vii. BABYLON, EGYPT, TYRE AND NINEVEH. norance and idolatry. Hear ye not the sighs of the prisoner, and the groaning of those who are ready to perish? Whose voice is that which comes upon the breeze, rising above the moans of the wretched, and sounding softly as it hushes the cry of misery---whose voice is that--- go ye into all the world and proclaim the good tidings to the whole creation'---It is the voice of Him that died for the world's redemption, and bids his disciples go and tell that redemption to the world.---And where are the disciples who listen to their Master's words, and go forth to the whole creation with their Saviour's gospel? One here, and another there, few and lonely, and scattered wide, scarce to be discerned, 'like the morning spread upon the mountains.' Henry Martyn went to Babylon, and carried his Saviour's New Covenant into the heart of Persia--but he is dead. Some few Christian men are visiting Tyre and Sidon, and the once holy land of Palestine, that they may be called to repentance--but multitudes at home cry out that the time is not yet come, and Judea must sit longer in the darkness. In Assyria and the land beyond Jordan, there are some scattered convents where the Christian name is preserved by the Syrian monks, amidst the reign of the Arabian delusion, the mere ' voice of one crying in the wilderness.' And on the sands of Egypt not one solitary footstep can be traced through all her extent, which is like the step of a Christian missionary-no man is there to testify to the families of Egypt, that the curse has fallen on the head of our surety, and that the blessing of the Almighty is now ready to descend upon as many as will lift up their hands to implore it. The followers of the false Prophet soon visited Egypt--but then they believed in Mohammed, and their faith moved their zeal. The followers of Christ stand afar off---and one teacher to a million of mankind is the proportion which is furnished by Christian zeal.—' Arise, O God, and plead thine own cause!' Men and Brethren, before I am silent, one word to your hearts. When the Lord shall arise to judgment, how will you stand before him? There is a land which no eye hath seen, and from whose bourne no traveller has returned-- where the desolation of Babylon would be accounted as Paradise, and the fates of Tyre and Sidon would be envied as more tolerable, for the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.' I stand here to charge you, that ye go not near the pathway that leads down to that second death---for though Babylon and Nineveh should be raised from their ashes, the nations of the lost arise no more for ever. There is a land which no heart of man hath ever conceived, nor pen of inspiration described, where the bliss of Eden is exceeded, and the garden of the Lord is no longer accounted of, and the bright glories of Babylon are for ever despised in the comparison---God sitteth there, surrounded by a large and a happy universe of spirit, like a Father in the bosom of his family---and there walks the Saviour of mankind who once trod the earth, now dwelling in the unspeakable glory---and there bow the children of men who see his face, and read there more blissfulness than sinful man may wish for. And I stand here, now, to charge it upon you all, my fellow men, that 'ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises'---for I testify to every one that heareth these words, that now is the accepted time'---' now is the day of salvation'---' whosoever will, let him come'---your God will not reject you, viii.] RECORDED BY DANIEL. LECTURE VIII. THE PREDICTIONS RECORDED BY DANIEL. Daniel ix. 20-27. The predictions of the book of Daniel point so distinctly to Jesus of Nazareth, as the appointed Messiah, and at his death as the atonement for iniquity, that on the one hand candid and sincere men among the Jews have been converted by them, and on the other hand the bigotry and prejudice of those who will not be persuaded' have risen up to hate, and to desecrate the book in which their unbelief is so keenly condemned. It shews us to what opposite conclusions men come, according as they are influenced by a love of truth, or by a love of their own opinions.* The force of prejudice is remarkably seen in the conduct of the Jewish nation---for since the days of Jesus Christ, * R. Samuel, a learned Jew of eight centuries ago, wrote to his friend and brother in the Priesthood- truly, Sir, I see no evasion-a thousand years are past, and we are, notwithstanding, under God's wrath, and yet we trust in him, expecting a Messiah to come, and that we shall return into the land of promise, and restore the city and temple, and that we shall be in favour with God, and so this desolation, not to be perpetual but temporary. Alas, Sir, this excuse and evasion hangeth not together, and such expecta tion seemeth to be altogether vain.' Willet's Hexapla in Dan. 369 they have rejected Daniel from among the number of the 'Prophets,' and classed his book among the 'sacred writings of an inferior order. The ostensible reason is, that Daniel lived rather with the splendour of a courtier than in the austere seclusion of a prophet, and that his predictions came to him in the medium only of visions and dreams which they reckon the lowest degree of the prophetic faculty. The true reason must have been some other, for this excuse was unknown to the ancients--Josephus commends him as the greatest of the Prophets--and our Lord Christ refers to him as "Daniel the Prophet." It is only in the later ages of prejudice and perversion, that the rule has been invented which degrades him from the rank of the Prophets to that of the Sacred Writers. The distinction, though it is not very obvious to us, is apparent enough and emphatic enough among the Jews. A celebrated opponent of the Christian faith, about the end of the third century, objected to the book of Daniel on another ground. He pretends that the events referred to are expressed so plainly and precisely, as that the prediction must have been written after, not before the times predicted. The wars of Antiochus are what he alludes to---and he says they are told by the writer, in such a way that he must have seen them with his own eyes, and that the book cannot have been written in the days of Daniel at Babylon. This most remarkable cavil of Porphyry, the philosopher, was confuted by many of his contemporaries--and the visions of the seer were shewn to be, as the great Mede expresses it,' the sacred Calendar and great Almanack of prophecy--a prophetical chronology of the mystery of God.' We shall at this time vindicate the inspired honours of this servant of God, by considering, not his prediction of the wars of Antiochus which seemed so clear and literal to the Pagan Prophecy, nor his predictions of the four great monarchies, which history has so accurately fulfilled, but his prediction of Messiah, the prince; whic,h while it is not less remarkable in its accurate accomplishment, is to all men much more deep in interest as it involves the redemption of the world. No man can dream that the viii.] RECORDED BY DANIEL. prophecy now before us was written after the events---it speaks of the times of Jesus Christ---but it was written long before, it was translated into Greek long before, and that Greek translation was current among the Jews, and was in universal circulation, long before the time of Christ, there cannot be a shade of suspicion here that the prediction was not given by the spirit of prophecy. It is a very clear and interesting portion of Holy Writ. Some of the Hebrew Prophecies which we have had to expound, were only incidentally connected with the Messiah---others are obscure though they are direct in their allusions-some are disputed and have received other interpretations-but this one, with which we close the series is clear and literal and indisputuable. It will appropriately stand as the sum of the Prophecies concerning Christ-we can here rest the subject with complete satisfaction—“ we have indeed found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets did write"-and we know of a truth, that this is "the very Messiah." First, let us shew the connection between the prayer of Daniel and this revelation, which the Angel gives him in answer to his prayer. Daniel was praying for the deliverance of his people, the angel tells him of another subject--how wasthis an answer to his supplication? The seventy years of threatened captivity were expired, and Daniel prays that the captivity might expire too-the angel announces to him seventy weeks of other years, at the end of which should be not deliverance but destruction-how is this a divine answer to his prayer? 1. Here let it be remarked, that the angel does satisfy the prophet's desire concerning the deliverance of the people.---Ver. 25: referring to the opposition and malice of the enemies of Zion, who did their worst to hinder the rebuilding of the city. The seventy years being ended, the Prophet is promised that he shall revisit his country, and that the holy city shall rise from its ruins. 2. But observe again, that the Lord granteth more than is asked of him---he not only satisfies Daniel of the temporal deliverance of the people, now after seventy years |