians do not yet know of the great dispensational change which occurred at the first advent, the end of the Jewish age and the start of the Gospel age. And likewise now, few know, or will come to know, until outward evidences prove it to their natural sight, that we are now in the end or "harvest" of the Gospel age, and that 1878 marked so important a point as it did. Nor was it intended others than the faithful few should know, and not be in darkness with the world. To you it is given to know, said our Lord.

Some perhaps may say, Though Jeremiah was a prophet of the Lord, whose testimony as to the "mishneh" or duplication of Israel's experiences should be respected, we should consider the evidence still stronger if another prophet had mentioned the same thing. To such we reply that the statement of one reliable prophet is good and sufficient ground for faith, and that many of the notable proofs at the first advent were foretold by only a single prophet; nevertheless, God, who is rich in mercy and very pitiful, considered our weakness of faith, and has answered the prayer of our hearts in advance, providing more than the one testimony.

Turn to Zechariah's prophecy (9:9-12). In prophetic vision he walks beside Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem, A.D. 33, five days before his crucifixion (John 12:1-12), and to the people the Prophet cries, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy king cometh unto thee! He is just, and

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having salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass." Mark the fulfillment of these words (Matt. 21:4-9, 43; John 12:12-15; Luke 19:40-42). Every item was fulfilled, even to the shouting. When the people shouted Hosanna! the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke them, but he refused, saying, If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Why? Because it had been prophesied there would be a shout, and every item of prophecy must be fulfilled. Let this particularity of detail in prophetic fulfillment give us confidence in the further statements of this and other prophets.

After briefly noting the evil consequences to follow a rejection of their king (Zech. 9:10), the Prophet, speaking for Jehovah, addresses them (v. 12), "Turn you to the strong hold [Christ], ye prisoners of hope: even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee." The word double, here, is the same word used by Jeremiah, mishneh, a repetition, or another equal portion. Israel had for years been under the Roman yoke, but they were prisoners of hope, hoping for a coming king who would deliver and exalt them to the promised dominion of earth. Now their king, their strong tower, had come, but so meek and lowly that they in their pride could not regard him as such a deliverer. Much more they were Sin's prisoners, and this Deliverer purposed this greater release also. Our Lord had been with them three and a half years, fulfilling the Scriptures in their midst, and now came the last and final test, would they receive him, the Lord's Anointed, as their king? The foreknowledge of God, that they would reject Messiah, is shown by the Prophet's words, Even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee.

This prophecy not only leaves no doubt about there being a double, a duplication of chastisement added to

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Israel's experience because of their rejection of Messiah, but it also marks the exact day when it began, and makes the conclusions drawn from Jeremiah's prophecy, and fixed by our Lord's words, "Your house is left unto you desolate," doubly strong, exact and clear.

Call to mind our Lord's words at this time on this point, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold! your house is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:37-39). Also we read that on the last day of their test, "when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now [henceforth] they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:41, 42). Thank God, now that their double is complete, we can see that their blindness is beginning to turn away. This gives saints joy on their own account, too, for they realize the glorification of the Body of Christ draws near.

But our loving Father, who evidently wished to settle and to establish our hearts beyond doubt, upon the small point which decides and proves so much, has sent us word concerning Israel's double by another of his most honored servants, the Prophet Isaiah.

This prophet takes his standpoint down at this end, at the time when the double (mishneh) has been fulfilled, A.D. 1878; and, addressing us who now live, he gives us God's message, saying: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her appointed time is accomplished,

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that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand DOUBLE* for all her sins"—Isa. 40:1, 2. See marginal reading.

The student of prophecy should notice that the prophets vary their standpoints, sometimes speaking of future things as future, and sometimes assuming a position future and speaking from that assumed standpoint, e.g., Isaiah, speaking of our Lord's birth, assumes to stand by the manger where the babe Jesus lay, when he says, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders," etc. (Isa. 9:6). The Book of Psalms cannot be read intelligently unless this principle be recognized. No better illustration of this principle can be given than the three prophecies relating to Israel's double already noticed. Jeremiah foretold that the days would come when God would scatter them among all nations, and that, when they have received double, he would gather them again by a more mighty display of power on their behalf than when they came out of Egyptian bondage. Zechariah speaks as though living at the time of Christ's offering himself to Israel as their king, and tells us that there, in that day, their double began. Isaiah stands beside us in 1878, and calls our attention to the fact that God had a fixed or appointed time for favoring Israel already arranged, and that this fixed time was after a double, or counterpart, of their previous favor; and he tells us that we should now give to Israel this comforting message that her double is complete, her appointed time accomplished. It would be difficult indeed to decide which of these three prophecies is strongest or most important. They are each important, and each would be strong alone; but combined

* The word here translated double is kephel, which means double, in the sense of a thing folded in the middle.

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they are a threefold cord of wonderful strength to the humble, studious, trustful children of God.

The force of these prophetic utterances is increased when we remember that these prophets lived and wrote hundreds of years apart, and that they wrote things entirely contrary to Jewish expectation. Surely faithless and slow of heart to believe all that God has spoken by the prophets are those who cannot see in this harmonious testimony the finger and dealings of God.

If any should object, that the Berlin Congress and its actions were not a sufficiently marked beginning of God's returning favor to Israel, we reply that it was a far more marked return of favor than was our Lord's action upon riding into Jerusalem a mark of disfavor. Neither, at its occurrence, was recognized as a fulfilling of prophecy. To-day there are thousands more who know of the fulfillment of the double than up to Pentecost knew that the double began back there. Thus we see that the child that Simeon said was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel (Luke 2:34) proved the fall or stone of stumbling to Fleshly Israel as a nation. We have seen how, as the Head and Captain of Spiritual Israel, he is to be the Deliverer, to raise up again the fleshly house, and to restore all things after their appointed time, their double, is complete; and now we see the double complete and favor to Israel beginning. As we note these fulfillments of God's Word, our hearts may well sing,

"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word."

While thus noting Israel's fall from favor and their consequent loss, and the cause of all this, let us not forget that in this also they foreshadowed nominal Spiritual Israel, and that the same prophets have foretold the stumbling and fall of both the houses of Israel—"He shall

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be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel"—Isa. 8:14.

As truly as there was a casting off and fall of nominal Fleshly Israel, as we have seen, there is to be a casting off and fall of nominal Spiritual Israel, the nominal Gospel Church, and for similar reasons. The casting off and fall of the one are as vividly portrayed in the Bible as those of the other. And as surely as a remnant of Fleshly Israel was saved from blindness and fall through meekness and faith, so also a similar remnant of nominal Spiritual Israel shall be saved from the blindness and fall of the nominal mass in the harvest or end of this age. Thus the last members of the true Church, the body of Christ, are to be separated from the nominal church, to be joined to the Head, glorified. The remnant chosen from Fleshly Israel at its fall, and the faithful few of the Gospel age, including the living remnant at its end, alone constitute the true Israel of God. These are the Elect, justified by faith in Christ's redemptive work, called to joint-sacrifice and joint-heirship with Christ, chosen in the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, and faithful unto death. With the completion of the selection of this company, in the harvest of this age, quite a commotion may be expected among the wheat and tares; for many divine favors, specially granted because of the faithful few, will be withdrawn from the nominal mass, when the little flock, for whose development they were granted, has been completed.

We should expect the order here would be, as in the typical Jewish harvest, a separating work, fulfilling the words of David, Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice (Psa. 50:5). As A.D. 33 marked the giving over of the nominal Jewish house, as a system, to disfavor, disruption and

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overthrow, so the corresponding date, 1878, marked the beginning of the disfavor, disruption and overthrow of nominal Spiritual Israel, of which we shall have more to say in succeeding chapters.

MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION.

Assuming that the foregoing evidence is conclusive and satisfactory, we now proceed to prove chronologically: First, that the Jewish age, from the death of Jacob to where their house was left desolate when their double or second part began, was eighteen hundred and forty-five years long; and second, that the double ended in A.D. 1878, and favor was due to begin there, proving thus the close of the Gospel age favors.

The second point requires no proof; for it being a fact that our Lord died in 33, it becomes an easy matter to add eighteen hundred and forty-five years to 33, and find the year 1878 to be the year in which favor to Israel was due to begin, provided we can prove our first proposition, that the period of Israel's waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises under his favor was eighteen hundred and forty-five years long.

The length of this period is set forth in the chapter on Chronology except one item, namely, the period from the death of Jacob to the coming out of Egypt. This period was peculiarly hidden, or covered, until recently; until it was noticed the length of the Jewish age was not known; and without it the double of it could not have been measured, even if the prophecies of the double had been noticed and understood. The Chronology runs smoothly until Jacob's death, but from that date until the coming out of Egypt, there is no full record. Various snatches here and there are given, but no connected thread by which we could surely know. It was for this reason that at this point

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in the table of Chronology we were compelled to look to the New Testament. There we received aid from the inspired Apostle, who gave us the connecting link. We thus learned that it was a period of four hundred and thirty (430) years from the Covenant, at the death of Terah, Abraham's father, to Israel's exodus from Egypt.

We find the hidden period between the death of Jacob and Israel's leaving Egypt by first calculating the period from the death of Terah to the death of Jacob, and then deducting that number of years from the four hundred and thirty years, the period from Terah's death to the exodus from Egypt. Thus:

Abraham was seventy-five (75) years old when the Covenant was made with him, at the death of Terah (Gen. 12:4), and Isaac was born twenty-five (25) years after (Gen. 21:5). Hence

‍

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Thus all difficulty as to the length of Israel's national existence is cleared away. The hidden period from Jacob's death to the Exodus was no doubt purposely concealed, until due to be seen. To this we add the periods presented in the Chronological Table, as follows:

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‍

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To find the length of the double, when favor was due and began toward them, and when therefore it began to depart from nominal Spiritual Israel, we count eighteen hundred and forty-five years from the Spring of 33, and obtain the date of Passover, 1878. Their rising again from A.D. 1878 to 1914 (the closing of Gentile Times), under the favor of the King whom they rejected, and whom by that time they will recognize, corresponds in length with their thirty-six years and a half of falling, from the day their house was left desolate, A.D. 33, until the start of their overthrow as a people, A.D. 69.

We have already examined many striking parallels between the Jewish age shadow or type, and the Gospel age substance or antitype, and here we have just proved another: The length of the two ages corresponds exactly, the Gospel Church being called during Israel's mishneh or double of disfavor. And while other correspondencies are

* The Jewish ecclesiastical year dated from the Spring; and the Passover occurred on the 15th day of the first month of each new (ecclesiastical) year.

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striking, especially so are the closing features of the two ages, their harvests, reapers, work and the time devoted, all serve to give us clear outlines of the closing work to be accomplished in the harvest which is the end of this age. Note carefully the correspondencies of these two harvests, as we shall briefly recapitulate:

REVIEW OF HARVEST PARALLELS.

The Jewish age ended with a harvest, our Lord and the apostles doing the work of reaping fruit, whose seed had been sown by Moses and the prophets. "Lift up your eyes, (said Jesus), and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. … I send you to reap that whereon ye have bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors" (John 4:35-38). The end of the Gospel age is also called a harvest, "The harvest is the end of the world" (age). "In the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather first the tares and bind them in bundles … but gather the wheat into my barn"—Matt. 13:39, 30.

John foretold Jewish harvest's work and effect (Matt. 3:12): "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat [Israelites indeed] into the garner [Christian Church]; but he will burn up the chaff [refuse of the nation] with unquenchable fire," (a trouble which consumed them nationally). Here was the baptism of the holy Spirit and of fire—the holy Spirit coming upon the Israelites indeed at Pentecost, and the fire of trouble upon all others, during the thirty-six years and a half following their rejection (Matt. 3:11). In the trouble Israel as a nation was destroyed, not as individuals. The Revelator tells of the harvesting of this age with the sickle of truth, because the time to reap is come, and shows a double work, part of which relates to the vine of the

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earth, as distinguished from the true vine of the Father's planting, Christ Jesus and his members or branches (John 15:1-6). The harvest of this age is said to be of wheat and tares (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-39): that of the Jewish age was called one of wheat and chaff. And as the chaff predominated largely there, the analogy and parallelism so marked in every other feature implies that the tares will be much more abundant than the wheat in this harvest.

The Jewish harvest, a period of forty years, began with our Lord's ministry and ended with the start of nominal Israel's overthrow and the destruction of their city, by the Romans, A.D. 69. And the harvest of this age began with the presence of our Lord at the beginning of Earth's Jubilee, in 1874, as shown in chapter vi., and ends with the start of the overthrow of Gentile power, 1914, a period of forty years, also another of the wonderful parallels of the two ages.

While the Jewish harvest began with our Lord's ministry, and God's favor departed from their system three and a half years later, and was followed by thirty-six years and a half of trouble upon that system, yet favor continued to individuals of that nation, and the call to the high position of joint-heirship with Christ was given to them alone for three and a half years after Jesus' rejection by and of them, thus verifying the promise to Daniel (Dan. 9:27), that favor would be shown to his people to the full end of the seventieth week, in the midst of which Messiah was cut off. This promise was fulfilled to all the wheat, while the system which held it was condemned and cast off in the midst of the week. The harvesting of the wheat of the Jewish age lasted for several years, beginning with our Lord's ministry, though all the special favor ceased three and a half years after the death of Christ.

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The trouble upon that nation began to kindle early, but did not reach its terrible fury until the wheat of the nation had been about all garnered.

Similar periods are marked in the harvest of this age now closing, corresponding to those of that harvest. The fall of 1874, when the Jubilee cycles point out that our Lord was due to be present, corresponds to the time of his baptism and anointing by the holy Spirit when he became Messiah the Prince (Dan. 9:25), and began his work of reaping the Jewish harvest. The Spring of 1878, three and a half years after, corresponds to the date at which Jesus assumed the office of King, rode on the ass, cleansed the temple of its money-changers, wept over and gave up to desolation that nominal church or kingdom. It marks the date when the nominal church systems were spewed out (Rev. 3:16), and from which time (1878) they are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognized by him. The three and a half years following the Spring of 1878, which ended October, 1881, correspond to the three and a half years of continued favor to individual Jews in the last half of their seventieth week of favor. As in the type the date, three and a half years after Jesus' death, marked the end of all special favor to the Jew and the beginning of favor to the Gentiles, so we recognize 1881 as marking the close of the special favor to Gentiles, the close of the high calling, or invitation to the blessings peculiar to this age—to become joint-heirs with Christ and partakers of the divine nature. As we have seen, this marks a movement among the Jewish people toward Christianity, known as the Kishenev Movement. Now trouble is impending over nominal Christendom, but the storm is stayed until the wheat is garnered, until God's messengers seal his servants in their foreheads (intellects) with the truth—Rev. 7:3.

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The features of this harvest corresponding to those of the Jewish harvest have been very marked also as to the preaching done. In the first three and a half years of the Jewish harvest Jesus and the disciples had for their special text time, and Messiah's presence. Their proclamation was, The time is fulfilled, the Deliverer has come (Mark 1:15; Matt. 10:7). So in this harvest also: up to 1878 the time prophecies and the fact of the Lord's presence, substantially as here presented, though less clearly, were our message. Since then the work has widened, and the view of other truths has become brighter and clearer; but the same facts and scriptures, teaching the same time and presence, stand unchallenged and incontrovertible. As the favor that was continued to individual Israelites, after their house nominal was cut off from favor, was not intended to convert and reform their nominal church system, nor granted in hope of changing their chaff into wheat, but was intended to separate and garner every grain of ripe wheat, so in this harvest the object of the continued and abounding favor of the truth is not designed to convert whole sects or to work national reforms, but on the contrary to separate completely the wheat class from the tare class. They have grown together side by side for centuries, and a pure, all-wheat sect has been unknown; but now in the harvest the separation must come, and the strain is terrible. It means, in many instances, the uprooting of earthly friendships and the sundering of many tender ties; and the truth will do the separating. The Lord's prediction as to the harvest at the first advent is true again in the present harvest (Matt. 10:35-38; Luke 12:51-53). As there the truth set the father against the son, the daughter against the mother, and the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, so again, a man's foes are often they of his own household. This cannot be

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avoided. They who love peace more than truth will be tested, and they who love truth supremely will be accepted and approved as the overcomers, as in the Jewish harvest.

In the Jewish harvest the messengers chosen and sent forth as heralds of the King and Kingdom at hand were humble, untitled men, and those who opposed the message were the Chief Priests, Scribes, Pharisees and Doctors of Divinity. As we should expect we find it here: the blindest are the leaders of the blind, who, like their types, Know not the time of their visitation—Luke 19:44.

The presence was one of the main tests there, and the cross was the other. John the Baptizer cried to them, "There standeth one among you whom ye know not." Yet only Israelites indeed were able to realize the fact of Messiah's presence; and of these many stumbled over the cross; for though willing to accept Messiah as a Deliverer, their pride made them unwilling to receive him as Redeemer, also. So here, the presence of Christ, the "harvest" in progress, and the rejection of the nominal mass of professors, stumble many; and the great Deliverer, for whose coming and kingdom many have prayed (as did the Jews), they are unready to acknowledge. Again it is true, "There standeth one among you whom ye know not." And again the cross of Christ becomes a test and a stone of stumbling or trial as none could have expected; and many, many are now falling over it, saying, We will accept Christ as our Deliverer, but reject him as our Redeemer or Ransomer.

Surely all who will consider the matter carefully must acknowledge the evidence that our Lord is now present, a spirit being, and hence invisible, is greater and clearer than the evidence which the Jew had of his presence in the flesh at the first advent. And not only are the prophetic

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evidences of the Lord's presence now more full, complete and numerous, but the signs of the times everywhere about us, showing the harvest work in progress, are much more apparent and convincing, to those whose eyes are anointed (Rev. 3:18), than the circumstances of the first advent, when Jesus, with a handful of followers, through much opposition and under many unfavorable conditions, announced, The time is fulfilled; repent and believe the good tidings, Messiah has come, the Messenger of the great Jehovah, to fulfill to you the promises made to the fathers. What wonder that only the humble minded ones could accept the humble Nazarene as the great Deliverer, or the humble, untitled men with him as part of his cabinet, as those who were to be princes under him. Only the few could see in the one who rode on the ass and wept over Jerusalem the great King of whom Zechariah had prophesied that Zion would receive him as King with shoutings of joy.

At his first advent he humbled himself, taking the form and nature of man (Heb. 2:9, 14), thereby to accomplish our redemption by giving himself as our ransom price. He is now highly exalted, and dieth no more; and at his second advent, clothed with power (Phil. 2:9), he will exalt his "body," and then bestow upon the world the blessing of restitution which he purchased for them at his first advent with his own precious blood. Remember, he is no longer flesh, but a spirit being, and will shortly change, and glorify as his members and joint-heirs, all his faithful followers.

To the Jewish house Jesus presented himself in three characters, as Bridegroom, Reaper (John 3:29; 4:35, 38) and King (Matt. 21:5, 9, 4). To the Christian house he presents himself in the same three characters (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 14:14, 15; 17:14). To the Jewish

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house he came as Bridegroom and Reaper in the start of their harvest (the beginning of his ministry); and just before his crucifixion he presented himself as their King, exercising kingly authority in pronouncing judgment on them, in leaving their house desolate, and in the typical act of cleansing the temple (Luke 19:41-46; Mark 11:15-17). So it has been in this harvest: Jesus' presence as Bridegroom and Reaper was recognized during the first three and a half years, from 1874 to 1878. Since that time it has been emphatically manifest that the time had come in 1878 when kingly judgment should begin at the house of God. It is here that Rev. 14:14-20 applies, and our Lord is brought to view as the Reaper crowned. The year A.D. 1878, being the parallel of his assuming power and authority in the type, marks the time for the actual assuming of power as King of kings, by our present, spiritual, invisible Lord, the time of his taking to himself his great power to reign, which in the prophecy is closely associated with the resurrection of his faithful, and the beginning of the trouble and wrath upon the nations (Rev. 11:17, 18). Here, as in the type, judgment begins with the nominal church, in condemning to destruction the systems, not the people, outwardly representing the true Church, the body. Here also is the cleansing of the true temple, the Church, the body of Christ, the consecrated class (1 Cor. 3:16; Rev. 3:12). This consecrated or temple class in the nominal church stands related to the nominal church, as a whole, as the literal temple stood related to Jerusalem, as a whole. After the city was given up the temple was cleansed: so now the temple class must be cleansed: every selfish, carnal thought and all worldliness must be cast out, that the temple may be clean, the dwelling place of God's holy Spirit, the temple of the living God.

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The special work since 1878 has been the proclamation, "Come out of her [Babylon], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4). "Depart ye, depart ye; go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye [the royal Priesthood] clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord"—Isa. 52:11.

Another point of similarity marking the first and second advents is the prevailing sense of the need of a deliverer, and a wide-spread impression among the nations that deliverance must in some way soon come, the ideas of some even approximating the truth of the matter. In each case only a few are able to recognize the Deliverer and enlist under his banner in the service of the truth. In the Jewish harvest many went forth to meet the Lord when all men were in expectation of him (Luke 3:15), at the time of his birth, thirty years before his anointing as Messiah at the beginning of his ministry. So there was a corresponding expectation and movement on the part of many (afterward called Adventists) led by a Baptist brother named William Miller, in this country, and by Mr. Wolff and others in Europe and Asia. This culminated in the year 1844, just thirty years before 1874, when Christ the Bridegroom and Reaper actually came, as shown by the Jubilee's teaching. In this we find another striking time-parallel between these ages; for those thirty years correspond to the thirty years from the birth of the babe Jesus to Messiah the Anointed, baptized, and introduced as Bridegroom and Reaper, at the age of thirty—Matt. 3:11; John 3:29.

In each case there was a disappointment and a thirty year waiting time, during which all slumbered, and only a few in each case awakened at the right time to a realization of Messiah's presence. The nominal mass in both

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houses fail to recognize the visitation, because overcharged and lukewarm, neglecting the command to take heed and watch. So will be fulfilled the prediction by Isaiah, "He shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel" (Isa. 8:14). The fleshly house stumbled because they had made void the law of God through giving heed to traditions (Mark 7:9, 13), and so had no proper conception of the manner and object of the first advent. Hence they were unprepared to receive him in the way he came, and so stumbled over him and his sacrifice. The mass of nominal spiritual Israel are now stumbling over the same rock, and for the same reason. Blinded by the traditions of men and sectarian prejudices which hinder a proper enlightenment by the Word of God, they have not a proper conception of the manner or object of the Lord's second advent. Here also the cross, the doctrine of the ransom, is becoming a test to all. It is worthy of careful notice, too, that neither house would stumble or fall over a rock not present. The Rock is now present, and nominal systems are stumbling, falling and being broken to pieces; while now, as at the first advent the Israelites indeed are individually recognizing and accepting the Rock, and by climbing upon this truth are being lifted spiritually far above the stumbling, rejecting masses.

Those having the eyes of their understanding enlightened do not stumble; but as they climb upon the Rock, from its higher standpoint they see much more clearly both the past and the future of the divine plan, some things not possible to utter, relative to the coming glory of the Church and the gala-day of earth. They who put their trust in the Lord shall never be confounded.

The full force of this parallelism is not obtained unless it is noted that the Jubilee cycles and the Gentile Times

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mark the periods which correspond so exactly with these in the Jewish parallels. It is not fancy that the Jewish and Christian ages are type and antitype—the apostles and prophets testify to their correspondency. Nor do we rely merely on the parallels in proof of the harvest work of the dispensation now in progress: this harvest, as already shown, is otherwise marked, both its start and end. The Jubilee cycles prove that Jesus was due to be present and begin the restitution work in the fall of 1874. And the parallelism above referred to shows that date to correspond exactly with the anointing of Jesus as the Messiah, at the beginning of the Jewish harvest, at the first advent. The Gentile Times prove that the present governments must start to be overturned about October, 1914; and the Parallelism above shows that this period corresponds exactly with the year 69, which witnessed the start of the downfall of the Jewish polity. A reasonable question, then, in view of all this, is, Are these time-correspondencies mere accidents, or are they of the same divine ordering which we have seen arranged the other affairs of the fleshly house as shadows of the realities of this dispensation?

No, they are not accidental: undoubtedly the same all-wise One who taught us through the Chronology that six thousand years from Adam's creation ended in 1872, and that the seventh thousand, the Millennial age, began there; who through the Jubilee cycles taught us the Lord would be present and the Times of Restitution begin in the fall of 1874; and who through the Gentile Times showed us that we must not expect these things to be done in haste, but by seemingly natural means over a period of forty years, has in the Parallel Dispensations marked by Israel's double given us evidence that not only itself teaches clearly the Lord's presence, the harvest and the restitution, beginning with favor to fleshly Israel, but at the same time

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gives a proof of the correctness of the other prophetic evidences and of the Chronology. For be it distinctly noticed that if the Chronology, or any of these time-periods, be changed but one year, the beauty and force of this parallelism are destroyed. For instance, if the Chronology be altered but one year, more or less, if we add one year, say to the period of the Kings or the Judges, or if we make it one year less, it would spoil the parallelism. If we should add one year it would make the first of Israel's periods 1846 years long, and the double or other half of it would thus be thrown one year later, while, on the contrary, by such a change of the Chronology the Jubilee cycles would be thrown one year earlier, i.e., 1873; and it would make the 6000 years end in 1871, while the Gentile Times would not be affected by it at all. All can see that the harmony or parallelism would thus be utterly destroyed. Or, if one year should be deducted from the chronological reckoning the confusion would be just as great, the changes to the several periods being in an opposite direction. Thus these various time-prophecies corroborate each other, while the parallelism of the two dispensations clinches their testimony.

It will be noted by those at all familiar with the calculations usually made by Second Adventists and others relative to the prophetic periods, etc., that this method of dealing with these subjects is very different from theirs. They usually attempt to make all prophecies end at some one date. Their erroneous expectations lead them to this. They expect that a few moments will witness the entire program which will really occupy a thousand years, the Lord's coming, the resurrection, and the judgment of the world. And their expectation concerning those few moments is that they close by the burning up of the world. To appreciate and accept the prophecies which point out

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various dates for various steps in God's great plan, they would need first to understand the Plan of the Ages and the true manner of the Lord's second advent. But the great majority are too much blinded by their theories and prejudices to do this. Their attempts to apply prophecy to their false expectations often lead to twisting, stretching or whittling, according to the necessities of the case, in the endeavor to get all the prophecies to terminate at some one date. These friends should awake to their error in this direction; for one after another their expectations have failed, while we and they know that some of the prophecies they have used cannot be stretched into the future, but are in the past, and are now abandoned by them. They are fulfilled, but differently from what they expected, and they know it not.

On the contrary, the prophecies here presented, and those yet to be considered, are unstrained, and without twisting or whittling. We simply present them as we find them in God's Word; and, having correct expectations from God's great Plan of the Ages, it is easy for those seeing it clearly to note how the various prophetic chains fit to it and measure it. They mark it, some at one important point and some at another; and to such as see this much, this parallelism of the Jewish and Christian dispensations shows and proves beyond reasonable doubt the correctness of all the others.

The statement of the time-periods of God's plan, furnished in the prophecies, is very similar to an architect's specifications; and the parallels of the Jewish dispensation resemble his outline drawings. Suppose we had an architect's specifications for a house, without any drawings, and were to sit down and make a drawing from the specifications, and afterward should receive from the architect his outline drawings of the prospective building—if a comparison

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of it with our own sketch, made from the specifications, showed all the angles and measures exactly alike, we should be doubly assured as to our correct understanding of the specifications. So here, the drawing, the type or shadow of the Gospel age furnished us in the Jewish age, and the correspondence of prophecies and events with those foreshadowings, give us as strong assurance of the correctness of our conclusions as could be asked, while we still "walk by faith and not by sight."

Other prophetic testimonies yet to be examined will also be found in perfect accord with these parallels. One of them, the Days of Daniel, points out a great blessing upon the consecrated who would be living in A.D. 1874 and onward—a blessing surely being fulfilled in the grand unfolding of the truths of God's Word since that time. To him be the praise who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light!

Remember that the forty years' Jewish harvest ended October, A.D. 69, and was followed by the complete overthrow of that nation; and that likewise the forty years of the Gospel age harvest will end October, 1914, and that likewise the overthrow of "Christendom," so-called, must be expected to immediately follow. "In one hour" judgment shall come upon her—Rev. 18:10, 17, 19.

The reader's attention is directed to the Table of Correspondencies on the two succeeding pages, which will well repay careful study.

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