i
J
m
Zion’s Landmarks.
more
excel lent or highly esteemed
among men than tlie Persian, tlic | typify the Koman Empire
Persian than the Grecian, tlie Grecian
than the Roman ; and yet by virtue
of increased numbers and a better
knowledge of the art of war, each
successive power overcame and sub
dued its predecessor. Like as when
of late, the Fcderalsavnd Confederates
were at war, and the Federal force
(.)vercame, subdued, and entirely van-
(luishcd the Confederate forces; it
was not because the Federals were
any better in quality than the Con
federates, but it was because the vast
superiority in numbers, wealth, and
the art and appliances of war wei’e on
the side of the Federals. Tims the
silver overcame the gold, or the brass
the silver, but we suppose really there
>vas no difference among the combat
ants as to quality, because all were of
ihe earth, earthly, and were similar to
a part of the great image.
“After these,” said Daniel to the
King “shall arise another King infe
rior to thee, and another third king
dom of brass which shall bear rule
over all ihc earth. And the fourth
kingdom shall be as strong as iron;
for asmuch a.s iron breaketh in pieces
and subducth all things; and as iron
breaketh all things, shall it break in
pieces and bruise. And whereas
thou sawest the feet and toes part of
clay and ])art of iron, the kingdom
shall be dividel, but there shall be
ill it the strength of the iron, foras
much as thou sawest tho*iron, mixed
with mi-ry qlay. And as the toes of
The legs and feet of iron and clay
The two
legs may be understood to represent
its two great divisions, the eastern
and the western.
The ten toes may represent the ten ,
miidit well receive the throne of his ;
o , I
father David, reign over the house of
Jacob forever and have his kingdom |
established without end.
This conception was supernatural.
that is, above nature—without and
kingdoms into which the Roman
bevond the course of ordinary genera-
tiie fett wcvcl^iart of iron aad part of ■^he Gre’feian.i So that! the Roman
clay, so the kingdom shall be partly combined the strength of all the pre
strong and
piartly broken. And
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with
clay, tliey shall mingle themselves
with the seed of men; but they shall
not cleave to one another, even as
iron is not mixed with clay. And in
the davs of these King's shall the God
of heaven set
Ac., &c.
up a kingdom,” Ac.
The kingdom of Babylon was an
imm ixedV'‘one—purely Assyrian—an
absolute- monarchy, and Nebuchad
nezzar the mighty, ruled at the time of
the dream. This was the golden
licad.
The kingdom of theMedes and the
I’ersians was a compound—denoted
by the breast and two arms. One
arm signified Media and the other
Persia, these being united to the
breast constituted the one kingdom.
And as the right arm is considered
stroufrerand more useful than the left,
SO the right arm may' represent Persia,
the stronger, and the left represent
Media tlie weaker povrer. These
wore united, however, under King
Cyrus and he conquered Be’shajzar
and overthrew the
Empire was subsecpiently^ divided,
viz : 1. The Vandals ; 2. The Snevi; j
3. The Alans ; 4. The Burgundians ; j
5. Jbe Franks; G. TheA^isigoths; 7. :
The Anglo-Saxons ; 8. ITerulo-Thur- |
ingi; 9. The Ostrogoths; 10. The
Lombards. Some of iron firm and .
durable, others of clay liable to be
broken. They wmuld never cleave i
together so as to again form a fifth j
universal Empire. |
Thus the completed image when i
viewed geographically, as a Avhole, is |
the Roman Fuq)ire in its utmost ex
tent, including its owm peculiar do
minions in the West, and the domin
ions of the three proceeding Empires
in the East.
And it is observable that nq uni
versal Empire has existed since the
Roman. There never will be anoth
er : our very sanguine President of the
United States, as shown in his last
inaugural address, to the contrary
notwithstanding. The image was
made complete by the succession of
the Roman Empire. Nothing is to
be added to it and nothing taken
from it until the vision is fullilled.
The Medo-Persian Empire was
stronger than the Babydoniau—the
Grecian stronger than the IMedo-Per-
sian, and the Roman st»’onger than
tion. It was miraculous and Divine,
lie grew^ up to manhood, gathered
his disciples around ^lim, delivered to
them the principles of his gospel
kino-dom—assumed the sins of his
o
people—-bore them in his own body
on the tree—laid himself down oji
the sacrificial altar—shed his blood
for them—died for them and rose for
them—a.scended on high for them,
leading captivity captive and receiv
ing p-ifts for men.
ceeding
strongest of them all.
Empires and of course was
The legs and
feet of the image wns therefore the
strongest part of it and sustained all
the other points. If the feet and legs
are destroyed of couase the image
In seven times seven days there
after he descended in Spirit on his
desciples, who were assembled togeth
er in one place in the City of Jerusa
lem, and then and there he fully set
up his visible kingdom on earth in
the form of the gospel Church,
This handful of men were not to be
still and wait the approach of the ene
my, but were to take uj> their cross
and go boldly forth to war offensive-
all tlu; deluges that he might tlsercMsi-
ter send on the earth. And toward
the end of the great Chaklcivn king
dom, wiieii Nebuchadnezzar and ilc!-
sliazzar were the ivigning m!)mirci. ,
W(' find their astroiogers, magicians,
sooth-savers, philosophers :md wis
men generally, leading the people in
to all manner of idolatry, vice ami
immorality; instead of dn’ccting
them to a knowledge or tlie vrai'sliip
of the one true and living God,
The magic of the East, during the
existence of the second kingdom, only
Iv against the kingdom of Iron.
must fall and come to nothing
Babvlonian king-
iom.
The kingdom of Greece was first
rdnglc and then compouml, represent
ed by the belly' and the thighs of the
image. The belly' denoting the undi-
'vided sovereignty of Alexander and
the thighs, the twochief kingdoms of
Syria and Egypt, into which his Em
pire was principally'divided.
A shrewd General, sometimes, it is
said, in order to gain a victory attacks
the weakest point of his adversary
first, in order to gain advantage by
degrees. But yet he may do this
and vet through weakness and want
of power ^get defeated in the end,
when the stronger forces of the ene
my are thrown against him. If in
the beginning he had knowingly been
wise enough and strong enough to
vanquish his enemy he would have
attacked him at the strongest point
first, and after that was overcome the
remainder of the conquest would have
been easy.
It was at the zenith of Roman glo
ry and magnificeuce when Christ was
born in Bethlehem, Judah. The
wisdom, strength, learning, greatness
and grandeur of the world were ab
sorbed and exhibited by her. It was
the Augustan age. Men had climbed
the hill of science until they thought
they had reached the top. Heathen
|[Iome\ the mistress; of the wqlrld, -mo
nopolized all its vrealth, glory and
magnificence, and all nations lay
prostrate at her feet. Who then
could measure arras with her ? who
could overthrow her? “In the days
of these Kings shall the God of heav-
set up a kingdom.”
The stone cut out of the mountain
did not roll from the image, but
against it, and attacked it in its
strongest part, even its feet, that were
of iron and clay and broke them to
pieces. “Then was the iron, the
clay, the brass, the silver and gold
broken to pieces together, and became
like the chaff of the Summer thresh
ing-floors ; and the wind carried them
away, that no place was found for
them, and the stone that smote the
image became a great mountain and
filled the whole earth.” As though
God was both wise enough and
strong enough to attack this image on
its feet, the strongest part; and when
they were beaten to pieces the re
mainder was destroyed, as a matter of
course.
The stone cut out of
the mountain
without hands represents our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Stone rep
resents his humanity or earthly' na
ture. He was born of a woman to
show his relationship to man; and by
the overshadowing of the Holy Gkost
the virgin conceived, whereby he be-
God had winked at the ignorance of
fallen man for 4,000 years and stood
by to see what he would do. Man
was clamoring for “a chance,” and
God gave him a good long chance to
find out God and save himself. But
the longer and better was his chance,
came the Son of the
highest
and
the still poorer use he made of it, and
the farther he seemed to get away' from
God. In the setting of the first one
of these great kingdoms, by' Nimrod,
the rebel, (as his name signifies) about
2,325 years before Christ, infidelity
was the characteristic trial. A tower
was to be built, whose top should
reach into heaven, not to get to God,
but to get away from him, and save
themselves in defiance of him and of
lead the Medes and Persians further'
i)ito idolatry' and mrdtiplication ot
idols.
The wise men of Gi'eece, with
Socrates and Plato at their head.,
with Xenophon, Demesthenes, Honn r
and Aristides following in the train,
did not lead the people to God under
the third nnis'Cfsal kingdom; but
lead them further from him if possi
ble, and steeped them deeper and
deeper into idolatry', and the mystic
as well the open vices.
The Sages, the Statesmen, the Em
perors, craters and poets of Rome
did not lead the people under the
fourth uni%'ersal kingdom any }iearer
to God than did their predecessors;
but of all her predecessors, she ap
peared the most corrupt, voluptuous
and debauched—swimming in vice
and immorality of the deepest dye.—
She multiplied idols bey'oud ail other
nations, and when Christianity was
set up within lier bounds, made use
of the most unheard of means and
ffNasures to uproot i(, so^^s to
leave neither root or branch ^ it
alive.
Now will some one inform us what
advantage it was to the people under
all these reigns, to have a good chance,,
a great chance, and a long chance to
find out God and a way of salvation ?
Did one of them fund him out, go to
him, love him, fail down andworship-
him from the flood to tlie coming of
Christ? Unless God first re'vealcdl
himsels to hum, was there any knowl
edge of God, under heaven, by mor
tal man during all that period ? We
are compelled to answer—No! Them
is “chance” v/orth anything to man
in the matter of his salvation? We
arc bound to answer—No !
The true God and the light of
divine truth Avas Avith his people from
the calling of Abraham to Moses, and
from Closes to Christ; but did the
surrounding nations care for it ? 'WitR
all the good chanees they Irad, did.
they come to^this little nation and,
learn the truth,? Did they seek it at
all ? Did they come to, those, holy
fires and be. warmed ? Nay verily',,
but they-derided this handful of men..
They harrassed them, tiiey fought,
them, they desjjised their religion,
they sought to destroy them root and
branch and banish their religion from
the earth. That is the use they made
of a good chance,
Just the same use are AvickedAmeh
making of a good chance now, just the
same on the revival of letters, and,
just the same aaIII they' make of it ir|