the eagle. The rapidity with which Nebuchadnezzar achieved his conquests, the terror which his name inspired, and his proud bearing toward the conquered nations, are of ten alluded to by the Hebrew prophets. But this splendid career of victory was soon over. With the death of Nebuchadnezzar, the fortunes of the empire speedily waned. A boundless luxury took the place of martial vigor. The wings of the eagle were clipped. The Medes and Persians began to narrow the Babylonian boundary. At the same time, the Chaldeans lost their Koordish fierceness. "The bitter and hasty nation, whose horses were swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves," could not remain unaffected in the soft and effeminate metropolis. A man's heart was given to them. One of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar lifted up the head of Jehoiachin out of prison, and spake kindly to him. The arts of peace, and the interests of the learning then in vogue, received more attention. The words of the prophet seem, however, to refer mainly to the gradual decline of the empire. The might of the lion was exchanged for the weak ness of man.

Second. The second monarchy is the Medo-Persian. It is thus, fig uratively, represented, "The breast and the arms of the image are of silver." "And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee," Dan. 2: 32, 39. "And behold! another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth, and they said unto it, Arise, and devour much flesh," 7:5. "Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw and behold! there stood before the river a ram with two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, so that

no beasts could stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.' "The ram which thou sawest, having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia," 8: 3, 4, 20. "And now will I show thee the truth. Behold! there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all, and by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece," 11: 2.

The

As silver is inferior to gold, so the Medo-Persian kingdom never attained to the glory of the Babylonian under Nebuchadnezzar. reign of Cyrus, its best king, was short. Its tranquillity was often interrupted by internal dissensions and foreign wars. Still, it was a king"dom of vast extent, and under some of its monarchs, very prosperous. It was faithfully represented, especially in its Median part, by the symbol of a bear. The hosts under Cyrus poured down from the mountains upon the great Mesopotamian plain, like a ravenous and hungry bear. They shall hold the bow and the lance, they are cruel and will not show mercy, their voice shall roar like the sea." The phrase, "and it raised itself up on one side,” probably refers to the position of a wild beast when resting from the pursuit of its prey. tation of a beast lying on one of its fore-feet, and standing on the other, is seen on the Babylonian bricks. Others, like Jerome, explain it as follows, "The animal raised itself up, and attacked the one part, or side, which was nearest, i. e. the Chaldean kingdom." But the following clause, " it had three ribs in its mouth," appears to symbolize the Medo-Persian empire, resting from its wars, and preparing to enjoy their fruits, rather than going forth to conquer. The "three ribs" appear to designate the three quarters of Asia, where the Persians had

The represen

achieved their principal victories the more so, as in ch. 8: 4, the ram is represented as pushing westward, and northward, and southward. Cyrus reduced under his dominion all middle and western Asia to the Hellespont; Cambyses subdued Egypt and Ethiopia on the south; Darius Hystaspes brought into subjection the nomade Scythians among the Caucasian mountains on the north. The ram with two horns, standing on the bank of the Eulæus or Choaspes, (which washed the walls of Susa, the Persian capital,) was the Medo-Persian empire. Its united strength was well symbolized by the ram. The two horns are the Medians and Persians, the horn being the well known emblem of power and pride. The higher horn, which came up last, is evidently the Persian part of the monarchy, which gradually oveshadowed its northern sister. It pushed its conquests over Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia Minor, on the west; Colchis, Armenia, Iberia, and to the Caspian Sea, on the north; and Judea, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya, on the south. Xerxes attempted the subjugation of Europe. No animal, i. e. no nation, Syrian, Arabian, etc. could offer any effectual resistance.

The revelations which were made to Daniel, as recorded in the eleventh chapter, were evidently in the third year of Cyrus, comp. 10: 1. "The three kings that should stand up yet," 11: 2, were the immediate successors of Cyrus, i. e. Cambyses, the Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes. The fourth king is Xerxes I, the son of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus. The immense riches of Xerxes are alluded to by various authors. The Persians used to say, writes Herodotus, that, after Xerxes, Pythius the Lydian was the richest of men. The splendor of his preparation for the Grecian war is well known. Herodotus observes, that there was not one man among the millions of his army equal to him

in comeliness or stature. He formed an alliance with the Carthaginians, by which they engaged to attack the Sicilian and Italian Greeks. He set in motion against Greece all the east as far as India, and all the west as far as Spain, where the Carthaginians hired some mercenaries. From Xerxes, the prophet passes on to Alexander the Great, not noticing, as it was not important to his purpose, the eight Persian kings who reigned subsequently to Xerxes.

Third. The third kingdom is the Grecian or Macedonian. It is described under the following symbols. "The belly and the thighs of the image are of brass," Dan. 2: 32; "And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth," 2: 39; "After this I beheld, and lo! another beast, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to it," 7: 6; “And as I was considering, behold! a he-goat came from the west, on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns, and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him, and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore, the he-goat waxed very great, but when he was strong the great horn was broken." "And the rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king," 8: 5-8, 21. "And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will," 11: 3.

The invincible force of the Macedonian empire is illustrated by the brazen part of the image. The leopard is a beautiful but extremely savage animal, small in size yet of great strength, and not afraid to grapple with larger animals. The slaughter which he sometimes commits is almost incredible. The four wings on the back are generally regarded as an emblem of the rapidity of Alexander's movements. They may, however, be taken in connection with the "four heads" possess ed by the animal, that seem to be mentioned in anticipation of the fourfold division of Alexander's empire. The he-goat, also, is not an unapt figure to represent the bounding movement of the son of Philip. In the year 334 B. C. he crossed the Hellespont, and in 329, he had "broken the two horns," i. e. subdued Media and Persia, and in fact every thing that stood in his way, from the Hellespont to Sogdiana, and from the cataracts of the Nile to the mouth of the Indus. "He touched not the ground." He made frequent forced marches to a great distance, and often hurried on his soldiers for a week, without giving them a day for repose. With his cavalry he pursued his enemy night and day; and, on one occasion, he followed Darius eleven days without intermission over a distance of three hundred and forty English miles. But "the notable horn" was broken in the height of its power. He suddenly died at Babylon in the spring of 323 B. C., and in the thirty sec

ond year of his age. Alexander is called the first king of Greece, as his predecessors, and Philip among the the rest, had no connection with the Asiatic monarchies or the Jews, and were besides comparatively obscure. "Shall do according to his will." "Alexander," says the historian Curtius, "is the only mortal who had fortune herself in his power. Indeed, through her favors, he appeared to do with the world just what he pleased."

Fourth. The fourth kingdom is that of the successors of Alexander. It will be necessary to quote continuously the more important passages which relate to this kingdom. We shall then subjoin a brief commentary. That the Roman empire is not intended by the prophet as the fourth kingdom, it is believed will be made evident. We do not rely, in any great degree, on a common argument, viz. that the Roman dominion cannot be referred to, inasmuch as it did not strictly succeed the other great monarchies. The Euphrates was the eastern boundary of its realm. Its efforts to subdue the Parthians, and other central Asiatic nations, signally failed. It never conquered a large portion of what had been the Persian empire. In order to establish our position, however, we choose to rely on the declarations of the prophet himself.

The following are the principal passages. "His legs [those of the image] are of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. And 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. And 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 the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so shall the kingdom 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." Dan. 2: 33, 40—43. "After this I saw, in the night-vis ions, and behold! a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured, and brake in

pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns and behold! there came up among them another little horn, by whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and behold! in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things." "Thus he [the interpreting angel] said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times [sacred seasons] and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time," 7: 7, 8, 23-25. "And for it [the great horn] came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. And the host, besides the daily sacrifice, was given over to impiety [or into the hands of the impious], and it [the horn] cast down truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered. Then I heard one saint [or angel] speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How

long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation [or of the desolater] to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." "Now that [the great horn] being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and work on, and shall destroy the mighty, and the holy people; and through his policy, also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and in prosperity shall destroy many; he shall, also, stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hands," 8: 8-13, 22-25. "And when he [Alexander] shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those," 11: 4. "It shall be [i. e. the end of these wonders] for a time, times and a half; and when he shall have finished dashing in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be accomplished." "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days," 12: 7, 11, 12.

We have purposely omitted the

long passage, 11: 5-45, which relates to the successors of Alexander. We shall briefly explain it on a following page.

The passage, above quoted, from the second chapter, accurately foreshadows the power and weakness of the fourth kingdom. Taken to gether, and considered as one empire, ruled by Greek princes, it held an iron sceptre. The generals of Alexander, like those of Napoleon, had been trained in an excellent military school, and some of them were wise, as well as warlike men. Egypt never had better sovereigns than the first three Ptolemies. But though no one of Alexander's successors, nor all of them together, attained the might and glory of some other monarchs, yet they were most intimately connected-which is a material fact-with the cove nant people of God. It is on this account, that such preeminence is given to them. Yet the parts of these kingdoms were like a conglomeration of iron and clay; they never coalesced. Constant wars and frightful assassinations stain this turbulent period. There were too many great warriors, who were nearly on an equality. One controlling spirit, like that of Alexander, was needed. Their marriage connections for political purposes, predicted in v. 43, were numerous. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, married Antigone, the daughter of Ptolemy I. Her mother, Berenice, the widow of Philip, a Macedonian, became a wife of Ptolemy, though he had previously married Eurydice, a daughter of Antipater and a sister of Cassander. Antiochus Theos married two wives, Laodice and Berenice, both daughters of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus the Great, was connected in marriage with Ptolemy Epiphanes. But these alliances, for the most part, only caused fresh disturbances. The iron could not mix with the clay.

Some of the remarks just made, will apply to the fourth beast, described in ch. 7: 7, 23. In relation to the Jews, the strong delineation is true to the letter. Its ferocity and its voracious appetite were exhibited in its subjecting to its king, province after province and king. dom after kingdom. It was dif ferent from the preceding king. doms by the sudden and numerous changes which it underwent, and the terrible atrocities which it committed. That the "ten horns" are to be understood as indicating indi vidual kings, and not kingdoms, appears from the fact, that immediately after these ten, another was to arise, that was not a kingdom, but a particular king, designated by the little horn" of 8: 9, and the king of "fierce countenance," in 8: 23. The ten kings are, unquestionably, to be sought in the Syrian and Egyptian line of kings, who, for a longer or shorter time, held Palestine in subjection. These were, according to history, Antigonus, who took possession of Judea in 314 B. C.; Demetrius Poliorcetes, to whom the regal title was given by his father, Antigonus, 306 B. C.; Ptolemy Lagus, to whom Palestine fell, on the fourfold division of the empire, 301 B. C.; Ptolemy Philadelphus; Ptolemy Euergetes; Ptolemy Philopater; Ptolemy Epiphanes; Ptolemy Philometer; Antiochus the Great; and Seleucus Philopater. These ten kings were in possession, at various times, of Palestine from the death of Alex ander the Great to the time when Antiochus Epiphanes ascended the Syrian throne. The "four horns" of the he-goat, Dan. 8: 8, 22, are the kingdoms of Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cas sander and Lysimachus, who made a permanent treaty in 301 B. C., Cassander taking Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus, Thrace, Bithynia and some of the adjoining prov. inces; Ptolemy, Egypt, Libya, Arabia Petræa, Palestine and Calosy.