sm and confirmation.

The court without the temple, was that to which the Gentiles had access,
and beyond which their entrance was prohibited. Devout foreigners were
there permitted to pay their devotions to the God of heaven. As the
Gentiles must symbolize those who are not Christians, the occupants of the
outer court, must be the congregation--the nominal worshippers who throng
the outer courts of the Lord, in distinction from the true worshippers.
Such were to have free and unrestricted access to the places of Christian
worship.

The holy city is that in which the temple is situated, and must embrace
the church as a whole, subjected to Gentile rule. Its being trodden under
foot, indicates that the civil polity under which the church would
subsist, should, during the period specified, be under the control of
those who worship only in the outer court.

The forty and two months, is a period of time, corresponding with the
thousand two hundred and three score days of the verse following, the time
and times and half a time of Rev. 12:14, and the corresponding periods of
Rev. 12:6; 13:5; Dan. 7:25; and 12:7; symbolizing a period of twelve
hundred and sixty years, according to the almost unanimous opinion of
Protestant writers.

This period does not commence with this epoch, but began with the
subjection of Christianity to the power of the civil arm, which was to
continue during the time predicted,--notwithstanding the reaedjustment of
the temple-worship,--when Christians should cease to be responsible to any
human tribunal for the orthodoxy of their faith.

During the same period, also, power to prophesy, though shrouded in
sackcloth, was to be given to:

Christ's Two Witnesses.

"And I will give charge to my two witnesses, and they will
prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in
sackcloth. These are the two olive-trees, and the two lamp-stands,
standing before the Lord of the earth. And if any one wisheth to
injure them, fire proceedeth from their mouth, and devoureth their
enemies: and if anyone wisheth to injure them, he must thus be
killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it may not rain in
the days of their prophecy: and they have power over the waters to
turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as
often as they wish. And when they shall have finished their
testimony, the wild beast that ascendeth out of the abyss will