We have the great “seven times” (2,520) connected with the duration of Israel’s punishment, and of the Gentiles’ power. We have in Daniel and the Apocalypse the half of this great period presented as “days” (1,260), as “months” (42), and as “times,” or years (3‐½). Futurists believe that these “days” and “months,” etc., _interpret for us_ the purposes and counsels of God as connected with “the time of the end,” and as meaning literal “days” and “months,” etc. Historicists take these terms and themselves _interpret the numbers_, in the sense of a “day” being put for a _year_, and they believe that these “1,260 days” will be fulfilled as 1,260 _years_. One party boldly and ungraciously charges the other with teaching “_The Fallacies of Futurism_”; while the other might well retort with a reference to the _Heresies of Historicism_. But is there any necessity for the existence of two hostile camps? Is it not possible that there may be what we may call a _long_ fulfilment in years? And is it not more than probable that in the time of the end, the crisis, there will also be a _short_ and literal fulfilment in days? We firmly believe that there will be this literal and _short_ fulfilment. We believe that when God says “days,” He means _days_; and that when He says “42 months,” He means _months_, and not 1,260 years. In all of the passages referred to by historicists in support of what is called “the year‐day theory,” the Holy Spirit uses these words “days” and “years” in the sense of days and years. In the two particular instances of Israel’s wanderings (Num. xiv. 34), and Ezekiel’s prophesying (Ezek. iv. 6), He chooses to take the _number_ of days as denoting the _same number_ of years; but He does not tell us that we are to do the same in other cases! He only asserts His sovereignty by thus acting, while we only show our presumption in taking His sovereign act as a general principle. But while fully believing in the _short_ fulfilment, we are quite prepared to admit that there may be a _long_ fulfilment _as well_; and that, owing to the wondrous harmony, and marvellous correspondence, and infinite wisdom of all the works and ways of God, there may be a fulfilment, or rather a “filment,” if we may coin the word, in years, which will be only a foreshadowing of the literal _ful_‐filment afterwards to take place in _days_. If historicists will allow us this liberty as to _interpretation_, and permit us to believe that God means what He says, we will give them some remarkable evidence in support of their views, by way of _application_. In other words, if they will allow us to _interpret_ “days” as meaning days, we will gladly allow them, and be at one with them, in _applying_ them to years. So that while we believe the _interpretation_ to mean “days,” and to teach a _short_ fulfilment at the time of the end, we will thankfully admit an _application_ which shall take these days as foreshowing a _long_ fulfilment in years.