Northolt Rectory
Hanwell
Decr 12th
My dear Talbot
I have two matters to discuss to you, and if not to you I know not to whom under this present cloudy sky, so you must bear with patience –
1st & Foremost – Which answer do the geologists give to queries like, “When & by what means were metallic veins formed? How & when relatively to our era, were the dykes & faults in the coal strata occasioned – How is it that the whin stone traverses other strata as it does? How did the basaltic formations occur & when? finally, how & when was the inclination given to the strata & how & when was it caused that their angles of inclination should decrease in the order which is observed – But above all how does Scripture enlighten us as to these matters?
I have so little looked into the subject of late years that I don’t know where the world now stands as to them. But you do & can tell me.
Now for another matter touching the Apocalypse, in which I have been at fault for some years and think that I have now detected it. Chap VIII. 13. speaks of three woes connected with 3 trumpets yet to sound –
Chap IX. 12. states one woe to be past when the fifth Trumpet has finished sounding –
The inference therefore is that a woe lasts from the end of the third Trumpet to the end of the 5th.
But this would never agree with what I have thought the truth, viz that these three woes take up the whole period from the beginning to the end of the Apocalypse – Lately however I have found that it does so most accurately, assuming the total period to be 1998 years and the period of each Trumpet from first to last to be 111 one hundred and eleven years, so that from the 3rd to 5th will be 222 years.
If you who were always a solver of dark problems do not make this out, I shall have all the more confidence in the system which makes it quite plain –
There is another thing which I doubt of – Chap. II. [overwritten with 2] 13 “Antipas” – one of Griesbachs readings has [Greek text], and assuming it not to be a proper name at all, but merely, Thou hast Thou hast [sic] answered – It will stand “Wherein thou hast answered, the witness of me, the faithful who was slain among us &c – comparing this with Chap 1. 9. 5 one would rather think it ought to be [Greek text] as in apposition, because the places would then be quite paralell, [sic] & if it be a corrupted place the corruption must be very ancient, so much so that I should expect some other fault now undiscoverable –
The great difficulty is the total silence of every Father & Commentator as to the Antipas in question, and as to the false grammar involved in the other reading you may see that just the same alteration of Persons occurs in the first chapter where the same expressions are used.
I think you can find no sun now so that you may have time for a slight taste of my theological dose, which I hope will create no nausea. When are you likely to be in London?
Always yours very truly
E. Murray