to
know to a certainty the season of the year, in order to fix an important
date in prophecy, is the one case in which Inspiration gives exactly the
particulars. Who cannot see the hand of God in this?

The combined record of Neh. 1:1; 2:1 and Ezra 7:7-9,[H] shows that
Artaxerxes came to the throne between the fifth month of the Jewish year
and the ninth month,--roughly, between August and December,--or in the
autumn. The Bible gives one part of the record, and Ptolemy's canon
gives another part; and by the combined record we know that Artaxerxes
came to the throne late in the year 464 B.C., and thus the seventh year
of his reign would be 457 B.C. This is the date fixed by other sources
of reliable chronology also, Sir Isaac Newton having worked out several
lines of evidence from ancient authorities, in each case reaching the
year 464 B.C. as the first of Artaxerxes, which makes the seventh to be
457 B.C.

In the seventh year of Artaxerxes the commandment went forth to restore
and to build Jerusalem, and this event fixes the beginning of the 2300
years, as also of the 490 years cut off from it upon the Jewish people.

That year, 457 B.C., therefore, is a date of profound
importance. It stands like the golden milestone in the ancient Forum at
Rome, from which ran out all the measurements of distance to the ends of
the empire. From this date, 457 B.C., run out the golden
threads of time prophecy that touch events in the earthly life and the
heavenly ministry of Jesus that are of deepest eternal interest to all
mankind today.

The Ransom Paid

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy-seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
Can cleanse my guilty soul indeed.

Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full provision made.

--_Nikolaus Zinzendorf._

[Illustration: THE ANOINTING OF JESUS AT HIS BAPTISM

"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power."
Acts 10:38. (See Matt. 3:16.)]

FOOTNOTES:

[G] The dates placed in the margin of the King James Version indicate a
period of fifteen years between the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel.
This was because in former days it was thought that Belshazzar was the
Bible name of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, who reigned seventeen
years. In that case, from "the third year" of his reign, when the
prophecy of Daniel 8 wa