Samuel, of David, of Solomon, and of all the Kings, we come to the time when the nation of the Jews became so corrupt that God resolved to overthrow their city, to permit the temple to be burned, and to condemn this miserable people to seventy years of exile and slavery in a foreign land.

The prince whom God chose to chastise the Jewish nation was the great Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon. But, at the same time, when the Lord was preparing to punish them by means of this man of war, He was likewise preparing for them, by means of Daniel, great consolation during their long years of captivity.

That you may have a clear idea of the time when Daniel lived in the history of the world, I give you a brief summary of the chief dates. What is a century?

One hundred years.

If, then, the creation of man happened about forty centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, how many centuries are there between the deluge and Jesus Christ?

Twenty-three and a-half centuries.

The next great events of which we read are the Passage of the Red Sea by Moses, and of the Jordan by Joshua. How many centuries then, were there between Moses and Jesus Christ?

Fifteen centuries.

Then take the foundation of the Temple by Solomon, the son of David. How long before Jesus Christ was the Temple built?

About ten centuries.

Then follows the succession of Kings, and we come to the time of Daniel, and the captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon. This is the era of which we are now to speak.

How many years passed between this captivity and the Christian era-that is to say the time when our Lord Jesus Christ was born?

About six centuries.

If you study the Table of Dates which is given in the next pages, you will better understand what I have tried to show you regarding the exact time in the history of the world at which the prophet Daniel flourished:

TABLE OF DATES.

YEARS BEFORE CHRIST.

4004 The creation of the first man.

3017 Enoch taken to heaven; 300 years after the birth of Methuselah, and 57 years after the death of Adam.

2348 The deluge happened; the same year in which Methuselah the son of Enoch died, and when Noah was 600 years old.

1998 The death of Noah 390 years after the deluge, and two years before the birth of Abraham.

1706 Jacob goes to Egypt.

1491 The Israelites pass through the Red Sea, and 40 years afterwards pass over the Jordan.

1193 It is believed that the Greeks began the siege of Troy. 1095 Samuel, the last of the Judges of Israel, anoints Saul, the first of the kings.

1004 Solomon dedicates the Temple with great solemnity, exactly 3000 years after the creation.

900 The Assyrians defeated by Ahab during the time that Elijah prophesied ; and six years after Elijah had slain

the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. Two years after, Lycurgus governs at Lacedæmon.

862 Jonah swallowed by a great fish. Isaiah's last prophecy. 606 Daniel is led captive to Babylon, and from this year the seventy years' captivity begins.

603 Daniel reveals and interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream. 580 Nebuchadnezzar erects a golden image to be worshipped. 538 Babylon taken by Cyrus, and Belshazzar killed.

537 Daniel cast into the den of lions.

536 The Jews permitted to return to Jerusalem by Cyrus, and thus ended the seventy years' captivity.

420 About this time Malachi, the last of the prophets, pro

phesies.

301 The Græco-Macedonian empire is divided into four parts. 201 The Romans invade Egypt.

100 Cæsar is born; and, a few years afterwards, Pompey. 65 Pompey conquers Syria, and takes Jerusalem a few years afterwards.

40 Herod appointed king of the Jews by the Romans.

I

YEARS AFTER THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

The Christian era.

14 The emperor, Augustus Cæsar, dies, and Tiberius Cæsar succeeds him.

26 Pontius Pilate is appointed governor of Judea by Tiberius. 33 Our Lord Jesus Christ dies on the cross.

44 Herod Agrippa, king of the Jews, is eaten with worms, and dies at Cesarea.

54 The emperor, Claudius Cæsar, dies, after a reign of thirteen years, and is succeeded by Nero.

64 Paul beheaded at Rome by order of Nero; and, six years afterwards, the Romans destroy Jerusalem, and disperse the Jewish nation.

313 Constantine, emperor of Rome, professes Christianity. 395 The empire of the Latins invaded by the barbarians, and divided into ten kingdoms.

529 The Emperor Justinian publishes his famous code of laws. 606 The Bishop of Rome assumes to be universal bishop in the West, and Mahomet calls himself a prophet in the East.

1517 The Reformation from Popery is begun by Luther.

1534 The Reformation begun in England.

1535 The Reformation in Geneva, where Calvin arrived the

following year.

1560 The Reformation completed in Scotland.

You will, then, see in this table of dates some of the principal events which it is well for us to remember between Daniel and Jesus Christ, and then between Jesus Christ and our own day. Pompey and Cæsar, the two greatest of the Roman generals were born, about a century before the Christian era. Pompey took Jerusalem in the year 63 before Christ. Cæsar afterwards having conquered Pompey, compelled the Jews to receive from the hands of the Romans, as their king-a descendant of Esauthe too-famous Herod who caused the children of Bethlehem to be murdered.

Thus, when our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Romans had been masters of Palestine about sixty-three years; and when he was crucified in the year 33, at the time of Pontius Pilate being governor, it was about a century since these cruel conquerors had seized the holy city.

And what happened in the year 64 after Christ?

St Paul was beheaded at Rome.

And then six years after?

E