Address —
[Let every one in his place and station be as Daniel, a man of prayer. Others besides Daniel have had immediate answers to prayer s : and God promises that we also shall be answered as speedily as ever Daniel was, if it will really be for our good '. If any one be discouraged for want of an answer to his prayers, let him remember that God may have answered them already, though unperceived, and in a way not contem- plated by the suppliant himself. An angel is mentioned by the prophet Zechariah as answered, not in the way that he had
i Here it may be shewn what attention is paid to this throughout our whole Liturgy.
r Matt. vii. 7, 8. s Acts x. 30, 31. t Isai. lxv. 24.
desired, but "with good and comfortable words u." And Paul, when praying for the removal of the thorn in his flesh, had it not removed, but sanctified, and grace given to him to improve it aright x. Know then, whether you see it or not, that God both does, and will, answer your petitions. Only let them be humble, and believing, and they shall never go forth in vain.]
" Zech. i. 12, 13. x 2 Cor. xii. 9.
Dan. ix. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy , and to anoint the most Holy.
IT has pleased God on many occasions to manifest his regard to prayer ; and to give such speedy and gracious answers to it as should encourage all his people to pour out their hearts before him. Daniel, having understood by books that the seventy years' captivity in Babylon were drawing to a close, set himself by fasting and prayer to implore mercy for himself and his captive nation : and God instantly sent an angel to testify the acceptance of his prayers, and to reveal to him the period fixed for that far greater deliverance, which should in due time be effected by the Messiah. " Seventy weeks," according to the prophetic language, mean seventy weeks of years, that is, four hundred and ninety years, a day for a yeara. Commentators are not agreed respect- ing the precise year from which the numeration of them begins b: but, according to any calculation, the
a Ezek. iv. 6. There is a remarkable coincidence between the se- venty years at the end of which this temporal deliverance was to take place, and the seventy weeks of years when the great Deliverer was to come. That space of time (four hundred and ninety years) includes ten Jubilees ; at the last of which", not one nation only, but all the nations of the world should hear the sound of the gospel-trumpet, and be restored to their forfeited inheritance.
b The more approved calculations are those which are dated from the seventh, or from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and the latter by lunar years.