As CHAPTER VI. THE DANIEL PROGRAMME. S the Congo River in its onward flow across the "Dark Continent" broadens and deepens when its great tributaries mingle their waters with its own, so the stream of prophetic revelation increases continually in volume as it rolls down through the ages. From the first, its theme was redemption-the saving blessing in store for the human race; but to Adam and to Abraham the great benefit-the salvation-only was predicted, while little was said of the great Benefactor, the Saviour Himself. To Moses and David visions of the blessed Coming One were granted, till, by degrees, His mediatorial work, His double nature, His wonderful personal experiences, and many features of His glorious kingdom were revealed. In the times of the Jewish kingdom especially, and during the captivity which followed its dissolution, the river of prophecy thus widened exceedingly. Its revelations concerned three main subjects : I. The fortunes of the JEWISH kingdom and people. I. THE JEWISH PROPHECIES included predictions of the dismemberment of the kingdom after Solomon's reign; the overthrow of the ten tribes and its date; the deliverance of Judah from the Assyrian invasion; its subsequent conquest by Babylon; the captivity and its duration; the restoration and the means of it; the duration of its restored existence; the Roman overthrow and subsequent desolation; together with minor points so numerous that it may be safely asserted that Israel's entire history was written in advance, and that nothing ever befell them that was not first foretold. Thus the providential government of God over His people was manifested, and the moral reasons for His dispensations expounded beforehand. The Jewish prophets combined pastoral care and spiritual exhortation with prediction in their ministry. They were the ambassadors for God of their day, pleading with His people of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Like the apostles, they were witnesses for the truth, and often martyrs for its sake. Some of their predictions were accomplished speedily, attesting to the then living generation their Divine commission; others were recorded for ages to come, and demonstrate in our own day the Divine prescience which inspired them. II. The MESSIANIC predictions increased in number and in variety during this period, and included revelations as to the nature of Christ's person and mission, His birth of a virgin and the place where it should occur, His works of mercy, His meek and compassionate character, His sinlessness, His atoning self-sacrifice, His humiliation and rejection, His sufferings, death, and resurrection; the atonement wrought by these, with its results in the gift of the Holy Ghost; the propagation of the gospel among the Gentiles, and many other particulars. III. The predictions as to the GENTILE nations and their rulers include those relating to Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Egypt, Tyre, Philistia, Kedar, Elam-all of which had more or less direct and important connection with the Jewish people, together with others relating to individuals, such as Sennacherib, Cyrus, and Nebuchadnezzar, who influenced their fortunes seriously. Such prophecies taught the Jews that Jehovah was not their God only, but the Supreme Ruler over all the earth. The polytheism of the day had divided the countries of the world among its false deities, and circumscribed the power of each to certain districts. The Assyrians when settled in Samaria complained that they "knew not the manner of the God of the land." The Israelites could never thus limit Jehovah in their thoughts, since the predictions of His prophets unveiled the future of the Gentiles around them as well as their own, and their fulfilment proved that Divine providence controlled the one as completely as the other. Moreover, such prophecies abated the doubts and conflicts which must have arisen in the hearts and minds of pious Jews under the dark providences of defeat and captivity. When the enemy was permitted to triumph, and to boast in his false gods as if of superior might to Jehovah, it was a consolation to know by prophetic revelation that the triumph would be of brief duration, that the spoiler would soon himself be spoiled and the captive delivered, to understand the moral reasons for the disciplinary portions of the providential government of God, and to be led to repentance for the sins that had incurred Divine judgments. It lies, however, outside the province of this work to examine in detail these several classes of predictions, or to trace their fulfilment. On some of them it would not be easy to base arguments of evidential value; inasmuch as it might not at this distance of time be possible to prove that the date of the publication of the prediction was sufficiently remote from the event that fulfilled it, or that the event was so beyond the power of human sagacity to anticipate, as to demonstrate supernatural prescience. Moreover, none of these predictions properly fall under either of the great programmes which we are here examining. They stand apart from the comprehensive foreviews given at the commencement of the great sections of human history, to the fathers, or founders, of the new order of things, and they need not therefore detain us. After the establishment of Jewish monarchy in the reign of David and Solomon, at which crisis the previous foreview T was granted, no great turn or change in the history of the chosen people through whom the world's redemption was to be accomplished took place until the Babylonian captivity. The promise of the permanence of David's dynasty as long as the kingdom existed was conspicuously fulfilled, as may be clearly seen by a comparison between his dynasty which reigned at Jerusalem and that which occupied the throne of Israel or the ten tribes. Frequent and violent interruptions, owing to revolt and assassination, marked the succession in Samaria. Jeroboam's line failed; Baasha's house did the same; the usurpers Zimri and Omri were cut off; so was the house of Ahab; Jehu's succession was expressly limited to four generations; and from that time to the fall of the ten tribes before Assyria, there was only a series of successive conspiracies which placed. strangers on the throne. In Judah, on the contrary, there was an unbroken descent in one line, so that the family of David occupied his throne for 450 years without interruption, until both king and people were carried to Babylon. The related kingdom of Israel, though it only lasted 250 years, saw three complete extirpations of the reigning family, the deposition of the house of Jehu, and perpetual confusion in the order of the kingdom. The stability of David's throne was not owing to an absence of danger; insurrection and conspiracy arose, but they could not overthrow it. Athaliah's domestic treachery did not defeat the promise of God; the confederacy of Syria and Ephraim to set up the son of Tabeal on the throne of Judah in the days of Ahaz, was foiled; and even the great invasion of Sennacherib, though it threatened Hezekiah, was not allowed to overthrow the dynasty of David before the appointed time. It was upheld when ruin was all around it. A very special providence preserved the throne of Judah and the dynasty that occupied it, until by its own act it forfeited all its privileges. But the temporal promises of the Davidic covenant had been made distinctly conditional, |