74 



REV. JOHN URQUHART^ ON 



SO remote in time? AVere those statements merely "pious 

 opinions " 1 



Mr. Howard said we had only to look at an almanack to see 

 that if knowledge is adequate, foretelling is possible. Eising and 

 setting of planets, eclipses, tides, etc., are predicted with perfect 

 accuracy. Prognosis is possible, and is the highest result of 

 medical knowledge. Too often men could not get beyond 

 diagnosis. There is a paper in the Eevue cles deux Mondes by 

 Lavoisier, foretelling the later researches of Ramsay and Dewar 

 as to the efl'ect of very low temperatures. It is clear that the all-wise 

 God, having perfect knowing, is able to predict the future, and is it 

 too much to expect that there may be good men who walk so 

 closely with God that they learn His mind and so in their measure 

 are able to prophesy too. Plato, one could scarcely doubt, had this 

 gift in measure, especially when he foretold the fate of the perfectly 

 just man, much more the writers of the sacred literature of the 

 Bible. 



Professor Hechler begged that the greatest care should be taken 

 in correctly interpreting prophecy. 



The Stone,'' in Daniel ii, 34, 35, 45, which was cut out wifhouf 

 hand.^" that is, without human instrumentality, " and brake fhern,''' 

 the heathen kingdoms, into pieces," is the " King Messiah," as the 

 old Jewish Rabbis taught, and as we Christian students of Prophecy 

 believe. See Firke liahhi Elieier, Chapter II, a Midrash compiled 

 between 700-800 a.d., containing the opinions of Jewish teachers 

 as far back as the days of our Lord. See also Tanchuma, fol. 31, 4, 

 a Midrash compiled between A.D. 1100 and 1200. Compare also 

 Josephus, Antiq. X, 10, 4. 



Notice that in Daniel ii, 34, " the stone . . . smote the image . . . 

 and brake them to pieces." Therefore, this seems to refer to the 

 Second Coming of the Messiah in power and judgment, and in 

 Daniel ii, 28, we are expressly informed that King Nebuchadnezzar's 

 dream refers to " the latter days," that is, to Christ's Second Coming 

 as the glorified Messiah to execute righteous judgment against all 

 unbelievers, as predicted in Revelation xix, 11. 



Surely, the events taking place all around us in our own days, the 

 breaking up of the Turkish Empire, and in Palestine the good agricul- 

 tural work being done by about 100,000 Jewish Zionist colonists, so 

 that the Holy Land of Promise is again blossoming as a rose, which 



