Lord of Glory.

But now let us look at the series.  In both prophecies there is a description of four kingdoms which should in succession be supreme in political power, and which should fill up an interval between Daniel and the Advent.

1.  There is the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the same as the lion in the vision of Daniel.  The most precious of metals corresponding to the king of beasts.

2.  There is next the breast and arms of silver, corresponding to the bear of Daniel.

3.  After that the belly and thighs of brass, representing the same nation as the leopard of the prophet.

4.  And following them is the last kingdom of the four, represented to Nebuchadnezzar as the ‘legs of iron, and the feet, part of iron and part of clay,’ and to Daniel as a beast, ‘dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly.’

It is interesting to observe how the same iron character is attributed to this last power in both visions.  In the one we read of it, chap. ii. 40, ‘The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all things, shall it break in pieces and bruise.’  And in the other, chap. vii. 7, it is said to be, ‘strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth: it devoured, and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.’

Such is the series of kingdoms that were to hold the chief political power of the world, and fill up the whole interval between the date of the prophecy and the advent of the Lord.  Now the remarkable, and I believe I may say the indisputable, fact, is that, according to the prophecy, all these four kingdoms have arisen.  They have followed each other exactly as it was predicted.  Babylon was the head of gold, or the lion.  The Medes and Persians were the breast of silver, or the bear.  Greece, always called ‘the brazen armed,’ in classic poetry, was the belly and the thighs of brass, or the leopard.  And then the mighty power of Rome, far exceeding all the others in its terrible strength, with the legs of iron in the royal image, and the teeth of iron in the prophetic beast.  Thus far there is an agreement almost unanimous among the students of prophetic Scripture; and the conclusion certainly is, that we have already been a long time under the last of the four successive empires of the world.  So far then as those four empires are concerned, we are encouraged to entertain the strong hope that, as we have reached the last kingdom in the succession, we may begin hopefully to look out for the end.  We have passed the last station on the line, so now we may begin to prepare for home.

But again.  There is one remarkable difference between the fourth kingdom and the other three, viz., this, that its history is divided into two periods, during the first of which it appears as an undivided power, and during the second split up into ten.  In chap, ii. 41, it says, ‘the kingdom shall be divided.’  In this divided period it is represented by the ten toes on the image, and the ten horns on the beast.  The ten toes are described as kings, or kingdoms, in chap. ii. 44; and so are the ten horns in chap. vii. 24, where it is said, ‘The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.’  So then the prophecy teaches us that when Rome had overpowered Greece it would go on for a time as one mighty undivided empire, but that after a time it would break up into a cluster of kingdoms, and that this cluster would retain amongst them the supremacy of the world.  It does not describe any fresh shift of political supremacy to any new kingdom that should arise, or the loss or decay of that supremacy.  But it teaches that there would be a division in the kingdom, that the parts should fall asunder, and that, while the iron of the fourth kingdom would remain amongst them, there should be so much clay mixed up with it, that it should never again be united under a single head.

Now this is exactly what has happened.  In the days of the Cæsars united Rome was supreme in the pomp of the iron empire.  Its body was Europe, and its heart was the emperor.  It was one as much as Babylon had been one under Nebuchadnezzar.  But look at it now.  There is all the old power; for Europe and its races practically govern the world.  It has not lost its iron.  But there is no one kingdom that embodies all.  The power is vested in a cluster of independent nations.  Many attempts have been made to combine them: some by conquest, as in the case of Napoleon; some by negotiation, as in the case of the Spanish marriages.  But all in vain, for the toes are irrecoverably divided, and whatever is done, though as an aggregate they retain their power, as individual nations they are always distinct.  I have no time to enter into detail, but I regard this division as a most remarkable fulfilment of the prophetic word.  More than five hundred years before the coming of the Lord there was a captive in Babylon, and God so directed that man’s mind, as through him to communicate to the world even then the present position of modern Europe.  With such a fact before us who can doubt the inspiration of the prophet, or the statement of St. Peter, that ‘holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?’

But, without stopping to consider the wonders of the prophecy, let us learn the lesson which it teaches us with reference to the nearness of the Advent.  We have already found that we have long since reached the fourth kingdom of the series; and now we are led a step further, and find that we have long since reached the second period of that kingdom.  It is difficult with accuracy to assign a date, for the transition was gradual; but we shall be sufficiently near if we say that it practically took place between twelve and fourteen hundred years ago.  And when we reflect on such a promise as that in Daniel, ii. 44, in which God assures us of a kingdom that shall be set up in the days of these kings, and never be destroyed: when we consider that those kings have already been reigning through that lengthened period, it is surely time that we begin to look out for that which is to come; for the happy and blessed day when we shall welcome the kingdom which shall never be moved, and when Christ Himself shall reign in glory.

But this is not all, for, although we shall learn no more from the vision of the king, we may gather much more from that of the prophet, for in it we find a most important additional prophecy.  I can perfectly understand why it was given by the prophet, and not by the king, for I believe it to refer to the religious history of Europe, and the king of course had no concern with that.  He did not care for religion, or for the saints of God.  I allude to the prophecy of the little horn raised in the midst of the other ten.  I have no time to discuss arguments, and can merely state conclusions.  All therefore that I can do now is to express my own convictions on two points:

1.  That the little horn diverse from all the rest is the Papal power.

2.  That the time, times, and dividing of a time, which is to be the limit of its power, stands in prophetic figure for 1260 years.

If this be correct it gives some idea as to the duration of the second division of the last kingdom,