June, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
176
DANIEL a n a in e c J J o o m o j WORLD GOVERNMENTS n ¿ > c r A t A / &
B y W . B. RILEY* Minneapolis, Minnesota
fifteen centuries with the field glasses of historic inquiry, we discover the whole world divided among a host of gov ernments that were a mixture o f strength and weakness— monarchy and democracy. Beyond all question, the Nineteenth Century has passed from feet to toes, for it is a time when iron, the strongest o f all the minerals, is being mixed with the “ miry clay,” the softest, most slippery, and uncertain o f substances. While the mixture continues, and we still have some sub stantial monarchies and even a few dictators, the “ miry clay” element seems to increase and the iron to decrease. A survey o f the world at present, so far as permanence of government is concerned, produces only despair in the mind o f the capable student. There are kings yet on thrones, and despots still in saddles, and dictators standing sword in hand; but there is not; a stable government on earth. There is not one of them that could assuredly claim the remainder o f this cen tury or boast itself o f even tomorrow. Look at England— one of the oldest and in the past one o f the most stable o f governments— shaking today as she hasi not been shaking in hundreds of years, holding her African possessions only by force o f arms, the greater part o f Ireland gone, India in revolt, internal conditions seeth ing, taxes sky-rocketing, her rulers wondering what to do and asking, “ What next?” Look at Germany— that stolid people, that government that at the beginning o f the century stood for all that was stable— it is a political maelstrom now. Turn your eyes to the Orient and wonder at the Japa- nese-Chinese situation, a situation that embroils both these great nations and renders the future as uncertain for one as for the other. South American republics are in a whirl even exceed ing that which has commonly characterized them. Think o f Russian-long the most imperial o f govern mental forms, now under the dominance o f a success ful m ob ! Turn your eyes to the south of Europe and look upon the black-shirted crowd of Mussolini, but do not imagine for one moment that Mussolini has made a discovery that will prove a valuable asset to governmental stability. He is only walking again in the ways o f the Caesars, but the Caesars of the early centuries are all in their graves, and the governments that they created crumbled before the hands that formed them had perished. Who then will say that we are not now in the toe period, that we do not approach the end of this age ? This leads me to my second suggestion. T he P erils of S cience Strange, is it not, that the one term that we have glori fied, the world around, for the last fifty or hundred years is now looming as the very one that may hold all conceiv able disasters—yea, even the destruction o f society itself! Science has been the word with which men have con jured. In its knowledge, they have boasted themselves;
^ HE DESCRIPTION o f the image in Daniel 2 : 31 to 35 provides at once ju s t ific a t io n of, and gives direction to, what we shall say con-
cerffing “ the doom o f world governments.” The study of the subject, as it is born, out of this text, seems to fall into three divisions— The Prophetic Scriptures, The Perils o f Science, and The Plan o f Salvation. T he P rophetic S criptures Only unbelievers dispute the divine inspiration of Daniel; and if history ever justified and scientifically dem onstrated prophecy, it has done so in the instance o f Daniel. Reviewing the past and giving careful attention to the present, there are certain inevitable conclusions. Among them are these: Daniel was correct on the four world kingdoms; Daniel is being proven a prophet concerning the foot period; and already the toes of this image are in in creasing evidence, Daniel was correct on the four -world kingdoms. "He interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream o f the image as fol lows : The head o f gold symbolized the Babylonish Empire; the shoulders of silver the empire that should succeed Babylon, namely the Medo-Persian; the belly and thighs o f brass the third empire, namely, Greece; the legs o f iron the fourth and last world empire, Rome. It is most amazing how history ran into that prophetic mold! Babylon perished while Daniel was yet alive. Medo- Persia existed for a few hundred years and then went down before the rising power o f Greece. And while Greece was the most brilliant and intellectual, the most advanced o f all ancient kingdoms, 300 years in round numbers sufficed for her supremacy, and the world succumbed to Rome, which, in literal accord with Daniel’s prophecy, divided, as do the legs o f a man, establishing the Constantinople capital in the East and the Roman capital in the West. Almost concurrently with the coming o f Christ, Rome began to crumble, and since its break-up, the world has not seen another world monarchy, nor will it, until the King of Glory shall come, barring that brief reign o f the Antichrist. Daniel is being proved a prophet concerning the foot period. He saw a strange mixture o f government, for the feet were part o f iron and part o f clay. Would it be possible if one sat down to deliberately select symbols of the governments that have characterized the last fif teen centuries to choose more significantly than is recorded in this Scripture ? Gold, silver, brass, iron—-these substan tial minerals were selected to symbolize the monarchical forms o f government, while clay was chosen to suggest those softer methods of administration known as republican and democratic forms. There is even in the clay some strength and a certain consistency, while in gold, silver, brass, and iron you have strength in an ascending scale; and surveying the last *President, Northwestern Bible School, and pastor First Baptist Church.
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