The great pyramid passages and chambers

Il. The SMALL HORIZONTAL PASSAGE symbolizes the period between the close of the Reformation and the year 1915, the end of the Second Dispensation, by the following features :—

1 Its position in relation to the Descending Passage at the one end, and the Pit at the other.

2 'Its measurement.

3 Its horizontal direction, indicating that, owing to the Reformation, the downward course has been stayed; but the progress is still toward the Pit, destruction.

4 Its darkness, greater than in the Descending Passage, symbolizing the fact that, since the period of the Reformation, the world has been in even grosser darkness than

before respecting God and his glorious purposes in Christ Jesus.

5 Its low roof, lower even than that of the Descending Passage, indicating that the people, since the Reformation period, have again permitted themselves to be bound.

6 'The Recess by its position, shape, and size symbolizes the greater freedom which was the outcome of the American Declaration of Independence, and the French Revolution—Plate X.

Ill. The PIT symbolizes Gehenna, the condition of death from which there will be no awakening, by the following features :—

1 Its position at the termination of the Descending and Small Horizontal Passages, and the fact that the little passage which extends horizontally southwards from it, terminates in a blind end.

2 Its location in the rock a hundred feet vertically below the base-line of the Pyramid.

3 The fact that though its roof and walls have

been fairly well finished, its floor is extremely broken and unfinished.

4 !The combined length of the Pit and little south Blind Passage symbolizing the period during which the disobedient will enter into the Second Death (Gehenna), namely, from 1915 A.D., to the end of the Millennial reign of Christ.

' These various time-features will be explained in Volume II of Great Pyramid Passages.

THE First Ascending Passage represents the Law Covenant, or, from another point of view, the Law Dispensation. On examining the floor of the Descending Passage, which represents the downward course of ‘this present evil world,” it will be found that the portion which faces the entrance to the First Ascending Passage is composed of extremely hard limestone (Plate XI), whereas above and below this it is softer, and consequently much worn by the traffic of centuries. Doubtless the hardness of the floor at this part was intended for the purpose of exact measurements, but it also seems to indicate the fact that at the time when the Israelites were called out of Egypt to be the people of God, their standing with the Lord was firm and sure.

161 Owing to the extra headroom consequent upon the First Ascending Passage branching upwards from the Descending Passage in the same vertical plane, it is not necessary to stoop at this point; the traveller is here able to stand upright, and so ease his aching back. He will thus be able to appreciate the joy which the Israelites must

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