T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S should be contrasted with the dream recorded in the seventh chapter, where we have God’s vision of them, repre sented by the four beasts. The head of gold in the first , vision corresponds to the lion with eagle’s wings; the Medo-Persian Empire is likened to a bear with three ribs be tween its teeth; the Grecian Empire is represented by a leopard with four wings upon its back and four heads, and the Roman Empire is imaged in the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, with iron teeth devouring and breaking in pieces. The Coming Kingdom. Holding our attention definitely to the image, we are now contemplating ten kingdoms, or governments, which are formed out of the territory ruled by the divided Roman power and described as “ toes.” If history rings true to the image as described by the head, breast and thighs, legs and feet— and it does— then we have confidence in the belief that ten governments must be formed out of the territory formerly governed by the di vided Roman Empire. We must confine ourselves to the prophecy concerning the stone cut out of the mountain which is to demolish all the earthly governments. .The “ mountain” m u s t represent God’s eternal kingdom; the “ stone” must represent the coming of the Son of man .to destroy earthly rule and to set up a kingdom which shall never be removed. In Dan. 7:13, 14 the authority is vested in God’s Son: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, na tions and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his king dom that whlcjh shall not be destroyed.”
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The Four World Kingdoms. Here is the heart of a great lesson— a prophecy so remarkable, so plain, so outstanding, that only a hard-hearted, devil-controlled, devil-deluded person could deny it.. It is the battle ground where the critics are always driven to the wall and compelled to hold up their hands and confess that if the Book of Daniel is inspired, if this is a true reve lation from God, a pre-view of the his tory of national supremacy,— then the old world is on its way to the sub-cellar and must reach it before it can be lifted to heavenly heights by a King from Heaven. The picture of the nations as revealed to Daniel was never so remarkable as it is today when the Genoa Conference is in session; the picture was never so dark as it is now in this Twentieth Cen tury. The evolutionists may prate and prat tle as they please, but in the presence of the image, which reflects the facts from Nebuchadnezzar to Genoa, it is from gold to clay. It does not make any special difference when the book of Dan iel was written, although we know when it was written and who wrote it. The facts stare us in the face. There was a Nebuchadnezzar— a world ruler (the head of gold ); there was a Medo- Persian (dual monarchy) reign (the breast and arms); there was a Grecian reign (the belly and thighs); there was a Roman Empire, with Eastern and Western divisions (the legs); and there is iron and clay enough today to form the feet and toes of the ten kingdoms, and they will certainly be formed. We may boast of our progress and of our intellectuality, but the old earth holds in its depths, and is continually yielding to those who look for its buried treasures, evidences of past civilization and progress that shame our boasting age. This dream (which gives us man’s vision of the four great world empires)
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