But before leaving these examples of the predictions of the Bible, there is another city with which we are rather more familiar, which calls for a few remarks: we mean Jerusalem. A later prophet said, "Jerusalem shall become heaps" (Mic. 3:1212Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. (Micah 3:12)); and does not this agree with every description we have of its state ever since its destruction by Titus? Are not our Lord's words also truly fulfilled, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate"? Are not the stones of the temple so scattered, that there is not one stone upon another which has not been thrown down? Is not Jerusalem still trodden down of the Gentiles? Is it not well known that Arab boys break off pieces of stone from the heaps of scattered materials of the ancient temple to obtain a small gratuity from her visitors? And are we not assured that the treading down of the holy city by the uncircumcised will go on "till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled"? How surpassingly solemn then is the word of God, and how earnestly it admonishes us to adopt the motto of a less favored and far less instructed servant of God in a past age, "Believe in Jehovah your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper!”
This subject-"The Times of the Gentiles"-now calls for a few remarks as a further and very striking example of the accurate fulfillment of the Word of God by the prophet.
When the last two tribes of Israel were delivered by Jehovah into captivity to the king of Babylon, the sword of God's rule in the earth was handed over to Nebuchadnezzar, so that "whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive," and created things were also given unto his hands. The prophet said to him, "Thou art this head of gold"-the power derived in its purest state. The whole course of the times of the Gentiles" was revealed to Daniel by Jehovah, and made known to the king, extending from that moment till the Lord will be revealed from heaven to judge, as the stone cut out without hands." As our space only admits of a brief glance at this Gentile image as another example of the perfection of Scripture, let it be especially noticed that it consisted of four empires, and is to terminate in ten kingdoms. It has been the ambition of some to have a fifth monarchy; and if it be true that the first Napoleon led an immense army into Russia with this view, it was painfully proved that God's mind is four empires among Gentiles and not five, and they have all long since been and gone. The head of gold-the Babylonian. The next inferior to this-the Medo-Persian of silver; then the Grecian, of brass; then the Roman strong as iron; then the feet and toes of the image, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, with which there can be no union, strikingly showing the political conservative and radical elements so manifest unto this day. It is remarkable also, that when the ten toes, or ten kingdoms, are fully developed, then judgment falls upon it. And it is most solemnly true, that for many years past most of the political changes that have taken place on the continent in that part of Europe comprehended in Nebuchadnezzar's image, have more and more developed these ten kingdoms. Dan. 2.
We refer to this not merely to show how accurately Scripture has been fulfilled, and is still being fulfilled as to the Gentile kingdoms, but because of our Lord's words, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled:" For when the Lord conies out of heaven with His saints in manifested glory, and every -eye shall see Him, and they also who pierced Him, then He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, be their Savior and Deliverer, and establish them in 'their own land as their rightful King, and "the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings." The Lord's promised blessings to Israel will be accompanied with judgment; but when His saints are taken to heavenly glory, to the Father's house, the translation will be all of divine -grace and to them power and blessing without judgment.
(Continued from page 146.)
(To be Continued.)