I.
THE OUTLINE.
It is impossible to imagine anything more delightful than the prospect of
the promised return of our most blessed Saviour. How do the father and
the mother feel when they welcome their long-absent son from India? How
will many an English wife feel when she welcomes her husband from the
Arctic Expedition? And how must the Church of God feel when, after her
long night of toil and difficulty, she stands face to face before Him
whom her soul loveth, and enters into the full enjoyment of the promise,
‘So shall we ever be with the Lord?’ There will be no tears then, for
there will be no sorrow; no death then, for there will be no more curse;
no sin then, for we shall see Him as He is, and shall be like Him. Then
will be the time of resurrection, when all the firstborn of God shall
awake to a life without decay and without corruption; and then the time
of reunion, when the whole company of God’s elect shall stand together
before the Lord, never again to shed a tear over each other’s grave; and
then will be the time when those who have loved and longed after Him, as
they have journeyed on alone in their pilgrimage, will find themselves on
the right hand of His throne, and hear His delightful words, ‘Come, ye
blessed children of my Father: inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world!’
No wonder then that the people of God are waiting with anxious hearts for
the Advent; and no wonder that many are ready to say, ‘Lord, how long?’
and to ask, What hope is there of His quick return? Have we, or have we
not, any reason to look out for it soon? To this inquiry I would
endeavour to draw your attention this morning; and in doing so, I do not
intend to examine into what are usually called ‘the signs of the times,’
but to study the great prophetic sketch of the world’s history as given
to us by the prophet Daniel. This may be termed the backbone of
prophecy, and almost all the great prophecies of Holy Scripture fit into
it at some point or other; so that, if we wish to understand them, we
must begin by studying it. I fear I may not interest those who aim
simply to have their hearts warmed by the ministry. But they must
remember that the real study of God’s Word requires work, and that work,
though it lays the best possible foundation for feeling, does not at the
time excite it. To-day, then, we are to work, and I hope the Lord may so
bless His Word, that through work we may be led to feel.
Our business, then, is to endeavour to discover whether the great
prophetic sketch of history, given through the prophet Daniel, encourages
the blessed hope that the coming of the Lord may be near. Daniel gives a
prophecy of the history of political power from his own day till the time
when ‘the Ancient of Days shall sit,’ and describes a succession of
events which must take place in the interval. It is clear that our
business is to ascertain how many of these events have taken place, or,
in other words, how far we have advanced in the series.
In the study of our subject we have the advantage of looking at two sides
of the picture, for it has pleased God to give us the same series as seen
in two different aspects. In the second and seventh chapters you will
find predictions of the same events under different figures. In the
second chapter the prophecy is given as a vision to a proud, idolatrous
monarch. So the different kingdoms about to arise appear to him as the
several parts of a mighty image, with himself as the head of gold. It
was given in just such a shape as should coincide with his idolatry and
his pride. Whereas, in the seventh chapter, the vision is given to one
of God’s people, and he sees in all this glory nothing better than a
series of wild beasts coming up one after another to devour. How
different is the estimate of the world from that of God! The world
regards Babylon as the head of gold, the summit of glory and greatness,
while God looks on it as a savage beast, to be dreaded by His saints!
The same difference of character may be observed in the visions of the
coming of the Lord. To the great king it appeared as a triumphant
kingdom, to the captive prophet as a manifestation of the Son of man.
The one saw a kingdom, the other a person; the one, the overthrow of
power, the other, the advent of the Lord of Glory.
But now let us look at the series. In both prophecies there is a
description of four kingdoms which should in succession be supreme in
political power, and which should fill up an interval between Daniel and
the Advent.
1. There is the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the same as the
lion in the vision of Daniel. The most precious of metals corresponding
to the king of beasts.
2. There is next the breast and arms of silver, corresponding to the
bear of Daniel.
3. After that the belly and thighs of brass, representing the same
nation as the leopard of the prophet.
4. And following them is the last kingdom of the four, represented to
Nebuchadnezzar as the ‘legs of iron, and the feet, part of iron and part
of clay,’ and to Daniel as a beast, ‘dreadful and terrible, and strong
exceedingly.’
It is interesting to observe how the same iron character is attributed to
this last power in both visions. In the one we read of it, chap. ii. 40,
‘The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh
in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all things,
shall it break in pieces and bruise.’ And in the other, chap. vii. 7, it
is said to be ‘strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth: it
devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of
it.’
Such is the series of kingdoms that were to hold the chief political
power of the world, and fill up the whole interval between the date of
the prophecy and the advent of the Lord. Now the remarkable, and I
believe I may say the indisputable, fact, is that, according to the
prophecy, all these four kingdoms have arisen. They have followed each
other exactly as it was predicted. Babylon was the head of gold, or the
lion. The Medes and Persians were the breast of silver, or the bear.
Greece, always called ‘the brazen armed,’ in classic poetry, was the
belly and the thighs of brass, or the leopard. And then the mighty power
of Rome, far exceeding all the others in its terrible strength, with the
legs of iron in the royal image, and the teeth of iron in the prophetic
beast. Thus far there is an agreement almost unanimous among the
students of prophetic Scripture; and the conclusion certainly is, that we
have already been a long time under the last of the four successive
empires of the world. So far then as those four empires are concerned,
we are encouraged to entertain the strong hope that, as we have reached
the last kingdom in the succession, we may begin hopefully to look out
for the end. We have passed the last station on the line, so now we may
begin to prepare for home.
But again. There is one remarkable difference between the fourth kingdom
and the other three, viz., this, that its history is divided into two
periods, during the first of which it appears as an undivided power, and
during the second split up into ten. In chap. ii. 41, it says, ‘the
kingdom shall be divided.’ In this divided period it is represented by
the ten toes on the image, and the ten horns on the beast. The ten toes
are described as kings, or kingdoms in chap. ii. 44; and so are the ten
horns in chap. vii. 24, where it is said, ‘The ten horns out of this
kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.’ So then the prophecy teaches us
that when Rome had overpowered Greece it would go on for a time as one
mighty undivided empire, but that after a time it would break up into a
cluster of kingdoms, and that this cluster would retain amongst them the
supremacy of the world. It does not describe any fresh shift of
political supremacy to any new kingdom that should arise, or the loss or
decay of that supremacy. But it teaches that there would be a division
in the kingdom, that the parts should fall asunder, and that, while the
iron of the fourth kingdom would remain amongst them, there should be so
much clay mixed up with it, that it should never again be united under a
single head.
Now this is exactly what has happened. In the days of the Cæsars united
Rome was supreme in the pomp of the iron empire. Its body was Europe,
and its heart was the emperor. It was one as much as Babylon had been
one under Nebuchadnezzar. But look at it now. There is all the old
power; for Europe and its races practically govern the world. It has not
lost its iron. But there is no one kingdom that embodies all. The power
is vested in a cluster of independent nations. Many attempts have been
made to combine them: some by conquest, as in the case of Napoleon; some
by negotiation, as in the case of the Spanish marriages. But all in
vain, for the toes are irrecoverably divided, and whatever is done,
though as an aggregate they retain their power, as individual nations
they are always distinct. I have no time to enter into detail, but I
regard this division as a most remarkable fulfilment of the prophetic
word. {10} More than five hundred years before the coming of the Lord
there was a captive in Babylon, and God so directed that man’s mind, as
through him to communicate to the world even then the present position of
modern Europe. With such a fact before us who can doubt the inspiration
of the prophet, or the statement of St. Peter, that ‘holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?’
But, without stopping to consider the wonders of the prophecy, let us
learn the lesson which it teaches us with reference to the nearness of
the Advent. We have already found that we have long since reached the
fourth kingdom of the series; and now we are led a step further, and find
that we have long since reached the second period of that kingdom. It is
difficult with accuracy to assign a date, for the transition was gradual;
but we shall be sufficiently near if we say that it practically took
place between twelve and fourteen hundred years ago. And when we reflect
on such a promise as that in Daniel ii. 44, in which God assures us of a
kingdom that shall be set up in the days of these kings, and never be
destroyed: when we consider that those kings have already been reigning
through that lengthened period, it is surely time that we begin to look
out for that which is to come; for the happy and blessed day when we
shall welcome the kingdom which shall never be moved, and when Christ
Himself shall reign in glory.
But this is not all, for, although we shall learn no more from the vision
of the king, we may gather much more from that of the prophet, for in it
we find a most important additional prophecy. I can perfectly understand
why it was given by the prophet, and not by the king, for I believe it to
refer to the religious history of Europe, and the king of course had no
concern with that. He did not care for religion, or for the saints of
God. I allude to the prophecy of the little horn rising in the midst of
the other ten. I have no time to discuss arguments, and can merely state
conclusions. All, therefore, that I can do now is to express my own
convictions on two points: