came by sea, and had a fleet in the Tiber at his disposal, on board which, historians tell us, he carefully conveyed all the articles which he thought worth removing. Among these were certain treasures which have excited more of modern curiosity than any others—those carried away by Titus from Jerusalem and lodged in Rome. Who, asks one of our contemporaries, can say that Tiber may not even now contain the "seven-branched candlestick" of the Temple? We are afraid it can be predicted with a strong approach to certainty that it never will be found there. Its history, and that of its accompanying vases and other valuables, is a riddle from first to last. It is supposed to be represented, as we all know, on the arch of Titus; but this modern scepticism has questioned, for the following among other reasons, that on the foot of the sculptured candlestick sea monsters, eagles, and other animals are placed, by no means in accordance with the severity of the temple-worship of the One God. However this may be, Genseric certainly took away these spoils of Jerusalem with him; for Procopius describes a part of them as ornamenting that sovereign's palace at Carcassonne in the south of France. Other portions of the sacred prey were left by the same monarch at Carthage, where Belisarius found them a century later, and carried them in triumph, with his Vandal booty, to Constantinople. Tradition reports that a venerable Jew, who had influence in the palace of Justinian, persuaded that emperor, under superstitious terrors, to remove them once more, and send them back to the holy spot from whence they were originally brought by Titus. The watchful, persevering eye of the Hebrew race had evidently kept them in view for five hundred years. But at this point, says Gregorovius, the German antiquarian describer of medieval Rome, we entirely lose sight of them. If they really found their way back to Jerusalem, they must have become the prey of the Saracens, and wandered somewhere into the recesses of the "boundless East," probably to be destroyed as idolatrous. Yet another tradition declares that the great Church of the Lateran preserved not only the seven-branched candlestick, but Aaron's rod and priestly habiliments, the golden urn which held the manna, and we know not what curiosities besides-a bold experiment, no doubt, on the credulity of Roman Christians, and still more of pilgrims, in the dark ages. -Pall Mall Budget.

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy.

SIR,-Error is always repeating itself. About the middle of last century there was the same classical cant as to the gods of Greece and Rome, and the same longings expressed by would-be philosophers and men of " breadth" to return to their worship as we find in our own day. Cowper thus assailed this wretched folly in his "Conversation":

"It has indeed been told me (with what weight,
How credibly, 'tis hard for me to state),
That fables old, that seemed for ever mute,.
Revived, are hastening into fresh repute,
And gods and goddesses discarded long,
Like useless lumber or a stroller's song,

Are bringing into vogue their heathen train,
And Jupiter bids fair to rule again :
That certain feasts are instituted now,

Where Venus hears the lover's tender vow;
That all Olympus through the country roves,
To consecrate our few remaining groves,
And Echo learns politely to repeat

The praise of names for ages obsolete;

That having proved the weakness, it should seem,
Of revelation's ineffectual beam,

To bring the passions under sober sway,
And give the moral springs their proper play,
They mean to try what may at last be done
By stout substantial gods of wood and stone,
And whether Roman rites may not produce
The virtues of old Rome for English use.
May such success attend the pious plan,
May Mercury once more embellish man,
Grace him again with long-forgotten arts,
Reclaim his taste, and brighten up his parts,
Make him athletic as in days of old,
Learned at the bar, in the palæstra bold,
Divest the rougher sex of female airs,
And teach the softer not to copy theirs.

The change shall please, nor shall it matter ought
Who works the wonder, if it be but wrought.

'Tis time, however, if the case stands thus,

For us plain folks and all who side with us,
To build our altar, confident and bold,

And say as stern Elijah said of old,

The strife now stands upon a fair award,

If Israel's Lord be God, then serve the Lord,

If He be silent, faith is all a whim,

Then Baal is the god, and worship him!"

I am, &c.,

A BELIEVER IN THE ONE GOD OF THE BIBLE.

Poetry.

THE SONG OF LIFE.

Sweet song of life! O sound again,
Sound in this realm of death and pain,
A louder, sweeter, fuller strain.

Sweet song of life! breathe out again

Thy low, long, lingering refrain,
And bind us in thy blessed chain.

Be it a song of sympathies,
Knitting together good and wise,
As wave o'er wave its ripples rise.

A varied ever-winding song,
To which all cadences belong,
Plaintive or glad, serene or strong,

The relics of an ancient lay,
The sunshine of an August day,
The grandeur of great minstrelsy.

Be it a song the soul to fill,
Its tumults to control or still,
To nerve the ever-trembling will.

Song of the everlasting age,
Our children's children's heritage,
Song of the mighty pilgrimage,

Song of the future and the past,
Of love that shall for ever last,
O'er us thy spell celestial cast.

Oh! die not down, but sweetly rise
Above the jar of broken sighs,
Above earth's din of angry cries.

Come up and fill the happy air;
Chime in with all the good and fair,
Oh! chime away all sin and care.

Awake as once in Eden's bloom,
When Paradise contained no tomb,
Thy healing melody resume.

Pervade this being with thy strain,

Charm from our limbs this binding chain,

Let all this soul be song again.

Dear song of life! pass not away;

Fair music of eternal day,

For ever, ever with us stay.

Filled with they solemn melody

Let sky and earth, let land and sea
For ever and for ever be !

NOTICE.

All readers of this Journal are most earnestly requested to give it room in their prayers; that by means of it God may be honoured and His truth advanced; also, that it may be conducted in faith and love, with sobriety of judgment and discernment of the truth, in nothing carried away into error, or hasty speech, or sharp unbrotherly disputation.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF PROPHECY.

OCTOBER 1872.

ART. I.-DANIEL'S REST AND LOT.

IF Daniel does not tell forth the love of God so remarkably as John in what he writes, he nevertheless is almost beyond John in the love which his Lord manifested to him. The name, "disciple whom Jesus loved," was not a name that came down from heaven directly (though, no doubt, approved, and therefore so often inserted by the Holy Ghost in the Gospel history), whereas "O man greatly beloved" is heaven-descended, having been spoken by Gabriel (Dan. ix. 23), and by him used as a reason for revealing the vision of Messiah, the Prince. And then the Lord Himself, the Angel of the Covenant ("one like the appearance of the Son of man "), adopts it, twice addressing His servant by that most honourable title (x. 11, 19), "Vir desideriorum," "Vir desideratissimus." Nor is it unworthy of notice that, as the beloved John lived to a great age the age of ninety at least-so the beloved Daniel's life was prolonged for a term of not less than ninety years. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament prophet lived long enough to see their invaluable revelation of things to come, on to the Coming of the Lord, fairly sent forth among the people of God-“sealed” (Dan. xii. 4, 9; Rev. xxii. 10), that is, placed in security (see Keil ad loc.), as when Isa. viii. 16 says, "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples." And if to John, to whom the time of waiting seemed long, the Lord repeatedly said, "I come quickly," the same Lord replied to Daniel's half-impatient inquiry as to " How long?" by a kind though obscure reply, and then by the gracious words,

VOL. XXIV.

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“But go thy way, Daniel" (ver. 9), and then “Go thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days" (ver. 13).

That clause of the reply, "Go thy way, Daniel" (ver. 9, 13), is evidently a kindly, quieting word, like Christ's, "Go in peace." It is a word of relief. It is as if He had said, "Whether thou canst understand the vision or not, be not troubled; for (ver. 9) the prophetic word shall be kept safe for the use of God's saints till the end of the days. Be not troubled, Daniel, but go thy way, looking to the end; all is well and surely arranged; and, after resting for a season in the tomb, thou shalt arise at the end of the days in the resurrection, to enter upon other services in another sphere."

Where Daniel died and was buried is uncertain, though one tradition says, he lies buried in Shushan, or Susa; and another, that he was laid in the royal sepulchre at Babylon. There is a natural desire, in the case of such a man, to be able, if possible, to give details, even minute and unimportant; and so we find that while tradition has tried to enable the traveller to stand upon his grave, Josephus reports that he was descended from Zadoc, and Epiphanius that his birthplace was Upper Bethoron, at the head of that memorable pass down which Joshua chased the Amorites, in the day when his prayer arrested sun and moon. But we leave all these uncertainties, and are content to follow Daniel-1. Into his Rest; and 2. Into his Lot.

DANIEL'S REST.

"Thou shalt rest." He had a busy life, full of excitement and all manner of perils. He had borne the burden of a nation's cares and interests during the reign of more than one monarchy. He had been saddened by the state of Israel and the cause of God. He had been from time to time "astonished," "sickened," "grieved in spirit," by "cogitations troubling" him. From year to year, and almost from day to day, since he was a youth of twenty, he had to deal with all sorts of men in the management of state affairs, ceaselessly occupied with business of every kind. How sweet now at last to hear the Lord tell him that the evening of his long day had come; the shadows were stretched out—“ Thou shalt rest”—thou shalt be like Noah in the Ark (7) whatever floods sweep over this troubled world. This "rest" is that spoken of by Job iii. 13, "Why died I not? I should have slept: then had I been at rest." body should have been laid in the grave, and my soul should have found rest with God. It is the same "rest" to which that same patriarch refers, ver. 17, "There the wicked cease from

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