The Scriptures, as well as the church, testify of Christ: “Search the Scriptures,” said the Saviour, speaking of those then written; “they are they which _testify_ [or bear witness] of me,” (John 5:39); and of the New Testament, he said: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a _witness_ unto all nations,” Matt. 24:4. Like two olive-trees supplying the candlesticks with oil, the Scriptures of the Old, and of the New Testament give light to the church, and testify of Christ. They stand on either side of him,—the one beginning with the creation and pointing to a Messiah to come, testifying of him by types and shadows; and the other looking back to the death and resurrection of Christ, and cheering the heart of the believer by the evidence of his second coming at the end of the world. Thus stood within the oracle of the temple the two cherubim, which Solomon made “of _olive-tree_,” and whose wings met over the ark of the covenant: “He set the cherubim within the inner house, and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house,” 1 Kings 6, 27. Thus symbolized, the Scriptures and the church are Christ’s two witnesses. To prophesy, is to make known the truths of God. Thus, at the epoch of the Reformation, they were to prophesy _again_ before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings, 10:11. It was to enable the witnesses to do this, that the necessary power was to be given them. Sackcloth, is a symbol of humiliation and sorrow; and the witnesses being thus clothed, indicates that during the time specified, they should be in a despised and oppressed condition. The one thousand two hundred and sixty days, symbolize years. God said to Israel, after the evil report of the twelve spies: “Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty _years_ ... after the number of the _days_ which ye searched the land,” Num. 14:33, 34. And to Ezekiel, “This shall be a sign to the house of Israel: Lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it, ... for I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days.... And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee _each day for a year_,” Ezek. 4:3-6. This period of one thousand two hundred and sixty years, is not the whole time in which the witnesses prophesy, but marks the duration of their prophesying in sackcloth. It commenced when the light of the Bible began to be obscured by the secondary place which was accorded to it in the estimation of the Papal church, and the living witnesses were no longer permitted to preach the gospel in its purity.