viojaid and eniged or yrs. m. d. A. M. B. C. Book. chap. verse. it of dish 40mcial 1 Kings. 11 ay 05

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After Zedekiah's captivity we are indebted rather to prophecy than biblical history to carry on the line of chronology. The house of Judah being in captivity, we are dependent on the history of their oppressors, guided by the light of prophecy, with here and there a beacon-light of bible history, to direct our steps. The 70 years' captivity which began in the 3d year of Jehoiakim's reign,† and 19 years before the captivity of Zedekiah, affords us the first step after the end of Zedekiah's reign. We are told the captivity should last 70 years; and that at the end of 70 years, God would punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity. But Babylon and Chaldea remained. unpunished until that night in which Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, was slain. God then punished the king with death, the nation with bondage, and the city with ruin. The seventy years must, therefore, have ended at that time.

The captivity began in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, who, according to both the Bible and Rollin, reigned 45 years. From the third year of Jehoiakim, he farther reigned eight years.

* Jehoram began his reign in the 5th year of Joram, king of Israel; Jehoshaphat being still king of Judah. 2 Kings viii. 16. Joram, king of Israel, began his reign in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat. 2 Kings iii. 1. Jehoram, therefore, reigned but five years alone, and three with his father-eight years. Dan. i. 2. Jer. xxv. 12.

From the fall of Babylon to the 7th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, we have but little chronological data in the Bible, either historical or prophetical. But we have the history of that period marked out for us, partly as matter of history and partly prophecy. The exact chronology, however, we are left to obtain elsewhere. But we have seen the correctness of Rollin in giving the chronology of the Babylonian kings to make out the 70 years' captivity; and are we not bound to receive his testimony respecting the Medo-Persian monarchs? Of the reign of Darius the Mede, after the death of Belshazzar, we have ample testimony in the Bible; and so also of Cyrus the Persian. In the third year of Cyrus,* Daniel had a vision, in which he was told that there should afterward stand up three kings in Persia, and that the fourth should be far richer than they all; and that he should, through his power and riches, stir up all against the realm of Grecia. These four predicted kings, with the one then reigning (Cyrus), and Darius who had reigned, are 6 Medo-Persian kings to the rich Greek invader. That this rich king was Xerxes, who invaded Greece with an immense army of several millions, there can be no reasonable doubt. And history furnishes us with just that number of kings who reigned in that time: 1. Darius the Mede. 2. Cyrus. 3. Cambyces. 4. Smerdis the Magian. 5. Darius Hystaspes. 6. Xerxes the Great. Then follows Artaxerxes, whose history we have in Ezra and Nehemiah. It was in the 7th year of his reign, first month and first day of the month, that Ezra and his people began to go up to Jerusalem. From the same time also began the famous 70 weeks of Dan. ix. 24th, to the cutting off of Messiah. The 7th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, therefore, forms an important era in biblical chronology. According to Rollin, the chronology of the Medo-Persian kings is as follows:

*Dan. x. 1.

† Dan. xi. 2,

Ez. vii. 7, 9.

It will be proper at this point to sum up what we have gone over, and then take our departure, guided by prophecy,

down the stream of time.

Creation.

1 From the creation to the time Noah left the ark,
2. From the flood to the call of Abram at Terah's death,
3. From Abram's call to the Exodus,

4. Journeying in the wilderness, Joshua and Interregnum,

5. Judges and servitude to various nations,

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6. Samuel, Saul, and David,

7. From the beginning of Solomon's reign to Jehoiakim's captivity,

8. From Jehoiakim's captivity, third year of his reign, to Belshazzar's death,

9. From death of Belshazzar to seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign,

Here, then, we find ourselves within six months of the end of the 3700th year of the world.

The above computation is supported by plain, positive bible testimony, with the exception of Joshua, the Interregnum, Samuel, and the Medo-Persian kings. The history, or fact of their existence, the Bible gives, but not their exact chronology. The twenty years of Samuel, however, ought in justice to form an exception to these exceptions; for I can but believe it is designed as the true date of Samuel's administration. The other three are attested by the most popular and credible of all ancient historians now extant. It is true, it is not inspiration, but the very best of uninspired testimony. So that to A. M. 3700, the biblical history of the world forms a perfect chain, with not one link wanting.

Another point of difficulty I will here notice. For as the objection is abroad, unless it be met and removed it must militate against this plan. The alleged difficulty is briefly this: that according to 2 Kings xiv. 16-23, and xv. 1, there

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must either have been an interregnum in Judah of eleven years, between Amaziah and Azariah, or some king not mentioned in the Bible must have reigned that time. cording to the above texts, Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel, began to reign in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, king of Judah. Amaziah lived afterward fifteen years: making his whole reign twenty-nine years. The last fifteen years of his reign would consequently be contemporary with Jeroboam's first fifteen years, and then his son should have succeeded him the first part of Jeroboam's sixteenth year. But according to ch. xv. 1, Azariah began to reign in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam's reign; leaving an interregnum of eleven years."

This is a serious difficulty among chronologers; there being no intimation in the text that any other king reigned over Judah during that period; nor yet does it appear, from the manner in which Azariah's reign is introduced, that much time elapsed between his father's death and his own coronation. I cannot, therefore, believe there was an interregnum of eleven years between him and his father. The marginal reading of verse 1st, chap. 15th, if correct, (and I shall give presumptive evidence at least that it is,) removes the difficulty: This is the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam's partnership with his father, who made him consort at his going to the Syrian wars. It is the sixteenth year of Jeroboam's monarchy."

This reading, also, removes another difficulty, which can be met in no other way. 2 Kings xv. 8, we learn that in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Azariah, king of Judah, Zachariah, son and successor of Jeroboam, king of Israel, began to reign. But if Jeroboam's reign was only forty-one years in all, as stated chap. xiv. 23, and eleven of those was an interregnum in Judah, then there must have been twentythree or four years interregnum in Israel after Jeroboam's death. Take twenty-six, the time of Jeroboam's reign in his twenty-seventh year, from forty-one, and we have fifteen years remaining, for the reign of Jeroboam contemporary with Azariah; take that contemporary reign of fifteen years from thirty-eight, the year of Azariah's reign when Zachariah began to reign, and it leaves an interregnum between Jeroboam and Zachariah of twenty-three years. But it is not pretended that there were over eleven years interregnum in Israel at that time. And if we allow eleven years partnership for Jeroboam with his father, before his own monarchy began, fifteen contemporary with Amaziah, and twenty-six contemporary with Azariah, it will give him his forty-one years, and leave just eleven years interregnum in

Israel after his death. Then, also, we can find no place for an interregnum in Judah. I believe this to be a true solution of the difficulty, and am willing to meet the most rigid criticism on this point.

We now leave the past with a period of 3700 years from the creation to the seventh year of Artaxerxes king of Persia. Immediately after the close of the seventy years' captivity in the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel understood by books that the Lord had threatened his people with seventy years' desolation. That seventy years being then ended, Daniel set himself, by prayer and supplications, with confession of sin, sackcloth and ashes, to seek God for himself and his people. While thus engaged, Gabriel, a divine messenger, was sent to instruct him respecting the time of the coming and death of Messiah: Daniel 9th chapter. After announcing the object of his visit, he said, verse 24, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to seal up the vision and prophecy, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to anoint the Most Holy."

Verse 25: "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto Messiah the prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."

Verse 26: "And after threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

Verse 27: "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, " &c. These weeks were not weeks of days, but of years. venty sabbatic years = 490 years. See Lev. xxv. 3, 4.

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To show the fulfilment of this prediction, I shall present an extract from Furguson's Astronomy, for which I am indebted to my respected brother Fleming, of Portland, through "The Signs of the Times."

"This commandment was given to Ezra by Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the seventh year of that king's reign. (Ezra vii. 11--26.) Ezra began the work, which was afterward accomplished by Nehemiah, in which they meet with great opposition and trouble from the Samaritans and others, during the first seven weeks, or forty-nine years.

"From this accomplishment until the time when Christ's