and the course of the world, is the true idol of the carnal mind, and all other idols are types and shadows of this deeper idolatry. And not even the revealed truth that this glory is transient and soon to be swept away, can prevent it from dazzling the eyes of men, till they are opened by divine grace, and learn, as the monarch did by abasing experience, the evil of sin, the majesty of God, and the fulness of his Divine compassion.

But there is a further lesson to be gained from that remarkable narrative of the golden image, and the furnace of fire. It is a parable of the general course of the four kingdoms. Under the pomp and show of the world, even in the times of apparent calm, there is couched a secret spirit of anger and persecution against the witnesses of Divine truth. The inquisitors of heretical pravity have rivalled and surpassed, in later ages, the zeal of the Babylonian king. Never has the furnace been more heated against those who resolve to worship God alone than by men who have gloried in the Christian name. But hitherto the parable has been fulfilled in part only. A blessed change will at length ensue. The faithful witness of the confessors of Christ will at length usher in that glorious period, when all kings shall turn from idols to worship the Son of God, and shall own that He was present with His people in their deepest sufferings. "Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, that great is the glory of the Lord."

A lesson of no less interest, and full of deep instruction, may be drawn from the other parable in the same history. The stately tree of Nebuchadnezzar's vision reveals to us the true purpose of human government. It is "the ordinance of God" to shelter, protect, and bless the people who are made subject to its power. The long debasement of the king which is there described, is a type of those dreary ages in which secular power should refuse its true office, and be turned aside by selfishness, pride, and ambition; till its natural dignity, in God's sight, should be sunk in a low and bestial degradation. In the stump of its roots, which continued

in the ground, joined with the monarch's final recovery, we may see a vivid picture of that latent power which human government, in its worst declension, still retains to be a blessing to the people. This hidden virtue, never extinct, though sore hindered by ambition and wickedness, will blossom forth at last, in the kingdom of God, with inconceivable excellence and in forms of unknown beauty.

The instruction is not less deep or impressive conveyed to us by the narrative of that royal feast, in which Belshazzar fell, and his kingdom was overthrown. There is reflected to our view, as in a mirror, the careless revelling of the last days, before the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens. Then once more the worldling will be suddenly aroused, at midnight, from the trance of sensual pleasure. Then will the songs of the drunkard be turned into wailing, and the tears of the penitent into everlasting joy. The kingdom of Satan, the prince of this world, will be numbered and finished. The hypocrite and deceiver will then be weighed in a true balance, be found wanting and condemned. The mystic Babylon, the city of confusion, will be broken up and destroyed; and the true Cyrus, with the armies in heaven, shall take the kingdom, and possess it for ever and ever.

The First Empire, therefore, in its rise, its power, the sin and apostasy of its people, and its final ruin, is a standing monument of God's holy providence to the latest age. It is also a beacon of hope amidst the severest trials of the church of God. As surely as the three children were rescued unhurt from the furnace; or Nebuchadnezzar restored, on confession, to his kingly power; as surely as Cyrus overthrow the empire, and reigned in triumph upon its fall; so surely will a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, succeed to all the troubled storms of sin and violence in this lower world. The heavens and the earth may pass away, but the promise of God standeth sure; and the children of God shall yet witness new heavens and a new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell for ever.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE EMPIRES OF PERSIA AND GREECE.

A. c. 531-201.

DANIEL II. 32.-" THIS IMAGE'S HEAD WAS OF FINE GOLD, HIS BREAST AND HIS ARMS OF SILVER, HIS BELLY AND HIS THIGHS OF BRASS."

39.-AND AFTER THEE SHALL ARISE ANOTHER KINGDOM INFERIOR TO THEE, AND ANOTHER THIRD KINGDOM OF BRASS, WHICH SHALL BEAR RULE OVER ALL THE EARTH."

VII. 5, 6.-" AND BEHOLD ANOTHER BEAST, A SECOND, LIKE TO A BEAR, AND IT RAISED ITSELF ON ONE SIDE, AND IT HAD THREE RIBS IN THE MOUTH OF IT BETWEEN THE TEETH OF IT: AND THEY SAID THUS UNTO IT. ARISE, DEVOUR MUCH FLESH."

"AFTER THIS I BEHELD, AND LO ANOTHER, LIKE A LEOPARD, WHICH HAD UPON THE BACK OF IT FOUR WINGS OF A FOWL; THE BEAST HAD ALSO FOUR HEADS; AND DOMINION WAS GIVEN TO IT.

VIII. 2—5.—“ I SAW IN A VISION; AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN I SAW,

THAT I WAS AT SHUSHAN IN THE PALACE, WHICH IS IN THE PRO-
VINCE OF ELAM; AND I SAW IN A VISION, AND I WAS BY THE RIVER
OF ULAI.

"THEN I LIFTED UP MINE EYES, AND SAW, AND BEHOLD, THERE STOOD
BEFORE THE RIVER A RAM WHICH HAD TWO HORNS: AND THE TWO
HORNS WERE HIGH; BUT ONE WAS HIGHER THAN THE OTHER, AND
THE HIGHER CAME UP LAST.

"I SAW THE RAM PUSHING WESTWARD, AND NORTHWARD, AND SOUTHWARD; SO THAT NO BEASTS MIGHT STAND BEFORE HIM, NEITHER WAS THERE ANY THAT COULD DELIVER OUT OF HIS HAND; BUT HE DID ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, AND BECAME GREAT."

"AND AS I WAS CONSIDERING, BEHOLD AN HE GOAT CAME FROM THE WEST ON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH, AND TOUCHED NOT THE GROUND: AND THE GOAT HAD A NOTABLE HORN BETWEEN HIS EYES."

20, 21. THE RAM WHICH THOU SAWEST HAVING TWO HORNS ARE THE KINGS OF MEDIA AND PERSIA. AND THE ROUGH GOAT IS THE KING OF GRECIA AND THE GREAT HORN THAT IS BETWEEN HIS EYES IS THE FIRST KING."

THE application of the second and third kingdoms to Persia and Macedonia has already been clearly esta

blished. The history of these empires belongs more properly to the two later visions, where it is unfolded with larger details. The present chapter will, therefore, be confined to a few general remarks, which may illustrate the words of the prophecy, and confirm the truth of its usual intepretation.

1. The fundamental argument which fixes the true reference of these kingdoms, is of the simplest kind. The Medo-Persian empire was distinct from that of Babylon, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Herodotus, Xenophon, and the canon of Ptolemy, all combine to prove. And it was next in order to the Babylonian. Therefore, it

must be the second kingdom of prophecy.

In like manner, the Grecian empire was distinct from the Persian, as all history bears witness. And it succeeded next in order of time. Therefore, it must needs be the third empire of the vision.

2. This conclusion is ratified, even by the express words of inspiration, in Dan. viii. The ram is the kings of Media and Persia; and the rough goat is the king of Grecia. Each of these is clearly a distinct ruling empire, by the very nature of the symbol. But the king of Babylon was the first, or the head of gold. Therefore these are the silver and brass; and by parity of reason, the bear and the leopard.

3. The minute indications all agree. The silver is inferior to the gold; and so also is the bear to the lion. The magnificent grandeur of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, was also never equalled by the Persian kings and their new capital of Susa. There was extension of size, as the first symbol denotes, but a plain and evident abatement of imperial majesty.

4. The breast and arms were silver. This seems to import some twofold division. So also the bear raised itself on one side, as if to denote two concurrent powers, of which one was inferior at the first. In like manner, the ram had two horns, of which the higher came up last. All these symbolic features agree with the angelic interpretation. "The ram having the two horns are the

kings of Media and Persia." The history, although perplexed in its details, always agrees in this main feature, that Media was at first the strongest power; but, under the aspiring genius of Cyrus, yielded to the ascendant of Persia, and became the inferior part of the monarchy. Yet both shared in the sovereign power, and Scripture itself tells us that the seven princes of Media and Persia sat first in the kingdom. Even the title given to the invasion of Greece by classic historians, Tà Mηdika, bears witness to the same truth.

5. The bear had three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth. This version seems to accord better with the close of the verse than the rendering of tusks, which some have proposed, and it also harmonizes more fully with the symbol employed. Again, in the later vision the ram is said to push westward, and northward, and southward. These three directions of conquest answer exactly to the three ribs in the mouth of the bear.

The events of history correspond. For first, it is clear from the date of the prophecy, which was within three or four years after the accession of Cyrus, and shortly before his conquest of Lydia, that the vision must refer to that time. It would be quite unnatural to pass by the most signal conquests of Persia, those of Cyrus himself, and to begin only with the later and less important victories of Darius. And besides, these later conquests were mainly, if not entirely, eastward, the only direction not specified in the vision. Every reason, then, fixes the commencement of the prophecy to the time of Cyrus.

Now the conquests of Cyrus were in these directions; first, Lydia westward, the first subject which Herodotus details at length; next, Armenia and the tribes of northern Asia; and then Babylon, which in the reign of his successor Cambyses was followed by the conquest of Egypt. The order and series of conquest was thus in full harmony with the prophetic description.

6. The words, "Arise, devour much flesh," imply the ravenous nature of the second empire. This seems to

E