had been announced in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Here we are presented with the detail of the last and most important part, the period of the Messiah, which is laid down by a distinct enumeration of years, beginning from a fixed point, so that men, who should be born before that period, may look forward with certainty of hope, and they who should be born after, with certainty of conviction. So effectually was Daniel comforted, and assured, in his pious intercession for his desolate country.

His life was advanced, by God's mercy, some steps into the glorious course of prophecy which had been revealed to him. He had seen the breast and arms of silver succeed to the golden head of the image, he had seen the first beast give way to the second, he had seen with his own eyes the fated Cyrus of Isaiah's prophecy, and heard with his own ears his proclamation of deliverance to Israel, amid prayers, and tears, and blessings he had bidden farewell to the first caravan of his returning countrymen. His eyes had seen the Lord's salvation, and he was calmly awaiting his dismissal to that heavenly Jerusalem, whose earthly type was denied to his eyes, now dim with the infirmity of ninety years. Yet his country and his church occupied his unceasing care; and he felt much concern at the news of impediments which had already arisen within the first two years of his country's restoration. He had been mourning and fasting, on this account, for three whole weeks, when his final and crowning vision was vouchsafed to him. It was, indeed, a fit termination to the magnificent prospect which had been opened before him. Its approach was announced by an involuntary quaking

which seized on Daniel and his attendants. They fled and hid themselves, and Daniel was left alone, half dead with exceeding awe, to behold the fearful splendour of his visitant. It was no longer the Angel Gabriel that now appeared, but his eyes beheld the glory of the Son of God, who showed himself to him, as he afterwards did to St. John, clad in the ensigns of his priestly office. A prophecy was then announced to him which, starting from that moment, ran its course through successive ages to the end of the world. Three grand periods were marked out by numbers, so that it exceeded all previous in certainty of application, no less than in magnificence and extent. How trifling would now appear to him those lets and hindrances which he had been bewailing. What news could effectually trouble him after the stupendous announcements of this glorious vision? The brightness of this vision could scarcely become dull before the prophet breathed his last, and entered the holy region within that veil, behind which lay the substance of the shadows which he had been contemplating. His last days were such as befel no other of the prophets before him. Isaiah and his contemporaries died amid the thickening gloom which portended the captivity of their country. They saw the beginning of the anguish, but not of the comfort which they foretold. Jeremiah died with his melancholy song of rebuke in his mouth. Ezekiel appears not to have survived the captivity. But the life of Daniel was sufficiently long to include the captivity between Jerusalem still standing, and Jerusalem rebuilt. He saw the storm come on, and also go off. And, doubtless, from him many of his

countrymen derived those lessons of patient faith which supported them amid the anxious vicissitudes of their resettlement. In another respect, also, his life differed from that of every other prophet, excepting David. It was passed amid the splendour of a court, and in the ministration of secular power. But this, which has been objected to him by the narrow-minded and superstitious descendants of his countrymen, serves to give him greater claim to our admiration. To the man who finds a refuge from the temptations of society only in fleeing to inactive solitude, surely little praise can be awarded. He, probably, abandons a post in which he might benefit others, for that which, at best, can only benefit himself, and unprofitably lays up the talents which he had in charge to spend. Daniel did not so. He manfully stood, where God had placed him, in the foremost rank, and maintained, with unbending uprightness, a situation of most perilous temptation. A heathen court surrounded the Jew with more than common calls of allurement from duty. His legal purity was in jeopardy every moment, and if he once gave way on this point it was not easy to stop in his career of apostasy. Daniel maintained this point with the utmost jealousy, and with it his moral rectitude, and spiritual fidelity. He might at any moment have retired from the weary toil of the perpetual struggle, and might thus have won the reputation of a holy and mortified hermit, instead of being excluded (as with David he has been) from the bright ranks of the canonical prophets. But his notions of duty were not those of these wretched unpractical doctors. He stood and fought at his

proper post. He not only kept himself as undefiled by the world as the hermit, but, by active influence and public ministry, did essential service both to his country and to the Church of God. Therefore that

glorious person whom he saw in vision, and the time of whose coming he so distinctly marked out, has assigned to him that rank which Rabbinical ignorance has denied. He that spake the parable of the talents, and rebuked the hypocritical self-mortifying notions of the Pharisees, pronounced Daniel to be a prophet, and his beloved disciple built upon his prophecy as upon a sure foundation, the glorious fabric of his Revelation. His prophecy, indeed, is not conveyed through the pleasing channel of poetry, neither does it contain the heart-stirring eloquence of exhortation, deprecation, and denunciation, which moves us so much in all the other prophets, especially in the three greater, but he simply narrates his visions, of which his work is a prose history. But to what prophet were such visions accorded? Assuredly, as long as the importance of prophecy shall be measured by its extent, by its clearness, by its magnificence, by its vital importance to the soul of man, the book of Daniel is the first among prophetic books, and Daniel the first among prophets.

JOHN THE BAPTIST.

A. D. 30.

ON turning from the Old Testament to the New, we are immediately struck with the wonderful manner in which God prepared the mind of man for his final blessing. The gradual opening of its glory to him through the means of prophecy, both as expressed by types and in words, is not the least remarkable part of this economy. It was singularly adapted both to excite, to maintain, and to reward a lively faith. Every prediction, however near it's first application may be, still proceeds onward towards the great end of all. Some march onward through ages, with successive stages of brighter and clearer accomplishment. The denunciations against Jerusalem have not ceased with their two dreadful fulfilments. They are still active in the course which our Lord has assigned them towards the judgment of the last day. Such intermediate accomplishments are like images reflected in a series of mirrors one from another. The image in the furthest is faint, but at every successive and nearer mirror grows clearer and brighter, until at last it terminates in the original object. Thus every age has had its light, and rejoiced in it. Thus God has given breadth of