criminally and injuriously ignorant of all that is around them. fulfilling the Bible, which is the neglect of their plainest duty. It seems to me that at the present moment, when, as I believe, the stone cut out without hands is breaking the kingdoms of the world into atoms-at this moment, it seems to me, that the first study should be the book of grace-the chiefest, deepest, most solemn, most prayerful; but the next to that, the study of God's providential dealings at the present hour. So that, in my humble judgment, the very newspaper at this time is to me of no mean importance; and if you want to see the Bible, which is prophecy, reflected in the form of history, just read the foreign correspondence of the newspapers of every day. We see there the world commenting upon what God has written; and God, in his providential history, showing us the truth of his ancient and inspired prophecy. But do not read the newspaper to the neglect of the Bible; read the Bible first and last, and chiefest; and use the newspapers only as you would use any one fact in the past or present, as the evidence that God speaks in the Bible, and that God now acts in the world. The Bible is the key that unlocks all it is the torch carried into the otherwise dark chambers of history, showing us order in apparent confusion; revealing harmony in seemed discord; unity, design, in what is otherwise inexplicable. Thus it becomes the bright chart that helps us to tread with certainty the windings of the labyrinth; and to rise from the chaos in which men plunge and speculate, to the light in which God is, and lives for ever.

All around, I add, is changing; but the word of God lives and abides for ever. Thrones and dynasties and kings are passing away, but God's word remains; and in the midst of all the vicissitudes and changes that are constantly occurring around us, how delightful to know that there are added day by day to the church of the living God such as shall be saved. I believe that, day by day, religion is becoming more felt and appreciated. I believe too, what you know, that empires may be shattered-sceptres broken-thrones convulsed-but that little thing, in the world's eye so weak, according to the world's calculation so perishing, the company of God's faithful people, may seem buried in the waves like the ark of old, but it is only to rise with the next bil.

low nearer to the skies. "I give unto them," says our Lord, "eternal life, and none shall be able to pluck them out of my hand." Nothing shall separate a living Christian from the living God; neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature. Brethren, are we such Christians? are we transformed by the Spirit in the renewing of our hearts? No discussion on the fulfilment of prophecy must ever divert, but on the contrary, should draw our minds to the consideration of our personal safety in the sight of God. Are we reposing on the only fixture, the Rock of ages? Are we hiding ourselves within the everlasting arms,—and when the last storm shall come, and the last thunder shall roar, and the last fires shall blaze, are we conscious that we shall be found resting on the rock that shall never fail? Are we born again? Are we in the world and of the world? or are we in the true church, and of the true church, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ? If we are, then we can stand and gaze upon the bright panorama that spreads before us, disclosing God in history, fulfilling God in prophecy; knowing that all things only work together for good to them that love God, and hasten that bright and blessed epoch, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God, and all the people shall praise him; and the earth shall yield her increase, and God, even our God shall bless us. Amen.

8

86

LECTURE VII.

THE MYSTIC STONE SMITING THE IMAGE.

"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, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."-Daniel ii. 34, 35, 41-45.

That

I HAVE explained the origin of the remarkable symbols, the last of which in this chapter I have this evening read. A great and supernatural image was made to pass before the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar the king, intended to presignify great events destined in the purposes of God to evolve in the latter days. symbol none of the soothsayers of Babylon could interpret. What God reveals, God's people alone will clearly comprehend; and what God makes known by mysterious signs, God's own commissioned interpreter is able clearly to explain.

The head, we are told, was made of gold, and was declared expressly by Daniel to be the Babylonian monarchy. That head of

gold, or Babylonian kingdom, passes away, as I have showed you by facts drawn from history, and another kingdom forthwith occupies its place: the silver breast, with the silver arms, denoting the conjunct or combined kingdom of the Medo-Persians, which instantly succeeded the kingdom of Babylon on its overthrow and subjugation by Cyrus, after whose victory its golden glory left scarce a rack behind. We then read of a third kingdom-not guessed by man to be so; but expressly explained by Daniel to succeed the second on its ruin and decay. "His belly and his thighs of brass." This kingdom, I showed you, denotes-the only possible kingdom it can be applied to-the Græco-Macedonian, called frequently, as those acquainted with classic literature are aware, "the brazen-coated Greeks"-the Greeks who wore coats and helmets of mail and brass. This kingdom may be said

to have been founded by Philip, who warred so successfully with the Greeks, and against whom the thunders and lightnings of Demosthenes were so vividly and so frequently pointed. He was succeeded by his son Alexander-Alexander the Greatwho, I need not tell any one acquainted with the elements of schoolboy literature, swept the whole known world-subjugated every kingdom, almost the instant he touched it, by his victorious phalanxes; and at last, when he had subdued the whole world, he sat down and wept, because there was no more world to conquer. His kingdom passed away after it had fulfilled its mission, and was succeeded by the mightier, more powerful, iron kingdom of the Romans; whose history, rise, and progress, are described by heathen writers, and even by Gibbon, in a manner eminently confirmatory of the predictions of Daniel, as I have already endeavoured to delineate in the former lecture. This fourth empire has been called again and again "the iron empire.” The crown or diadem of its monarchs was iron; the "iron sway" was the name that poets gave to it; and when Gibbon, the skeptic historian, wished to describe its rise, its splendour, and its might, he could find no symbol so expressive of its actual and historical nature as the very imagery used by Daniel, which he consciously or unconsciously quoted, in order thereby to denote and delineate its unrivalled greatness, strength, and progress.

I stated that the Roman empire* occupies a space larger than the rest, because the destiny of the people of God is very much interwoven and mixed up with it. I have showed you (and this is one great point I ask all to recollect) that there can be found no four successive empires in the world, or in the history of mankind, possessed of universal sovereignty, except the four I have mentioned. Now, I ask you, is it possible, if Daniel were a mere guesser a mere sagacious guesser of future possibilities-is it probable that he could have guessed so exactly what has taken place, and what all history attests? Many are found who ask for miracles. Here is a miracle fresh and patent to all. Here is a delineation minutely given six hundred years before the advent of Christ; and kings mount their thrones to fulfil it; and the Roman legion and the Macedonian phalanx march to victory, in order to make its most microscopic lines appear true. Empire succeeds to empire, army destroys army, nation follows in the rear of nation, as if each saw the chart plainly delineated, and felt that each had a divine commission to go forth, verbatim et literatim, to fulfil it. Is not this prophecy written by the finger of God? Is not all history the evidence of its inspiration? Is not this a miracle that supersedes the necessity of mere manifestations of power, however impressive, and proclaims with a voice irresistible and full of argument, "Thy word, O God, is truth ?”

In this lecture I proceed to show the division of the last kingdom, into what are called "the toes of the feet" of this image. The legs, from the knee, were represented as made of solid iron; the feet were composed of iron and clay; and there were the five toes upon the one foot and the five upon the other, constituting thereby ten. But we should not conjecture it was ten, were it not that subsequent visions in the Book of Daniel, to which I hope to be able to direct your attention, plainly state it; and no less clear statements in the Book of Revelation indicate the same number of kingdoms. We read of the "beast that was, and is

* In searching Chrysostom for another quotation, I found, in his fourth Homily, on 2 Thess. ii. 5, the following words:—"Noñeр yàp ai tpò toútov kateλúłnσαν βασιλείαι, οἷον ἡ Μήδων ὑπὸ τῶν Βαβυλωνίων, ἡ Βαβυλωνίων ὑπὸ Πέρσων, ἡ Πέρσων ὑπὸ Μακεδόνων, ἡ Μακεδόνων ὑπὸ Ρωμαίων οὕτω καὶ αὑτὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ ̓Αντιχρίστου, κἀκεῖνος ὑπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ οὐκέτι καθέξει.—Vol. xi. 613. Paris, 1838.