"THE STUDY OF PROPHECY."

Evening Star, Issue 7484, 31 March 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

"THE STUDY OF PROPHECY."

Oft Wednesday evening, at the Choral Hall, Mr Aldridge lectured on the ' Seventy Weeks of Daniel.' The particular passage of Scripture he directed hia audience to read was the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel. There was a large attendance, though the weather was very rough. Mr Aldridge said that the idea of studying prophecy was pooh-poohed in many ecclesiastical circles. Certain men laughed at the very idea of making a study of the prophetical writings of the Bible, and yet how much of the Bible was prophecy. There was no book in the Bible which, if it was not wholly prophetical, as the Books of Jeremiah and Isaiah, but was to some degree prophetical. Mr Aldridge maintained that the whole of the Bible waß given to man to understand, and it certainly was the duty of all Biblical readers to study prophecy. God had yet more light to bring out of His Book. The grand theme of prophecy was the story of Jesus. Many of the prophecies concerning Christ had been fulfilled; but there was one grand prophecy, of which all the prophets agreed, and that was that Christ would come a second time, as a king in truth and deed, to put an end to all sin and unrighteousness. This prophecy had not yet been fulfilled. On the subject of the second coming of Christ, there had been much speculation since the beginning of the Christian era. In the tenth ceutury there had spread over all Europe a great superstition that the Lord was at hand, and men fully believed He would come ere the_ next century. In the sixteenth century a similar idea was generally prevalent all over Europe. In 1804 William Miller preached with great success in the United States that the Lord was at hand, and thousands sold all their possessions and left all their earthly hopes, to await with Miller the coming of their Lord. In 1866 Dr William Camming declared that the Lord was going to come on such and such a day—in 1867 ; but Camming did not have so much faith as his predecessors, for he took a new lease of his house that year! In 1875 Elder Thurman and a company of faithful ones who had left their all to follow him were gathered i in an upper room in Chicago, with their families, awaiting the hour of midnight, when they expected the Lord to come; but, alas! midnight passed, and dawn broke and found them homeless and penniless, for still the Lord had tarried. And now men were declaring that the Lord would surelv come in April, 1890, and in 1904, etc. But no doubt those days would come and go, and still the Lord would tarry. So much for human speculation in regard to prophecy. The true and only way to rightly interpret prophecy was to interpret it in the light of past events and the other Scriptures. All theories regarding the second coming of Christ had their starting point in the ninth chapter of Daniel. It was so clearly laid down there that no one could gainsay it. Daniel was a student of prophecy, and he had been studying the Book of Jeremiah when this vision was revealed unto him. It appeared that he had read Jeremiah's prophecy that the Jews would go away into seventy years' captivity. On studying the matter he determined that the Jews were now enduring that captivity. He prayed the Lord that he might see what would happen when the seventy years were ended. Daniel hadfaith, and he knew that God would keep to the day and minute any prophecy He had made. The angel Gabriel, who took the answer of God to Daniel, said that he had come to tell him of seventy times seven. Not seventy weeks, as the English Bible had it, but seventy times seven. The only way to explain it was to grant that the term was seventy times seven years, or 490 years. These years were not of 365 days, but were only of 360 days each. (Mr Aldridge quoted from various authorities to show that this was true). Here was one mistake of modern expositors: they took these years to mean ordinary years, but they did not do so, being each five days shorter. Mr Aldridge referred to the Scriptures to show that the numeral 7 was a divine number, and was used all through the Bible. He demonstrated that sixty-nine of the weeks had been fulfilled, and that there was still one week of years which had to come. He also showed that the vision allows for a lapse of time between the final week and the other weeks of years. Mr Aldridge referred to other prophecies to prove that the Jews would go back to their own land in orc!er that this vision of the seventy weeks might be fulfilled. Then the sacred time would again begin. He showed that the prophecies teach that the Lord will come in seven years from the time of the Jews' return to Palestine. Those last seven years would be times of great tribulation and sin on earth, such as had never been known. The kingdom of antiChrist would be set up on earth. But at the end of seven years the Lord Jesus would surely come, anci all sin and unrighteousness would be destroyed, and He would reign as a righteous king working equity in all the earth. Mr Aldridge referred to past events to show how the prophecy of the seventy weeks had been fulfilled so far. He asked Infidelity what this meant. Was the book which recorded these prophecies a lie or a foolish story ? What other book was there which made prophecies that had been fulfilled ? Mr Aldridge solemnly warned infidels that the Bible was truly the Word of God, and that though the day of grace and mercy was still open for them, it might end at any time, and awful would be their doom. Mr Aldridge was frequently warmly applauded, and at the close of the lecture recited some appropriate verses. He will lecturo in the Garrison Hall on Sunday evening. _^___^_____