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Preface
xi
“With a new and deeper earnestness, Miller continued the exami-
nation of the prophecies, whole nights as well as days being devoted
to the study of what now appeared of such stupendous importance
and all-absorbing interest. In the eighth chapter of Daniel he could
find no clue to the starting-point of the 2300 days; the angel Gabriel,
though commanded to make Daniel understand the vision, gave him
only a partial explanation. As the terrible persecution to befall the
Church was unfolded to the prophet’s vision, physical strength gave
way. He could endure no more, and the angel left him for a time.
Daniel ‘fainted, and was sick certain days.’ ‘And I was astonished at
the vision,’ he says, ‘but none understood it.’
“Yet God had bidden His messenger, ‘make this man to under-
stand the vision.’ That commission must be fulfilled. In obedience
to it, the angel, some time afterward, returned to Daniel, saying, ‘I
am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding;’ ‘therefore
[xi]
understand the matter, and consider the vision.’ [
Daniel 9:22, 23,
25-27
.] There was one important point in the vision of chapter eight
which had been left unexplained, namely, that relating to time,—
the period of the 2300 days; therefore the angel, in resuming his
explanation, dwells chiefly upon the subject of time:
“‘Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city.... Know therefore and understand, that from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto
the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and
two weeks: The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah
be cut off, but not for Himself
.
... And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:
And in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease.’
“The angel had been sent to Daniel for the express purpose of
explaining to him the point which he had failed to understand in the
vision of the eighth chapter, the statement relative to time,—’unto
two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed.’ After bidding Daniel ‘understand the matter, and consider
the vision,’ the very first words of the angel are, ‘seventy weeks
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.’ The word
here translated ‘determined,’ literally signifies ‘cut off.’ Seventy