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Show Page 290 "Astronomer Royal," Charles Piazzi Smyth, had published in 1864 a theory that the construction of the Great Pyramid provided a key to sacred history. He had conceived of a "pyramid inch," a unit of measurement corresponding to one year, and had found the internal passageways of the structure creased into a monumental calendar describing the key events of the Bible account - the Flood, the Exodus, and the Advent of Christ. By extending his reasoning, Smyth had determined that the corridor's 48 end signified Christ's Second Coming, and calculated it for the year 1881. Orson read all of this with fascination - applying Smyth's formula to the same diagrams, he came up with his own results and published them in Millennial Star under the title "The Great Prophetic Pyramid: An 49 Important Discovery by Professor 0. Pratt, Senior." The Pyramid of Cheops, he writes, was built under divine direction, typifying the economy of God in relation to this planet. He sees the various dispensations of the Gospel clearly indicated in the passages, galleries, and chambers when measured according to Smyth's "pyramid inch": "The incline of the entrance passage marks the Exodus, where the portcullis signifies the separation of Israel of a distinct and peculiar people...the 'Hebrew passage.'" Extending the line "from the upper frontal edge of the step perpendicular with the inclined floor of the grand gallery" gives the pyramid date of April 6, 1830, the Mormon holy day of Restoration. From thence to the upper edge of the court provides the spring of the year 1891 - here, at the top of the Pharaonic Chamber, Orson finds another possible correspondence with Mormon revelation, for Joseph Smith had hesitantly foretold Christ's 50 Second Advent for his own eighty-fifth year. Entranced by these findings, Orson speculated in the Star that the Great Pyramid could be "the altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt," spoken of in Isaiah 19:20. Orson's theory that the structure serves as a type of |