PREFACE. THE period of forty days recurs so frequently in Holy Scripture, that it can scarcely fail to have attracted the notice of Bible Readers, and its symbolic character has been noticed by several writers from the earliest ages of the Church down to the present day. The design of the following pages, however, is to draw forth the leading truths of Revelation, as they stand connected with some of the most remarkable of those periods, and to use the latter in illustration of the former. Seven of these periods have been selected, not only as being the most remarkable of the many which occur, but as exhibiting, in a very marked way and a very definite order, the dealings of God with man. A more complete list of similar periods will be found at the end of the volume, together with some remarks upon the common principle which seems to bind them all together. It did not enter into the writer's plan to enlarge upon the symbolic character of the number 40; but he has added a note which will assist those who may wish to pursue that aspect of the subject, and has mentioned some of the works in which it has been fully discussed. Prepared originally for the instruction of a beloved flock, these Lectures are now sent forth to the public, with the earnest prayer that they may prove more generally useful. W. P. W. THE DEANERY, CASHEL. April, 1874. ΔΟΞΑ ΘΕΩ ΕΝ ΥΨΙΣΤΟΙΣ. |