Oct. 1, 1865.

verse point to a period at or about the end of the sacrificial era in the Church. Then should the woe proclaimed be visited upon that city now so distinguished."

The italics in this wonderful extract are the author's. We were so struck with the passage that we wished it to appear just as we found it. Now, what is Ariel? Answer: It is Ariel; it is Jerusalem; it is the Christian Church; it is a city; it is Zion; it is the synagogue of Satan; it is the lion of God; it is the hearth of God; it is the hearth of the Great Altar; and it is the altar itself; and this is "the right interpretation!" Well, perhaps; but we confess that we should infinitely prefer no interpretation at all, for this has plunged us into palpable darkness. "Puzzled the learned," indeed! The text is plain enough, but the interpretation would puzzle a Chinese juggler. We believe our police magistrates are uncharitably suspicious of gentlemen with a number of aliases; and it is provoking to poor human nature when you wish to identify a man or a place to find yourself baffled by a long string of contradictory names.

"Please, sir, which is Wych-street?"

"Which street?"

"Yes, sir."

"Begone, sirrah!"

Let a man ask our ingenious author the way to Ariel, and if he find it by his directions he will be an amazingly clever fellow.

"Interpreting" Dan. vii. 13, 14, Mr. Law. says, "Daniel thus foresaw the ascension of Christ into heavenly places, and the immediato result of that ascension-that the Son of Man received a kingdom, and was set down upon His throne." This is cool, but we meet assertion with assertion, and say, it is not true. We are further told that the announcement of the second Psalm, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion," was carried into effect when Christ ascended into heaven but how the hill of Zion, alias Ariel, alias many other things and places got into heaven, we are not informed, except, indeed, wo believe the wholly unsupported theory of figures with which the notion is buttressed. Presently the kaleidoscope is shaken again, and "the Christian Church is the Zion of the Lord;" but alas! for the stability of localities under the spiritualizing system-"When the prophet would direct his outcast and scattered brethren to this Zion, lo! he finds that Zion itself is got into Babylon, and dwelling there;" and "of course this Babylon is the mystical Babylon, the Church of Rome." It follows from all this, if anything can follow such shifting premises, that the Church of Rome is the hill of Zion upon which Christ reigns. Mr. Law is a vigorous Protestant, and would never tolerate this

Oct. 1, 1865.

shocking inference; but what are we to do? The laws of logic are inexorable, and obey them we must. Still, if we succeed in showing our readers that mysticism makes void the Word of God, and that we must receive its utterances literally, except where metaphor or figure is obvious, if we would have light on prophecy, the time spent in examining this absurd book, will not have been spent in vain. The literal is of course repugnant to the author, and he has an easy way of getting rid of it. For example, he treats that fine passage in Isaiah which predicts peace to the animal tribes, and the removal of ferocity from the beasts of prey, in the following fashion :-"A lion, so long as it has teeth that make animal food requisite for its sustenance, can never eat straw like an ox; and we nowhere read that any provision has been made for their transformation or renewal." Flatly to deny the prophet's clear statement would be "consistent" in rejecters of revelation, but how to harmonize it with the profession of a Christian minister is somewhat difficult. As to the old sceptical objection about the lion's teeth, it is beneath notice in a grave argument. Some of our countrymen are "vegetarians," and yet we dare say they have teeth that could easily masticate a piece of butcher's meat. This answer is all that the objection deserves. Mr. Law has "nowhere read that provision has been made for the transformation or renewal" of the animal tribes; but we have, and that settles the point. Nevertheless, we quite agree with him in the following luminous argument:"But to suppose that a time is to be expected when wolves and adders shall go to school to learn the Bible, or that bears, leopards, and lions, cows and calves will be heard saying, 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths,' is preposterous. This is the language of man, of renewed man enlightened, taught, and changed by the word and by the Spirit of our God." Still, we do not see the meaning of this triumphant flourish, because there was nothing to demolish. Nobody ever said, except in fable, that the beasts would go to school; nor, in fact, is it at all necessary, for "the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib" without it, and, when the will of the Maker of all so determined, "the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet."

We have but to add in dismissing this book that it has, if possible, strengthened our resolution to labour for the emancipation of the Bible from a far greater evil than the printer's monopoly, from which it was happily delivered several years ago, namely, the dismal bondage of mysticism which has compelled it to utter riddles, nonsense, absurdity, to the creation of an endless variety of sects, and the great increase of

rationalism and infidelity. Some of those who now stand aloof from our labours, and would rather crush than help us, will live to bless the day that those labours were begun, though the labourer himself be forgotten.

THE DAY AND THE HOUR.*

THERE is at least one truth in this most extraordinary volume; it is "unlike any other book that any other man has ever written." So says the author, and he is perfectly right. It is emphatically an original publication. We have read many thousands of volumes, but anything like this, or anything approaching the likeness of this, never. Here there is no dullness, no monotony, no hesitancy. He who begins to read must of necessity go through with it; marvels multiply at every step, and at the conclusion you are lost in a whirlwind of wonders. Truly Captain Baker is a brave man! Nothing daunts him. He touches difficulties and they vanish; his theory is an all-explaining, all subduing-power; and what shall we say of his volume? Gladly would we cede the critic's chair at this moment, for we doubt our ability to judge correctly. Conscientiously anxious to give an honest report and a true verdict in every case of criticism, the responsibility of our vocation presses heavily upon us in this instance. It were easy to say that Captain Baker is mad-he expects people to say so-that his book is a piece of utter extravagance, and that his entire theory is the child of a diseased brain. We dare not say any of these things, for there are wonders in the universe of which the wisest of us have little conception, and as the day approaches we expect an increase of knowledge on many subjects which are now scarcely known at all. But, upon the other hand, to accept Captain Baker's teachings in their entirety is impossible, so far as we are concerned; not, be it observed, because we are prepared to prove him wrong, for we cannot prove this, but because in his wonderful theory of "numbers," and in several matters of detail, we are unable to follow him.

We shall, therefore, endeavour to put the reader in possession of the chief doctrines of this book, as far as that can be done in a brief paper, leaving him to form his own judgment. And first let us hear what Captain Baker has said of himself. "Asserting," we quote from the preface, which bears date 18th March, 1865, "that this work is to some extent inspired, I am bound to show what grounds I have for the assertion, that the public may form a fair judgment; if, therefore, I intrude my personal self too much on their notice, I hope I shall be pardoned, for I do so solely because I think it my duty.

"Exactly four months ago Mr. Elliott's work, 'Hora Apocalyptica,' fell into my hands; with the exception of Keith's 'Signs of the Times,'

The Day and the Hour; or, Notes on Prophecy. A Sketch of the Future; Extracted from the Bible. By Captain W. A. BAKER, Royal Bombay Engineers, London; William Macintosh, 21, Paternoster Row,

Oct. 1, 1865.

which I had read some years ago, and had completely forgotten, this was the first work on prophecy and revelation that came to my notice. I was much struck with the general truth of the book, proving beyond question that the end was surely at hand; and yet felt that it was not altogether and completely conclusive, but that there was something yet to come which should fulfil prophecy more perfectly.

"I also observed the uncertainty of the arithmetic, and thought to myself that God's prophecies must admit of more exact interpretation. I therefore set to work to read the Book of Revelation and the Prophets for myself, and from them the materials of this book were soon collected and arranged under their respective heads in my original notes, from which they have now been transferred in an amplified form into these pages. The ideas then are entirely my own, except such of them as can be attributed to Mr. Elliott. His work induced me to study the Bible; my own eyes have read the words of the prophets in our common English edition, and my own brain, worked on by the Spirit of God, suggested to me the interpretation, I used no commentaries, nor did I read any other work on prophecy till my own scheme was completed, my table framed, and the day and the hour fixed."

Let us add to this a passage from the "Conclusion." "The word Conclusion is written, but how shall I commence this chapter? Here, for the first time in the course of my writing, do I feel hesitation. I am about to put the finishing words to a book which is unlike any other book that any other man has ever written: I am going to proclaim to the whole world that I know that which, according to universal belief, 'no man knoweth;' I am going to provide the world with the future means of proving me either an inspired prophet of God or a mad presumptuous fool! Who am I that I should speak so boldly on the future? That I should dare to write so conclusively on a subject which has puzzled the most learned of divines? Who am I that I can do this, and yet feel no fear? I am not a bishop, who might have obtained this knowledge after forty years' patient search of the Scriptures; many say I am not even a good churchman; perhaps they are right! What then? A layman might also find the truth if he were to study the Bible a whole lifetime, so say our preachers; but have I done so ? Not so; four months ago I was as learned in and as ignorant of the Bible as most men are; I knew positively nothing of the future, and I fear I doubted everything. Am I ashamed to confess this? No, I am ashamed that it was so, not to confess it; and, alas! I fear there are very few now living who would have the conscience to cast the first stone at me; I am bound to confess it; if I did not do so others might say that this is a work of study and patient research, the fruitof a clever farseeing brain. Can I admit this? God forbid! No one who knows me can believe that my own intellect has done this; however much I may feel disinclined to assert its inspiration, I cannot take any credit to my own brain for it. What else, then, can I think? From whence came this knowledge? Some, of course, perhaps most people, will say that my words are all nonsense, that my brain is probably diseased, that my dreaming even of inspiration is impious. What do I say myself? I believe my brain to be perfectly sound and clear, I believe my words to be perfectly true, and I do not believe that they

THE RAINBOW.

Oct. 1, 1865.j

THE DAY AND THE HOUR.

I see in this the obedience of God himself to certain laws are my own. which He has Himself framed. Long ago did the Son of God thank the 'Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.'"

The contents of the volume, whose author gives us these deeply interesting autobiographical glimpses, embrace fifteen chapters, respectively denominated thus:-The study of prophecy a duty; On unbelief; The Destiny of Great Britain; Who is Michael? Who is the Prince of the Covenant? Who is Antichrist? The Day and the Hour; The Signs of the Times; On numbers-their meaning; On Numbers-the age of Christ; On Numbers-the Past; the Future, to the appearance of Antichrist; the Future, to the appearance of Christ; the Future-the world to come; conclusion.

ye,

when

ye

Anticipating the objection founded upon the Lord's words-" Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, but my Father only," Captain Baker very properly urges that the present tense is used, and that we have no right to substitute "shall ever know" for knoweth. The time came when the Lord was seen in vision opening the sealed book. Besides, we are to learn a parable of the fig tree. "When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know see all these things, shall that summer is nigh; so likewise There are signs given which know that it is near, even at the door." the wise are to understand. Personally, we are solemnly convinced that the end of the present dispensation is very near, not relatively "fix but absolutely, and that a time of terror and glory is imminent. Of course it does not follow from this, taken by itself, that we can dates," but our author has his own way of doing that, for which we must refer the reader to his book, as we do not profess to understand his marvellous theory of numbers. Enough here, if we admit that the objection referred to above has not the slightest force, when the words are read as the Lord uttered them. Captain Baker's conclusion as to the time of the end we give in his own words, without note or comment. "This day, the 18th March, 1865, commences the last ten prophetical years before the translation of the saints, the great sign of the end." Preface.

"There can be no mistake for instance, in such a point as September 20th, 1878, being the last day," p. 176.

"At present we have ascertained that neither the Queen nor any of her children will ever die; that the Queen will retire from public life, and that the Prince of Wales will become Prince Regent, that in this capacity he will cause the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem on March 10th, 1875; that prince Leopold will take the executive management of the restoration. That the Emperor Louis Napoleon will commence his career as Antichrist on March 10th, 1875, and be fully revealed in that character on April 9th, 1875, and will be sent into perdition by Christ Himself on September 20th, 1878," p. 177.

"The 3rd June, 1872, then, will see Louis Napoleon almost supreme in the Roman world. In the eastern division, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and the conquered states now belonging to eastern Austria, will probably form the five tributary kingdoms represented by the five tocs