Rome

"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."

How appropriately the iron of the image fits the character of the fourth great empire! Gibbon, the historian, calls it "the iron monarchy of Rome." It broke in pieces the kingdoms, subduing all, just as prophecy had declared so long before. As iron is strongest of the common metals, so according to the prophecy--"as iron that breaketh all these"--this fourth kingdom was to be more powerful than any before it. Strabo, the geographer, who lived in the days of Tiberius Caesar, said,

"The Romans have surpa.s.sed (in power) all former rulers of whom we have any record."--_"Geography," book 17, chap. 3._

Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, who lived in Rome in the third century,--under the "iron monarchy,"--wrote thus of this prophecy:

"Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings all the unwilling into subjection; already we see these things ourselves."--_"Treatise on Christ and Antichrist," sec. 33._

Hippolytus also saw clearly from the prophecy that the empire of his day would be divided, and he wrote of the kingdoms that were "yet to rise"

out of it. For Daniel's interpretation explained clearly the meaning of the mingling of clay with the iron in the feet and toes of the great image.

The Kingdoms of Modern Europe

"Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' 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."

"The kingdom shall be divided." So declared the prophet of G.o.d. In the height of its power, Rome scouted the thought that so mighty a fabric could ever be broken up. Horace sang in his "Odes,"

"How, added to a conquered world, Euphrates 'bates his tide, And Huns, beyond our frontiers hurled, O'er straitened deserts ride.

"The Goths beyond the sea may plot, The warlike Basques may plan; Friend, never heed them! vex thee not; For this our mortal span Of little wants."

--_Book 2, Marris's Translation._

But the words were written on the ancient parchment in the days of Babylon, "The kingdom shall be divided;" and true to the word of the prophet, the Roman Empire fell apart with the mixture of nations and peoples that swept into it. The elements did not hold together, even as the mixture of iron and clay in the image did not cleave together.

Broken up by the invasions of fresh nations from the north, the Western Empire was divided into lesser kingdoms, out of which have grown the modern nations of western Europe.

Not one word in the outline of the prophecy thus far has failed of fulfilment. These modern kingdoms growing out of divided Rome have never been reunited. "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men," said the prophecy. Nearly all the reigning houses of Europe today are related by intermarriage; the prophecy said it would be so; but "they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." So we see it. No statesman, no master of legions, has been able to join these nations together again in one great empire. Charles V had the thought in mind, some think. Napoleon dreamed of doing it. But it was not to be.

Nevermore was there to be one universal monarchy.

We may know that as surely as the course of world empire has followed the exact outline of the prophecy put on the inspired record in the days of Babylon of old, just so surely the specifications of the closing portion of the outline will be fulfilled.

The fourth great kingdom was to be divided. Rome was the fourth empire: it was divided. The kingdoms of the divided empire are acting their part before our eyes today.

The Next Great Event

And what next? That is the question for us. Now the prophetic outline that began with ancient Babylon touches the things of our own day. The word spoken before Nebuchadnezzar so long ago is now spoken especially to us:

"In the days of these kings shall the G.o.d 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 forever.

"Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the bra.s.s, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great G.o.d hath made known to the king what shall come to pa.s.s hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."

"In the days of these kings,"--these kingdoms of our own time,--the next great world-changing event is to be the coming of Christ to begin the setting up of his everlasting kingdom. That is the grand climax toward which all the course of history has been tending. At last the end is to come.

"Down in the feet of iron and of clay, Weak and divided, soon to pa.s.s away; What will the next great, glorious drama be?-- Christ and His coming, and eternity."

As the stone, cut out of the mountain "without hands," smote the image, so that all its parts, representative of earthly dominion, were ground to dust and blown away, so Christ's coming kingdom, set up "without hands," by no human power, but by the power of the eternal G.o.d, will end all earthly dominion and bring the utter destruction of sin and sinners out of the earth.

"The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."

Then may all eyes well be turned toward the next great step foretold in the prophetic outline--the coming of Christ's glorious everlasting kingdom, which shall not pa.s.s away.

"Look for the waymarks as you journey on, Look for the waymarks, pa.s.sing one by one, Down through the ages, past the kingdoms four,-- Where are we standing? Look the waymarks o'er."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHOTOGRAPH BY MISSIONARY W.C. ISING

Ruins of the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, in which was the hall of Belshazzar's Feast.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST

"This same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner." Acts 1:11.

COPYRIGHT STANDARD PUB. CO.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM

"Behold, thy King cometh,... lowly, and riding upon an a.s.s." Zech.

9:9.]

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9:28.

Too often the second coming of Christ is looked upon simply as a doctrine. It is, however, more than a doctrine merely to be believed; it is an impending event, something that is to take place on earth, and the most stupendous, all-transcendent event for the world since Christ came the first time to die on Calvary for the sins of men.

This second coming of Christ, like His first coming, has been the theme of divine prophecy from the beginning. This was emphasized by the apostle Peter in his second recorded sermon. He pressed upon the people of Jerusalem the fact that the things "which G.o.d before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer" (Acts 3:18), had been fulfilled to the letter before their eyes. Not a word had failed. Just so, he said, all that the prophets had spoken of His second coming would be fulfilled:

"He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of rest.i.tution of all things, which G.o.d hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:20, 21.

The Promise of His Coming

As iniquity began to abound, G.o.d sent a message to the antediluvian world, declaring that Christ's coming in glory would end the reign of sin: