THE CHARACTER OF EARTHLY RULE.
IN our last two issues we studied the dream which God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. In that dream was shown to the king a great image, composed of different metals, gold, silver, brass, and iron, and iron and clay, representing respectively the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome both in its united and divided state. These are the four great dominions of earth which have molded its government, shaped its destiny, and perverted and modified true religion. Following this the image was broken and utterly destroyed by a divinely prepared stone, representing the kingdom of Christ. These things were shown to Nebuchadnezzar under the symbol of an image, because he was an idolater, and such a symbol would arrest and hold his attention. But when the Lord reveals to his servant the great history in advance, he uses monstrous and cruel beasts, more fitly to represent their character. The beast symbols of the same four empires were represented to Daniel in a vision of the night, as follows:— "Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove ["brake forth," R. V.] upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings; I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet ["two feet," R. V.] as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. "And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up 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. "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." Dan. 7:2-7.2 Extended explanation of these symbols is not necessary. The "winds" are a symbol of strife and war among the nations, represented by the "sea." (See Jer. 25:32; Rev. 7:1; 17:15; Jer. 4:11, 12.) As the result of this strife among the nations of earth, these four great world-powers were developed. The first of these was Babylon, an empire founded by Nimrod. In Jer. 4:7, 13 and 48:40 we have both the symbols of the lion and eagle applied to Babylon, and to her swiftness of conquest. The lion is a symbol of Babylon, which met its end in B.C. 538. The bear is a symbol of the Medo-Persian government, the successor of Babylon. The raising up of itself on one side doubtless refers to the dominancy of the Persian element, and the three ribs in its mouth to the provinces of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, which were cruelly oppressed by this conquering power. The same empire is represented in Dan. 8:3, 4, 20 by a ram with two horns, and is there named The third symbol is that of the four-headed, four-winged leopard. This, like the four-horned goat of chapter 8, represents Grecia. Two hundred years before she came to power, God named her, and designated her first great king—Alexander the Great—by a single horn that had no like single successor. See Dan. 8:5-8, 21, 22. At the battle of Arbela, B.C. 331, Alexander became monarch of the world by conquering Persia. After eight years of conquest and riotous living, he died from a drunken debauch. After more or less wrangling and change for a few years, his empire was divided into four parts, among four of his generals. Syria was ruled by Seleucus, Asia Minor and Thrace by Lysimachus, Egypt by Ptolemy, and Greece by Cassander. The wings signify rapidity of conquest and soaring pride, and the leopard itself indicates the character of that government. To Grecia succeeded Rome, under the symbol of a great and terrible beast. With mighty strength and great iron teeth, it well represents the iron monarchy that ruled the world with such relentless power. Once started on her conquering career, Rome brought the world into subjugation as no other power had ever done, and became the world's mistress in B.C. 30, when Egypt, the last division of the Grecian Empire, became a Roman province. But the Roman Government came into connection with the people of God in a league with the Jews, B.C. 161. "And it [the beast] had ten horns." "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." Dan. 7:24. By "kings" is meant "kingdoms," as the ruler stands for his dominion. See verses 17, 18, 23. "These beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom." "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom." The ten horns are therefore ten kingdoms which should rise out of the Roman Empire, or in which that empire should be divided. Was this the case? Did Inspiration, eight hundred years before the imperialism of the iron monarchy of Rome was broken, indicate the number of those divisions? In the second chapter we are plainly told that the mixture of iron and clay was to show that "the kingdom shall be divided," but we are not told there how many divisions there would be. Here we have the ten horns, indicating ten divisions of like character to the beast from whose head they sprung. What are the facts?—Simply these: The "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," by Gibbon, shows that between the years A.D. 351 and 476 the empire of Rome was divided into ten divisions, as follows: Allemanni, Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, Suevi, Visigoths, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Heruli. Some of these powers exist to-day, as the reader will note by the names. Germany is Allemanni, and its people are still called Allemans by the French. In the French are perpetuated the Franks; in England, the Saxons. The references to Gibbon may be found in chapters 10, 12, 19, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 42, 45, 49, and elsewhere. Concerning the above there is little or no difference among commentators as to the main facts. All are agreed so far as we know on to what the four beasts symbolize, and that the fourth, representing Rome, was divided into ten parts, as indicated by the horns. These four great empires are well represented by cruel beasts, so far as the people of God and true religion are concerned. In all these governments Church and State were united; all had some form of religion, the worship of some god or gods established by law. The State was in this supreme. The gods were to a certain extent created by the State, and largely consisted of her dead heroes deified. In direct conflict with this came the worship of the one true God whenever the two systems came in contact. That the people of God were not persecuted more, nay, blotted out of existence, is due to the fact that God in his providence restrained the wrath of these man-made governments, even as man may at times control vicious, wild brutes. At the head of this Church and State system is Babylon; in her scheme of rebellion and self-salvation it originated (see Gen. 11:1-9), and even to this day she has "made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of her wine [of her fornication]; therefore the nations are mad." Jer. 51:7. But there is another important feature of the prophecy of Daniel 7, namely, which came up from among the ten, which should exist to the end, and would have much to do with the people of God. To what does this "little horn" refer? The specifications of the prophecy, the particulars which the Lord gives respecting it, are many and definite; can we tell from them to what power or system it applies? Here are a number of these particulars:— 1. It was to arise out of the Roman Empire at the time of its division into ten kingdoms. Verse 8. 2. Three horns, or three kings, should be plucked up before it. Verses 8, 24. 3. It would start small and manifest great strength and assumption; it "spake very great things," and its "look was more stout than his fellows." Verse 20. 4. It should be "diverse" from the ten kingdoms; it would possess a different form of government. Verse 24. 5. It should be shrewd and far-seeing. The other kingdoms are represented by blind horns of a beast; but the little horn had "eyes like the eyes of a man," showing its superior, far-seeing shrewdness. Verses 8, 20. 6. It should be a blasphemous power, speaking words against God. Verses 11, 20, 25. 7. It should "wear out the saints of the Most High;" that is, it would be a persecuting power. Verses 20, 21, 25. 8. It should think to change the times and laws of a power whose law it could only think to change, namely, God's times and law. Verse 25. 9. The saints and the times and the law should be given into the hand of this power for a certain definite time, called "time and times and the dividing of time." Verse 25. 10. Its power as a persecutor would be destroyed at the end of that time, and following that its dominion should be taken away. Verses 25, 26. 11. Yet it would at the very end of the age be a persecutor, showing that its power to persecute would be restored. Verses 21, 22. Here are these definite, specific particulars. It is not in the least degree probable that they could apply to two powers; and it would show the marvelous foreknowledge of God to find one power to which each and all applied. But there is one such power. God, who declares "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Isa. 46:10), has made no mistake. These specifications, the Lord will, we will study in our next.