Thoughts on the Book of Daniel.
By Uriah Smith
Verse 7. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. Inspiration finds no beast in nature which it can make even the basis of a symbol to represent the power here illustrated. No addition of hoofs, heads, wings, scales or horns, to any beast found in nature would answer. The power was diverse from all others, and the symbol wholly nondescript. Verse 8. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. The foundation for a volume is laid in verses 7 and 8 just quoted; and we are disposed to treat them the more briefly here because anything like a full exposition is entirely beyond the space that can be allowed in these brief thoughts. This beast of course corresponds to the fourth division of the great image, the legs of iron. Under chapter 2, verse 40, are given some reasons for supposing this power to be Rome. The same are applicable to the present case. How accurately Rome answered to the iron division of the image! How accurately it answers to the beast before us! In the dread and terror which it inspired, and in its exceeding strength, the world never has seen its equal. It devoured, as with iron teeth, and brake in pieces; and it ground the nations into the very dust, beneath its brazen feet. It had ten horns, which are explained in verse 24 to be ten kings or kingdoms which should arise out of this empire. As already noticed, Rome was divided into ten kingdoms, enumerated by Machiavel as follows: 1. The Huns. 2. The Ostrogoths. 3. The Visigoths. 4. The Franks. 5. The Vandals. 6. The Suevi. 7. The Burgundians. 8. The Heruli. 9. The Anglo-Saxons. 10. The Lombards. These divisions have ever since been spoken of as the ten kingdoms of the Roman Empire. Daniel considered the horns. Indications of a strange movement appeared among them. A little horn (at first little, but afterward more stout than its fellows), thrust itself up among them. It was not content to quietly find a place of its own, and fill it; it must thrust aside some of the others, and usurp their places. Three kingdoms were plucked up before it. This little horn, as we shall have occasion to notice more fully hereafter, was the Papacy. The three horns plucked up before it were the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals; not that these kingdoms were destroyed. This was not necessary; but they must retire from the field before the arrogant claims of the Papacy, and seek their territorial limits in other quarters. And “in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things”—fit emblem of the shrewdness, penetration, cunning, foresight, and arrogant claims of the bishop of Rome. Verses 9, 10. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the Judgment was set, and the books were opened. A sublime description of a sublime scene is not to be found in the English language. But not only on account of the grand and lofty imagery introduced should it arrest our attention; the nature of the scene itself is such as to demand most serious consideration. The Judgment is brought to view; and whenever the Judgment is mentioned, it ought to take an irresistible hold upon every mind; for all have an interest in its eternal issues. By an unfortunate translation in verse 9, a wrong idea is almost sure to be conveyed. The words “cast down” are from a word which in the original signifies just the opposite, namely, to set up. Dr. Clarke says “that it might be translated erected; so the Vulgate positi sunt [were placed], and so all the versions.” The Septuagint has etethesan, which is defined to mean “to set, put, place, to set up, to erect.” The thrones are not the thrones of earthly kingdoms which are to be thrown down at the last day, but thrones of Judgment which are to be set up, just before the end. The “Ancient of Days,” God the Father, takes the throne of Judgment. Mark the description of his person. Those who believe in the impersonality of God are obliged to admit that he is here described as a personal being; but they console themselves by saying that it is the only description of the kind in the Bible. We do not admit this latter assertion; but granting that it were true, is not one description of this kind as fatal to their theory as though it were repeated a score of times? The thousand thousands who minister unto him, and the ten thousand times ten thousand who stand before him, are not sinners arraigned before the Judgment-seat, but heavenly beings who wait before him attendant on his will. An understanding of these verses involves an understanding of the subject of the sanctuary, to works on which subject we refer the reader. The closing up of the ministration of Christ our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary is the work of the Judgment here introduced. It is an investigative Judgment. The books are opened, and the cases of all come up for examination before that great tribunal, that it may be determined beforehand who are to receive eternal life when the Lord shall come to confer it upon his people. John, as recorded in Rev. 5, had a view of this same place, and saw the same number of heavenly attendants engaged with Christ in the work of investigative judgment. Looking into the sanctuary (as we learn from Rev. 4 that he was), in chapter 5:11, he says, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” It will appear from the testimony of chapter 8:14, that this solemn work is even now transpiring in the sanctuary above. Verses 11, 12. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. There are persons who believe in a thousand years' triumph of the gospel and reign of righteousness over all the world before the Lord comes; and there are others who believe in probation after the Lord comes, and a mixed millennium, the immortal righteous still proclaiming the gospel to mortal sinners, and turning them into the way of salvation. But both of these systems of error are completely demolished by the verses before us. 1. The fourth terrible beast continues without change of character, and the little horn continues to utter its blasphemies, and hold its millions of votaries in the bonds of a blind superstition, till the beast is given to the burning flame; and this is not its conversion, but its destruction. See 2 Thess. 2:8. 2. The life of the fourth beast is not prolonged after its dominion is gone, as were the lives of the preceding beasts. Their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season. The territory and subjects of the Babylonish kingdom still existed, though subjected to the Persians. So of the Persian kingdom in respect to Grecia, and of Grecia in respect to Rome. But what succeeds the fourth kingdom? No government or state in which mortals have any part. Its career ends in the lake of fire, and it has no existence beyond. The lion was merged into the bear; the bear into the leopard; the leopard into the fourth beast; and the fourth beast into what? Not into another beast, but into the lake of fire, which is its final destruction till the second death. Then let no one talk of probation or a mixed millennium after the Lord comes. The adverb then, in the sentence, “I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake,” etc., seems to refer to some particular time. The work of investigative judgment is introduced in the verses before. And this verse would seem to imply that while this work is going forward, and just before this power is destroyed and given to the burning flame, the little horn utters its great words against the Most High. Have we not heard them, and that, too, within a few years? Look at the Vatican Council of 1870. What can be more blasphemous than to attribute infallibility125to a mortal man? And here we have an Ecumenical Council assembled for the purpose of deliberately decreeing that the occupant of the papal throne, the man of sin, possesses this prerogative of God, and cannot err. Can anything be more presumptuous and blasphemous? Is not this the voice of the great words which the horn spake? and is not this power near to the burning flame? U. S.