Gen. i. 14 is therefore, “They (the sun, moon, and stars) shall be for signs (things to come) and for cycles (appointed times).”

Here, then, we have a distinct declaration from God, that the heavens contain not only a Revelation concerning things to come in the “Signs,” but also concerning appointed times in the wondrous movements of the sun, and moon, and stars.

The motions of the sun and moon are so arranged that at the end of a given interval of time they return into almost precisely the same position, with regard to each other and to the earth, as they held at the beginning of that interval. “Almost precisely,” but not quite precisely. There will be a slight outstanding difference, which will gradually increase in successive intervals, and finally destroy the possibility of the combination recurring, or else lead to combinations of a different character.

Thus the daily difference between the movement of the sun and of the stars leads the sun back very nearly to conjunction with the same star as it was twelve months earlier, and gives us the cycle of the year. The slight difference in the sun's position relative to the stars at the end of the year, finally leads the sun back to the same star at the same time of the year, viz., at the spring equinox, and gives us the great precessional cycle of 25,800 years.

So, too, with eclipses. Since the circumstances of any given eclipse are reproduced almost exactly 18 years and 11 days later, this period is called an Eclipse Cycle, to which the ancient astronomers gave [pg 179] the name of Saros;77 and eclipses separated from each other by an exact cycle, and, therefore, corresponding closely in their conditions, are spoken of as being one and the same eclipse. Each Saros contains, on the average, about 70 ± eclipses. Of these, on the average, 42 ± are solar and 28 ± are lunar. Since the Saros is 11 days (or, more correctly, 10.96 days) longer than 18 years, the successive recurrences of each eclipse fall 11 days later in the year each time, and in 33 Sari will have travelled on through the year and come round very nearly to the original date.

But as the Saros does not reproduce the conditions of an eclipse with absolute exactness, and as the difference increases with every successive return, a time comes when the return of the Saros fails to bring about an eclipse at all. If the eclipse be a solar one before this takes place, a new eclipse begins to form a month later in the year than the old one, and becomes the first eclipse of a new series.

This is the history of one such eclipse: On May 15 (Julian), 850 a.d., there was a (new) eclipse of the sun, and it occurred as a partial eclipse. On August 20 (Julian), 1012 a.d., this new eclipse became total. From that time it has been an annular eclipse, the latitude of the central shadow gradually shifting southward from the north, until on December 17 (Julian), 1210, it had reached N. Lat. 24°. It turned northward again after 1210, until March 14 (Julian), 1355, when it fell in N. Lat. 43°. Then it turned south, [pg 180] and has moved steadily in that direction, until on March 18 (Greg.), 1950, its last appearance as an annular eclipse will take place. On May 22 (Greg.), 2058, it will fall so far from the node that a new eclipse will follow it on June 21. It will make three more appearances as an ever-diminishing partial eclipse, and be last seen on June 24 (Greg.), 2112. Its total life-history, therefore, will have been 1,262 years and 36 days, and will have occupied 70 Sari.

In the above life-history of an eclipse78 there is not the slightest difficulty as to its identification. The Saros shows no break, and no interruption; nor does the character of the eclipse suffer any abrupt change. The district over which it is visible moves in a slow and orderly fashion from occurrence to occurrence over the earth's surface.

Now the important point is this, that if we take the prophetic reckoning of 360 days to the year, we have the following significant Biblical numbers:—

In the first place, we already have the 70 ± Sari divided into two portions of 33 + 37.

A perfect cycle is accomplished in 33 Sari, or 595 years, when the eclipse, by a series of unbroken [pg 181] Sari, has accomplished a passage through the year of 360 days; or, if we reckon only the whole numbers, i.e., the 18 completed years, we have for the 33 Sari the period of 594 years, while the remaining portion of 37 Sari makes 666 years (37 x 18) ; and the whole 70 ± Sari makes 1,260 years (594 + 666).79

We have then the following figures:—

Independently of this, we also know that 1,260 years is a soli-lunar cycle, so exact that its epact, or difference, is only 6 hours!

There must, therefore, be something significant in these numbers, e.g., 70; in the number 1,260, with its divisions, not into two equal parts, but into 594 and 666; as also in its double, 2,520.

There must be something to be learned in the occurrence and repetition of these heavenly cycles, which for nearly 6,000 years have been constantly repeated in the heavens, especially when we find these same numbers very prominently presented in the Word of God in connection with the fulfilment of prophecy.

We have the great “seven times” (2,520) connected with the duration of Israel's punishment, and of the Gentiles' power. We have in Daniel and the [pg 182] Apocalypse the half of this great period presented as “days” (1,260), as “months” (42), and as “times,” or years (3-½).

Futurists believe that these “days” and “months,” etc., interpret for us the purposes and counsels of God as connected with “the time of the end,” and as meaning literal “days” and “months,” etc.

Historicists take these terms and themselves interpret the numbers, in the sense of a “day” being put for a year, and they believe that these “1,260 days” will be fulfilled as 1,260 years.

One party boldly and ungraciously charges the other with teaching “The Fallacies of Futurism”; while the other might well retort with a reference to the Heresies of Historicism.

But is there any necessity for the existence of two hostile camps? Is it not possible that there may be what we may call a long fulfilment in years? And is it not more than probable that in the time of the end, the crisis, there will also be a short and literal fulfilment in days?

We firmly believe that there will be this literal and short fulfilment. We believe that when God says “days,” He means days; and that when He says “42 months,” He means months, and not 1,260 years. In all of the passages referred to by historicists in support of what is called “the year-day theory,” the Holy Spirit uses these words “days” and “years” in the sense of days and years. In the two particular instances of Israel's wanderings (Num. xiv. 34), and Ezekiel's prophesying (Ezek. iv. 6), He chooses to [pg 183] take the number of days as denoting the same number of years; but He does not tell us that we are to do the same in other cases! He only asserts His sovereignty by thus acting, while we only show our presumption in taking His sovereign act as a general principle.

But while fully believing in the short fulfilment, we are quite prepared to admit that there may be a long fulfilment as well; and that, owing to the wondrous harmony, and marvellous correspondence, and infinite wisdom of all the works and ways of God, there may be a fulfilment, or rather a “filment,” if we may coin the word, in years, which will be only a foreshadowing of the literal ful-filment afterwards to take place in days.

If historicists will allow us this liberty as to interpretation, and permit us to believe that God means what He says, we will give them some remarkable evidence in support of their views, by way of application. In other words, if they will allow us to interpret “days” as meaning days, we will gladly allow them, and be at one with them, in applying them to years. So that while we believe the interpretation to mean “days,” and to teach a short fulfilment at the time of the end, we will thankfully admit an application which shall take these days as foreshowing a long fulfilment in years.

In applying, then, these significant numbers (42, 70, 594, 666, 1,260, and 2,520) to years, from what point or date shall we begin to reckon the “times of the Gentiles” (Luke xxi. 24)? That there are such definite “times” the words of the Lord Jesus show, [pg 184] when He says, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke xxi. 24). That there are “seven times” of Gentile dominion is more than intimated by the symbolic episode in the life of Nebuchadnezzar as recorded in Dan. iv.; and that there are “seven times” of Israel's punishment is clearly stated in Lev. xxvi. 18. “Seven times,” according to the Historicist school of interpreters, are equal to 2,520 years.

Instead of asking where they begin, let us first note the fact that it is duration which is emphasised in the Scriptures rather than chronology; and look at the duration of these years independently of, and before we attempt to fix, their beginning and ending.

In Daniel ii. and vii. it is shown first to Nebuchadnezzar in a “dream,” and afterwards to God's servant the prophet in a “vision,” that Israel was to be put on one side and become “Lo-Ammi” (not My people), while government was to be put into the hands of the Gentiles. Jerusalem was the central point of both these great and solemn facts. That is to say, during 2,520 years, while Jerusalem should remain in the power of the Gentiles, Israel could be “no more a nation” in possession of their land and city.

We know, as a matter of fact, that to-day Jerusalem is in the hands of the Turks, and that it is still “trodden down of the Gentiles.”

If we ask how long it shall continue to be “trodden down”? how long it will be before Israel shall again possess their city and their land?—the answer brings us at once to the heart of our subject.