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guished by your getting on from glory. May God the Spirit make faith to faith, that thereby you it your end and aim in all you do, may come to live so clearly by enjoy, or have, to give honour; · faith in Christ, and so practically and glory, and blessing, and praise s by faith upon Christ, that you may to God and the Lamb! My good come to live,

friend, I think I have cut you out 3. To Christ; to eye him and work enough for one year: God his glory, and to ascribe to him all · grant it may prosper in your hands! you are and have of good. Be. I shall often offer this prayer till I ing not your own now, but hiše see you; and who knows when and bought and redeemed by him with how this may be brought about? an inestimable price, you will ac. you cannot wish it more than Vrs.

count it your privilege, and you R. and I do ; but it is in God's .. will find it your happiness, to glo- hand. Try my three rules, (1, in,

rify him in your body and in your (2) on, (3) to Christ'; go forward, * spirit, which are now become his improve what you know, use it, · property. This is true liberty, practise it; and, take my word for perfect freedom, to be saved from it, every step will make Christ the slavery of sin and Satan, and more precious. He makes me tell to be delivered from this present you this; he makes me love Mr.

evil world : these are the triumphs and Mrs, Đ.: I pray for their chil· of redemption : 0 how great are dren. Thank you for your pre

they how endless! The more sent, and for its companion, the.. you believe them, the more you letter. Pray for yours in our comenjoy them; so many reasons will - mion Lòrd, you find to live to the Redeemer's

W. ROMÁINE.

THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND..

THE POOR MAN'S GUIDE TO THE struck my reader from his earliest

INTERPRETATION OF THE PRO- childhood. · PHECIES:

As history is to be our grand
No. III. ...

clue to the interpretation of pro

phecy, we will just gather up its It is not the design of the pre- thread, and then proceed with sent work to offer an interpretation the subject before us. After the of all the prophecies of Scripture, dividing of the earth between the but to select the most remarkable three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, of those which affect the general and Japheth, until we find the history of the world, and open to Prophet Daniel a captive in Babyus a view of the approach of Christ's lon, there had passed indeed near

kingdom-the common prayer and ly eighteen hundred years, but - expectation of all his faithful very little is known of the hise i people..

tory of these early ages, except I shall proceed, therefore, from what we gather from Scripture. the prophecy of Noah, which form. There the reader has remarked ied the subject of our last paper, to two great kingdoms, with which

the prophecies of Daniel.. And, of the church of God was much canthese I now take the first; which is cerned.--Egypt, and the Assyrian Nebuchadnezzar's dream; à part of empire, whose head dwelt at NineScripture which, I dare say, has veh, and was the instrument of

384. A Guide to the Interpretation of the Prophecies. 93?

(Nov. HOW Y

Y1713 1701109 Pri193 1907 e carrying into captivity, the ten punto the king but there is a God tribes! y o

in heaven cthat irevealeth secrets, sis In the reign of Hezekiah the 'and maketh known to king Nebu

reader tirst finds inention of Baby- + chadnezzar what shall be in the 3 lon and her king. This, empire latter days. . Thy dreame and the Imay be said to have arisen out of l visions of thy head upon thy bed the ruins of the Assyrian empire. isare these: as for thée, o king, thy For, when Nineveh was destroyed -thoughts came into thy mind upon by the Medes and Babyloniaos, --thy bed, what should come to pass 4 the greatest part of its inhabit hereafter ; and he thats revealeth ants were carried to Babylon; nay, - secrets maketh known to thee what the very materials of which it was shall come to pass.ov But as ofor built were carried off to adorn and - me, this secret is not revealed to. x' give strength to that stately metro- ' me for any wisdom that I have

polis, which was then undoubtedly more than any living, but for their

the first city in the worla.” It was sakes who shall make known the Janearly six hundred years before interpetation to the king, and that

the birth of our blessed Lord that thou mightest know the thoughts the Jews were taken captive to:of thy heart.o Thou, O king, sat: Babylon, their city and temple de- - est, and, behold, a great image. stroyed; all the particulars of: This great image, whose brightsiwhich the reader knows from his ness was excellent, stood before - Bible, p o rtatil 1976. thee; and the form thereof was

Among the children of this cap- terrible. This image's head was tivity was Daniel, whom it pleased : 'of fine gold, his breast and his Almighty God to raise up in a arms of silver, his belly and his wonderful manner to be a Prophet..thighs of brass, his legs of iron, to the nations, so that in his writ- his feet part of iron and part of ings we find a general outline, aš clay. Thou sawest till a stone was it were, of all the chief events cut out without hands, which smote that have from that time happened the image upon his feet, which in the world, or that ever will hap- were of iron and clay, and brake. pen," till the glorious kingdom of them to pieces.' Then was the . Christ shall come.. sin iron, the clay, the brass, the sil

The first of these prophecies it ver, and the gold, broken to pieces pleased God to reveal to the king together, and became like the chaff of Babylon himself in a dream, of the summer threshing-floors, and which Daniel is brought in a pro- the wind carried them away, that

vidential manner to explain, as is no place was found for them; and 5 so interestingly related in the see the stone that smote the image econd chapter of Iris book. it became a great mountain, and fill* The king, as we are there told, ed the whole earth. This is the *had forgot what his dream was, dream, and we will tell the inter* though he felt sensible there was pretation thereof before the king..

something more than ordinary in ' “ Thou, O king, art -a - king of it. This was, no doubt, so ordered, kings ; for the God of heaven hath

that the folly and imposture of his given thee a kingdom, power, and - magicians and astrologers might be strength, and glory. And wheremade manifest. 1 ; Fil-soever the children of men dwell, ' When Daniel is brought into the the beasts of the field and the fowls

presence of the king, lie thus ad- of the air hath he given (or the s dresses him:"* The secret which hath given them into thine hand,

the kirig hath demanded; cannot "and hath made thee ruler over 2 the Wise men, the astrologers, the them all; thou art this head of

magicians, the soothsayers, show gold.”

1814.], Guide to the Interpretation of the Prophecies. 385 hy This language certainly conveys brass,” proceeds the inspired in

the highest idea of the wealth and terpreter, which shall bear rule a extent of the Babylonian empire. over all the earth. Now, the rea

It describes it as extending over der will recollect that it was under

the habitable globe, and its monarch the dominion of this Persian em. as possessed of absolute and un. pire that the Jews were restored

controlled authority over the per- to their country, and the people sons and property of his subjects. of God were the subjects of this 3 The extent of this mighty empire empire when the Scriptures of the is not now known for certain. That Old Testament close. The empire

it comprehended, however, Pheni- 1 of the Persians, however, was overicia, Palestine, Syria, Babylonia, thrown by, Alexander the Great, Media and Persia, and Egypt, is in the year. 331 before Christ, about elear : India, also, is, with great ninety years after Malachi, the

probability, supposed to have last of the Prophets, wrote. The . formed a part of the dominions of conquests of Alexander and the

Nebuchadnezzar. And Josephus empire dhe founded were very 1 tells us, from ancient histories now, extensive, so that few parts of

lost, that his conquests extended the world at the time that Daniel. as far west as Spain. Beyond the wrote, known in the capital of Ne

influence of ei his arms there was, buchadnezzar, were beyond the o perhaps but little of the earth in- reach of his dominion. This was

habited by civilized beings. In the third universal empire; after particular, the Scripture intimates which , a fourth was to arise, anthat in wealth it would excel all swering to the lower parts of the succeeding kingdoms. And all the image seen in the dream. accounts which have reached us of “And the fourth kingdom shall the wealth of Babylon fully con- be strong as iron; forasmuch as firm the truth of this representa-c iron breaketh in pieces and subtion, and are, indeed, to our no- . dueth all; and as iron that break

ţions, almost incredible, ... This em- : eth, all these shall it break in pieces - pire, then, at that time existing in and bruise.” This fourth kingdom all its glory, is represented by the hardly any reader necd be told was image's golden head. is itsig: the Roman empire, the strength i And after thee,” continues the, and solidity of which, and the exProphet, interpreting what is, tent of its duration, has very much meant by the breast and arms of exceeded all the kingdoms which

silver, “after thee shall arise ano- had ever been formed on earth beather kingdom, inferior to thee.”. fore it. Nor bad there been any

The empire of Nebuchadnezzar: universal enipire between that - was not of long continuance; it formed by the conguests of Alex.

was overthrown about twenty-three ander and the rise of the Roman v years after his death, and within power.

seventy years after the delivery of The reader will perceive, as he

this prophecy, by the Medes and proceeds with the sacred history • Persians--an event that Daniel of the New Testament, that the

himself lived to see, and has re-- Jewish people were under the domiacorded in his book. But this em-,: nion of this power wien Christ was

pire of Ithe Persians,'; though, no. born; for Herod was but a vassal #doubt, very powerful and rich, and monarch of the Romans, and not grextending over immense regions, long after his death they sent their yustill fell very far short of the ex- own governors to take charge of gstent and glory of Nebuchadnez- the country. w: w ww ni zar's kingdom of Soviet 16 - The Ruman empire had, indeed,

" And another third kingdom of by this time, nearly reached its uts

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most extent. It already possessed ed and civilized itself, and took in, in Europe the southern part of as it were, out of the uncultivated Great Britain, all Spain, and France desert of the earth : this origittal and Italy, and in general the whole part, all the west of Europe, was of the continent south of the woods divided into several separate king. and wild forests of Germany, toge. doms, completely independent of ther with Macedonia and Greece, each other, and yet in many reIn Asia it possessed what now has spects forming one society or emne fallen under the dominion of the pire; for, till this present hour there Turks, as far as the river Eu: exists in the empire å paramount phrates, which was its eastern authority both in church and state: boundary. . And in Africa it had that of the church, as exercised by obtained dominion over Egypt, the Pope, has indeed never ceased andall the countries arranged along to influence the whole body of the the whole length of the southern Roman empire in its divided state, shore of the Mediterranean sea. and has constantly kept the sepa. Such was the fourth great empire, rated and jarring states of its illstrong as iron; it had broken to compacted body from entire disso. pieces and bruised all the nations lution. With respect to the civil

of the civilized world. in authority of the modern emperors, * The end of this fourth kingdom whether the French emperors

is much to be noticed, and in some Charlemagne and his successors, or sort we shall find that it exists at the German emperors which have this present time, and will only be reached to our own times, their destroyed by the coming of Christ authority as Roman emperors, in his kingdom.

which title they bear, as the suco ." And whereas thon sawest the' cessors. of Cæsar and Augustus. feet and toes part of potter's clay, has exactly answered the prophetiand part of iron : the kingdom cal imagery. On some occasions, shall be divided, but there shall be from a particular combination of in it of the strength of iron : foras- circumstances, the empire has apmuch as thou sawest iron mixed peared more than a name, and its with miry clay, and as the toes of head has possessed very great inthe feet were part of iron and part - fluence and authority, as in the of clay, so the kingdom shall be reign of Charlemagne and Charles partły strong and partly broken. V. (and perhaps we may add, in And whereas thou sawest iron the late reign of Bonaparte). On mixed with miry clay, they shall these occasions the empire has still mingle themselves with the seed of appeared to have in it the strength men; but they shall not cleave one of iron ; but at other times it has to another, even as iron is not been broken, or, rather, brittle as mixed with clay.” Several things, miry clay; a mere titular authothe Prophet informs us, were pre- rity, scarcely acknowledged, exó dicted by the appearance of “the cept as giving a kind of empty feet and toes of the image, part of precedency among the other indeiron and part of miry clay.” First, pendent princes of Europe. Die this great kipgdom should be di Another particular circumstanice vided; or, perhaps, should come that was intended to be predicted to exist in a divided state. Now, by the mixture of iron and clay in such has been the state of the Ro-' the feet and toes of the image, man empire for above a thousand was, the interpreter tells us, that years past. What was originally the separate parts of this empire belonging to this empire, that is, in its divided state could never what it did not conquer from the again be made so to coalesce three preceding empires, but form- - or adhere together as to form

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one, unbroken body. It might be " And in their days-of these attempted-it might bid fair to be kings (that is, explaining the parSO—but still it would prove that ties he had spoken of above to be they would " not cleave together, so many kings, as the fact has ; even as iron is not mixed with clay." proved they have been in their

An exact picture, as every one days shal} the God of heaven set acquainted with modern history up a kingdom which shall never be must acknowledge, of what 'has destroyed; and the kingdom there." been the event of all attempts to of shall not be left to other people, unite these separate parts of the but it shall break in pieces and western empire into one power consume all these kingdonis, and We have within these few years it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch witnessed a very powerful attempt as thou' sawest that the stone was to erect an universal empire in cut out of the mountain 'without Europe. But see! the iron will hands, and that it brake in pieces not mix with clay! the French in the iron, the brass, the clay, the divisible empire, as they call it, silver, and the gold, the great God has tumbled to pieces with a has made known to the king what touch!

.. shall come to pass hereafter; and In the forty-third verse, the the dream is certain, and the inword of prophecy informs us that terpretation surę," among these divided parts of the The reader will here call to mind empire an attempt would be made St. Peter's rule for the interpreta.. to re-unite them together," with". tion of prophecy, which we consior by " the seed of men;" which dered in the Introduction--that no obscure expression has been so prophecy of Scripture is of private clearly explained by the event, interpretation---that it cannot be. that nothing, I think, can be more come its own interpreter taken satisfactory. The intermarriages apart by itself --that you must take of the royal families of Europe it in connexion with other propheinto one another, which was wont cies, and, for the most part, must to be the policy pursued in almost wait to see the fulfilment, before every alliance or treaty of peace you are able to tell exactly its between the different nations, one meaning. Por the nature of this might have imagined would have kingdom, therefore, which the God held these kingdoms together in of heaven is about to set up, let the closest bonds of union and the reader carefully remark what. friendship, if it had not at length is said respecting it in other Scripreduced them under one head. tures. It is a subject, indeed, that But these bonds of union, so effi. runs through the whole of Scripcacious in private life, have ever ture, as it is the constant prayer proved most brittle in holding to- of all the followers of Jesus Christ gether the nations of modern Eu- -" Thy kingdom come, thy will rope-still the iron will not mix be done on earth as it is in hea. with the clay! .

ven.” And, what is still more import- What we seem fairly to disco. ant for us to know, things will con- ver from the prophecy before us tinue in this state till the promised is as follows that the fourth kingdom of Christ shall come ;. for kingdom of men is now in its last Daniel, immediately after describ stage, and in that state of existing the useless attempts of these ence in which the kingdom of God divided parts of the fourth king is to be set up. Again ; that this dom to unite, says, “ And in the kingdom will not, like the other days of these kings," or, as it may kingdoms which preceded it, be more exactly be put in English, erected by hunan power and means.

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