ADDENDA.

Have men a right to study Prophecy?

To this question, in its general sense, any, who call themselves Christian, can give but one answer-Yes. But perhaps many, who would answer thus, would be much disposed to limitation in some particular.

Prophecies which have received their fulfilment, thereby present the most incontestible evidence that they were of "the scripture of truth"; and they are profitable to be studied, because they present one of the strongest evidences of the truth of revealed religion: but, from the earliest ages there have been prophecies which concerned the future, and within the limits of all extensive prophecies, there must be, ever after their fulfilment is commenced until it is accomplished, parts fulfilled, and parts unfulfilled; and hence, through such prophecies may be drawn one grand, dividing, though ever-varying line; showing on the one side, the parts whose fulfilments have passed, and on the other, those parts whose fulfilments are to come. It is thought by some, that we have a perfect right to all on the one side of such a line, but that wo is to that man who dares to seek to understand what they call God's secrets on the other.

Our Saviour, at a certain time, reasoning with his enemies, said: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me." This form in which Christ expressed himself, argues, that before the prophecies relating to himself had been fulfilled, it was their duty to have consulted them. On the same occasion he said: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they that testify of me." Was this command applicable only to those who heard? or is it also applicable to us? Certainly to us. Is our

interest in Christ less than theirs may have been? Out of Christ, they were ruined: out of Christ, so are we.— Was it their duty to search the prophecies before they were fulfilled? Then why not ours? Is our interest in Christ only such as concerns the past? Have we no interest in Christ in the future? If not, then are we "of all men most miserable"!

St. Paul says to Timothy (2, iii. 16 and 17.) that all scripture is profitable. His words are," All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Now, not to enter into the general inquiries, when all scripture is profitable, and whether at all times all scripture is profitable, let us simply ask, to whom is all scripture profitable? "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, *** that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all GOOD WORKS." "Good works," pertain to mortals; and our world would present a more doleful scene by far, than now, were there no men of God upon it.

As it is indisputable that there are scriptures which concern the consummation of all temporal affairs, so also is it indisputable, that there are scriptures which point out the time of that consummation. To whom, then, is this portion of scripture designed to be profitable? To men in probation, surely, for no man can be so unreasonable as to suppose, that to glorified spirits in the eternal world such scripture will be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness! Scriptures which relate to the times in which certain events shall occur, may not be particularly profitable for reproof, correction, &c., but they surely are for doctrine.

'But suppose you study the prophecies which concern the consummation, and assign their time: suppose that time arrives, passes, and the consummation does not occur, will you not renounce the bible? This I might do; I might do it now: but it would be folly in me now; it would be no less foolish in me then. Shall I reject the bible now, when I see the prophecies of former times

to have been fulfilled? Should I reject it then, when the same evidence of its truth would remain? Would it be more likely that the bible was untrue, than that I had erred in applying the prophecies unfulfilled? I am in no way reduced to the necessity of rejecting the bible, or the prophets, though things do not occur as I expect: not at all, except I previously assume to myself, by the teachings of the Spirit, or by self-arrogance, the character of infallibility, and also adopt that blasphemous sentiment, which fills me with horror while I think it, and which is expressed in the following sentence: "I hold God to his word"!!! Well would it be for the spirit of rashness, to reflect, that he who has power to enact, has also power to annul. Was it not said to Hezekiah, "Thou shalt die, and not live"? Yet were fifteen years added to his life. Did not Jonah cry, "Yet forty days, and Ninevah shall be overthrown ?" and was not Jonah angry, when the forty days had expired and it was not? The Ninevites repented.

'But if you have evidence that the everlasting kingdom is so near at hand, will it not induce you to neglect your business? If my business is a bad one, it ought to: if not, why should it? Because I believe that the righteous are about to enter into their reward, shall I therefore by negligence become worse than an infidel? Because I have occupied until the eleventh hour, and 'in due time shall reap if I faint not,' shall I therefore henceforth bury my talent in a napkin? (see Gal. vi. 9.) While there are wants to be supplied and sufferings to be relieved, and while the future is unprovided for, that command, which enjoins fervency of spirit and diligence in business, will not be made void. When did the Lord ever approve idleness, or deny to healthful industry, a competence!

'In view of all these things, what shall a man do?'If right, let him remain as he is: if wrong, let him become right as soon as possible. I would answer, more fully, in the language of Paul in his twelfth chapter to the Romans; and would enforce the exhortation of our Saviour:

"OCCUPY TILL I COME."

EXTRACTS FROM FERGUSON'S ASTRONOMY

"The vulgar era of Christ's birth was never settled till the year 527, when Dionysius Exigus, a Roman abbot, fixed it to the end of the 4713th year of the Julian period, which was four years too late. For our Saviour was born before the death of Herod, who sought to kill him as soon as he heard of his birth; and, according to the testimony of Josephus, (B. xvii. ch. 6,) there was an eclipse of the moon in the time of Herod's last illness; which eclipse appears, by our astronomical tables, to have been in the year of the Julian period 4710, March 13th, at three hours past midnight, at Jerusalem. Now, as our Saviour must have been born some months before Herod's death, since in the interval he was carried into Egypt, the latest time in which we can fix the true era of his birth, is about the end of the 4709th year of the Julian period.'

"Our Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath; and it is plain, from St. Mark, ch. xv. ver. 42, and St. Luke, ch. xxiii. ver. 54, that Christ was crucified on Friday, seeing the crucifixion was on the day next before the Jewish Sabbath." (See St. John, ch. xviii. ver. 28.)

"The Jews reckoned their months by the moon, and their years by the apparent revolution of the sun; and they ate the passover on the 14th day of the month Nisan, which was the first month of the year, reckoning from the first appearance of the new moon, which at that time of the year might be on the evening of the day next after the change, if the sky was clear. So that their 14th day of the month answers to our 15th day of the moon, on which she is full. Consequently, the passover was always kept on the day of full moos. And the full moon at which it was kept, was that one which happened next after the vernal equinox. For Josephus expressly says, (Antiq. B. iii. ch. 10,) the passover was kept on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, according to the moon, when the sun was in Aries. And the sun always enters Aries at the instant of the vernal equinox; which, in our Saviour's time, fell on the 22d day of March."

"The dispute among chronologers about the year of Christ's death is limited to four or five years at most. But as we have shown that he was crucified on the day of a paschal full moon, and on a Friday, all that we have to

do, in order to ascertain the year of his death, is only to compute in which of those years there was a passover full moon on a Friday. For the full moons anticipate eleven days every year, (12 lunar months being so much short of a solar year,) and therefore once in every three years, at least, the Jews were obliged to set their passover a month farther forward than it fell by the course of the moon, on the year next before, in order to keep it at the full moon next after the equinox. Therefore there could not be two passovers on the same day of the week, within the compass of a few neighboring years. And I find by calculation, the only passover full moon that fell on a Friday, for several years before or after the disputed year of the crucifixion, was on the 3d day of April, in the 4746th year of the Julian period," which "year was the 33d year of our Saviour's age, reckoning from the vulgar era of his birth; but the 37th, reckoning from the true era thereof."

"The 4746th year of the Julian period, which we have astronomically proved to be the year of the crucifixion, was the 4th of the 202d Olympiad; in which year, Phlegon, a heathen writer, tells us there was a most extraordinary eclipse of the sun that ever was seen. But I find by calculation, that there could be no total eclipse of the sun at Jerusalem, in a natural way, in that year. So that what Phlegon here calls an eclipse of the sun, seems to have been the great darkness for three hours at the time of our Saviour's crucifixion, ** a darkness altogether supernatural, as the moon was then in the side of the heavens opposite to the sun; and therefore could not possibly darken the sun to any part of the earth."