A Brief Exposition of the Prophecy of Daniel

p. Dan. 51. The Origin and Extent of the Kingdom of Babylon

In taking a general survey of the contents of the Book of Daniel, it may be seen that two great powers are the principal subjects of its predictions. The one is styled “THE KINGDOM OF MEN;”^a and the other, “THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”^b

It is true, that there are many symbols, such as the Image, the Fiery Furnace, the Tree-Stump, banded with brass and iron, the Four Beasts, the Ram, and the He-Goat; but these are signs in the prophetic heraldry, not of kingdoms distinct and independent of those which have preceded them, but of one and the same Kingdom of Men in the several phases of its existence.

The Kingdom of Men was founded by Nimroud, son of Cush, who was son of Ham, son of Noah. “The beginning of it was Babylon, and Ereck, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.”^c This Nimroudia was the Kingdom of Men in the extent of it during the lifetime of its founder, comprehending, as we see, Babylon and Assyria. These were its roots and trunk, which in after ages came to be famous for their strength and altitude, the beauty of their leaves, the abundance of their fruits, and their wide-spreading top; so that all the nations had shadow under it, and their rulers and great men dwelt in the boughs, and all flesh were fed of it.^d

As a magnificent “tree in the midst of the earth, whose height reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth,” the Kingdom of Men had become under the proud-hearted Nebuchadnezzar, the destroying lion of his age.^e He had grown and become strong; “for his greatness had grown, and reached unto heaven, and his dominions to the end of the earth.^f In this p. Dan. 6 testimony “the end of the earth” is defined by the extent of the dominion of the Kingdom of Men. It does not extend to the entire globe, for an immense proportion of it has ever been beyond the limits of this kingdom. All Europe, America, and China were beyond “the end of the earth” when Nebuchadnezzar sat upon the throne of the Kingdom of Men. But, when the brazen-coated Greeks under Alexander the Macedonian established themselves in Babylon, the limits of “the earth” were enlarged; for in speaking of the “third kingdom of brass,” Daniel revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, that it should “bear rule over all the earth.” When this was accomplished, “the end of the earth” advanced into Europe, and was defined by the western limit of Alexander’s Macedonian Kingdom. But “the end of the earth” was not yet fixed even then; for when the Iron Kingdom annexed the brazen dominions to a considerable extent, it removed “the end of the earth” to the Atlantic Ocean. The present constitution of the Iron Kingdom has enlarged “the earth” far beyond the shadow of the Assyrian tree when it represented the greatness of the Kingdom of Men under the Chaldean dynasty. It now comprehends “the Holy Roman Empire,” or Little Horn of the West, which includes papal Germany, of which Austria is the chief dominion. From the Indus, then (the eastern limit of the Kingdom of Men under the Macedonian Dynasty), to the German and Atlantic Oceans, comprehending Affghanistan, Persia, Media, Nimroudia, the Holy Land, Egypt, Arabia, Asia Minor, the rest of the pagan Roman dominion, the Austrian Empire, and the papal states of Germany—is the territory, styled in prophetic language “the earth,” upon which, since the days of Nimroud, has existed, still exists, and will continue to exist, the Kingdom of Men until it is destroyed by the Kingdom of God.

From these remarks upon “the end of the earth,” it will be seen that the Kingdom of Men has been diversified in its constitution, extent, and throne, since its foundation by Nimroud to the present time. It has nevertheless been the same Nimroudian kingdom, with Babylon and Assyria for its characteristics. Cyrus the Persian is styled King of Babylon, and Artaxerxes, King of Assyria. Though of the Persian stock, having no consanguinity with Nebuchadnezzar, they were as much kings of Assyria and Babylon as he. Alexander the Great, though a Greek, and the Selucidæ who succeeded him in that region, were also kings of Assyria and Babylon. When the Romans got the ascendancy in the kingdom of Men, they banded the stump of its tree with iron and brass;^a and converted their own city into the “Great Babylon” of the dominion, which by the edict of Caracalla became coëxtensive with the dominion itself; so that Babylon, as the name of the Empire, came again to stand by the great river Euphrates, where Nimroud had originally planted the tree.

The different forms which the Kingdom of Men has assumed since the overthrow of Nineveh, are represented in the before-named symbols of the Book of Daniel. The metallic image is that kingdom as p. Dan. 7 it will exist when Gog comes to fall upon the mountains of Israel. If the observer take up a position contemporary with that crisis, and view the Kingdom of Men as it will then have existed from the beginning of its ascendancy over the House of Judah or of David, he will perceive that it has assumed five distinct forms; such as, the Chaldean, the Medo-Persian, the Macedonian or Grecian, the Roman, and the Russian; represented in the order of their enumeration by the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay. But all the important characteristics of the Kingdom of Men in relation to the House of David and the saints (the Heirs of the divine government styled the Kingdom of God) and Judah, could not be exhibited in a compound metallic image of a man: it was, therefore, necessary to introduce other symbols for its elucidation. In the third chapter of Daniel, we are presented with an interesting illustration of the impiety and blasphemy of the Kingdom of Men; of its hostility to the people of the House of David, or the Jews, whether such by nature, or by walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham, or by adoption; of the furnace of affliction through which they would have to pass in rejecting the superstitions of the Kingdom of Men, and in adhering to the truth of God; of their meeting with the Deliverer in their extremity; of the destruction of their tormenters; of their final deliverance; and of the ascription at last of blessing, and honor, and glory, and power to the God of Israel by the assembled nations, when God’s people shall be promoted to the direction of human affairs, and the Kingdom of Men shall be no more. Nebuchadnezzar, in referring to his dream, and to the wonderful deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to the Tree-Stump banded with Brass and Iron, styles them “signs and wonders that the High God hath wrought towards me.” He might well exclaim—“How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! HIS Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and his dominion from generation to generation.”

By the Image-Sign, Nebuchadnezzar learned for the first time, that the God of Israel was above all gods and kings; and that He intended, notwithstanding the Chaldæo-Babylonish conquest of Judah, and reduction of their city and temple to ruin, to have a kingdom among the generations of men, which in turn should destroy their kingdom, originally founded by Nimroud.

By the fiery-furnace “wonder” he was taught, that God would deliver his servants that trust in him with a salvation which would make them invulnerable to human power, and fit to possess the kingdom “which shall not be left to other people.” And, by the sign of the Tree, and the wonder, of which he was the subject in his own person, he learned, that the rulers in the Kingdom of Men could not do as they pleased; that those who attained to high places in it (as in his own case) were such as He sets up as the most fitting instruments to work out his own purposes; and that the only kingdom that will be everlasting on earth is HIS OWN, which is to grind to powder and bring to an end all the kingdoms of the Babylonish Confederacy of the Latter Days. These signs and wonders greatly p. Dan. 8 enlightened the mind and subdued the pride of Nebuchadnezzar. He came to know that “the Heavens do rule;” or, as Paul expresses it, “The existing powers are subjected to the Deity;”—ὑπο του Θεου; an elliptical expression for under the Angels of the Deity who do his commandments.^a

The fifth chapter informs us how the Chaldean Royalty was finished, and the Kingdom of Men transferred to the Medes and Persians; whose dynasty is represented in the seventh and eighth chapters by a Bear with three Ribs between its teeth, and by a Ram with horns of unequal height. The Medo-Persian Royalty of the Kingdom of Men is represented in the Image by the Breast and the Arms of Silver; and as the Image is to exist complete in the Latter Days, Persia must be a constituent of the dominion represented by it. Persia will, therefore, be certainly confederate with Russia at the overthrow of Gog.

But, an interesting announcement was made to Belshatzar, styled by Isaiah “Lucifer, son of the morning,” before he fell from heaven to go down to the sides of the pit.^b It was, that his kingdom was numbered, and, as far as his family was concerned, “finished.” It was relatively finished, not absolutely so; because this finished kingdom was to “be divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” The kingdom was numbered, and his tenure of it likewise. His occupation of the throne as a member of the golden dynasty had been limited to the seventieth year from the first of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.^c These seventy years were filled up by Nebuchadnezzar’s reign of forty-four years; Evil-Merodach’s, of two years; Usurpers, of four years and nine months; and Belshatzar’s, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, of nineteen years and three months. The Scripture takes no notice of the usurpers; I have therefore divided the twenty-six years remaining after the death of Nebuchadnezzar in the thirty-seventh of Jehoiachin’s captivity, between Evil-Merodach and Belshatzar in my chronology at the end of Eureka II. But the Kingdom of Men, which passed from the golden into the silver constitution of the empire, had been numbered, as well as the duration of its Chaldean dynasty. Nebuchadnezzar was not only informed that the Kingdom of Men should fight its last battle with the Kingdom of God “in the latter days,” but a sign and a wonder were given him by which he might know how far remote from his times those appointed days should be. The decree of the Watchers concerning the duration of the kingdom, or Banded Stump, is, “Let seven times pass over him.” When these seven times should approach their termination the latter days of the Kingdom of Men would have arrived; and with them the time for the final overthrow of it by “THE STONE cut out of the mountain which was not in hands.” But of these seven times I shall write more particularly hereafter.

p. Dan. 92. The Kingdom of Men in its Various Phases

In the first year of Belshatzar’s reign, which was nineteen before his overthrow by Cyrus, further particulars were represented concerning the relation of the Kingdom of Men, or Serpent-power, to Messiah the Prince and his coadjutors, through whom at length the might of God’s Kingdom was to be brought to bear on the Serpent-kingdom for its utter destruction at the end of the Seven Times. These things were not represented to the King of Babylon, but to Daniel himself, as specially interested in them.

In the vision of the Four Beasts he saw the Kingdom of Babylon in its golden, silver, brazen, iron, and iron and clay manifestations. Through these distinct symbols he saw what could not be represented in a statue, where the metals in juxtaposition signified merely one united confederacy in the latter days. By the Four Beasts he saw that the successive phases through which the Kingdom of the Serpent was to pass, were to result from the tempest of war in the Mediterranean countries. His words are, “The four winds of the heaven strove upon the Great Sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse from one another.” The winds were not all blowing at once, but successively and at long intervals, each tempest resulting in a change in the constitution and government of the Kingdom of Babylon, as represented by the Beasts. By these belligerent tempests the Macedonian-brass and the Roman-iron dynasties, incorporated themselves with the gold and silver Babylonish dominion, and with one another, forming thus the Band of Iron and Brass, and setting itself around the Tree-Stump when the royalty should be transferred to Rome as the seat or throne of the power in its fourth beast or dragon manifestation.

3. The Lion-Phasis of the Kingdom of Babylon

The Beasts being substituted for the metals of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, they represent of course the same phases of the Kingdom of Men. We learn from Jeremiah that the powers of Nineveh and Babylon were each represented by lions. He says, “Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven them away: first the King of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones.”^a The Ninevite Assyrian was represented to Daniel as a lion with eagle’s wings. Many years before, the Deity had punished the King of Assyria and his land for scattering the Ten Tribes by transferring the dominion over the Nimroudian empire from Nineveh to Babylon. This revolution is represented by the eagle-wings being “plucked” from the lion’s back; while the lion itself was made to stand erect as a man, and to receive in exchange for its lion-heart, the heart of a man. Thus the Lion-Man became the symbol of the Kingdom of Babylon so long as the government. p. Dan. 10 continued in the family of Nebuchadnezzar; which with all its faults was more human than that which it succeeded.

4. The Bear-Phasis

The impiety of Belshatzar brought ruin upon his family and calamity upon the Kingdom. It was made an accusation against him by Daniel that “the Deity in whose power his breath was, and whose were all his ways, he had not glorified.” Convicted of this, the Lord of heaven pronounced sentence upon him, saying, “God hath numbered thy reign, and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Thy Kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” The execution of this sentence was prompt; for “on that night was Belshatzar the King of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the Kingdom.”

This transfer of the government occurred B. C. 542. Its mission was to restore Judah’s Commonwealth, and to extend the boundary of the Kingdom of Men. “Arise devour much flesh,” was the policy of its reign. The Bear was the symbol of this government, whose dominion extended from India to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. The reign of the Bear began under a Mede, and in two years passed by inheritance to Cyrus, a Persian. This change of position was represented to Daniel in the saying that “it raised up itself on one side,” so that one side became “higher than the other;” but before it raised itself up, the higher side was no higher than the other; therefore the higher side acquired its position last, as appears in the history of the time. The Ram in the eighth chapter with horns of unequal height is another symbol for the same government: the unequal elevation of the sides of the Bear, and the different altitude of the Ram’s horns, are conditions representative of the same dynastic peculiarity—“The higher horn came up last.”

The Bear had also another peculiarity worthy of note. “It had three ribs in the mouth of it between its teeth.” These ribs represented the threefold division of its conquests. The interpretation is found elsewhere in these words of Daniel: “it pleased Darius to set over the Kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, who should be over the whole Kingdom; and over these, three Presidents, of whom Daniel was chief: that the princes might give account to them, and the King (the Bear-Mouth) should have no damage.” The three presidencies, then, of the silver dominion were the ribs in the mouth of the Bear.

In dismissing this symbol, it is worthy of remark, that while the Ram, by which the Persians represented themselves in Daniel’s time, is their symbol in relation to the Macedonians under Alexander, the Deity hath chosen for them the Bear to signify them as an element of the Image in the latter-days. The latter-day symbol then of Persia, is a Bear; and a Bear is at this time her formidable neighbor, and has already taken from her a large portion of her territory. The Russian Bear is destined to supersede her present government as an p. Dan. 11 independent sovereignty, and to grasp Persia between its teeth from near India to Ethiopia, which is to be “at his steps.” This is no mere conjecture, but absolutely certain; for Yahweh has declared by Ezekiel that Persia shall be an element of Gog’s confederacy, and that Gog’s is the Russian power will be seen when I come to treat of the King of the North at the time of the end. The Ram continued 206 years and 9 months.

5. The Four-Headed Leopard Phasis

The third symbol representative of the Kingdom of Babylon under a new constitution shown to Daniel, was a Leopard with Four Heads and Four Wings. It answers to the brazen part of the Image, which “bore rule over all the earth;” and to the Goat with Four Horns pointing to the Four Winds in the eighth chapter; but without the Little Horn, which is represented by the fourth Beast. The Leopard is Macedonian, representing Alexander the Great’s dominion and those of his four principal successors who divided it among themselves. The body of the beast represents the power before it was divided: and each head one of the subsequent divisions. The wings represented the position of the Macedonian Heads relatively to the Holy Land. At the death of Alexander a long period of war ensued, which resulted B. C. 301 in the establishment of the following Kingdoms on the territory of the kingdom of Men.

First Head.—The Kingdom of the South, comprehending Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Cœle-Syria, and Palestine, under the Ptolemies.

Second Head.—The Kingdom of the north-west, including Thrace, Bythinia, etc., or the Thraco-Macedonian.

Third Head.—The Kingdom of the north-east, comprehending the rest of Asia inclusive of Babylon and its province; and extending beyond the Euphrates to the Indus. India beyond that river, though allotted to this head, revolted; so that the Indus became its boundary. This was the Macedo-Babylonish Kingdom of the Seleucidæ.

Fourth Head.—The Kingdom of the West, embracing Macedonia and Greece.

The Lion-Man, the Bear, the Leopard, and its Third Head, or Kingdom of the North, all established themselves in the city of Babylon, where Alexander “held, as it were, the States-General of the world,” and which he had resolved to make the throne of his empire. But the decree of heaven was against the city.^a The purpose of Alexander was frustrated by death; and by B. C. 293, it became an uninhabited desert by the inundation of the Euphrates and the building of Seleucia on the banks of the Tigris about forty miles above, to which its citizens removed. Thus, the tree of Babylon was hewn down, its branches lopped, its leaves shaken off, and its fruit scattered; so that the nations got away from under it, and their rulers from its branches. Nevertheless, the Stump of its roots remained^b under the sovereignty of the Third Head of the Leopard, p. Dan. 12 founded by Seleucus, for almost 250 years; when the iron and brass became one dominion in Asia by the annexation of the Macedo-Babylonish territory to the Roman; and the band being thus formed, it was found at length encircled by it B. C. 65.

Of the four heads of the Leopard and the four horns of the Goat, but two only figure in the prophecy of Daniel’s book. The reason of this is, that the prophecy was not delivered to prefigure the history of the Gentiles; but to foreshow how the international policy of some of them in its bearing upon Judah, the Holy Land, and the saints, would at length create such a situation of affairs in the end, as would favor the execution of the divine purpose of demolishing the powers of the Gentiles in the establishing of the Kingdom of God. “The secret of Yahweh is with them that fear him.” The matter is therefore revealed for the information of those that obey him, that they may not be taken unawares. “The wise shall understand.” Let them know, then, that the policy of only two heads of the Leopard is foreshown, because they only of the four had to do with Judah and the Holy Land; and were sufficient to connect the iron with the silver of the Image. Hence the individual dominion of Alexander was the Belly, and these two heads also the two Thighs of brass; and therefore continuous with the iron Roman leg: so that the brass and iron limbs of the Image from hip to ankle represent the fourth form in its Græco-Roman constitution. The two thighs and the two heads represent the Kingdom of the South, and the Kingdom of the North-east, as above defined; and with the Little Horn of the Goat, or eastern element of the Fourth Beast, in relation to Judah and the Holy Land, are the powers of the eleventh chapter from the fifth verse to the end.

6. The Ten-Horned Dragon-Phasis of the Kingdom of Babylon

The previous beasts were introduced into this prophecy as the basis of the fourth, which in many points was diverse from them all. Daniel says, “it was dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth.” The iron teeth connect it with the iron legs, and iron element of the iron-clay Feet and Toes. Its claws were of brass; which shows that it is related also to the power represented by the brazen parts of the Image. These two metals being inserted in the symbol suggest the power it was designed to represent—a dominion constituted of the Greek and Latin elements. Has such a dynastic form of the Kingdom of Babylon ever existed? The history of the nations of the Mediterranean countries from B. C. 65 to A. D. 395, shows that such a dynastic manifestation not only existed, but “devoured and brake in pieces,” as predicted it would; though it has not yet “stamped the residue with its brazen-clawed Feet.” The power existing during this period chose to represent itself by a Dragon; we may, therefore, as Daniel has given it no name, style it for convenience THE GRÆCO-ROMAN DRAGON.

p. Dan. 13 It had Ten Horns. They stood up as long as the beast continued in life; but not all: for three of them fell before an eleventh that came up on the beast afterwards. Seven strong horns and three broken, or “plucked up by the roots.” These ten horns thus conditioned, with the brazen-clawed feet, represent the same things as the iron-clay feet and toes of the Image. When the Russo-Greek elements (clay and brass) are combined with the Gomerians (iron) in the Gog confederacy, the feet of the Græco-Roman Dragon will be manifested; and it will then “stamp the residue with the feet of it.” Hitherto the Dragon has destroyed with its “great iron teeth;” hereafter it will use its feet and claws. The Feet of the Image, and the Feet of the Dragon, have yet to be formed out of existing elements; and it is the King of the North’s mission to accomplish the work.

The Horns of the Dragon, and the Toes of the Image, represent kingly powers, or thrones; which are to exist until the taking possession of the Dragon-dominion by the Saints shall be perfected. They are emblems of kingdoms existing when the judgment sits for the destruction of the kingdom of Babylon. I know of no place where it is written that the Horns and Toes were to have an uninterrupted existence of 1260 years; but I do find that “The Ten Horns receive power as kings one hour with the beast”^a—that is, thirty years; so that we need not be careful to identify them until then.

After the Horns had struck their roots into the Dragon territory, an “eleventh came up among them” which Daniel characterizes as “a Little Horn.” In order to make room for itself it subdued three of the ten, and incorporated their territories into its own dominion. This incorporation made it imperial—an Emperorship in the midst of Seven Kingdoms; so that it stood as the Eighth Power. But this eighth power was diverse from the Seven; in that it had the Eyes of a Man which gave it a more audacious look than the others; and a mouth by which it spake very great words against (לצד l’tzad, for the side of) the High ones, . . . . thinking to change times and laws. The eyes and mouth of the Little Horn were sufficient for all the rest. Its undertaking to speak as the representative of the High Ones in regard to times and laws connects the mouth with matters spiritual, showing that the horn, eyes, and mouth, are emblematical of a civil, military, and ecclesiastical power. This power manifested itself originally in Rome A. D. 800, as the Western Roman, or “HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE;” of which I shall speak more particularly hereafter. Suffice it to say here, that while the jurisdiction of the secular element of the horns has been limited to its proper territory; the spiritual dominion of the Eyes and Mouth has reigned in the kingdoms of all the horns of the Dragon-territory ceded to the western beast.

In the countries ruled by these eight horns have existed classes of people against which, under the influence of the Eyes and Mouth, p. Dan. 14 they have entertained unmitigated and cruel hatred. They have poured out their blood like water, and harassed them with all possible pains and penalties. The enmity that has obtained between these Horn-powers and these classes has been mutual and implacable; so that war between them could only be finally extinguished by the conquest of one party or the other. These classes are called קדוֹשׁין, kaddishin, that is, Holy Ones; whose fate has been to be overcome by the imperial and regal papal powers of Babylon. This was foreshown to Daniel in these words, “I beheld, and the same Little Horn made war with the holy ones, and prevailed against them.” The subjugation of the holy ones, however, was not a finality. Yahweh never intended that the Seed of the Woman should be bruised in the head, or finally crushed; that is a fate in reserve for the Serpent-power and its adherents. All that this can do against “the holy ones of the Most High” is to bruise them in the heel, which is as curable, and in the same way, as the wound it inflicted on Christ, when on the accursed tree (styled by the Seed of the Serpent “Holy Cross”) “the iniquity of his heels compassed him about”—that is, by a resurrection from among the dead to eternal life at the coming of Messiah. It is therefore only until the time of this event that the Imperio-Regal Papacy of the Babylonish dominion prevails over the Holy Ones of the Most High; as it is written, “The Little Horn prevailed against them, UNTIL the Ancient of Days came.” Here is a point of time beyond which the misfortunes of the Holy Ones do not extend. It is the turning-point in their career in relation to the “dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong” dominion that makes such dreadful havoc on the earth—a dominion which no earth-born power can subdue.

The coming of the Ancient of Days is a great event in this prophecy. He is said to sit, and one like the Son of Man to be brought to him, after which he is said to come. When the prophecy was delivered He had not manifested himself in the flesh—the Son of Man had not been born; hence that peculiar representative mode of expression: but he has since been born, or manifested, and gone into a far country, where the manifested Son has appeared in the presence of the Ancient of Days, or the Father, for the purpose of receiving from him “Dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him; and all rulers obey him.”^a Though these things are promised to him, and though he is the heir of them all, he has not received them; as is manifest from the fact that “all people, and nations, and languages” serve the rulers of the Gentiles, and especially that system of governments represented by the Greco-Roman Dragon. But when the time appointed arrives, as the Ancient of Days embodied in the holy spiritual nature, he will come, having received power and authority to take the dominion, glory, and kingdom, promised him. Thus the Ancient of Days comes, and “sits in Jerusalem, the Holy City, to judge all the nations round about”^b—there he sits, “his throne being like the fiery flame, p. Dan. 15 and his wheels as burning fire;” and sends forth from before him a stream of fire.

For the signification of the Wheels and Fire read Ezekiel’s first and tenth chapters. They are parts of his imagery put for the whole in this text of Daniel. “The Spirit of the Living Creatures is in the Wheels.” They represent the same as the four living creain Rev. v. 8-10. They are the “redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” raised from the dead, in consuming and destructive motion against the body and horns of the Græco-Roman Dragon. They are the thousand thousands who minister to the commands of the Ancient of Days; and go forth with him as a fiery stream against the “Beast and the False Prophet, and the Kings of the earth and their armies,” to give them “of the wrath of God poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation”—thus tormenting all the adherents of the Beast and his Image with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb.^a

When the manifested Ancient of Days comes, this judgment is set, and the books are opened; and whosoever is found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life awakes to everlasting life, and to a participation in the judgment upon the Four Beasts; and whosoever is not found written there is cast into the burning flame that destroys the body of the Dragon.^b

The taking away of the dominion of Babylon, and the bringing of its kingdom to an end, is the work assigned to the Holy Ones; who in overthrowing the Gentile powers will also appropriate to their own use all they possess. Hence, at the coming of the Ancient of Days, it is testified, that the hitherto vanquished holy ones should become conquerors in their turn—should conquer the gold, and the silver, and the brass, and the iron, and the clay; or the four kingdoms of Powers that exist on the Babylonish earth, and take them for themselves: as it is written, “These great beasts which are four represent four kings, or royalties, which shall arise out of the earth. But the holy ones of the High Ones shall take the kingdom (of Babylon) and possess the kingdom for the age, even for the age of the ages. Again, “The Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the holy ones of the High Ones;” when “the time came that the holy ones should possess the kingdom.” And again, “Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the nations, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints.^c The “judgment written” is the judgment that sits when the Ancient of days comes. They are not only to slay the Fourth Beast, and to destroy its body with fire and brimstone; but they are to take away the dominion of the Lion-Man, the Bear, and the Leopard; whose peoples, and nations, and languages, however, p. Dan. 16 will experience a better fate than those of the Fourth Beast dominion: for, while the constitutions of the Latins are exterminated, the populations of Assyria, Persia, and Macedonian Egypt, are permitted to retain their nationality for a season and time. That they do remain distinct national organizations is evident from the following testimonies: “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land; whom Yahweh Tz’vaoth shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hand, and Israel mine inheritance.”^a And, “I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king of princes: but it shall come to pass in the latter days, I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith Yahweh.”^b

The manner in which the dominion of Assyria and Elam or Persia is taken away when the judgment sits is revealed in Micah’s prophecy concerning him who was to be born in Bethlehem “to be Ruler in Israel,” that is, concerning Christ who was born there. He writes, “And He shall stand and rule in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the Name of Yahweh his (Elohim); and they (Israel) shall abide; for now shall he (Christ) be great unto the ends of the earth. And this (Christ-Man) shall be the peace of (Israel) when the Assyrian (the king of the north or Gog) shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our fortresses, then shall we raise against him seven leaders, even eight anointed ones of the Adam— אדם, adam. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he (Christ) deliver from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.”^c These eight anointed ones are some of the holy ones with the Ancient of Days who execute judgment at his appearing.

But, at what time does he appear? This is found by attending to what is said concerning the Little Horn power and the holy ones. It is to prevail against them until the Ancient of Days come, which “until” is indicated in the words, “The holy ones shall be given into his power until a time, and times, and the dividing of a time.” Hence, the Ancient of Days will come at the end of this period, which has not yet expired; for if it had, the Ancient of Days would now be in Teman, or the South of the Holy Land, the holy ones would now be preparing to execute judgment, and the season and time would be at hand. There are no data in the seventh of Daniel for the calculation of the three times and a half, or 1260 years, as they are well understood to signify. All that can be known from it is, that they pertain to the Græco-Roman Dragon, that they end with the commencement of judgment upon its Little Horn, and with the approach of the “season and time:” we must look to other testimonies to ascertain the duration of this, and the probable termination of the 1260 years. p. Dan. 17 Daniel does not tell us here how long a time after the ending of the 1260 years will be occupied in the executing of judgment by the holy ones upon the Body, Little Horn and Ten Horns, of the fourth beast, which are to be utterly destroyed. This can be learned from another source. He contents himself for the time with informing us of the general result of the judgment in the entire and complete overthrow of the Kingdom of Babylon represented by the four beasts; and in the setting up of the kingdom by the God of heaven^a through the agency of the holy ones inclusive of Christ, who is their chief. Hence, he concludes the account of his vision by saying, “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the High Ones, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and whom all dominions shall serve and obey.” This accomplished, and the kingdom will be “restored again to Israel,”^b and be in the hands of those for whom it has been preparing “from the foundation of the world,”^c and who once seized of it will “not leave it to other people,” but retain it “for ever.”

7. The Holy Ones of the High Ones, and their People

In the seventh of Daniel there are three parties associated together in executing judgment upon the Beasts—the holy ones, the High Ones, and “the people of the holy ones.” The holy ones are styled “the saints” in the common version; and the High Ones are termed “the Most High” in the singular. The word saint signifies a holy one; but it has been so misapplied by the Gentiles that I have preferred the latter, as keeping before the mind the saying, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” The phrase “the Most High” in the singular number is in the plural in the Chaldee original. The word there is עליונין, ĕlyonin. This is not accidental, for it occurs four times in the same chapter, which supplies the reason of the expression, in the introduction of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man into the vision. These are the High Ones to whom the holy ones belong; as it is written, “Ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

The holy ones of the High Ones whose Head is Christ, take the kingdom which is then given to the people of the holy ones. These are the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who, under the government of the holy ones, possess “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven.” They possess these in the sense in which a nation is said to possess such things, while at the same time it is only the princes and rulers of the nation who possess the glory, honor, majesty, and high offices of the kingdom. The holy ones and their Head the Most Holy Prince will possess these with immortality, which pertains to them exclusively; while the Israelites who constitute “the people,” or subjects of the kingdom, will stand p. Dan. 18 related to the holy ones as the subjects of all other nations do to the nobility and government of their kingdoms; but with this exception that, whereas the subjects and rulers of kingdoms hitherto existing in the world have been all mortal, and therefore under the necessity of leaving their houses, dignities, and power to other people, or successors, the princes of the kingdom of the Deity in the Holy Land will be deathless, but the subjects thereof mortal.

The possessing of the kingdom and dominion and their greatness under the whole heaven of the four beasts by Israel, is predicted by the prophet Micah in these words:—“I will surely assemble all of thee, O Jacob; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel . . . In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and Yahweh shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even for the age. And thou, O Citadel of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come even the First Dominion; the Kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”^a And by Zephaniah, Jehovah saith, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Yahweh hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy (the Turk, and afterwards the Russian) the King of Israel, Yahweh, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more . . . . Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out, and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.”^b And again, he says by Zechariah, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I (Christ) come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee; and many nations shall be joined to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee; and Yahweh shall possess Judah his portion in the Land of Holiness, and shall choose Jerusalem again.”^c . . . “I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of Yahweh of hosts the holy mountain. “There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. For I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be to them for Elohim in truth and righteousness. . . Yea, many people, and strong nations shall come to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before Yahweh. In those days ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that Elohim is with you.”^d “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves One Head (or king), and they shall p. Dan. 19 come up out of the land (of the enemy), for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”^a “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. And THE BELOVED my servant shall be king over them: and they shall have one Shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children’s children forever. And my servant the Beloved shall be their prince forever.”^b

From these testimonies it is evident, that a kingdom consisting of the twelve United Tribes of Israel is to be established in the Holy Land under a king high in the favor of the Ancient of Days; and that when it exists it will have the ascendancy in the world, and be celebrated for the fame and glory of its people among all nations. It is clear also that the accomplishment of these predictions will settle all controversies about “the Holy Places,” and be a quietus to all “Eastern Questions.” The reduction of the promises of Deity to accomplished facts must be the extinction, not only of the Ottoman, but of all the governments and powers of Europe and Asia; and the substitution of the Israelitish Dominion in their place, when Israel shall be Yahweh’s first-born^c among the nations of the coming age. Being the body of this kingdom, whose founders are the High Ones, and its rulers and princes their holy ones, the people of the holy ones are the constituents, or commonalty, of the body, even the twelve tribes of Israel, the nation of Yahweh.

The Holy Ones that slay the Græco-Roman Dragon, destroy its body in the burning flame of their power, and take away the dominion of the Lion-Man, Bear, and Leopard, are persons who have attained to immortality as a part of the reward promised in the gospel of the kingdom to all “who walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham,” whose faith was made perfect by his works.^d That they are immortals is evident, from it being affirmed of them that they possess the kingdom forever, which those only can do who are deathless. These immortals are called holy ones, because they attain to immortality on account of their previous holiness, “without which no one can see the Lord;” that is, the High Ones of the vision. From this a very interesting question arises, namely, What did their holiness consist in that gave them acceptance with the High Ones? This is a question answered in the following words by the Spirit of God—“The saints are they who keep the commandments of Deity, and the faith of Jesus.”^e Hence, it is written, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city;” that is, that they may have right to immortality, and may enter into the kingdom by resurrection to everlasting life.^f The faith of Jesus is explained as being p. Dan. 20 “the testimony of Jesus”—ή μαρτυρία, hè martyria—what is taught of Jesus Christ;^a and “the testimony of Jesus” is the spirit, or import, of the prophecy. “The words I speak unto you,” said he, “they are spirit, and they are life;”^b that is, the words I speak believed, make alive. The doctrine taught by Jesus intelligently and heartily believed is spirit, from which as the germ of a new existence, holiness unto eternal life originates. The words spoken by Jesus are styled “the good message concerning the kingdom of the Deity,” το ευαγγελιον της βασιλειας, to evangelion tes basileias,^c and “the words of eternal life.” To those who received these words he said, “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you;” and on such, purified in mind and disposition by belief of that word, he commanded his apostles to enjoin “immersion into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,”^d that they might thus become the children and brethren of the High Ones.^e Being thus by faith and obedience introduced into Christ, he is to them “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;”^f that is, they are in a state of purity, and holy, being in him.

Having been thus constituted righteous and holy persons by being washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of their God,^g they therefore “yield their members servants to righteousness unto holiness;” for “having been made free from sin, and become servants to God, they have their fruit into holiness, and the end everlasting life.”^h In the vision under consideration, Daniel saw them as having attained to that end; and saw them likewise as the military chieftains of their people Israel, taking violent possession of “the kingdom and glory to which they had been called;” for “the kingdom of the heavens suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

8. A Season and Time

As I have said, there is nothing in the seventh of Daniel from which can be ascertained the length of time during which Assyria, Persia, and Egypt, the southern head of the Leopard, shall continue distinct nationalities after the taking away of their dominions by the holy ones. The sentence concerning them is, that “a prolonging in life shall be given them for a season and time.” Now we learn from the Scriptures that there is a time when national distinctions among mankind shall have an end; a season and time cannot therefore be interminable. The reign of the holy ones is to be for an age, even for the age of ages. This age is of coëqual duration with the season and time, and conterminous with it in the age of ages. In the season-and-time age, then, Assyria, Persia, and Egypt are dominionless, while the holy ones are kings “under the whole heaven” of the kingdom of men. But when the season and time end at the time of the opening of the period beyond the age of ages, what then? Paul informs us, that at the end the Son of Man shall deliver up the kingdom p. Dan. 21 to the Father, or Ancient of Days, having by that time put down all rule, and all authority, and power: for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject to the Ancient of Days who puts all things under him, that God may be the all things in all.^a It is evident, then, from this, that the kingdom and dominion are not to continue unchanged interminably; but that when the time comes to abolish death from the earth, that abolition will necessitate a change in the constitution of the world. The reign of the Son of Man and his holy companions over nations of mortal men is therefore limited by that necessity. If, then, we can find a revelation of how long they are to reign, we shall have ascertained the duration of the season and time. This matter was revealed to John in Patmos. He tells us that he saw one descend from heaven and bind the Dragon, so that that power could not injuriously affect the nations for 1,000 years; and that coëvally with that period he saw persons occupying thrones who reigned with Christ as the priests of God.^b

A season and time, then, is 1,000 years, or two times of 360 years each; and a set time of 280 years; or nine months and ten days of years, 280 days being a set time, or period of gestation.^c For this season and time of 1,000 years the holy ones possess the world as theirs. At the end of that time, sin being eradicated, death is abolished, and their priesthood necessarily ceases. They therefore reign no more as priests; but the Deity is all things in all the dwellers upon the earth.

9. Origin of the Romano-Greek Babylonian Sovereignty

In the third year of the reign of Belshatzar, king of Babylon, another vision was presented to Daniel, which he has recorded in the eighth chapter of his book. It was communicated for the purpose of exhibiting certain important events in the future history of Judah, characterized by the suppression of their religious polity, the destruction of their commonwealth, and subversion of their power for a long series of ages; but with the consolatory assurance that God would avenge them, and by a Great Deliverer destroy the power that had so long oppressed them.

By studying the symbols of this chapter the power will be found to originate in Babylon, and to be the same as that represented by the four beasts, but without the introduction of the Ten Horns and the Little Horn with its Eyes and Mouth. These signify the Latin or papal governments of the west in their relation to the holy ones: while the Bear and the Ram, the Leopard and the He Goat, the fourth Beast, and the Little Horn of the Goat, are the heraldry of the same dynastic manifestations of the kingdom of Babylon in relation to the עם־קדשים, ăm-kĕdōshim, or people of the holy ones; that is, THE SAINTS’ NATION, in its occupancy of the Holy Land.

Daniel saw the vision while residing in Persia at the palace of p. Dan. 22 Shushan, under the government of the Lion-Man, which had but sixteen years to continue over the affairs of the kingdom of Babylon. Hence, the Chaldean sovereignty being about to pass away, and sufficient having been revealed in former visions and signs, it was unnecessary to introduce it again: therefore, in the one before us the symbol presented first is that emblematic of the Babylonish power after it had been transferred to the conjoint dynasty of the Medes and Persians.

The emblem of the Medo-Persian dynasty was a Ram with two horns of considerable and unequal height. It is unnecessary to repeat hear what has already been said of the Ram when treating of the Bear. It will be sufficient to add, that Daniel saw the Medo-Persian symbol pushing westward, that is, towards Greece; northward, and southward, towards Egypt; so that no beasts or dominions could stand successfully against it. It, therefore, “did according to its will, and became great.” The reason of this greatness is given in chap. xi. 1, from which we learn that it was because the kings of the Ram dynasty were strengthened by an angel-prince devoted to the interests of Judah. In the second verse of this chapter there is a particular mentioned concerning the military operations of the Ram-king which is noted as a cause of the enmity which led in the end to the subversion of their power by the Greeks. There were thirteen Medo-Persian kings; but the revelator takes no notice of any of them after the fourth that reigned after Cyrus. In the third year of Cyrus he said to Daniel, “Behold, there shall yet stand up three kings in Persia;” namely, Cambyses, the Ahasuerus of scripture; Smerdis the Magian, and Darius: “and the fourth shall be far richer than they all.” This was Xerxes: “and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia;” which saying is a prediction of the celebrated invasion of the west, so familiar to the reader of ancient history.

The time of the vision between this reign and the sixth year of the reign of the last of the Ram-kings, a period of about 142 years, was occupied by the prophet in considering. “And as I was considering,” says he, “behold, a He Goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth;” that is, over the face of the whole Ram-empire: “and nothing upon the earth smote (him), and the Goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.” The things represented by the Goat and its Horn are thus interpreted in the twenty-first verse of the eighth chapter: “And the rough Goat is the kingdom of Grecia: and the Great Horn between his eyes is the first king:” and what is affirmed of them is thus explained in chap. xi. 3: “And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” The doing of this mighty king of Greece according to his will is thus expressed in chap. viii.: “And he came to the Ram, and ran unto him in the fury of his power; and he came close to him, and was moved with anger 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 p. Dan. 23 power.” This is highly descriptive of the war between the Greeks and Persians which resulted in the overthrow of the Ram-dynasty, and the transfer of the Kingdom of Babylon to Alexander the Great, the notable horn of the goat nation. All the power of this kingdom was now vested in “the first king,” who “became very great,” and when he had attained to the fulness of his power, “he wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer.” His dominion extended from Macedonia to beyond the Indus; and from the gulf of Persia to Scythia; and is represented by the belly of brass in Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, and in the interpretation thereof termed “the third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over all the earth.”

The Ram having disappeared from view, the prophet’s attention was concentrated upon the Goat, and especially upon his Horn. He saw that “when the Goat was strong, the Great Horn was broken;” that is, the power of the kingdom departed from the first king and his family before any reverses overtook the nation. Alexander died in Babylon from intoxication, leaving his unbroken dominion to be contended for and possessed by the strongest. It was revealed to Daniel that it should be divided into four notable sections, but that no blood-relations of the first king should possess them. The divisions of Alexander’s empire were represented by “four notable horns coming up in the place of the broken horn toward the four winds of heaven;” and in regard to the succession it was added in chap. xi. 4, “but not to his posterity, nor according to the (extent of the) dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up even for others (for other rulers) beside those” of his posterity. This is the meaning of “four kingdoms standing up out of the nation, but not in his power.”

The Four Heads of the Grecian Leopard, and the Four Horns of the Grecian Goat, both fours pointing toward the four winds, are representative of the same Grecian powers. The reader can refer to what I have said about the Leopard for the signification of the four horns of the Goat. In the eighth chapter nothing more is said about the four horns. They were only introduced into this vision because of the dynasty that was to succeed them as the heir of the Babylonian power, which was to make its appearance in the east “out of one of them.” The eleventh chapter, from the fifth to the thirty-first verse, treats of two of them, the northern and southern horns in their struggles with one another for ascendancy in the Holy Land, and consequent lordship over Judah; and thus the treatise fills up the interval between the foundation of the horn kingdoms and the incipient intervention of “the breakers of Daniel’s people” who should exalt themselves to establish the vision. Besides this, two of the Goat Horns were indispensable to the representation of the solution of the Eastern Question of our day, called “the Time of the End.” They are therefore introduced again in the fortieth verse; and one of them, the northern, is kept in view to the end of the chapter, being inseparable at last from the Little Horn of the Goat which came up out of it and merges again into it; so that the fate of the one becomes the fate of the other, which is to be broken without help. p. Dan. 24 It will be seen by the countries subjected to the third head or horn, that the Kingdom of Babylon passed from Alexander to Seleucus and his Successors of the northern horn. The Babylonish power has been particularly hostile to Judah and the holy ones from Nebuchadnezzar to the present time, and will be to the end. Before Christ it seemed to have reached the climax of hatred in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, who polluted the temple, took away the daily, and set up the abomination of the desolator. This extreme indignation against the temple worship was a type of the violence of the Little Horn that should come up against Jerusalem out of his territory, the effect of which would be far more permanent than his.

In the latter time of the dominion of the northern and southern horns of the Goat the transgressors in Judah were fast arriving at maturity. The Israelites of that tribe had conquered their independence of these two kingdoms by the valor of the Maccabees and “a little help” from heaven; and in alliance with the Romans, the future breakers of their power, they were enabled to maintain it under kings of the Levitical race after they had vanished from the scene. By that time, however, both people and government had become very corrupt; so that in about a hundred years after the establishment of the Asmonean throne, when the transgressors were ripening, the Iron Men of Italy began to appear as a distinct power to the north of Judea by the progressive incorporation of the provinces of the northern horn with their more western empire. This advance of the Roman power eastward was preparatory to the use Yahweh was going to make of them in the crucifixion of Jesus, the punishment of Judah, and the abolition of the Mosaic system, as predicted in the eighth chapter, and the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The disappearing of the northern horn for a long series of ages, and the substituting of the Roman power in its place, was represented to Daniel by the coming forth of a Little Horn out of one of the four horns. After it began to appear in Syria, Daniel saw it waxing exceeding great against the south or Egypt, and against the east or Euphrates, and against the glory of the land, or Palestine, until it became dangerously formidable to the army of “the heavens,” or military power of Judah, which it at length subdued, as evinced by the Jews boasting before Pilate, that they had “no other king than Cæsar.”

Thus far the vision of the Ram and Goat was for the purpose of introducing the Roman power in its relation to Judah and the Holy Land to special notice. By the absorption of the northern kingdom into the Roman empire, a union was formed between it and the Græco-Babylonian power of the Seleucidæ; so that as these were heirs of Alexander’s kingdom of Babylon, the Romans inherited it from them. Hence the power peculiar to this territory, styled “the whole earth,” may very properly be called the Romano-Greek Babylonian; or the Latino-Greek Babylonian. This name is descriptive of it in its relation to the Holy Land, in all its future phases until its utter destruction by Messiah the Prince and his holy ones. The Ottoman nation is more Greek than Turkish, with but little of the p. Dan. 25 Latin element; but when the Latins and Greeks come to form a confederacy under Russia as the fragile medium of combination, the Latino-Greek Babylonian power will be in full “blossom,” when the sour grape is ripening for the vintage.^a If these things be apprehended, the reader will be prepared to read the destiny of Russia and the nations in the solution of the Eastern Question; for, the working of it out is the manifestation of the Gogian Image, or Latino-Greek Babylonian power in consummation for its signal and final overthrow by the hand of Deity.

In this vision of the Ram and Goat the Babylonian power in its Roman manifestations is represented by the Little Horn of the Goat, which is not to be confounded with the Little Horn with Eyes and Mouth. At the time of the end, the powers signified by these are confederated with the Goat’s Little Horn, and with it as their chief invade the Holy Land and besiege Jerusalem, and take it.

The Little Horn of the Goat power is described by Daniel as “a king of fierce countenance, and understanding an intricate tongue; whose power shall be mighty, but not in his own virility: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and work; and shall destroy multitudes, and the people of the holy ones.” Speaking of the same, Moses says to Israel,” Yahweh shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance; which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until all thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst throughout all thy land which Yahweh thine Elohim hath given thee.”^b And through his policy also,” says Daniel, “he shall cause falsehood to prosper by his power; and because of his heart he shall do proudly, and in prosperity shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the שׂר־שׂרים Sar-sahrim, Commander of chieftains; but he shall be broken without help.”

Thus in its career it was to be what is said of Daniel’s fourth beast, “dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly,” and the special enemy of all pertaining to Judah. “It waxed great,” says the prophet, “above the army of the heavens;^c and it cast down of the army and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even against the שׂר־הצבא Sar-hatz-zahvah, Commander of the army; and by it the תמיד tahmid, evening-morning sacrifice was taken away; and the מכוֹן מקדּשׁוֹ mĕkhon mikdosho, foundation p. Dan. 26 of its temple scattered.^a And an army was given against the evening-morning sacrifice because of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it wrought and prospered. This was the beginning of divine indignation against Judah in the first century of our era, which is not quite terminated yet.

10. Evening-Morning Vision

In the twenty-sixth verse it is written, “The מראה marai, or thing seen of the evening and morning which was told is true; wherefore shut thou up the חזון khahzon, or vision, for it is for many days.” The vision was given principally to exhibit this great object, namely, the suppression of the evening-morning sacrifice until the Latino-Greek Babylonish power should be helplessly broken by the Commander of the army of Israel. This is then the reason why the vision of the Ram and Goat is styled “the thing seen of the evening and morning,” or the evening-morning object.

When Daniel had the vision, the evening and morning sacrifice was suppressed, Jerusalem in ruins, and Judah in the province of Babylon. He was, however, fondly expecting the restoration of all these in about sixteen years:^b but here was a new vision which taught him, that a breaking up of Judah by a more formidable enemy than the Chaldeans was to occur after their restoration from the Babylonish captivity. He saw that “the Breaker up of Judah” was to exalt himself successfully against the long-expected Messiah; again to suppress the sacrifices, destroy the temple and city, abolish the Mosaic institutions, and scatter the power of the nation. In view of these events, what would become of all the promises made to the fathers of Israel? How long was deferred hope to make the hearts of believers sick? That the promises would certainly be fulfilled he had no doubt; but then, as a lover of his people, he was appalled at the greatness of their rebellion, and at the calamities it would bring upon them in punishment for their crimes. The prospects of these things had a sickening effect upon the prophet. “I fainted,” said he; “and was sick for days.” He had been told how long the glory of Judah should be veiled in rayless night, and that deliverance should come at last: but the information only left him in blank amazement; for he says, “I was astonished at the thing seen, but none understood;” that is, at what time the scattering power would be broken, and the evening and morning sacrifice restored. Though ignorant of this, Daniel had consolation in knowing that at the end of the time appointed in the vision “the Holy shall be avenged.”

p. Dan. 2711. “The Holy shall be Avenged”

After the announcement of the all-conquering prosperity of Judah’s foe, Daniel heard the question asked, “Until when the vision (khahzon), the evening-morning sacrifice (tahmid), and the down-treading of the desolate, to give both the holy (kodesh) and the host a treading down?” Here was an answer sought in regard to three things: first, Unto what period of time should the vision reach, the last incident of which is the destruction of the Latino-Greek Babylonian power? In other words, When should that destruction happen? Secondly, Until when should the evening-morning sacrifice be suppressed? And thirdly, When should Judah’s rebellion causing desolation, or which had induced all these calamities, have an end? A fourth inquiry might be made which would cover the whole ground, namely, How long shall the treading down of the Holy Land and the Jews continue? Now, the answer which saluted Daniel’s ears shows that the precise point of time when these things should be, cannot certainly, though it may be inferentially, extracted from the prophecy; because there is no numerical intimation given of the commencement of the period named. The answer recorded is, “During an evening-morning of two thousand four hundred;^a then the holy shall be avenged.” The meaning of this is, that there should be an evening-morning period of 2400 years, after the expiration of which the Holy Land should be avenged. The Lord Jesus has paraphrased the reply in these words: “Jerusalem (the holy) shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”^b When these have elapsed, neither Turk, Frank, nor Russian, Greek nor Latin, will be permitted to desecrate the Holy with their hateful presence and abominations; the treading down will then be terminated and the spoiler expelled; that is, when judgment is given to the holy ones at the expiration of the three times and a half, the holy land and city will be vindicated from violence and injury.

The answer as it stands in the common version, has caused insuperable difficulties to all who have endeavored to understand it. It is rendered there, “Unto two thousand three hundred days: then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” But the original is not ימים[?] yahmim, “days;” it is ערב בקר erev boker, “an evening-morning.” This departure from the usual mode of expression was not without good reason. The reply was in effect, “During a two thousand three hundred tahmid;” that is, Judah’s host for its rebellion against Yahweh was to become an evening-morning sacrifice until the end of a period of 2300 years: as it is written, “His anger is momentary; in his favor is life; weeping may endure for an evening; but joy cometh in the morning.” This is as true of Judah as of Judah’s king. And again, “A lion out of the forest (Nebuchadnezzar) shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch p. Dan. 28 over their cities (the Roman Wolf and Greek Leopard), every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.”^a This was an evening sacrifice of the nation, in which they eat the bread of affliction with bitter herbs until the time of the morning oblation come, the time of Jacob’s trouble,^b when they will be avenged in the great sacrifice of Bozrah in the day of Yahweh’s vengeance; and in the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.^c During the suspension of the Mosaic sacrifices Judah is the tahmid which bleeds for its rebellion against the Lamb, slain in the evening and morning oblation from the foundation of the world.

But the phrase that has caused the greatest difficulty is, “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Theologists of the Gentiles have not perceived that the vision has no reference to the Gentiles but as destroyers of Judah and the enemies of their king. They have therefore imagined that “the sanctuary” to be cleansed is the Gentile church! as if any cleansing could make the thing called “the church” any thing but unclean. Assuming this, they have looked for the advent of Christ the year after the 2,300th year according to the Com. Version had expired; and have called his appearing to burn up the world, and to place those whom they style “the saints” upon the purified earth as its sole occupants in glory, “the cleansing of the sanctuary!” Well, this is as reasonable an interpretation as could be expected from people who deny the restoration of the Jews, and believe in world-burning at the coming of Christ! But so long as men hold on to such foolishness it is impossible for them to understand the Bible, or to form any rational conclusion concerning the divine predetermination respecting the issue of human affairs.

But, all speculations and absurdities connected with this subject are most readily extinguished by reference to the original. There we find that the words crucibleized in the fires of world-burning theories do not exist! “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” was no part of the answer given in Daniel’s hearing. The words he heard were ונצדּק קֹדשׁ we-nitzdak kodesh. The word kodesh is not “sanctuary,” but holy; designating what is holy connected with Judah, such as the Holy City, called emphatically “The Holy;” and the Holy Land. Then as to nitzdak, rendered cleansed in the common version. This is not its meaning. It signifies, to be vindicated from injury and violence, or to be avenged. The word for to cleanse is טהר tahar, and is used several times in the sense of to cleanse Judea from the putrifying bodies of the slain in the prophecy of the Autocrat of Russia’s overthrow in the breaking of the Latino-Greek Babylonian power.^d “Then the Holy shall be avenged,” is the only proper rendering of which the original is susceptible in this place. Let it be also observed, that this does not teach that the avenging of the holy is to commence immediately the last of the 2,400 evening-morning is finished. It only gives us to understand that when that period is passed, the p. Dan. 29 next series of events in relation to the Holy Land shall be the manifestation of things necessary to wrest it from the Gentiles, and to avenge it in their overthrow.

It must be evident to every intelligent reader, that, before a country in the actual possession of an enemy can be avenged for desolations current in twenty-four hundred years, a situation of affairs must be created favoring its deliverance. This requires time; and the time provided in the case before us is styled, “the time of the end,” now current. Every year since 1840 the Holy Land has been mixing itself up more and more with the policy of the Gentile Powers; until at the present time a situation of affairs in the east is nearly formed which will make its possession by other powers than the Ottoman a matter of belligerent dispute. Here are twenty-eight years consumed in bringing affairs to their present crisis, which is not yet quite ripe enough for the accomplishment of the prediction, “the Holy shall be avenged.” The overthrow of the Latino-Greek Babylonian Dragon under the supremacy of Gog on the mountains of Israel is indispensable to this most desirable consummation.

The reply to the question “Until when?” did not state the anno mundi as the terminus, but the development of a work. One step, however, was gained towards a solution of the question, and that was, that whenever the beginning of the period might be, the avenging of the holy would not be short of 2400 years afterwards. Daniel had the vision B. C. 554, which is 2422 years ago. This was a long period to look forward to the end of; and by no method of calculation could he reduce it to less than 2300 years. Happily for us, if of Daniel’s class, we shall live after the termination of the vengeance. We believe we know its beginning and end. “The vision is for many days,” whose commencement though not numerically revealed to Daniel, may be stated inferentially as the third year of Cyrus, B. C. 540.