DANIEL'S THREE WEEKS OF MOURNING, CONNECTED WITH

WEEKS.

THE THREEFOLD PERIOD.

(See Plate 2, Figure 1.)

THE next passage is Daniel x. Here we read of the prophet retiring for a certain fixed time, and seeking in holy abasement of spirit, to know the Lord's purpose with regard to his people. "In those days, I Daniel," he says, " was mourning THREE FULL I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled." Now Daniel, I believe, is here brought before us in a typical way, as representing the saints in the last dispensation, that is, all the true children of Abraham from Moses to Christ. And not only so, but the three weeks of his humiliation seem to me to have a very especial mystical meaning, and to point to the whole period of Israel's history, during which, while the nation around them were progressing in evil, those of like spirit with Daniel were walking close to the God of their fathers. A lesser period in scripture expresses a greater; as, for instance, the seven days of the week showed forth the whole week of time, as we term it. And so, in like manner, here, I believe, these "three full weeks of days," and the threefold period of Israel's history, (both, observe, being threefold septenary periods,) agree; the one, in the way I have said, being a type of the other.

Then, again, if we look to the time when the Jews will have returned to the land of their fathers, I believe we may look on the prophet as representing the Jews, the faithful remnant, I mean, in the day of antichrist's power, looking back with deep contrition of spirit on Israel's threefold course of iniquity, identifying themselves in a certain sense with the nation of old from the outset, and learning from thence that the end of man's ways, as shown in their history, is only confusion and sorrow.

Further, we read that the angel of the Lord, at the end of the weeks, appeared in vision to Daniel, and spoke to him thus: "Fear not, Daniel; from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days?"

Now who was this prince? Some evil spirit, it seems, some agent of Satan presiding over the empire of Persia, who for twenty one days-the three weeks above named-was secretly working against him, was hindering the answer to the prayer of the prophet, just as he ever has done with regard to the Jews-just as he thrice did, when, in the days of King Solomon, of Nehemiah, and lastly of Christ, he hardened their hearts, and stood in the way of their blessing.

LAMECH'S CONFESSION AND CONFIDENCE.

(GENESIS iv. 19—24.)

THE word of Lamech in Genesis iv. now comes before us. And here let us look at the seed of Adam through the line of SETH down to Enoch; and then at his descendants through CAIN down to Lamech. The Children of Seth, it has been by others observed, clearly show forth the Church of God in this age or dispensation of ours. In this way. Their history opens. with Seth, the type of Christ risen, as Abel his brother before him had shown him forth in his death. And then it proceeds, noticing merely the birth and death of each in succession, pilgrims and strangers on earth as they were, and as the Saints are now called to be, and closes at last with the ascension of Enoch, who, compared with the rest of that generation, lived but a few, namely 365, years on earth, and then was translated without passing through death; just as the Church, as soon as her appointed days here below shall have come to an end, will be caught up to meet her descending Lord in the air, and to be for ever with him.

Then on turning to the descendants of Adam through Cain, we see another picture entirely. They furnish a type of the Jewish ration at present. Cain, the first of this line, was the destroyer of Abel, for which sin he was driven out from the presence of God, and doomed to wander as an outcast and fugitive over the face of the earth. So, Israel, seeing no beauty in Jesus that they should desire him, rose up against him, and put him to death; for which cause they likewise were banished, and continue to be so to this very day. But Israel,

we know, in the end will repent-a remnant at last looking on him whom they have pierced, will mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. And here Lamech comes in. Cain, as we have seen, with the blood of his brother upon him, expresses the Jews stained with the blood of the Just One; while Lamech, the sixth in succession from him, shows forth the above-mentioned remnant hereafter brought to look on the pierced one as the true, the only hope of the nation. "And Lamech," we read, "said unto his wives Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt." Now what does he mean by these words? He here confesses a crime a deed of blood, it is true—and yet (as others have said, and as I myself fully believe) he was not guilty himself of the deed here confessed. No, but, like Cain, being a typical person, and speaking as such, we here find him confessing the sin of another-even of his forefather Cain, as though Abel had died by his hand, like the remnant hereafter, who though personally innocent, will, as the Children of those who nailed the Lord to the Cross, confess the sin of their fathers in rejecting his grace and imbruing their hands in his blood.

But the history of Lamech does not end here. And now we come to that point in this part of our subject at which I have been aiming. After having, as we have seen, made a full and open avowal of the entailed sin of his forefather Cain, Lamech proceeds, and assuming a new tone altogether, says, in the happy consciousness of having found favour, that the sin (I speak of course only in a typical sense) was forgiven: “If Cain be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and seven fold." Now in all this we shall read the type of the Lord's dealings with Israel-his dealings at present, I mean, as well as those at the close. In the history of Cain we find it written as follows: "Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth: and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon

Cain, lest any finding him should kill him."

Gen. iv. 13, 15.

So is it now with the Jews, as with Cain in this passage. Though Israel is stained with the blood of the Just One, and though Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentiles, who are thus used as the rod of God's anger against his impenitent people, still notwithstanding all this they are dear to his heart; he earnestly remembers them still; and hence his wrath, yea, his sevenfold wrath, is secretly resting on those who oppress them. This we learn from Zechariah the prophet, (ch. i. 15.) “I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease, for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction." But hereafter when mercy in Israel shall rejoice over judgment, when the time of their gathering in shall have come, then the Lord will to the full, in the sight of heaven and earth, espouse the cause of his people. Then not SEVENFOLD merely, but SEVENTY AND SEVEN FOLD FURY will be poured out on their enemies.* And this is all shown in the mystical story of Cain and of Lamech. And to this the above cited words of Lamech refer. "If Cain be avenged SEVENFOLD, truly Lamech SEVENTY AND SEVEN FOLD;" showing, with regard to our mystical number, that whether it be a question of grace, as we have seen displayed in his dealing with Israel, or of vengeance and wrath flaming forth against all who oppress them, the Lord's measure is in both cases the same; that is, that seventy and sevenfold mercy will be shown to the one, while seventy and seven fold anger will for ever rest on the other.†

"Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die: and render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee." Ps. lxxix. 11, 12.-This will be the cry of the Jewish people hereafter, showing that sevenfold wrath is reserved for their enemies.-The outpouring of the seven vials, in Revelation xvi., seems to show the same thing.

+ In addition to what is here said of Lamech, the following thought may interest the reader. There were, it will be remembered, TWO LAMECHS in Scripture. One in the line of Cain; the other, the father of Noah, descended from Seth; the former the seventh, the latter the ninth in degree from their common forefather Adam, one generation intervening between them. Now the former of these, as we here see, is represented as looking back and confessing the sin of his forefather Cain-the other as looking forward at the birth of his son, and as led by the Spirit of God, viewing Noah as the Lord of the new earth, saying, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." Gen. v. 29. Now these two bearing the very same name, meaning Stricken, Made Low, Poor," taken together seem to express the Jewish remnant

66

THE LORD'S ANSWER TO PETER AS TO THE FORGIVENESS OF

INJURIES.

(MATT. xviii. 21, 22.)

FOURTHLY, as serving to throw further light on the subject, we may turn to Matt. xviii. 21, 22, where Peter speaking to Jesus enquires, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?"-to which Jesus replies with the grace which was wont on such occasions to flow from his lips, "I say not unto thee, Until SEVEN TIMES; but until SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN:"-words which assuredly bear on the gracious ways of his Father, whose name he came to reveal; and which teach us to act with the same mind to others which ever guided the Lord in his dealings with Israel. What I mean will be clear when it is remembered how not only SEVEN TIMES, but THRICE SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN, as I already have shown, he proved himself willing to heal and bless them, had they the heart only to value that favour so graciously proferred. But more than all this, these words of our Lord point to the end of his ways with his people, when the SEVENTY AND SEVENFOLD PERIOD OF DANIEL shall come to an end; when grace will not merely be offered, and rejected by Israel, but when grace will overcome the hard heart of man. Then the Lord acting alone from himself in the fulness of mercy, will redeem his people at last out of all their iniquities, and bring them to know that this alone was his purpose, notwithstanding all they had done, from the ver beginning. Peter, be it remembered, was the Apostle of the circumcision; therefore, as representing the Jews, such instruction was especially suited to him.*

Further, we find Peter himself, when just on the point hereafter at two distinct points in their history :-the first Lamech foreshadows the Jews looking back, as we here see, and confessing their sin, the sin of their fathers in slaying the Lord, their Messiah-the Second shows the remnant, at a further stage in their history, in the power of faith, looking forward and rejoicing in the salvation and rest which this same blessed Messiah will bring when he comes again in his glory.

* Observe here the coincidence, and at the same time the contrast, between the subject of this and of the foregoing section: in the one case we read of SEVENTY AND SEVENFOLD WRATH, in the other of SEVENTY AND SEVENFOLD GRACE.