Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, Vol. 1 (1910)

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GREAT PYRAMID PASSAGES

GREAT PYRAMID PASSAGES NOTICE—the price of this volume is 5/6 ($1.35).

Further copies may be procured by applying to Morton Edgar, 224 West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland; or to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society,—Brooklyn Tabernacle, N.Y., U.S.A.

THE

GREAT PYRAMID PASSAGES

AND CHAMBERS

IN WHICH IS SHOWN HOW

THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH

SYMBOLICALLY AND BY MEASUREMENT

CORROBORATES THE

PHILOSOPHY AND PROPHETIC TIMES AND SEASONS

OF

THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES

AS CONTAINED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

TOGETHER WITH

TWENTY-TWO LETTERS FROM EGYPT AND PALESTINE

BY

JOHN EDGAR

M.A., B.Sc., M.B., C.M., F.R.F.P.S.G.

AND

MORTON EDGAR

VOLUME I (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

GLASGOW:

BONE & HULLEY, DUNDAS STREET 1910 NOTE.

In the short interval during which this volume was in the press, Dr. John Edgar has passed beyond the vail. Although his departure causes a vacancy in our lives, we rejoice in the confidence that our beloved brother now realizes the blessedness of those who "die in the Lord." We sorrow not as others who have no hope.

PREFACE

As the purpose and scope of this work, and the circumstances which led to its preparation and publication, are commented upon elsewhere, we do not require to further allude to them here.

In the present volume, which deals mostly with the symbolical features of the Great Pyramid's teachings, the measurements stated are, generally, only approximate; these will be detailed more accurately in the second volume, which will enter into the Great Pyramid's corroborations of the time features of the Plan of the Ages.

As later investigators, we are indebted to past writers on the pyramids for much valuable data, especially to the three great pioneers, Col. Howard Vyse and Professors C. Piazzi Smyth and Flinders Petrie, all of whom we frequently quote, and from whose works a number of our line-drawings of the Great Pyramid are copied with modifications, bringing them more into accordance with present day knowledge. In this connection, we gratefully acknowledge the services of Mr. J. A. Hannah, C.E., of Glasgow, who prepared many of these finely executed diagrams. The illustrations of Jerusalem, etc., in our letters from the Holy Land, are small reproductions of the beautiful drawings in Picturesque Palestine, edited by Colonel Wilson. The photo-engravings are the work of Messrs. André & Sleigh, London.

We desire to express our warm appreciation of the many acts of kindness accorded us by numerous friends,—among whom we wish specially to mention our dear old friend, the late Mr. Wm. Ford of Bristol,—which have greatly encouraged us in our work.

Lastly, our prayer is that our labours may be blessed by the Lord, without whom no work shall prosper. May this book be used to stimulate its readers to still greater activity and zeal in His harvest-field.

September, 1910.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I The Origin, Purpose, and General Description of the Great Pyramid, - 11

II The Divine Plan of the Ages, - - - - - 23

III The Chart of the Ages, - - - - - 29

IV The Great Pyramid in Type and Antitype, - - - - 37

V The Passage and Chamber System of the Great Pyramid, - 45

VI The Symbolism of the Passages and Chambers of the Great Pyramid, 61

VII The Symbolism of the Passages and Chambers of the Great Pyramid more Fully Considered:

(A) The King's and Queen's Chambers, - - - - 66

(B) The Descending Passage and Subterranean Chamber, - - 71

(C) The First Ascending Passage, - - - - 77

(D) The Horizontal Passage to the Queen's Chamber, - - 81

(E) The Grand Gallery and the Ante-Chamber to the King's Chamber, 83 LETTERS FROM EGYPT AND PALESTINE.

LETTER. PAGE.

Introductory Note, 98

I Bristol Hotel, Cairo, 99

II Arab Village, near Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 103

IV Tent at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 121

V Train en route for Cairo, 132

VI Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 135

XI Train en route for Port Said, 183

XII Hotel Fast, Jerusalem, 187

XIII Hotel Fast, Jerusalem, 194

XIV Hotel Du Parc, Jaffa, 202

XV Hotel Fast, Jerusalem, 212

XVI Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 217

XVII Train en route for Cairo, 222

XVIII Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 231

XX Mariette's House, Sakkara, 253

XXI Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 271

XXII Train en route for Port Said, 287 LIST OF PLATES

AL MAMOUN'S FORCED PASSAGE.

PLATES. Par. ref.

LXIV Cavity on west side of Granite Plug, - - - 328

LXV Same as above, showing lower end of First Ascending Passage, 328

Also Plates V, XXIX, LXIV, LXV, LXIX, LXX.

ANTE-CHAMBER.

CXVIII Space between north wall and Granite Leaf, - - 475

CXIX South side of Granite Leaf, - - - 476

CXX Upper portion of west side, - - - 479

CXXI South wall, - - - - 492

CASING-STONES OF GREAT PYRAMID.

VII Discovery of casing-stones by Col. Howard Vyse, - - 85

VIII Fragment of casing-stone adhering by cement to other stones, 86

XXIII Whole row of nineteen, looking west, - - - 223

XXIV Two largest at east end, looking west, - - - 226

XXV Butt-joint between pavement and platform, - - - 227

XXVI Whole row of nineteen, looking east, - - - 226

XXVII Front and top view, showing fissure in rock, - - - 228

XXIX Front view, with Hadji Ali Gabri pointing out Al Mamoun's forced passage, - - - - - 229

XXX Front view, showing angle-stones above Entrance, - - 229

XLIII Whole row of nineteen, top view, looking west, - - - 260

XLIV Two largest at east end, looking east, - - - - 273

XLV Workmen removing debris from front of casing-stones, - - 273

XLVI Front view of largest at east end, - - - - 273

XLVII Front view, with Mr. Covington and another man standing, - 276

CII Front view, with Hadji Ali Gabri standing near largest at east end,

Also Plates XL, XLI, CXXXV, CXXXVI.

COMPLETE PYRAMIDS.

PLATES.

XXXIV North front of Second Pyramid, - - - - 248

XXXVIII North front of Third Pyramid, - - - - 252

LXXVI North front of Great Pyramid, with tents, - - - - 335

LXXVII North-west angle of Great Pyramid, showing gap between it and tents, 335

LXXIX North-west angle of Great Pyramid, from south of tents, - - 340

LXXXII North-west angle of Great Pyramid, from tent door, - - 348

CXIII Portion of north front of Great Pyramid, near view, - - 473

CXXVII First Pyramid south of Gizeh group, showing huts on top, - 510

CXXX Abusir ruined Pyramid, - - - - 512

CXXXI Sakkara ruined Pyramid, - - - - 512

CXXXII Sakkara Step Pyramid, - - - - 512

CXXXXVII Dashur Pyramids, from the Sakkara Pyramids, - - - 517

CXL Great Pyramid from the south-west, with trees in foreground, - 522

CXLI Pyramids of Gizeh, from the east, with Arab village in foreground, 524

CXLII Pyramids of Gizeh, from south of the Third Pyramid, - - 525

CXLIV Great Pyramid, from the sand-hills above Mena House Hotel, - 527

CLIV Great Pyramid, with summit obscured by mist, - - - 574

Also Plates II, XXXII, LXXVIII, CXXVIII, CXXXIX, CXLIII.

DESCENDING PASSAGE.

XI Sectional drawing, showing junction of First Ascending Passage, - 96

XXXI Entrance, showing angle-stones above, - - - - 229

XLVIII Opposite lower end of Well, John descending, - - - - 284

LI Hard-caked mud in lower east corner, - - - - 292

LII Lower east corner, with hard-caked mud removed, - - - 293

LXXX Sectional drawing of north end, looking west, - - - - 337

CLXII Opposite lower end of Well, Judah ascending, - - - - 587

Also Plates X, XLIX, LXVI, LXVII, LXVIII.

FIRST ASCENDING PASSAGE.

CX Drawing, showing the system of masonry, - - - - 462

Also Plates XI, LXIV, LXV.

GRAND GALLERY.

XII Drawing of north end, plan and vertical section, looking west, - 102

XIII Sectional drawing of north end, looking south, - - - - 102

XVIII Sectional drawing of north end, showing Queen's Chamber floor-line produced, - - - - 126

CXVI Step at upper or south end, - - - - 474

CXVII Doorway of small passage leading to Ante-Chamber, - - - 474

CXLIX East Ramp at north wall, - - - - 535

CLIII North wall, - - - - 575

CLV North wall, from a drawing by Muirhead Bone, - - - - 576 GRAND GALLERY (Continued).

PLATES. Par. ref.

CLVI Near view of cut-off of floor, - - - - 580

CLVII Entrance of Horizontal Passage to Queen's Chamber from Grand Gallery, - - - - 579

CLVIII Looking south, from near north wall, - - - 580

Also Plates XX, CXLV, CXLVI, CXLVII, CXLVIII.

GRANITE PLUG.

LXVI Lower butt-end, from the Descending Passage, - - - 331

LXVIII Lower butt-end, John measuring, - - - 332

LXIX Exposed west side of upper end, from Al Mamoun's cavity, - 333

LXX Upper butt-end, from First Ascending Passage, - - - 334

Also Plates XI, LXIV, LXV.

GROTTO.

CL Drawing, plan and vertical section, looking north, - - - 541

CLI Looking north, showing entrance doorway from Well-shaft, - - 542

HORIZONTAL PASSAGE TO QUEEN'S CHAMBER.

CLIX Step in floor, - - - - - - 585

Also Plates XIV, XIX, XVIII, CLVII, CLVIII, CLX.

KING'S CHAMBER.

XV Sectional drawing, looking west, showing Chambers of Construction, 107

XVI Sectional drawing, looking north, showing Chambers of Construction, 112

XX Sectional drawing, looking west, with figures, - - - 178

CXXII North-west corner, showing Coffer, - - - 493

CXXIII Mouth of south air-channel, - - - - 497

CXXIV Doorway of entrance passage, - - - - 498

CXXV The Coffer, - - - - - - 498

MAPS.

I Perspective map of Lower Egypt, - - - - - 10

II Gizeh Pyramid plateau, - - - - - 12

III Lower Egypt, showing sector-shaped land, - - - - 13

IV Of the world, showing land-central position of the Great Pyramid, 14

LXXXV Jerusalem, - - - - - - 360

XC Lower Egypt, and lower Palestine, - - - - - 384 MISCELLANEOUS

PLATES.

VI Chart of the Ages, - - - - - - - 46

XXI S.S. Martaban, en route for Egypt, - - - - 216

XXII An Eastern threshing-floor, - - - - 219

XXXIII Erecting tent in front of Great Pyramid, - - - 245

XXXVI Human skulls in temple of Second Pyramid, - - - 249

XLII Donkey-boy arriving with water at sunrise, - - - 256

LXXVIII Avenue and tramway-track to Pyramids of Gizeh, - - - 336

LXXXI Rubbish-mound at west base of Great Pyramid, - - - 340

LXXXIII On the balcony of the Du Parc Hotel, Jaffa, - - - 354

LXXXIV A Jaffa porter, - - - - - - 356

XCVIII Mouth of tomb-shaft in Tombs of the Kings, - - - 408

CIII Rock-hewn tombs to the west of the Great Pyramid, - - - 441

CXV Kitchen-tent, with cook working in front, - - - - 473

CXXVI Donkey-riding at the Sakkara Pyramids, - - - - 505

CXXXXVIII Trial Passages, vertical section and plan, - - - - 520

CLXIV S.S. Martaban, en route for home, - - - - - 600

PALESTINE.

LXXXVI Church of the Holy Sepulchre, - - - - 362

LXXXVII St. Stephen's Gate, - - - - 372

LXXXVIII Church of the Nativity, - - - - 379

LXXXIX Cave underneath the Church of the Nativity, - - - 380

XCI Jews' wailing-place, - - - - 394

XCII Lower end of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, - - - 397

XCIII Village of Siloam, - - - - 398

XCIV Valley of Jehoshaphat, from Temple Area, showing three large tombs, 404

XCV Zechariah's Tomb, - - - - 400

XCVI Threshing-floors on the summit of the Mount of Olives, - - 405

XCVII Tombs of the Kings, - - - - 406

XCIX Jerusalem, from the balcony of Fast's hotel, - - - 413

C Model of Solomon's Temple, - - - - 418

CI Model of Herod's Temple, - - - - 418

CIV Model of the Mosque of Omar, - - - - 447

CV Mosque of Omar, from the south, - - - - 447

CVI Under the dome of the Mosque of Omar, - - - - 449

CVII Cave underneath the Mosque of Omar, - - - - 448

CVIII Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives, - - - - 452

CIX Jerusalem, from Mount Scopus, - - - - 454 PANORAMIC VIEWS.

LXXV Delta of the Nile, with tents in foreground, - - - 335

CXI Eastward, from "Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh," - - 471

CXIV North-westward, from "Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh," - 472

CXXVIII Gizeh Pyramids from the south, - - - 511

Also Plates CXXVI, CXXXVII.

PORTRAITS AND GROUPS.

LXXI Judah, the Pyramid attendant, - - - 335

LXXII Sayd, the waiter, - - - 335

LXXIII Ferrali, the cook, - - - 335

LXXIV Abraheem Faid, the Reis, - - - 335

CXII Group at dining-tent door, - - - 471

CXXIX Abdul Salam Faid, the tent-contractor, - - - 506

Also Plates XXVII, XLII, LXXXIII, CII, CXXII, CXXIV, CXXV.

QUEEN'S CHAMBER.

XIV Sectional drawing, looking west, - - - 102

XIX Sectional drawing, looking east, - - - 142

CLX Doorway of entrance passage, - - - 586

CLXI East wall, showing Niche, - - - 588

CLXIII Mouth of north air-channel, - - - 593

Also Plate XVIII.

SAKKARA PYRAMIDS.

CXXXV Casing-stones on the west side of one of the Sakkara Pyramids, - 515

CXXXVI Casing-stones and temple on the east side of do. do., - 516

Also Plates CXXXI, CXXXII, CXXXIV.

SECOND PYRAMID OF GIZEH.

XXXV Temple foundations on the east side, - - - 248

XXXVII Mouth of the upper Entrance, - - - 250

Also Plates II, VIII, XXVIII, XXXIV, LXXVIII, CXXVIII, CXXXIII, CXLI, CXLII, CXLIII.

SECTIONAL DRAWINGS OF COMPLETE PYRAMIDS.

V Plan of the Great Pyramid, - - - 25

IX Vertical section of the Great Pyramid, looking west, - - 89

XVII Vertical section of the Great Pyramid, looking north, - - 116

XXVIII Vertical section of the Second Pyramid, looking west, - - 228

XXXIX Vertical section of the Third Pyramid, looking west, - - 252

CXXXIII Vertical sections of all the Pyramids of Gizeh, - - - 514

CXXXIV Vertical sections of all the Pyramids of Egypt, other than those of Gizeh, - - - 514 SMALL HORIZONTAL PASSAGE TO SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER.

PLATES. Par. ref.

XLIX Entrance at lower end of Descending Passage, - - - 290

L Entrance at lower end of Descending Passage, on west side, - 291

LVIII Recess on west side, looking south, - - - 303

Also Plates X. LV. LVII.

SPHINX.

XXXII Near view, with the Great Pyramid in the background, - 232

CXXXIX Viewed from hill to the south of the Great Pyramid, - 521

CXLIII Near view, with the Second Pyramid in the background, - 524 Also Plate CXLI.

SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER.

X Drawing, vertical sections and plan, - - - - 92

LIII Looking west, showing large rock-mounds, - - - 299

LIV North-west corner, showing recess, - - - - 300

LV North wall, showing entrance doorway, - - - - 301

LVI Opening of vertical shaft, looking south, - - - - 301

LVII Doorway of entrance passage, - - - - 302

LX Doorway of little south passage, - - - - 306

LXI East wall, - - - - - 308

THIRD PYRAMID OF GIZEH.

XL Entrance, and granite casing-stones, - - - 255

XLI Temple platform, and granite casing-stones, - - - 255

Also Plates II, XXXVIII, XXXIX, LXXVIII, CXXVIII, CXXXIII, CXLI, CXLII.

WELL.

LXII Mouth of lower end, Judah ascending shaft, - - 316

CXLV Drawing of mouth of upper end, looking north-west, - 531

CLII Mouth of lower end, showing granite stone in Descending Passage,

Also Plates X, XII, XIII, XVIII, XLVIII, CL, CLI, CLXII.

BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF LOWER EGYPT, AND DELTA OF THE NILE. (LOOKING NORTH) SHOWING THE POSITION OF THE PYRAMIDS RELATIVE THERETO.

PLATE I.

The MEDITERRANEAN SEA

BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF LOWER EGYPT, AND DELTA OF THE NILE, (LOOKING NORTH)

SHOWING THE POSITION OF THE PYRAMIDS RELATIVE THERETO.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN, PURPOSE, AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID.

Of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in the land of Egypt, because it is the oldest building in the world and because of its immense size, has been universally recognized as standing pre-eminent, it has also proved itself the most enduring, for it is the only one of the seven which remains. For forty-one centuries it has kept silent watch over the Delta of the Nile, at the southern apex of which it stands; and each succeeding generation has asked itself the question: For what purpose was it built, and who was the architect? Many have been the theories put forward in the past to answer this question, but all of them so inconclusive that, although the true answer has within recent years been brought to light by a few patient investigators, the lines of the Italian poet Petrocchi well expresses the attitude of men's minds in general toward this great monument—

"I ask'd of Time: 'To whom arose this high Majestic pile, here mouldering in decay?' He answer'd not, but swifter sped his way, With ceaseless pinions winnowing the sky. To Fame I turn'd: 'Speak thou, whose sons defy The waste of years, and deathless works essay!' She heaved a sigh, as one to grief a prey, And silent, downward cast her tearful eye. Onward I pass'd, but sad and thoughtful grown, When, stern in aspect, o'er the ruin'd shrine I saw Oblivion stalk from stone to stone. 'Dread power!' I cried, 'tell me whose vast design—' He check'd my further speech, in sullen tone! 'Whose once it was, I care not; now'tis mine!"

2 Among the theories which have been advocated, it has been claimed that the Great Pyramid was a temple to the Sun and Moon, a building on which to burn sacred fire, a granary for Joseph, a place of refuge from a second deluge, a place of refuge when the heavens should fall, an astronomical observatory, etc., but the theory which has found most favour is that which claims that it is a gigantic mausoleum. Concerning all the pyramids of Egypt, and particularly the Great Pyramid, the Rev. Andrew Thomson, D.D., wrote in his well-known work, In the Holy Land," And who built those titanic structures, and what was the design of their builders? These are questions that have been repeated since the Father of history, more than two thousand years ago, looked up on those same time-defying piles, and thought them old .

The old and popular supposition which regards them as royal tombs or monuments continues by far the most probable, especially when it is considered that human remains have actually been found in some of the smaller pyramids . On this supposition, with the name of the monarch that erected them to his own glory buried in impenetrable oblivion, what a monument are they at once of human power, folly, and crime!

3 "Yet these mountain structures which were almost contemporaneous in their erection with the beginning of human history, and may very possibly be standing at its close, suggest more than one conclusion. They prove at how early a period human rule assumed the form of gigantic despotisms. We learn from Herodotus that twenty thousand men, relieved every three months, were employed for twenty years in erecting the one Pyramid of Cheops [the Great Pyramid of Gizeh]. The energies of a whole nation were bent for so long a period, and its resources drained, to gratify the mad ambition of one of the earliest of the Pharoahs. And they also place it beyond doubt that Egypt must have been one of the first peopled countries, as well as one of the earliest cradles of the arts. There must have been something more than mere brute strength—a considerable knowledge of some of the great mechanical laws, as well as of the rules of masonry—to be able to raise those huge blocks to their appointed place, and to rear those Pyramids. And when we find among Egypt's earliest tomb-paintings and imperishable frescoes, pictures of the shoemaker's knife, of the weaver's hand-shuttle, and of the whitesmith's blowpipe as it is used in our own days, we cannot admit that there is a shade of extravagance in those lines of the old bard,—

Productive cradle of the first of men."

4 However true it may be that some, possibly all, of the smaller pyramids were built as tombs, we hope to give abundant proof that the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, at all events, was not intended as a tomb, but that, while constructed by man, it is like the Bible of Divine origin, elected for the purpose of teaching the important truth of God's infinite wisdom and foreknowledge. The first to propose and prove this view was John Taylor of London in a book published in 1859 A.D. and entitled The Great Pyramid: why was it built? and who built it? What convinced him was mainly the many important scientific truths which he found to be embodied in this wonderful structure, but he was assisted greatly in coming to this conclusion by reasoning on the basis of information derived from the writings of Herodotus and Manetho. The former recorded that the Egyptians detested the memory of the kings who caused their forefathers to build the Great and Second Pyramids, partly because of this, and partly because they made them close their temples, and that for this reason they were not willing to mention their names, but called the two pyramids after Philition, a shepherd who at that time fed his cattle about the place. Manetho, himself an Egyptian, wrote: "There came up from the East, in a strange manner, men of an ignoble race, who had the confidence to invade our country, and easily subdue it without a battle. All this invading nation was styled Hyksos, that is, Shepherd Kings." He then related how afterwards they departed for Judea and built a city there, named Jerusalem. This was long before the Exodus under Moses.

5 John Taylor, remembering the idolatrous and immoral practices of the Egyptians, reasoned that these invaders whom they detested, were probably of purer worship and character; and he thought that the evidences pointed to their being members of God's chosen race in the direct line of, but preceding, Abraham,—possibly under Shem himself or Melchizedec, though he inclined to the belief that the master builders were the thirteen sons of Joktan, son of Eber, the great-grandson of Shem. If so, this would easily account for the Egyptians' hatred of their rulers, because, not only were the Egyptians as a subject people forced to build the Pyramid and to close their own temples, but they must have seen the bulls, which they worshipped, sacrificed by these "men of an ignoble race." From that day every shepherd was "an abomination unto the Egyptians"—Compare Gen. 46:32-34; Exod.8:25,26; Gen.43:32. Whether or not this surmise be correct, evidence will be given in the following pages that John Taylor was right when he declared that the Great Pyramid was of Divine origin.

6 Concerning the Shepherd Kings, the following extract from John Taylor's work is full of suggestive interest:—"They came into the country as strangers; they were not of the same race nor of the same religion with the Mizraim [Egyptians], who preceded them in its occupation; they did not invade it as conquerors, though, as Manetho tells us, 'they easily subdued it by their power without a battle.' They must, therefore, have come either in such large numbers as to make opposition hopeless, or they must have been received as benefactors by the common people whom they employed; and it was only after their departure that their memory was calumniated by the stories told of their oppression. They were evidently animated by a strong desire to perform a certain task, and when they had accomplished it they left the country of their own accord, confiding to the care of the original inhabitants those wonderful works by which they had enriched and ennobled the land. They never returned to claim any interest in the fruits of their labours, but occupied some other country, in which they erected no such monuments as these. They were so far like conquerors, or tyrants as they were called, that they were, for the time being, the ruling power of the country. They employed the common people in realizing their magnificent conceptions, for which they must have given them the most minute directions; and this evident superiority of intellect may have caused the ignorant to envy and misrepresent them. But that they improved the condition of the people among whom they took up their abode during not less than 100 years, must be admitted by all who know how greatly an inferior race is benefited by the invasion of a superior."

7 Before his death, John Taylor requested Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, at that time Astronomer Royal for Scotland, to go to Egypt and make a thorough scientific examination of the Great Pyramid. This Professor Smyth did during the winter 1864-5. In his Life and Work at the Great Pyramid, he has left on record minute measurements of every important part of the structure, except, on the exterior, the few remaining casing-stones, and, in the interior, the Subterranean Chamber or Pit, and the lower three-fourths of the Descending Passage. Large accumulations of rubbish prevented him from exploring these portions. With the exception of minute fractional differences in certain parts, these measurements have since been confirmed by other scientific investigators, prominent among whom is Professor Flinders Petrie, in spite of the fact that he ridicules the various scientific and religious theories warmly advocated by Professor Smyth.

15°

20°

25°

30°

35°

40°

-58

95°

50°

55°

60°

5°

70°

THIRD PYRAMID

ENTRANCE

SECOND PYRAMID

ROCK LIFT AWAY FOR LEVEL

WEST TOMBS

EDGARS TENTS

JUNE-JULY-1909

ANCIENT WAY

COMPOSED OF THE DEPOSITED DURING

MAP OF THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH

SHOWING THEIR POSITION ON THE FLAT-TOPPED HILL OF ROCK WHICH

RISES JUST SOUTH OF THE LOW DELTA LAND OF LOWER EGYPT.

MERIDIAN SECTION THROUGH THE GREAT PYRAMID AND ITS HILL (LOOKING WEST)

8 Consequent upon the work of Professor Smyth, many able minds have been awakened to search into the various problems presented by the Great Pyramid.

Some of these investigators have claimed not only that it embodies great scientific truths, but also that it sets forth symbolically and by measurement the Divine plan of salvation, that, in fact, it is Messianic. Among the supporters of this view was Professor Smyth himself; but the chief one has been C. T. Russell, Pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, N.Y. Previous to his study of the Great Pyramid, he had discovered many wonderful truths in the Scriptures regarding the plan of salvation, truths which revealed the harmonious co-operation of Divine wisdom, justice, love and power, and therefore exalted his conception of the character and purposes of the creator and sustainer of the universe. With his mind clarified by the knowledge thus gained, he was enabled to discover symbolic and prophetic features in the Great Pyramid, which had necessarily been hidden from previous Pyramid students.

9 The joint-authors of Great Pyramid Passages, having discovered in the years 1904, 1905, various beautiful confirmations of the prophetic features of the Divine plan as explained by C. T. Russell in the second and third volumes of his Scripture Studies, set themselves in April of the year 1906 seriously to investigate the various claims made by him in his article on the Great Pyramid at the end of the third volume, and, thanks to the knowledge which they had previously gained, they were not long in coming to the conclusion that these claims were well founded. Accordingly, seeking the Lord's continued guidance, they at once decided to investigate the subject further, and were rewarded as day by day first one, and then the other, discovered fresh beauties in the symbolic and prophetic teaching of this marvellous structure. In the course of five or six weeks most of the Pyramid features described in the first and second volumes of Great Pyramid Passages were discovered. For various reasons publication has been delayed until now. Chief among these is the fact that in the summer of 1909 the joint authors made a personal visit to the Great Pyramid in order to investigate it at first hand, especially for the purpose of taking photographs, measuring the Descending Passage and Subterranean Chamber, and examining the Girdles in the First Ascending Passage, first described by Waynman Dixon, C.E. At the end of this volume will be found several letters from Egypt and Palestine, most of them originally written by one of the authors, but since revised, re-arranged and enlarged by both.

10 With this introduction, our attention might now be directed to several items of general interest connected with the Great Pyramid. There are in all about thirty-eight pyramids in Egypt, all of them situated on the western side of the Nile on the border of the Libyan portion of the great Sahara Desert (Plate I), and all of them square-based, with four triangular sloping sides meeting at the top in a point over the centre of the base. But of these, only about seven of the largest are of importance; the remainder are much smaller, and are of such inferior material and workmanship, that they collapsed long ago into rounded ruins, with the result that they are now no longer recognizable as pyramids.

Map showing how The GREAT PYRAMID or GIZEH fulfils ISAIAH XIX-19 being situated at the BORDER, while marking the CENTRE of the Sector-shaped land of Lower Egypt.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

LOWER EGYPT

LIBYAN DESERT

Abu Rosah

GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH

Zowyet Abusier

Sakkara

Dashur

Cairo

Heluan

Suez

GITTER LAKES

PLATE III.

11 Of all the pyramids the one which pre-eminently attracts the attention of tourists as well as of pyramid students, is that which by common consent has been named the Great Pyramid, or simply The Pyramid. This is partly because of its superior size, but chiefly because of the extraordinary skill of workmanship which it displays.

12 Location of the Great Pyramid. It is one of a group of nine, known as the nine pyramids of Gizeh, erected on a rocky plateau about ten miles to the west of the modern city of Cairo. The Great Pyramid is the most northern of the group, and is situated near the cliff which forms the edge of the plateau—Plate II. A short distance directly south-west from it is the Second Pyramid, which, though smaller, appears from some view-points, because its foundation is higher, as if it were larger than the Great Pyramid. Still further to the south-west is the Third Pyramid, which is much smaller than the other two. The remaining six are in two groups of three, one to the south of the Third Pyramid, and the other to the east of the Great Pyramid. These are comparatively very small and are in ruins. To the south-east of the Great Pyramid lies the Sphinx, carved out of the rock, and with its gaze directed towards the rising sun.

13 Professor C. Piazzi Smyth first drew attention to the fact that the Great Pyramid is exactly oriented, that is to say, its four sides are directed to the four cardinal points of the compass; and he pointed out further that when the vertical plane of the Pyramid passages is produced northwards, it passes along the central axis of the Delta region; while the north-east and the north-west diagonals of the building similarly produced, enclose the Delta "in a symmetrical and well-balanced manner"—Plate III. In 1868, Mr. Mitchell, chief hydrographer to the United States Coast Survey, was struck with the regularity of the general convex curvature of the northern coast of the Delta. Taking a good map and a pair of compasses, he tried various lengths and directions of radius till "he had got all the prominent coast points to be evenly swept by his arc; and then looking to see where his southern centre was, found it upon the Great Pyramid." Commenting upon this, Professor Smyth writes:—"Now Lower Egypt being as already described, of a sector, still more exactly than of a Delta, shape, it must have its centre, not like a circle in the middle of its surface, but at one extreme corner thereof. Whereupon Mr. Mitchell has acutely remarked that the building which stands at, or just raised above, such a sectorial centre, must be at one and the same time both at the border thereof, and yet at its quasi, or practically governing, middle. That is to say, just as was to be that grandly honoured prophetic monument, pure and undefiled in its religious bearing, though in the idolatrous Egyptian land, alluded to by Isaiah (ch. xix); for was it not fore-ordained by the Divine Word to be both 'an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar' at the border thereof,'—an apparent mechanical impossibility, yet realized in the sectorial centre condition of the Great Pyramid."

14 Of several other geographical peculiarities possessed by the site of the Great Pyramid, mention may be made of the fact that there is more land surface in both its meridian and its latitude than in any other meridian and latitude; while its nether meridian, the longitude continuous with it on the other side of the globe, ranges its whole length through water except for a short distance near Behring's frozen straits Plate IV. For this reason, Professor C. Piazzi Smyth claimed that the meridian of the

Map of the World

OR PROFESSOR C. PIAZZI SMYTH'S

EQUAL-SURFACE PROJECTION

OF THE EARTH'S SPHERE

showing how

The GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH

in the Land of Egypt

IS SITUATED IN THE

CENTRE OF THE EARTH Great Pyramid is by far the most suitable zero of longitude for all nations.

15 Magnitude of the Great Pyramid. Owing to the difficulty of making exact measurements on account of the absence of almost all the casing stones, and especially because of the presence of huge mounds of rubbish round the base of the Great Pyramid, it has hitherto been impossible to state with absolute accuracy the magnitude of this mountain of stone. Professor C. Piazzi Smyth calculated the vertical height of the ancient apex above the mean socket floor as 485 feet; the vertical depth of the Subterranean Chamber below the mean socket floor as 100 feet; each base-side breadth between the corner sockets as 761 feet 8 inches; each base diagonal between the sockets as 1077 feet. Professor Flinders Petrie makes the various measurements slightly less.

16 Unless one is accustomed to think of great dimensions, these figures do not convey an adequate idea of the magnitude of the Great Pyramid. The best plan is to compare it with something with which one is familiar. The area of the square base is more than thirteen acres. The total distance on the level between the four corner sockets is only 160 yards less than two-thirds of a mile, although at present, owing to the large rubbish mounds at the bases of the four sides, one requires to walk for nearly a mile in order to make the circuit. The vertical height is approximately a hundred feet more than that of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and only 70 feet less than the monument at Washington, D.C., U.S.A. It is 180 feet higher than the statue on the summit of the dome of Washington capitol, which building covers an area of three and a half acres. The bulk of the building is more than ninety million cubic feet, that is to say, there is enough stone in the Great Pyramid to build a wall four feet in height and one foot in thickness, which would extend considerably more than 4000 miles, the distance across the Atlantic Ocean from Great Britain to Newfoundland and back.

17 Other Scientific features. As the purpose of this book is to show forth the religious teaching of the Great Pyramid, only a brief mention will be made of a few of the more prominent scientific features embodied in the Great Pyramid. For a full description of these and many other features, the reader who is interested in such matters is referred to Professor C. Piazzi Smyth's works, of which Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid is the chief.

18 Squaring the circle. The scientific feature which was first discovered, was that the ancient vertical height of the Great Pyramid was to twice the breadth of its square base, as the diameter of a circle is to its circumference, that is, 5813 inches is to twice 9131 inches, as 1 is to 3.14159. This ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference receives from mathematicians the name of the Greek letter π (Pi), and was first accurately determined by Von Ceulen in the sixteenth century. (Von Ceulen caused his discovery to be engraved upon his tomb.) It follows that the ancient vertical height of the Great Pyramid is the radius of a circle, the circumference of which equals the total measurement of all four sides of the Pyramid's square base. Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, commenting on this, claims it as a practical solution of the old problem of "squaring the circle," and adds, "the thing was thus practically done, truly and properly, at the Great Pyramid thousands of years before those Medieval days of our forefathers . . . Not one out of all the thirty-seven other measured pyramids in Egypt has been proved to be endowed even approximately with this particular proportion of height to breadth of base."

It is to John Taylor that the credit of this discovery is due.

19 The Great Pyramid unit of measure. As a result of painstaking investigation, Professor C. Piazzi Smyth ascertained that the unit of measure employed by the builders of the Great Pyramid, was a cubit which was exactly equal to 25.025 British inches, and was divided into five parts, and each of these into five smaller parts, named by Professor Smyth, Pyramid inches. Thus there are 25 Pyramid inches in a Pyramid cubit, and one Pyramid inch equals 1.001 British inch, or 999 Pyramid inches equal 1000 British inches. Sir Isaac Newton, in his Dissertation on Cubits, claimed that the sacred cubit of the Israelites approximately equalled 25 British inches, while the Egyptian cubit measured 20.68, and the Greek and Roman cubit 18.24, British inches.

The relation of the Pyramid inch and cubit to the earth's axis of rotation. The earth's axis of rotation, or distance through the earth from the North Pole to the South Pole, is approximately 7900 miles, or 500,500,000 inches by British measure. As 1 Pyramid inch equals 1.001 British inch, and the Pyramid cubit contains 25 Pyramid inches, it follows that the earth's axis of rotation measures five hundred million Pyramid inches, or twenty million Pyramid cubits, and the semi-axis of rotation, the distance from either Pole to the centre of the earth, measures two hundred and fifty million Pyramid inches, or ten million Pyramid cubits. Accordingly, Professor Smyth argued that the unit of measure employed in the design of the Great Pyramid was deduced from the earth's semi-axis of rotation. The French metre was deduced from the measurement of the earth's curved surface from the North Pole to the Equator. It was supposed to be the ten millionth part of this measurement, though, owing to an error in the calculation, it is not really so. Professor Smyth contended that the French method of basing their unit of measure on the curved line from Pole to Equator, is not so scientifically true as that employed by the builders of the Great Pyramid, which was based upon the straight line of half the earth's polar axis.

21 The measurement of the day and year in the Great Pyramid. Having seen that the Pyramid unit of measure, the cubit, was deduced from the earth's axis of rotation, it is not surprising to find it employed to symbolize a day, the period of the earth's revolution round its axis; nor to find the breadth of the Pyramid between the corner sockets employed to symbolize a solar year, the exact period of the earth's revolution round the sun. Both the day and the year are thus recorded in the Great Pyramid, for, on calculating the length of the four sides of the Pyramid's square base, Professor Smyth found that they each measured 365.242 Pyramid cubits, or as many cubits exactly as there are days in a solar year to the fraction. Thus, the four sides measure as many cubits as there are days in four years including the leap year. Another method of representing the fact that the Great Pyramid records the exact length of the solar year is to consider its top-stone as the sun; and then measure round the square base by lengths of four cubits (100 Pyramid inches). The total length of the base thus ascertained is 365.242; it thus represents the annual revolution of the earth round the sun at the rate of exactly four cubits per day.

22 The mean distance of the earth from the sun. William Petrie, the father of Professor Flinders Petrie, reflecting on the fact just stated, connected it with John Taylor's discovery that the vertical height of the Great Pyramid was the length of the radius of a circle, the circumference of which equalled the total measurement of the square base.

He came to the conclusion that as the top-stone of the Pyramid, from this point of view, symbolizes the sun, its vertical height should indicate in some way the mean distance of the sun from the earth. The problem was to find the scale. This he ascertained to be ten multiplied by itself nine times (or to use the mathematical sign, 109 ), as shown by the Great Pyramid itself; for, if a measurement be made from one of the corner sockets to the central vertical axis of the structure, and for every ten linear units horizontally inwards, nine linear units be measured vertically upwards, when the total horizontal and vertical measurements are completed, the original apex of the Great Pyramid will be reached. That is, the horizontal length from one of the corner sockets to the centre bears the same proportion to the vertical height of the Pyramid, as ten does to nine (6456.61 Pyramid inches : 5813.01 Pyramid inches :: 10:9). Having found the scale, it was a simple calculation to find how many miles are represented in the vertical height of the Pyramid. Reducing the 5813.01 Pyramid inches (the vertical height of the Pyramid) to British inches, multiplying this by 109 (i.e., 1,000,000,000), and turning the resulting number into British miles, he brought out the quantity of 91,837,484 of these miles, or as near the mean distance of the sun from the earth as modern astronomers can determine.

23 That the top-stone represents the sun is interesting, seeing (as will be proved later) that it symbolizes Christ, who is called by the prophet Malachi the Sun of Righteousness, who will arise with healing in his wings—Mal. 4:2. It will be pointed out further on that the King's Chamber represents Christ's heavenly inheritance which he has obtained in order to shed forth the blessings of light and life. It is interesting, therefore, to learn that twice the length of the King's Chamber in Pyramid inches, taken in conjunction with the angle of the passages which leads up to it, also indicates the period of the earth's revolution round the sun; for if twice the length of the King's Chamber (412· 132× 2) be marked off on the floor of the ascending passages, and a right-angled triangle be formed by drawing a perpendicular and base-line from the upper and lower extremities respectively of this portion of the floor, the perpendicular will be found to measure exactly the number of days in the solar year, or 365.242 in Pyramid inches. Another method by which the King's Chamber shows its connection with the solar year, is explained by Professor Smyth:"Take the length of the King's Chamber 412.132 (Pyramid inches) to express the diameter of a circle. Compute, by the best methods of modern science, the area of that circle; throw that area into a square shape, and find the length of a side of such square. The answer will be 365.242."

24 The Precession of the Equinoxes. Having noted these facts, and learning from them that the architect's knowledge of astronomical matters was abreast of that of modern science, the next astronomical problem to which Professor Smyth applied himself was the determination as to whether the Great Pyramid might also record by its construction the duration of the precession of the equinoxes, the longest regularly recurring period known to astronomers. The return of spring each year is ever received with joy; hence arose the desire to forecast its coming by astronomical data. Long ago it was found that it was always heralded by the equinox, when the sun crosses the celestial equator, and day and night are therefore equal all the world over. "Hence, to mark the equinoctial point among the fixed stars, and to note the place of some brilliant star, whose appearance in the early morning dawn would announce the sun's approach to the equator, was early accomplished with all possible accuracy.

This star once selected, it was believed that it should remain for ever in its place. But a time arrives at last when the bright star, which for more than five hundred years had, with its morning ray, announced the season of flowers, is lost. Each year the interval from the first appearance of the star in the early dawn, up to the equality of day and night, had grown less and less, and now the equinox came, but the star remained invisible, and did not emerge from the sun's beams until the equinox had passed. Long and deeply were these facts pondered and weighed. At length the truth dawned, and the discovery broke upon the unwilling mind that the sun's path among the fixed stars was actually changing, and that his point of crossing the equator was slowly moving backwards towards the west, and leaving the stars behind. The retrograde motion of the equinoctial points, caused the sun to reach those points earlier than it would have done had they remained fixed, and hence arose the precession of the equinoxes. Its rate of motion has been determined, and its vast period of nearly twenty-six thousand years has been fixed. Once revealed, the slow movement of the equinox makes it a fitting hour-hand on the dial of the heavens, with which to measure the revolutions of ages. As the sun's path has been divided into twelve constellations, each filling the twelfth part of the entire circuit of the heavens, for the equinox to pass the twelfth part of the dial, or from one constellation to the next, will require a period of more than two thousand years. Since the astronomer [Hipparchus] first noted the position of this hour-hand on the dial of the stars, but one of its mighty hours of two thousand years has rolled away. In case any record could be found, any chiselled block of granite, exhibiting the place of the equinox among the stars, at its date, no matter if ten thousand years had elapsed, we can reach back with certainty, and fix the epoch of the record. No such monument has ever been found."

25 These words were written in the year 1853 by Professor O. M. Mitchell in his Discoveries of Modern Astronomy. Only a dozen years later, Professor C. Piazzi Smyth demonstrated that such a monument did exist, namely, the Great Pyramid of Gizeh; and not only so, but that it recorded in its measurements the exact duration of the precession of the equinoxes, a period of 25,827 years. To quote his words: "This peculiar celestial cycle, the grand chronological dial, in fact, of the great Pyramid, so much is its architecture found to base upon it, is further defined at that Pyramid, but at no other throughout all Egypt, by, amongst other intentional features, the length of the two diagonals of the base (the mean socket floor level), when their sum is reckoned up in inches, at the rate of a Pyramid inch to a year. For they amount to 25,827 nearly. Further still, this feature is memorialized again at the King's Chamber level of the Great Pyramid; for that chamber's floor being by measure 1702 inches above the socket base of the whole building, Professor H. L. Smith has shown that the circuit of the Pyramid at that level equals 25,827 Pyramid inches [Plate V]. And if the whole vertical height of the Great Pyramid, 5813 inches, typifies the sun-distance [Par. 22], the partial vertical height from the King's Chamber level upwards, 4110, indicates the radius of the precessional circle of the equinoxes, in years."

26 These are but a few of the many scientific features embodied in the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, and were there no others, they would be amply sufficient to show the superior wisdom of its great architect.

GROUND PLAN OF THE GREAT PYRAMID TOGETHER WITH ITS HORIZONTAL SECTIONAL AREA AT THE LEVEL OF THE KING'S CHAMBER FLOOR, SHOWING MODERN RUBBISH HEAPS FIFTY FEET HIGH, AND SHOWING ALSO EXACT POSITION OF COLONEL HOWARD VYSE'S CASING STONE REMNANTS.

CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES.

As the object of Great Pyramid Passages is to show how clearly the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in the land of Egypt, that "Miracle in Stone," as Dr. Seiss has named it, sets forth the plan of salvation presented in God's Holy Word, it will be necessary, in order to a proper appreciation of the subject, that the reader should acquaint himself with at least the outlines of that plan; but the more complete his knowledge of the plan, the more his appreciation of the Great Pyramid will increase, and sooner or later he will find himself fully convinced that the Architect of this marvellous structure could have been none other than God himself, and that it is indeed the Lord's "Stone Witness" in the land of Egypt. Then the wonder which may have been evoked in him by its immense proportions, the marvellous skill displayed in its construction, its great antiquity and quality of endurance, and the many scientific features which it embodies, will give place to a new wonder inspired by reverence for the infinite wisdom of God, when he reflects how the great Architect, by a few simple Passages and Chambers, could portray in it the whole of his plan of salvation, not merely the symbolical features of that plan nor the various dispensations into which it is divided, but even also all the important time-features marked off in the outworking of it.

28 Many have ignorantly misjudged the wisdom of God, and thought that he has had no definite, pre-arranged plan, but that he has been relying on the puny efforts of a few well-intentioned men to accomplish the great task of bringing the world into harmony with him and his law of righteousness. Accordingly, the message of the Gospel has been carried hither and thither from individual to individual, and from nation to nation, with the result that now, at the end of this age, nearly nineteen centuries after the death and resurrection of Christ, it has been preached for a witness to every nation. In spite, however, of the strenuous efforts put forth, and the untold wealth spent in the propagation of the Gospel message, and even though at least some portions of the Scriptures have been printed in every language, it is recognized that the number of converts to Christianity has been small indeed compared to the vast majority who have died in heathen darkness. It has been estimated that there are " 856,000,000 people in Pagan lands; a generation passes away in 33 years; divide this by 365, we get the death rate per day 71,066" (Extract from a Missionary Magazine). This means that every day more than 71,000 men, women and children are dying without having heard that only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, and the Apostle adds, "neither is there salvation in any other"—Acts 4:12.

What does this mean? If the usual misconception were true, that God was altogether relying upon the missionary and other well-meaning efforts put forth by good men to save the heathen by bringing the name of Jesus to them before they die, it would mean that God, however benevolent his intentions may have been, has failed, and that Satan, who has blinded the minds of them that believe not, has been the victor. While God has gained his thousands, the great deceiver has now under his power his thousands of thousands!

29 Calvin, strong in his belief in the power of God, and perceiving in the Scriptures that Jesus himself said, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it," seized upon this as the explanation of the apparent weakness of God's plan. He revived the teaching of St. Augustine that God's predeterminate purpose was to save only the few, and to condemn to an eternity of torment all the remainder, the vast majority. Surely a terrible blasphemy this of the character of God, the Holy One of Israel, whose name is Love! Not that Calvin intended to misrepresent God, for it must be remembered that the general teaching of his time was that all power, both present and future, was in the hands of the clergy. In his honest endeavour to get away from the one extreme, he followed the usual course of going to the other extreme.

30 But though we must discard Calvin's teaching, which, while vindicating the power of God, ignores his justice, wisdom and love, we cannot discard the saying of Jesus, that the way to life is narrow and few there be that find it. How is it possible to reconcile this saying with the four attributes of God just enumerated? Very simply, when we disregard the creeds and go directly to the Bible. "God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain." The Key to the answer is found in God's promise to Abraham: In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 12:3; 22:18.

31 To understand this, let us follow briefly the course of God's dealings with men; and though at first it may have been difficult to comprehend wherein the Divine plan for man's salvation availed anything, or to understand how God's attribute of love is displayed in it, the careful and thoughtful student will presently perceive a beauty and harmony throughout the whole of the Divine purposes, which will appeal to both heart and head as nothing else could do. He will see that God is not working in any hap-hazard fashion, nor relying on the feeble power and resources of man. God declares in his own Word that all things are known unto him from the beginning, and that his Word, the revelation of his purposes, shall not return unto him void, but shall accomplish that which he pleases, and shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it—Acts 15: 18; Isa. 55: 11. The teaching of the Scriptures, properly understood, is more reasonable and more honouring to God than any theory founded on man's reasoning apart from Holy Writ. The Lord himself declares this truth through the prophet Isaiah: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

32 When God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he imposed on him the restriction that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The penalty of disobedience to the Divine will was to be death. Accordingly, when Adam disobeyed God, the curse of death was passed upon him. Through the law of heredity, which declares: "The fathers have eaten a sour grape [of sin], and the children's teeth are set on edge," all Adam's posterity have been "born in sin and shapen in iniquity," and therefore share in that death-sentence. It was a dying life that the dying Adam gave to the race, for "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by [as a result of] sin; and so death passed upon all men"—Rom. 5:12.

33 God, however, did not leave Adam without a ray of hope. While pronouncing the curse upon the serpent, he intimated that the "seed of the woman" would "bruise the serpent's head,"—that some day and somehow a Saviour, a seed of the woman, would arise and destroy the tempter and reverse the death sentence upon mankind. But many centuries rolled by, and no progress was made in the salvation of the human race. Abel, Enoch and Noah were commended for their faith, but of the vast majority it is recorded "every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually." So corrupt became the people, that the Lord was forced by his love and wisdom no less than by his justice to destroy them all—men, women and children—in the Deluge, and repeople the earth afresh through Noah, who was "perfect in his generation" and a "preacher of righteousness." So ended the First Dispensation, a period of 1656 years.

34 During the Patriarchal Age which followed, the period of 659 years during which God bestowed special blessings upon Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the same condition of affairs prevailed. In spite of the terrible punishment which the Lord had inflicted upon their forefathers, the people once more relapsed into gross wickedness, so much so, that there were not even ten righteous men in Sodom. Lot, the one righteous man in it, was rescued before it and the other cities of the plain were destroyed by God. In this stage of the Second Dispensation, two thousand years after the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent's head, God made his oath-bound covenant with Abraham, that it would be in his seed that all the families of the earth would be blessed—Gen. 12:1-3; 22:16-18. The record shows that Abraham believed God, and that his faith was accounted to him for righteousness—Gen. 15:5, 6.

35 After a long period of waiting, Isaac, the seed of promise, was born; and God renewed the covenant with him. It must have seemed as if the promise was then about to be fulfilled; but Isaac died, and the blessing of all the families of the earth was still far from being accomplished. When Isaac was old, the covenant was renewed with his son, Jacob, or Israel as he was afterwards named. Later, Israel with his household was brought in the providence of God into Egypt, where a few years afterwards he died. When on his death-bed, he called his sons together and foretold the destiny of each of the twelve tribes which would spring from them. As it was God's intention to cause these twelve tribes of Israel to grow rapidly into a nation, and then set them apart to carry out his purposes, their propagation proceeded miraculously, insomuch that the Egyptians became afraid and adopted drastic measures to diminish their numbers; but they could not succeed against the Lord—See Exod. 1:7-22.

36 At the appointed time, during the height of their oppression by the Egyptians, when their number had increased from 70 to 600,000 who were able to go to war, God delivered the Israelites from Egypt by his mighty hand and outstretched arm.

But they were not yet prepared to be God's people. Because of the hardness of their hearts, they were not permitted to enter the land of promise for forty years. Then, after six years spent in conquering the Canaanites, they divided the promised land among them by lot, and God set Judges over them for a period of 450 years.

37 During all this time, God did not make good his promise of blessing the other nations of the world through the seed of Abraham. Though many great leaders, such as Moses and Joshua, arose and freed the Israelites from bondage, none of them proved to be the promised deliverer. At length the nation desired a king, and God gave them Saul, and later, David, "a man after God's own heart," and then followed the glorious reign of King Solomon in whose time the great temple was set up.

38 Surely it seemed as if God would now bring to pass his promise to bless through Abraham's seed all the families of the earth! But not so. Evidently the time had not yet come. The Israelites were not in a fit state, mentally and morally, to rule and bless the world. They lapsed time and again into idolatry and all manner of iniquity, till finally, six centuries before the birth of Christ, God permitted Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem, carry the Israelites with Zedekiah, the last of their kings, captive to Babylon, and lay waste the holy land. Seventy years passed, and the whole of that wicked generation died. Then in the fulness of time, in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy (44:28; 45:1-4), Cyrus, king of Persia, overthrew Babylon, and issued a decree permitting those Israelites who had faith in God and his promises to return and build the temple—See Jer. 25:11, 12; 2 Chron. 36:11-23. From that time a reformation movement went on in the Jewish house under the successive leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah.

39 Before this, God had promised through the prophet Daniel that "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem [this was the commission given in 454 B.C. by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to Nehemiah] unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks," that is to say, 69 weeks of years = 483 years. "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," the 70th week. Thus God promised a period of 70 weeks (490 years) of continued favour to the Israelites, to end in 36 A.D.—See Dan. 9:24-27. It was doubtless in consequence of this that, when the Messiah did come, all men were in expectation—Luke 3:15. But they looked for a mighty king, statesman and general, who would deliver them from their Roman bondage, and make them the foremost nation on earth,—a method of blessing very different from that purposed by God. They were, accordingly, much disappointed with the meek and lowly Jesus. They could not understand him nor his message, and so they despised and rejected him. Yet he fulfilled in their sight the prophecies which had been written concerning him. As he himself said: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good tidings preached to them"—Matt. 11:5. One might have expected that their hearts would have been touched with these manifestations of the love and power of God through Christ, but both Jews and Gentiles had become so degraded that they reviled and finally crucified the Holy One. And when the disciples who had gladly forsaken all to follow Jesus, manifested the same loving disposition as their Master, and tried to convey to others the blessing which they themselves had received, they were, like their Master, misjudged, persecuted, and put to death.

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