flaming fire, and is described in the nineteenth chapter of the Apocalypse. The world-power of Christendom will be destroyed in a moment. And when the Messiah shall, like David, have gained the victory over all His enemies, He will become the great Antitype of Solomon; and His kingdom of peace, beginning from Jerusalem, will spread over the whole earth.

Such, then, was the dream and its interpretation. The vision was granted to Nebuchadnezzar; but he could not understand it until Daniel came forward as the interpreter. For although earthly power had now been transferred to the Gentile, the mind of God still remained with the Jew. He had not yet poured out His Spirit upon all flesh, nor did He do so until Israel had rejected the Messiah.

THE VISION OF THE FOUR WILD BEASTS.

Only a short time after his memorable dream, the rebellion of Jerusalem obliged Nebuchadnezzar to march against that city. His invasion was irresistible; and having deposed and-as the prophecies of Jeremiah seem to imply-slain Jehoiakim, he placed the youthful Jehoiachin upon the throne, and departed to press the siege of Tyre. But a fatal

interpreted of a gradual conversion of the world from the time of the first advent. For, to pass by the hopeless incongruity of the metaphor, if such were the meaning to be conveyed, how could the stone strike the image upon its feet when as yet there were neither feet nor legs? The division of Rome into the Eastern and Western empires to say nothing of the formation of the ten kingdomsdid not take place till centuries after the first advent.

impulse moved the dominating party in Jerusalem to resume their intrigues with Egypt, and caused the prompt return of Nebuchadnezzar, whose determination so terrified the Jews that Jehoiachin, his mother Nehushta, and all the royal princes and officers, went out and surrendered themselves to be carried as captives to Babylon. With an unwonted clemency, which can only be ascribed to the impressions wrought in him by the revelations of Daniel, the wrathful autocrat still refrained from destroying the city. His forbearance resulted, however, in nothing more than a short respite for Zedekiah, who had sworn to rule as his vassal, was soon discovered, like his predecessors, to be "sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people." * Then the Chaldean king gave vent to his just anger; and, after a little delay, Jerusalem was levelled to the ground, and the temple, in which the bigoted but ungodly Jews had placed their trust, was consumed with fire.

Yet God would not altogether give up Israel: sinful as the inhabitants of Judah had been, they were still His people, and His prophets continued among them.

Stationed with the miserable remnant in Palestine was Jeremiah, who, while he sternly rebuked their sins, nevertheless foretold that earth would soon be moved at the ruin of great Babylon, but that fallen Israel should rise again. And if any of his countrymen were humbled in spirit before Jehovah, he could comfort them with the sweet assurance; - "For I Ezek. xvii. 15.

know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end." *

And even when the Jews, rebellious as ever, determined against the will of God to flee to Egypt for refuge, Jeremiah still remained among them, and prophesied to those who dwelt at Migdol and Tahpanes and Noph and in the country of Pathros.

Nor were the captives by the river of Chebar forgotten. With them was the prophet Ezekiel, who saw indeed mournful visions of the departure of the glory from the temple, and the punishment of Jerusalem; but who also declared that the Spirit of the Lord should yet pass over the dry bones of Israel, and cause the people to arise from their graves, an exceeding great army; and that the Messiah should, in happy times, build a structure far surpassing the temple of Solomon, to which the glory of the Lord should return, and abide in it for ever.

Such, then, was the distribution of prophets among the Jews, who in all their afflictions did not cease to be the people of Jehovah, until they had filled up the measure of their iniquities by contemning His Son.

And since the sovereignty was now, according to the purpose of God, delivered to Nebuchadnezzar, and the Gentiles were being put to the test, a prophet was stationed at Babylon also to reveal the Divine will, and to direct or warn as occasion might require. And so the new era commenced.

Jer. xxix. 11.

It is, of course, with the revelations of the prophet appointed to minister to the Gentiles that we are at present concerned. We have already considered his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, of the great image which represented Gentile dominion noble and terrible as it would appear to the eyes of men. We saw that by it four great empires were disclosed as destined to run their course before the times of the Gentiles should be ended, and the Lord return to restore the Kingdom to Israel. That the fourth empire would be first divided into two, and then, after it had become more or less democratic, into ten kingdoms, which would nevertheless be in some way united under one head. That the parts of the body were significant of the unity, or the composite character, of the empires symbolized by them. That the arrangement of the metals intimated a continual degeneracy in the form of government. That judgment will not come until power has descended to the feet, or to the lowest order of the people. And lastly, that the fourth empire will, in its final phase, include, together with new accessions, all the territory previously possessed by the others.

Such is the first great prophecy which relates exclusively to the Gentile powers. Most significantly it is not written in Hebrew, but in Chaldean, the world-language of that time. This is also the case with the five following chapters of Daniel, the last of which contains a second vision of the Gentile empires; while the intermediate four, though strictly historical, seem to be at the same time prophetic, since they are

both illustrative of the spirit which animates the world-powers, and also foreshadow scenes which will take place on a far grander scale in the closing years of the age.

In the third chapter, the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plain of Dura was apparently suggested by his dream. Some have found difficulty in admitting this, because no exact copy of the vision-statue was attempted. But since the king knew that the head of gold represented himself, it was surely natural that he should use that metal alone to form the symbol of his own power. Homage to this statue may possibly have been intended to mean nothing more than submission to the king by a recognition of his gods as superior to those of vanquished nations. But far more probably it was a worship of himself--such as that which Darius received in the second empire; which was offered to Alexander as he entered Babylon; and which the Roman emperors were ever striving to exact from the Christians of the early Church. And in this case how completely does the scene in the plain of Dura foreshadow that which shall be hereafter! For the last king of the Gentiles, like the first, will also set up his image for worship; and the false prophet who stands before him will cause all those who refuse him Divine honour to be put to death.

Again; the contents of the fourth chapter-Nebuchadnezzar's second dream, its interpretation, and the sequel-are clearly a type of the whole course of God's dealings with the Gentiles. This is much more plainly