p. 92 | Moody on Daniel

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 15, 1877

Moody on Daniel.

THE sermon upon the second personal advent of Christ preached by Mr. Moody in Chicago near the close of his labors in that city, has been published in the leading papers of almost every denomination and of course has drawn out as many varieties of comments. Although it was thought by some that “it would have been better to have left the address undelivered,” the manner in which the doctrine of the advent and reign of Christ is interwoven in other sermons, shows the importance which Mr. Moody attaches to that subject. At the morning service in the Boston Tabernacle, Sunday, Feb. 18, before an audience of nearly 5,000 persons, he delivered a lecture on Daniel, of which we give below that portion which refers directly to

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM.

“The second year there was a great stir in Babylon. The king, Nebuchadnezzar, angrily ordered all the wise men to be put to death, and the first, I suppose, Daniel heard of it was when the officer came to take him out to be executed. Daniel asked what he had done to deserve death, and was told that Nebuchadnezzar had had a dream and none of the wise men could interpret it, and he ordered that they all be put to death. Daniel said: ‘Let me see the king,’ and he was taken to him and said: ‘Give me a little time and I will tell you your dream.’ There was faith for you! He knew in whom he trusted and believed, and he knew God would let him know the secret in answer to prayer. Time was granted and it must have been good news to these wise men. Daniel and his three friends called a little prayer-meeting—I don't know but it was the first prayer-meeting they ever had in Babylon—and together that night they prayed to the God of the Hebrews and of Heaven that he would reveal unto them this dream; but no answer came, and they went off to bed. I don't think you and I would have gone to bed and slept any if our heads had been coming off the next morning. But they had faith in their God, and while they were sleeping God revealed it to Daniel, and he was in bed praising and magnifying God—God had heard his cry. He rose early in the morning and went to the king and told him his dream. There must have been great joy in Babylon. And he said, ‘O king, in your dream you saw an image.’ I can just see Nebuchadnezzar's eyes flash as it came into his mind and he said, ‘Yes.’ ‘And this image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away.’ ‘Yes,’ cries Nebuchadnezzar, ‘that is my dream; I saw that image. Now tell me the interpretation.’ Let me say right here that Daniel had given to God all the glory; he said that the secret belonged to God; he didn't take anything to himself.”

“Let me say that the Chaldean government extended all over the world; and we talk about the improvements of the present day, but I suppose that Babylon, in its glory, was one of the most magnificent cities the sun ever shone upon. It was sixty miles around it; the walls were upwards of three hundred feet high, and eighty-seven feet thick; it had twenty-five solid brass gates opening into streets one hundred and fifty feet wide and fifteen miles long; twenty-five brass gates on each side of the city, and it was built perfectly square; the beautiful Euphrates ran right through that city, and there was a hanging garden, which the king built to please his wife, and which he took from a mountainous country. The wealth of the world had been brought into that city, and after it had been finished the second time they found in one of the temples a god of gold. It took millions of money just to make that one god of gold! There was the wealth of a nation centered in that great city; and now, he says, ‘there shall come another empire that shall overthrow yours.’ And Daniel lived in Babylon until he saw that government overthrown, and the Medes and Persians came in and took that city, and for some time ruled the world. Then came Alexander, representing the government of brass, and for some little while Greece ruled the world; and then came the kingdom of iron, the Cæsars, and ruled the world, but their government was overthrown and divided into ten kingdoms; and God will keep on overturning kingdoms until he alone shall reign. These ten kingdoms exist now, but by-and-by that stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands shall come into collision with the image and break it into pieces until it becomes like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, and God shall set up his kingdom on earth and reign.”

“This dream is true. God is going to set up his kingdom, and he will rule the world in righteousness. May God haste the day when he shall come! There will be no government that will satisfy us until he sets up his kingdom and rules. Let us pray that that blessed day may soon come.”