Our limits forbid us to speak of the forty-two months of the beast,[52] or of the periods in Daniel. Of the beast, it is manifest, that it is a power of no brief duration; but one which, existing through a long previous period, appears again at the great final battle immediately previous to the millennium, and is then destroyed. Great care is taken, in the chapter which describes {xxviii} the closing struggle, to identify the beast which was then slain with that which had previously appeared on the stage.[53] As to the view which explains the beast of Nero, and the times of the three and a half years of his persecution, it is certainly enough to observe, that it requires the aid of a heathen hariolation to make it out, and may, therefore, be dismissed without argument. Of the periods in Daniel, particularly those in the seventh and twelfth chapters,[54] we can only say that the mode of authoritatively asserting that the reference is to Antiochus Epiphanes, and then ridiculing the idea of any one man living through 1260 years,[55] is a mode which must be abandoned by such as would secure a favourable reception for their views. We believe the sublime predictions of Daniel and John are occupied with far higher subjects――subjects of infinitely more concern to the church and the world than the history of the two tyrants, Antiochus and Nero. [We had intended to consider some of the current objections against the Year-day theory, particularly that founded on its alleged novelty――“The spiritual common sense of the church,” according to Dr. Maitland, “being set in array against it, from the days of Daniel to those of Wickliffe.” Mr. Elliott has thoroughly examined this position; and the conclusion to which he comes, after a most painstaking inquiry, is――“That from the time of Cyprian, near the middle of the 3d century, even to the time of Joachim and the Waldenses, in the 12th century, there was kept up, by a succession of expositors, a recognition of the precise _Year-day_ principle.” We have carefully examined the grounds of this opinion, and compared them with certain recent and able adverse criticisms, without having had our conviction shaken that, _in the main_, it is correct.] Illustration: THE SITE OF EPHESUS, From the Theatre. Illustration: THE CASTLE AND PORT OF SMYRNA. Illustration: RUINS OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN, PERGAMOS. Illustration: THYATIRA. Illustration: PHILADELPHIA. Illustration: SARDIS. Illustration: PETRIFIED CASCADES AT HEIRAPOLIS. Illustration: THE RUINS OF LAODICEA. {xxix} INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. § I.――_The Writer of the Book of Revelation._