mage. It is
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now only waiting to be smitten upon the feet by the stone cut out of the mountain
without hand.
Reader, are you ready for this destruction of all earthly governments? Have
you an interest in the kingdom that is to be set up? Is your name enrolled among
those highly privileged ones who are to be its immortal subjects? Is your
citizenship in Heaven, from whence we look for the Lord and Saviour? Are you
Christ's, and therefore an heir according to the promise? Or are you, on the other
hand, in that condition, that if the King should appear, to raise his people to their
glorious and imperishable inheritance, you would covet, as the greatest blessing
to be buried from his presence by rocks and mountains? Woeful condition!
Watch! lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.
THE FOUR BEASTS OF DANIEL VII
At the right of the image stands a line of beasts, a lion, a bear, leopard, and
nondescript beast in two forms, representing another vision. A view of these
beasts was given to Daniel in vision, as recorded in chapter vii, of his prophecy.
In verse 17, these beasts are declared to be four kings or kingdoms. The manner
of their rise, Daniel describes in verse 2, thus: I saw in my vision by night, and,
behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great
beasts came up, diverse one from another. Seas denote nations and peoples.
Rev.xvii,15. Wind denotes war and strife. Hence these kingdoms rose and fell
through revolutions and political strife.
THE LION
The Lion standing opposite to the head of gold, is a symbol of the same
power, namely, the kingdom of Babylon. A ravenous wild beast is the fittest
symbol to show the character of an unsanctified earthly government. The lion,
the king of beasts, best represents Babylon the king of empires. But the lion, as
produced in nature crouching in his lurking places and springing upon his prey,
does not in this respect accurately symbolize the aggressive character of that
power; hence inspiration departs from nature and gives the lion two wings as of
an eagle, to denote the rapidity of its conquests. It existed, as seen in the head of
gold, from B.C. 677, to 538, one hundred and thirty-nine years.
THE BEAR
A symbol of Persia, the same as the breast and arms of the image. He raised
himself up on one side. The empire was composed of the two elements, the
Medes and Persians, and the Persian was the higher and leading element. It had
three ribs in its mouth, supposed to denote the three provinces of Babylon, Lydia,
and Egypt, which it conquered and grievously oppressed. It existed from B.C.
538, to 331, two hundred and seven years.
THE LEOPARD
Here, again, we have another symbol of Grecia, corresponding with the
brazen portion of the image. This beast, unlike anything in nature, has four wings
and four heads. The four heads
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denote the four parts into which the empire was divided on the death of
Alexander, and under which it continued, till supplanted by the Roman power.
The leopard is of itself exceedingly fierce and swift, but this not being sufficient,
four wings of a fowl are added, to denote the unparalleled rapidity that
characterized the conquests of the Grecian empire, especially under Alexander,
who is said to have conquered kingdoms, more speedily than others could have
marched their armies through them. This kingdom is included between the dates
B.C. 331, and 161, one hundred and seventy years.
THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAST
For the power that succeeded Grecia the prophet could find nothing in nature,
which would answer as a fit symbol. A power so strong, so fierce, so ravenous
and destructive, could not be represented by any known beast that this earth
produces. Hence the prophet is obliged to introduce a symbol that finds no
counterpart in nature - a monster with ten horns, the body of a behemoth, glaring
eyes, a lion's nostrils, great iron teeth and brazen nails. This beast symbolizes
the same as the iron legs of the image, opposite which it is placed, namely,
Rome, the successor of Grecia. The ten horns on this beast denote the ten kings
that arose out of the Roman empire, the same as the ten toes of the image.
Dan.vii,24. These kingdoms are enumerated by Marchiaval, Bishop Lloyd, and
Dr.Hales, as follows:
1. The Huns, A.D.356. 2. The Ostrogoths, A.D.377. 3. The Visigoths, A.D.378.
4. The Franks, A.D.407. 5. The Vandals, A.D.407. 6. The Suevi, A.D.407. 7. The
Burgundians, A.D.407.
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8. The Heruli and Rugii, or Thuringi, A.D.483. "It is certain that the Roman empire
was divided into ten kingdoms; and though they might be sometimes more and
sometimes fewer, yet they were still known by the name of the ten kingdoms of
the western empire." - Scott.
This beast in the lapse of time assumes a new phase. "I considered the
horns," says Daniel, and behold there came up among them another little horn,
before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. In this
horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things."
Verse 8.
This little horn is by all Protestants acknowledged to be a symbol of the
Papacy. It was prophesied of this horn that he should subdue three kings. Verse
24. The three kingdoms that were plucked up to make way for the Papacy, were,
1. The Heruli, in 493. 2. The Vandals, in 534, and, 3. The Ostrogoths in 538.
(Gibbon's Decline and Fall.) Into the hands of this power the saints, times, and
laws, were to be given for a time, times, and the dividing of time. Verse 25. [1260
years; see Rev.xii 6,14.] The Papacy was established in A.D.538; for although the
decree constituting the bishop of Rome the head of all the churches, was issued
by Justinian, emperor of the East, five years previous, in A.D.533, yet that decree
would forever have remained ineffectual, could not the three powers that stood in
the way of the Papacy have been dislodged, and he really established in his
position. Hence we must date the reign of the Papacy from the year (538) when
Justinian's decree was carried into execution,
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and the saints, time, and laws, in reality given into the hands of the little horn.
From 538, when the Papacy was set up, 1260 years extend to 1798; and it is a
notable fact of history, that on the 10th of February, 1798, Berthier, a general of
Buonaparte's, at the head of the Republican army of France, entered Rome and
took it. The Papal government was abolished, and the Pope died in exile in 1799.
(See Croley on the Apocalypse, Their's History of the Revolution, and Clarke on
Dan.vii 25.) The Papacy has never been restored to its former power. We are by
this chain of prophecy brought down to within 66 years of the present time. The
prophet does not see this beast gradually changing his wild and ferocious nature
to the innocence and gentleness of the lamb, to make way for a temporal
millennium; but he looks only a step further and says, "I beheld even till the beast
was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." Dan.vii,11.
Rome dates in prophecy from B.C.161. Its continuance down to the time of its
complete division into ten kingdoms, A.D.483, was six hundred and forty-four
years. The Papacy, which arose soon after, maintained its supremacy for 1260
years. With circumscribed powers it remains to-day; and we still behold this little
horn watching with cunning and crafty eyes over the interests of the Catholic
Church, and opening his mouth in blasphemy against the Most High. Thus has
this wonderful power, in its pagan and papal forms, existed for the almost
incredible space of two thousand and fifty-five years. It cannot be long before it
will be given to the burning flame.
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The ground covered by this vision is the same in its main features as that
covered by the great image of chapter ii. The question may be asked; then, why
this vision was given. Why repeat what had once been so forcibly expressed?
We answer, Prophecies are repeated because all the instruction that God wishes
to convey, and all the particulars concerning nations and kingdoms, cannot well
be embodied in one series of symbols. Thus the head of gold represents the
grandeur and glory of the Babylonian kingdom; but it could not represent the fact
that that kingdom bore the same relation to other kingdoms that the lion does to
other beasts; or, in other words, it could not show its warlike character, its ability
to conquer, its bravery and daring, and the rapidity of its conquests; all which
plainly appear in the symbol of the lion with eagle's wings. But while the lion
shows these qualities, it does not represent the grandeur and glory shadowed
forth by the head of gold. Hence both lines of prophecy are necessary to bring
out the whole truth. So with Medo-Persia. The bear raising himself up on one
side, does not so well represent the two lines of kings in that empire, as the two
arms of the image. But on the other hand, the breast and arms of the image
cannot represent the cruel and oppressive nature of that power, shown by the
bear with three ribs in his mouth. Likewise Grecia, while it continued a unit, is
well represented by the belly and sides of brass; but this portion of the image
could not represent its division into four kingdoms, and the rapidity of its
aggressive marches, as brought out by the four heads and four wings of the
leopard.
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And so, too, of the different features of the Roman kingdom. The ten
kingdoms that arose out of that empire, are represented by the ten toes of the
image. But the change that afterward took place in those kingdoms, the rise of
the little horn, and the plucking up of three to make way for him, could not be
represented on the image, hence the fourth beast, in his second form, is brought
upon the stage.
A query here arises: As this beast in his last form has only seven horns
besides the papal horn, and these horns denote kingdoms, shall we now look for
any more than seven kingdoms in the place of the original ten? We answer that
the little horn in plucking up the three horns did not absorb them into itself. It
simply removed them out of its ambitious path to universal dominion. They were
not destroyed, but only compelled to change their territory and location. So the
symbol of the image, which retains all its ten toes till the consummation, will
remain true, as the ten kingdoms will in reality exist; and the symbol of the beast
with its seven horns will also remain true, as showing that three kingdoms were
removed to make way for the papacy.
Before leaving this prophecy we desire to call the attention of the skeptic to
one remarkable feature. The prophet's stand-point is away back in the kingdom
of Babylon about five and a half centuries before Christ. And the farther he
comes down from his own time, the more minute he becomes in his predictions
and descriptions of events, until, coming down to the rise of the little horn, or
Papacy, he even gives the exact time of its supremacy, predicting for it an
unparalleled period of triumph for 1260 years, reaching to a
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point of time more than two thousand years distant from his own day, Human
foresight speaks with most minuteness of events that are nearest at hand, and
grows more and more indefinite as it goes off into the dim and distant future. And
had Daniel dwelt minutely upon the kingdom of Babylon, giving the length of its
continuance, but giving no such particulars in the following kingdom, and growing
less and less definite and distinct with each succeeding kingdom, there would
have been more ground to account for these predictions independent of any
divine agency; but the prophecy does just the reverse of this, speaking with most
minuteness of the most distant events, as if to shame skepticism out of its
shallow claim that these prophecies are but the shrewd conjectures of human
foresight and discernment. None but the mind of God could or would have
predicted events in this concise and wonderful manner.
THE RAM, GOAT, AND LITTLE HORN OF DAN.VIII
Standing at the right of the series of beasts last described will be seen
another line of prophecy, consisting of a Ram, Goat and Little Horn. This vision is
found in Daniel viii, and in it we are again conducted over a portion of the world's
great highway, with additional particulars concerning the mighty kingdoms that
we pass along our journey. Thus we have line upon line till the subject is made so
plain that no man, however poor or wayfaring he may be, need err therein. On
the symbols of this chapter, the ram, he-goat, and little horn which waxed
