Prophetic Lessons by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 29, 1864

Prophetic Lessons.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

As I was studying the chart of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, I was struck with the similarity of God's mode of instructing his disciples, to that of our teachers in giving us instructions in school:

For instance, on Monday the teacher gives us six pages for a lesson; Tuesday he gives us the same lesson for a review, and also five or six pages for an advance lesson. Wednesday we review Tuesday's advance lesson, and take five or six pages more and so on. By thus taking a little more, and reviewing each day what we have learned the previous day, we impress it so thoroughly upon our minds that we cannot easily forget it.

Just so with the prophecies which God has given for our instruction in these last days. In Dan. ii, God has given us under the symbol of a man, a lesson which includes a general description of the four universal kingdoms. Babylon, Media and Persia, Grecia and Rome. In Dan. vii, he gives us a review of this lesson, the lion with two wings representing Babylon, the bear, Medo-Persia, the leopard, Grecia, and the terrible beast Rome. He then proceeds to give us an advance lesson under the symbol of this same terrible beast with a change in its horns representing the rise and work of the papacy, and also tells us the exact time of its continuance, viz., from 538 to 1798.

In Dan. viii, he gives us another lesson, commencing at Medo-Persia to review, as we are now supposed to be well posted with regard to Babylon. In this lesson the same principle is carried out as in the preceding one; that is, he first gives us a review and then an advance lesson. The ram represents Media and Persia, the goat Grecia, and the little horn, Rome, pagan and papal, bringing us down as in the previous lesson to the overthrow of the papacy in 1798.

Then again we have the advance lesson; "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," bringing us on still further down, to 1844.

In Rev. xii. and xiii, we have the fourth lesson on this great subject. Leaving out Medo-Persia, and Grecia, as being now thoroughly committed to memory, the great teacher gives us a review of Rome, pagan and papal under the symbol of the dragon and the blasphemous beast; and there as an advance lesson, gives us the history of these United States under the symbol of the two-horned beast.

This ends our course of instruction. We have now learned the whole history of the world from Babylon to the end of our government.

Here, as in all the works of God we observe the most perfect order in every particular. Here is a difficulty for those who would have the two-horned beast do his work previous to the overthrow of papacy in 1798, or the termination of the 2300 days in 1844. If he did perform his work prior to these events, he ought to have been mentioned before either the little horn or the 2300 days, or it must form an exception to the order observed with the others. Those who say the 2300 days have not yet ended are saying, "My Lord delayeth his coming" for it is evident from the invariable order observed in those four chains of prophecy, that the two-horned beast does his work after the ending of the 2300 days.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Coldwater, Mich.