THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
CHAPTER II, VERSE 39. (CONTINUED.)
When Darius fell, Alexander saw the field cleared of his last formidable foe. Thenceforward he could spend his time in his own manner, now in the enjoyment of rest and pleasure, and again in the prosecution of some minor conquest. He entered upon a pompous campaign into India, because according to Grecian fable, Bacchus and Hercules, two sons of Jupiter, whose son he also claimed to be, had done the same. He conquered all that there was any necessity for conquering, and then is said to have wept that he had not another world to conquer. For what? That he might do good to his fellow men, bless and elevate the race, and ameliorate their woes? No; but to gratify his own insatiable thirst for power, and to pander to his ungovernable lusts. With contemptible arrogance he claimed for himself divine honors. He gave up conquered cities freely and unprovoked, to the absolute mercy of his bloodthirsty and licentious soldiery. He himself often murdered his own friends and favorites in his drunken frenzies. He sought out the vilest persons for the gratification of his lust. At the instigation of a dissolute and drunken woman, he, with a company of his courtiers, all in a state of beastly intoxication, sallied out, torch in hand, and fired the city and palace of Persepolis, one of the finest palaces in the world. He encouraged such excessive drinking among his followers, that on one occasion twenty of them together died as the result of their carousal. At length he, having sat through one long drinking spree, was immediately invited to another, when, after drinking to each of the twenty guests present, he twice drank full, says history, incredible as it may seem, the Herculean cup containing six of our quarts. He thereupon fell down, seized with a violent fever, of which in a few days after he died, in the very prime of life, aged 33. Such was Alexander, who is ridiculously called “the great.” If vice and cruelty, and vain glory, and love of power, and thirst for blood, constitute greatness, he was great; if otherwise, he was a monster, the more monstrous because his powers of mind, some of which he possessed to a remarkable degree, were prostituted to unholy ends. But he was an agent in the hands of God in the fulfillment of his word; and when that work was accomplished, he was cast away as the vile and loathsome thing that he was. The progress of the Grecian empire we need not stop to trace here, since its distinguishing features will claim notice under other prophecies. Daniel thus continues in his interpretation of the great image: VERSE 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. Thus far in this prophecy there is a general agreement. That Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Grecia, are represented respectively by the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, and the sides of brass, is acknowledged by all. But with just as little ground for diversity of views, there is still a difference of opinion as to what answers to the fourth division of the great image, the legs of iron. But we have only to inquire, What kingdom did succeed Grecia in the empire of the world? And the testimony of history is full and explicit on this point. One kingdom did this, and one only; and that was Rome. It conquered Grecia; it subdued all things; like iron it broke in pieces and bruised. Gibbon, though perhaps unconscious of the fact, used the very figure of the prophecy, when describing this empire. He says:— “The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations or their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.”
At the time of the Christian era this empire took in the whole south of Europe, France, England, the greater part of Netherland, Switzerland, and the south of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece; not to speak of its possessions in Asia and Africa. Well, therefore, may Gibbon add: “The empire of the Romans filled the world. And when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. To resist was fatal; and it was impossible to fly.” It will be noticed that at first the kingdom is described unqualifiedly as strong as iron. And this was the period of its strength, during which it has been likened to a mighty Colossus bestriding the nations, conquering everything, and giving laws to the world. But this was not to continue.