will confirm. "I know that the Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;" and that confusion and despair in that day will be the lot of those who shall have no sympathy with his character, and no conformity to his will. Therefore it is that I would entreat the gainsayer, if such should rest his eye upon this page, to pause ere he enter into deliberate conflict with the Being who created him! Therefore it is that I would address this word of affectionate counsel to him, not as a speculative dogma, which with impunity he may scatter to the winds; but as a practical and eternal truth, associated with all the dearest interests of his soul! The terrific results of a controversy with God have not yet been manifested to his individual experience; but is this any reason that those results should not ultimately force themselves upon his attention? Is the stillness which hangs about the new-made grave, any satisfactory evidence that no startling voice shall ever awaken to life and to judgment the mouldering form which sleeps beneath its sod?

Under this impression let us resume the examination of Scripture in reference to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For this end I beg the particular attention of the reader to a twofold prophecy in the book of Daniel. The era at which Daniel delivered these prophecies, was a period of time very calamitous to the Jewish nation. Carried captive to Babylon, they groaned beneath the iron yoke of the Chaldean king. By the good providence of God several of the youthful captives were placed both in the household and in the special favour of the reigning monarch. It thus pleased God to make the curiosity of this monarch the occasion of unfolding a distinct outline of successive events, from that hour to the end of the present dispensation.

The Assyrian king, we are told, was troubled by a dream; the subject of which, while it had escaped his memory, had excited his curiosity. He applied to his astrologers to bring back the vanished impression, in all its original vivacity, to his mind. Their inability to fulfil his command inflamed him with anger, and he issued a despotic and cruel mandate for the destruction of their whole order. This command included Daniel and his pious companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. This eventful history we find recorded in Dan. ii. 14. "Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: He answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would

give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions; that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon."

The circumstances of this history may well arrest the attention of the reader. The inexperienced Daniel brought the painful tidings of the king's displeasure to his friends, and immediately they spread the matter in prayer before God. "They desired his mercies concerning this thing." But can we refuse to recognize on this occasion, the existence of higher feelings than those connected with the mere love of life? These associates in captivity were young, generous, and brave. They exhibited in after days that firm and patient heroism which belongs alone to the fear of God. One of this little band was afterwards cast into the den of lions; and the other three were plunged alive into the seven times heated furnace. They loved the truth, and were ready to die in its defence. How inferior to this calm fortitude of godliness, is worldly daring! The contrast is that between the muscular fibre of the tiger and the patient force of intellect-the quiet confidence of moral strength!

In this condition of mind, prayer would be connected less with the desire of life, than with the manifestation of the glory of Jehovah. They were living in a heathen court, and the event in question might prove an illustrious occasion to exhibit the power, wisdom, and providence of the true God. I love to recall the living image of these righteous men, and to mark the existence of practical holiness beneath the sternest attitudes of despotism and of crime. Oh! it cheers the heart amidst the moral cowardice of mankind, to mark the erection of such a trophy in a land of foes!

But to resume the narrative. "Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered, and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; for wisdom and might are his, and he changeth the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth up kings; he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding; he revealeth the deep and secret things; he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might; and hast made known unto me what we desired of thee: for thou hast made known unto us the king's matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and

said thus unto him: I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded, cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these: as for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great IMAGE: this great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. 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 threshingfloors, 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. This is the dream: and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all: thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise ANOTHER kingdom inferior to thee, and ANOTHER third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the FOURTH kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 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. (Ver. 44.) 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 break 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."

I would now beg the reader to connect with the SMITING of this mysterious STONE the declaration of Jesus Christ: (in

Matt. xxi. 42, 44:) "Did ye never read in the scriptures, The STONE which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? And whosoever shall fall on this STONE shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, (when it shall smite as in the vision of Daniel,) it will grind him to powder." What a comment is this, by the lips of Christ, on the foregoing prophecy of Daniel! Who can doubt the meaning of this mighty, but mysterious STONE; at once the foundation of hope to the faithful, and the uplifted weapon of judgment to the sinner?

To enable us to form a more just opinion of the real import of the vision of the IMAGE, I would refer to a second vision of Daniel, different indeed in emblems, but similar in its interpretation. (Dan. vii. 2.) "Daniel spake, and said: I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove 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 eagles' wings: and I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked. And it was lifted up from the earth, and a man's heart was given to it: and behold another beast, a second like to a bear. (Ver. 6.) After this I beheld, and lo, another like a leopard. (Ver. 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 had TEN HORNS. I considered the HORNS; and behold, there came up among them another little HORN, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold in THIS HORN were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. Ibeheld, 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. 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. (Ver. 15.) I Daniel was grieved in my spirit, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. These great 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 and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others; and of the ten horns, and of the other whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same HORN made war with the SAINTS, and prevailed against them, UNTIL the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the SAINTs possessed the KINGDOM. Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the FOURTH KINGDOM upon earth. And the TEN

HORNS out of this kingdom are TEN KINGS that SHALL ARISE; and ANOTHER shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings: and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High. (Verse 26.) But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion—to consume and to destroy it unto the end; and the KINGDOM and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be GIVEN to the people of the SAINTS of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."

These visions bear the bright impression of a divine original. They unfold, in a few words, the whole outline of the political and moral history of the human race within the confines of the Roman world, from the time of Daniel to the hour of the second advent of Christ. The first vision, under the emblem of an IMAGE, foretells a succession of monarchies, the last of which, when broken into TEN parts, is smitten to shivers by the STONE cut out of the mountain. The second vision foretells the same succession of FOUR monarchies; the division of the last into ten powers, under the emblem of ten horns; and the existence of an eleventh power arising after the former division of ten. The eleventh power subdues three of the ten, and directs his special enmity against the saints of God, until at length these persecuted SAINTS themselves RECEIVE the kingdom, and REIGN with HIM to whom the Ancient of Days hath assigned an everlasting dominion. These prophecies no human hand could have traced, because no human mind could thus have pierced through the dark and interfolded veils of futurity. The Omniscient and the Almighty alone could have thrown back those folds, and have exhibited the successive events which they concealed. Let any man compare with these visions the history of the world during the last two thousand three hundred years, and let him stand astonished before the wisdom and the strength of a captive of Judah, a youthful stranger in a foreign land! A ray from the Eternal Throne illuminated his mind; the visions of the Omniscient made him wise. The record still lives upon the mysterious. page; and while two thousand years of conflict and of crime have rolled their destructive waves over the deep-wrought characters, they remain imperishable; to the eye of faith still brilliant as the burning flame!

The whole series of prophetic events appears now to approach fast to its termination. The four predicted monarchies have appeared. Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, fill up the whole space of intermediate history. The empire of Rome, the fourth monarchy, (according to the delineation of one little disposed to vindicate the authority of God-I mean the Italian