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but annihilation in a fiery judgment; and shuts its eyes to the numerous and joyful promises of a rich and full triumph of peace, righteousness, and holiness, on this very planet, which the Incarnate Saviour has hallowed with his own sacred footsteps, and which He has ransomed by His sacrifice from the dominion of vanity and sin. By the mature experience of successive ages, unfolding more clearly the mystery of God, we must purify the millennial hope of the first Christians from all the sediment it may have contracted in earthly minds; and thus unfold it in its high and spiritual beauty, and in all the grandeur it assumes when read in the mirror of God's eternal counsels. Then will the Church, enlightened by a Scriptural hope, combine in her experience the most various elements of Divine grace. Looking for the sure redemption of the earth, every social affection will be called into lively exercise, and a cheering impulse be given to all the devoted labours of pure benevolence and Christian love. But waiting also for the coming of the Lord, and the promised resurrection, her faith and love will be raised above the blighting infection of an infidel age, and assume once more their supernatural dignity. Her hopes will no longer be confounded with the vain dreams of ungodly philosophers, but will be anchored within the veil; and all her desires and anticipations will be fixed on that day, when the Desire of nations shall come; when His blessed feet, which for our sake were nailed to the cross, shall stand once more on the Mount of Olives, and "the Lord shall build up Zion, and appear in His glory."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GREAT IMAGE.

DAN. II. 34, 35.-" 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, AMD 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."

VII. 9—11.—“I BEHELD, TILL THE THRONES WERE PLANTED; 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 LIKE BURNING FIRE. A FIERY STREAM ISSUED AND CAME FROM BEFORE HIM: THOUSAND THOUSANDS MINISTERED UNTO HIM, AND TEN THOUSAND TIMES TEN THOUSAND STOOD BEFORE HIM: THE JUDGEMENT 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."

VII. 26.-" AND THEY SHALL BE GIVEN INTO HIS HAND, UNTIL A TIME AND TIMES, AND THE DIVIDING OF A TIME. BUT THE JUDGMENT SHALL SIT, AND THEY SHALL TAKE AWAY HIS DOMINION, TO CONSUME AND TO DESTROY IT UNTO THE END."

THE fulfilment of the visions has already been traced, in historical order, from the time of Daniel to the days in which we live. Here it was needful to pause, and before launching into the undiscovered future, to examine the nature, and ascertain the broad outline, of those hopes which the word of God elsewhere reveals to us on the coming kingdom of our Lord. Such has been the object of the three foregoing chapters, and the following are the conclusions to which we are led by a full induction of scripture evidence. First, there is still

in prospect, and immediately before the church, a time of millennial peace and blessedness here on earth. Next, even after its close, there will be new heavens, and a new earth; in which holy inhabitants will be training up, through countless generations, for a celestial glory. And finally, the second advent of our Lord precedes the millennium, and introduces the promised restoration of all things. Not until the Prince of peace shall appear, will righteousness and peace begin to triumph; and not until the great Head of the Church is revealed, will the Church be freed from the cross, and have her brows encircled with the diadem of glory.

Here then, with these truths to guide us, we resume the course of the sacred visions. From our actual place in the last times of the fourth empire we look abroad on the wide range of Divine providence. Not Moses, from the top of Pisgah, had so magnificent a prospect spread before him as is here laid open to the view of the Christian. Backward, we gaze on the fulfilled history of four mighty empires, predicted from the first in the word of God, and involving the destiny of millions upon millions of immortal souls. Around us, we behold the kingdoms of the fourth empire, where the weakness of clay and the strength of iron are strangely blended; and see the little horn, once all-powerful, and now wasted by severe judgments, but struggling still for supremacy, and mighty and terrible even in its decay. We see the distant ends of the earth brought together by political changes, and facilities of intercourse unparalleled in all past ages; as if in silent warning of some great and universal change that is now near at hand. Before us, with the lamp of inspired prophecy, we gaze on an immeasurable vista of glory; a kingdom of righteousness that will last for ever, and will people a holy and happy world with the countless generations of the redeemed. The imagination is overwhelmed with a spectacle so vast and magnificent. We feel our own littleness, and the littleness of things around us, when once the veil is removed from these Divine counsels; and learn to

join once more in the apostolic exclamation, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

An inquiry must now arise of deep interest. By what steps is the church to be conducted from her present state into the good land of promise which lies before her? What are the events in immediate prospect, and how will the present system of worldly power be exchanged for the eternal triumph of Messiah's kingdom? To this inquiry an answer has been in part supplied by the previous chapters. But the visions before us exhibit the same truth in close connexion with the great empires whose history has been already described. They reveal to us a sudden and mighty change, in which the image shall be broken and swept away, and a new and holier kingdom be established which shall last for ever. It is these important elements of the prophecy which have next to pass in review. They are full of the most thrilling interest; for they involve the immediate destinies both of the world at large, and of the whole church of God.

I. And, first of all, the vision sets before us a stone, cut out without hands, which smites the image on its feet and destroys it. The exact meaning of this emblem has now to be ascertained.

The stone has been expounded, by a very general consent, to be our Lord himself. And indeed his own words in the parable seem clearly to fix its application, when he says to the Pharisees, "Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." A difference however, has prevailed, as to the event designed by the stone smiting the image. This was referred by some early writers to the triumphs of the gospel after the first advent. But Theodoret and others, with more justice, have

referred it to the second coming. They saw that the stone was to smite the image on the toes of iron and clay; and that the event must therefore follow the division of the Roman empire. This opinion has, for the same reason, been received by the best expositors of modern times.

But here some difficulty still remains. For the stone is first mentioned after the division of the former em

pire has been described. Nor do the emblems imply, though perhaps they do not exclude, a long interval between the excision of the stone and the time when the image is broken in pieces. How then may this appearance of a partial anachronism be removed?

To this inquiry, the answer will be found in another doctrine of the New Testament. There is a close and intimate union between the Lord Jesus Christ and his redeemed people. He is the Head, they are the body. He is the first-born among many brethren. As He is the stone, they are lively stones also. He is the first-fruits of the resurrection, and they are the harvest. And as He was miraculously born, without human power, so are they supernaturally born anew of the Holy Spirit. The very name, Christ, is applied to them conjointly with their Head. To them, by his own promise, He gives a share in his own commission, to bruise the nations with a rod of iron. And thus it cannot be surprising, if the Spirit of God should have included them also within the emblem of the stone in the present vision.

Such appears to be the full meaning of the symbol in the prophecy. Our Lord himself, by his miraculous conception and his resurrection from the grave, was "cut out without hands," with a direct and wonderful triumph of divine power. His people in like manner are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." In the day of the resurrection their separation will be complete; and being then united to their Lord, they will form one mystic body, and will, along with Him, execute the predicted judgments, and

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