en to the
servants of God, the prophets and saints, and them who fear His name, and
those be destroyed that destroy the earth."(538)

With a new and deeper earnestness, Miller continued the examination of the
prophecies, whole nights as well as days being devoted to the study of
what now appeared of such stupendous importance and all-absorbing
interest. In the eighth chapter of Daniel he could find no clue to the
starting-point of the 2300 days; the angel Gabriel, though commanded to
make Daniel understand the vision, gave him only a partial explanation. As
the terrible persecution to befall the church was unfolded to the
prophet's vision, physical strength gave way. He could endure no more, and
the angel left him for a time. Daniel "fainted, and was sick certain
days." "And I was astonished at the vision," he says, "but none understood
it."

Yet God had bidden His messenger, "Make this man to understand the
vision." That commission must be fulfilled. In obedience to it, the angel,
some time afterward, returned to Daniel, saying, "I am now come forth to
give thee skill and understanding;" "therefore understand the matter, and
consider the vision."(539) There was one important point in the vision of
chapter eight which had been left unexplained, namely, that relating to
time,--the period of the 2300 days; therefore the angel, in resuming his
explanation, dwells chiefly upon the subject of time:

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city....
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince
shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be
built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself.... And He
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the
week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."

The angel had been sent to Daniel for the express purpose of explaining to
him the point which he had failed to understand in the vision of the
eighth chapter, the statement relative to time,--"Unto two thousand and
three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." After bidding
Daniel "understand the matter, and consider the vision," the very first
words of the angel are, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and
upon thy holy city." The word here transla