T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S stitutional monarchies and republics.—— Gray. v. 41. The feet and toes. We behold that the last form of Gentile world power is represented by ten kingdoms in the territory of the Roman Empire, and they are of iron and clay, which do not mix. (Cf. Rev. 17:12 .) The iron represents the monarchical form of gov ernment. Clay is of the earth. It stands for that which does not belong to the great statue at all— a foreign ingredient brought in. Clay stands for democratic rule. This is what we behold in our day— rule by the people, exaltation of the people. What will come upon the territory of the Roman Empire? Upon it ten kingdoms will be established, in which the clay is prominently present. We see indications today that such a condition is soon to be reached.— Gae belein. v. 44. In the days of these kings. The Roman was to be the last of the great world empires. There was to be no other. It is to endure in its sub division until the kingdom of God is established in the earth. What have the nineteen centuries that have elapsed since the beginning of the Christian era to say regarding this prediction? Is it not strange that during these years, during which the world has been brought more together than it ever was before, and has been waiting, as it were, to hail the conqueror and give him a sway fuller than man has ever yet wielded, no one has seized upon the prize? This prophecy tells us that the world should look and wait, but there should be no other till He should come whose right it is to reign.—Urquhart. The God of heaven shall set up a king dom. Thus quickly and startlingly will be introduced the kingdom of our Lord Jqsus Christ, whom man has despised and cast out. He will yet come into this world, and come in such a way as will m)ark the fact that God has sent Him. Though the old Roman Empire be the one He may first deal with, it is to be observed that all the other king doms will come under His solemn and crushing judgment.-iS-Wolston. The smiting stone (vs. 34, 35) is to destroy the old system in its final form by a sudden blow from heaven, not by a gradual process. When this blow comes it will be immediately followed by the kingdom of Christ, which will fill the whole earth at once.—-Sum. Bible. It shall stand forever. There is no doubt
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and brass to silver. Then, coming to the enlightened days of the 19th century we reach the fine gold.— Gaebelein. v. 34. Stone cut out without hands. This image with its terribleness and splendor was crushed beneath an over whelming vengeance. The stone cut out and fashioned without hands, emblem of eternal, patient strength, falls upon the toes of the image and grinds it to powder. As to the stone, the figure is applied to-,Christ again and again (Matt. 21:42, 44).Surquhart. Many exposi tors' have endeavored to make out that this stone is the Gospel, but the Gospel is not destructive and the Gospel has never smitten the image. Instead, the image smote Christ, for it was the Ro man power that slew Him. The Gospel does not set aside every human empire. Furthermore, this is not a long process but a sudden event.*4-Wolston. This divided condition will continue until the antichrist appears, when these por tions shall be confederated under his rule. When antichrist is in power, then shall the stone come forth and smite the image upon its feet. This is the de scent of the Lord Jesus -in power and great glory at His coming to judge the world. From the New Testament^ we learn that prior to the coming to judg ment He will come into the air and catch His church up to meet Him, and when He appears to the world His church will appear with Him, sharing in His glory (Col. 3:4) .■—Pettingill. v. 35. Broken to pieces together. The catastrophe was to occur when the fourth empire should have become di vided and be partly strong and partly brittle.- Therefore its fulfilment could not belong to the time of the first ad vent. No less clear is it that its ful filment was to be a sudden crisis to be followed immediately by the establish ment of a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Therefore it relates to events still to come.'^g-Andersoii. v. 39. Another kingdom inferior. Note that all the world powers follow ing Babylon will be inferior to it in a descending scale; inferior, not in terri torial extent or military prowess, but in the character of their government. Babylon was an absolute monarchy. The Medo-Persian power represented a lim ited monarchy (6:4-16). The Grecian was weaker, and the Roman weakest of all, the clay mingled with iron indicat ing the development of the democracy in the latter times, in other words, con
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