history to the cause of God. But still more, we are to aim at a holy and reverent spirit. We are to view the word of prophecy, not as the object of a vain curiosity, but as the source of true comfort and peace in present or future trials. It was to a captive in Babylon that the fullest light of prophecy was given under the Old Testament. It was in the exile of Patmos that St. John received a still larger supply of the heavenly treasure. It is not cold and speculative logicians, much less sarcastic triflers, but martyrs and confessors, in prison and at the flames, who are likely to be guided the farthest into the meaning of these sacred prophecies.

Before, however, Daniel and his companions were gifted with prophetic light, their names were changed, and Chaldean surnames were given to them. There seem here to be two chief lessons implied. To comprehend the width of the divine counsels, we must rise out of the local and narrow conceptions derived from the land of our birth, and take a loftier and more heavenly station, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, but we gaze upon the whole world in the light of those moral distinctions alone which are permanent and everlasting. And further, we are taught that the church was now to be set loose from its exclusive forms and Jewish elements, and that Israel's captivity was to be the signal for mercy and grace toward the Gentile world. Never, from the time of Abraham until the dream was revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, does a true prophet of God seem to have been addressed under a Gentile name. "The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known to me the dream, and the interpretation?" The new name, imposed on the holy prophet, was the sign and earnest of a new character which was about to be impressed on the whole church of God.

The immediate occasion of the first vision is equally striking and impressive. The wisdom of man was first silenced and condemned. The astrologers, the magicians, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, none of them could tell the dream, nor even save themselves from the im

pending destruction. The word of prophecy, revealed in answer to fervent prayer, alone could heal the trouble of the monarch, and remove the sentence of death from his counsellors. How instructive a parable is this for all ages! The dim, vague apprehensions of the future which the worldling can attain, serve only to fill his bosom with terror and alarm. There is no distinct knowledge, no clear and waking memory of the truth. There is only the shadow of a terrible dream, haunting the soul with some fearful imagination of judgment to come. The higher attainments of worldly wisdom have only this wretched fruit, to turn the vague fears of the monarch into that certain expectation of death and judgment which befel the Chaldean sorcerers. But the prayer of faith brings with it both light and salvation. The word of prophecy, received in an humble heart, turns fear into hope, and terror and alarm into gladness and thanksgiving. It converts the sentence of death into that sweet song of gratitude, "I thank and praise thee, O God of my fathers."

But let us now proceed to those two main visions, the Great Image, and the Four Beasts, which contain the narrative of the FOUR PROPHETIC EMPIRES. These alone will form a wide and interesting subject of research. It will be endeavoured, in each part, first to ascertain, on firm and solid evidence, its true meaning; then to unfold the historical fulfilment, with sufficient detail to impress the great fact of Divine Providence which it reveals; and finally, to derive from the interpretation some practical lessons of spiritual wisdom. Last of all, the true nature of that kingdom of Messiah which is to follow, and to last for ever, will be unfolded by the light of God's word; and it will be endeavoured thus to illustrate the harmony of the divine dispensations, and the glory and fulness of those hopes which are revealed to the Church of God. At each stage of the inquiry, the landscape will open more widely to our view; till we learn to join at length in that song of the redeemed, "Great and marvellous are thy works,

Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name!" May He who is the fountain of all wisdom, prosper this attempt to unfold some of the deep treasures hidden in His word!

CHAPTER II.

ON THE FOUR EMPIRES IN GENERAL.

BEFORE entering upon the detailed history of the four empires, and the minute interpretation of the prophetic visions, it is needful, first of all, to establish the main outlines of their historical application.

The following maxims, which seem to lie at the basis of all sound expositions of prophecy, have been confirmed by direct evidence in a previous work; and the various objections raised against them have been examined and disproved.

1. That the Four Kingdoms, both in the vision of the great Image, and of the four beasts, denote the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

2. That the vision of the ram and he goat begins with the history of Persia and Greece, from Cyrus to Alexander.

3. That there is no internal proof of the little horn of the fourth beast and of the he goat, denoting the same power.

4. That the prophecy of the Scripture of truth begins with events now past, from Cyrus the Great to Antiochus Epiphanes.

5. That the prophecy of the seventy weeks is fulfilled in weeks of years, and that sixty-nine of these, at least, had passed before the fall of Jerusalem.

6. That the prophecy of our Lord, in its first part, relates to the age of the Apostles, and the fall of the actual temple.

7. That the prophecies, especially those of Daniel and of St. John, are continuous, and begin with some chief event near to the date when they were given.

8. That the Apocalypse begins within the life-time of St. John, and ranges through the whole Christian dispensation.

9. That the exposition of kings as ruling dynasties, in the symbolical prophecies, is confirmed alike by reason and Scripture usage.

10. That the year-day theory is no gratuitous assumption; but supported by a remarkable variety of concurrent evidence, which amounts to a moral demonstration of its truth.

These maxims, except the two last, have been confirmed by the general assent of the Church, from the earliest times down to the present day. There is also a direct scriptural reason why the last should not have been apprehended earlier, because the words containing these prophetic times were sealed unto the time of the end. Every exposition which contradicts these principles, and especially the eight maxims first named, bears on its front the clear mark of its own spuriousness. In the present work, however, the first and ninth maxims are all that are needed, and especially the first, which becomes the foundation of the whole exposition. It will be useful then, to resume the evidence of its truth, and to compare the opposite errors which deviate from it on either side.

The rival interpretation which has prevailed the most is that of which Porphyry is the earliest known advocate, and which has been embraced since by Junius, Hayn, Lightfoot, Grotius, L'Empereur, and Venema, and a few other writers down to our own day. Its main feature is to make the successors of Alexander the fourth empire, distinct from that of Alexander himself, and thus to terminate the visions before the first advent.

An opposite deviation from the general view has been adopted by a few writers in the last fifteen or twenty years. Their scheme, so far as it has any consistency,