I. INTRODUCTION.SCHEME OF INTERPRETATION.II. The Signs of the Times.III. The Seven Dispensations.IV. The Three Lines of Prophecy.V. The Three Prophetic Periods.VI. Mystic Chronology.VII. Supernatural Judgments.PART I. THE GENTILES.I. The Prophecy of Balaam.II. The Kingdom of the Ten Tribes.III. The Dream of Nebuchadnezzar.IV. The Vision of the Four Wild Beasts.V. The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat.VI. The Great Red Dragon.VII. The Wild Beast from the Sea.VIII. The Wild Beast from the Earth.IX. Mystery, Babylon the Great.X. The Seven Kings and the Eighth.XI. The Overthrow of Ecclesiasticism by Secularism.XII. The Napoleonic Theory.XIII. The Re-building of Great Babylon.PART II. THE JEWSI. The Purpose of God concerning Israel.II. The Perplexity of Daniel.III. The Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.IV. The Interval foretold by Zechariah,V. The Interval recognised by Matthew.VI. The Interval in other Visions of Daniel.VII. The Scheme of the Seventy Weeks is the Key to all Prophecy.VIII. The Return of the Jews to Palestine.IX. The Sermon on the Mount of Olives.X. The Twenty-fourth Chapter of Matthew.XI. The Present Condition of the Jewish Nation And Land.PART III. THE CHURCH OF GODI. The Mystery hidden from the Ages.II. The Seven Parables.III. The Parable of the Sower.IV. The Parable of the Tares.V. The Parable of the Mustard Tree.VI. The Parable of the Leaven.VII. The Parable of the Treasure in the Field.VIII. The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price.IX. The Parable of the Net Cast into the Sea.X. Summary of the Seven Parables.XI. The Plan of the Apocalypse.XII. The Epistles to the Seven Churches.XIII. Ephesus.XIV. Smyrna.XV. Pergamos.XVI. Thyatira.XVII. Sardis.XVIII. Philadelphia.XIX. Laodicea.XX. The Presence and the Appearing.XXI. The First Rapture, as Revealed to the Thessalonians.XXII. The Mystery Finished.THE Supreme God has deigned to give revelations whereby He seeks to communicate His purposes to men, and thus, by a gentle process, to bend their minds to His mighty and irresistible will. Nevertheless, myriads of professing Christians are content to reach the end of life in total ignorance of these gracious disclosures, while accredited ministers of Christ are too frequently unable to expound them.But, since God has thought fit to set them before us, are we not deliberately charging Him with folly while we neglect them. And is not the significance of our conduct much the same if we persist in perverting them from their proper meaning and use — as, for instance, those do who can find little in the Apocalypse save events that had become history before it was written, and doctrines that are fully taught in other parts of Scripture; although the Lord Himself declares that the object of the Book is to show unto His servants the things that must shortly come to pass ?And again, may we not attribute much of the apathy of Christendom, the Laodicean spirit with which we are surrounded, and the worldliness of popular Christianity, to the fact that believers will not give themselves to those studies and contemplations which God has provided for them.A passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to force such a conclusion upon us. The inspired writer complains of the difficulty of communicating what he wishes to say concerning Melchizedec, because those to whom he is writing are dull of hearing and unskilful in the Word of Righteousness; and their condition draws from him a severe rebuke, followed by the exhortation; — Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of baptisms of instruction, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of dead persons, and of eternal judgment.We may observe that this list of foundations includes nearly all the doctrines ordinarily heard from our pulpits. And yet the Apostle compares those who are incessantly occupied with them to one who wastes labour and time by repeatedly laying down and taking up again the foundation of a building, when he ought to be raising the superstructure. He, therefore, solemnly urges the Hebrews to pass on from first principles to perfection, and presses his exhortation with the words — For it is impossible in the case of those who were once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the World to Come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.
