Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/55

 1260 days, of which, if we are correct in dating it from the year of our Lord 622, the conclusion would be somewhere about the year 1882, or earlier, if the years be not natural years, but prophetic periods of 360 days each, which we are inclined to believe that they are.

But now the question naturally presents itself, from what period are we to date the commencement of the two thousand two hundred days, or two thousand three hundred days, whichever be the corrector reading? In answer to this, I have no hesitation in replying, that I should date it from the period when Alexander the Great began to reign, that is, from the moment when the he-goat commenced his struggle with the ram: because it is out of the precincts of Alexander's empire that the little horn is said to spring; and consequently, when the vision describes the period of the desolation occasioned by the little horn, and the taking away of the daily sacrifice, concluding with the glorious event of the cleansing of the sanctuary, it not unnaturally dates back from the very commencement of Alexander's reign, that being the commencement of the symbolical he-goat, for out of the geographical limits of his empire it was, that this little horn was destined to rise. It may, however, perhaps be objected here, that the period assigned would