Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 58

"And behold another beast, _a second, like to a bear_, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh." Verse 5.

NOTE.-"This was the _Medo-Persian_ Empire, represented here under the symbol of a _bear_.... The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their _cruelty and thirst after blood_, a bear being a most voracious and cruel animal."-_Adam Clarke, on Dan. 7:5._

11. By what was the third universal empire symbolized?

"After this I beheld, and lo another, _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." Verse 6.

NOTES.-If the wings of an eagle on the back of a lion denoted rapidity of movement in the Babylonian, or a.s.syrian, Empire (see Hab. 1:6-8), four wings on the leopard must denote unparalleled celerity of movement in the Grecian Empire. This we find to be historically true.

"The rapidity of Alexander's conquests in Asia was marvelous: he burst like a torrent on the expiring Persian Empire, and all opposition was useless. The gigantic armies collected to oppose him melted like snow in the suns.h.i.+ne. The battles of Granicus, B.C. 334, Issus in the following year, and Arbela in B.C. 331, settled the fate of the Persian Empire, and established the wide dominion of the Greeks."-_"__The Divine Program of the World's History,__"__ by H. Grattan Guinness, page 308._

"The beast had also four heads." The Grecian Empire maintained its unity but a short time after the death of Alexander, which occurred in B.C. 323. Within twenty-two years after the close of his brilliant career, or by B.C. 301, the empire was divided among his four leading generals. Ca.s.sander took Macedonia and Greece in the west; Lysimachus had Thrace and the parts of Asia on the h.e.l.lespont and Bosporus in the north; Ptolemy received Egypt, Lydia, Arabia, Palestine, and Cle-Syria in the south; and Seleucus had all the rest of Alexander's dominions in the east.

12. How was the fourth kingdom represented?

"After, this I saw in the night-visions, 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 the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; _and it had ten horns_." Verse 7.

13. What was the fourth beast declared to be?

"Thus he 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." Verse 23.

NOTES.-"This is allowed on all hands to be the Roman Empire. It was _dreadful_, _terrible_, and _exceeding strong_; ... and became, in effect, what the Roman writers delight to call it, the _empire of the whole world_."-_Adam Clarke, on Dan. 7:7._

The final overthrow of the Greeks, by the Romans, was at the battle of Pydna, in 168 B.C.

14. What was denoted by the ten horns?

"And the ten horns out of this kingdom are _ten kings that shall arise_."

Verse 24.

NOTES.-The Roman Empire was broken up into ten kingdoms between the years 351 A.D. and 476 A.D.

"The historian Machiavelli, without the slightest reference to this prophecy, gives the following list of the nations which occupied the territory of the Western Empire at the time of the fall of Romulus Augustulus (476 A.D.), the last emperor of Rome: The Lombards, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Heruh, the Suevi, the Huns, and the Saxons: ten in all.

"Amidst unceasing and almost countless fluctuations, the kingdoms of modern Europe have from their birth to the present day _averaged_ ten in number. They have never since the breaking up of old Rome been united into one single empire; they have never formed _one whole_ even like the United States. No scheme of proud ambition seeking to reunite the broken fragments has ever succeeded; when such have arisen, they have been invariably dashed to pieces.

"And the division is as apparent now as ever. Plainly and palpably inscribed on the map of Europe this day, it confronts the skeptic with its silent but conclusive testimony to the fulfilment of this great prophecy. Who can alter or add to this tenfold list of the kingdoms now occupying the sphere of old Rome? _Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, England, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal_-ten, and no more; ten, and no less."-_"__The Divine Program of the World's History,__"__ by H. Grattan Guinness, pages 318-321._

15. What change did Daniel see take place in these horns?

"I considered the horns, and, behold, _there came up among them another little horn, before 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." Verse 8.

16. What inquiry on the part of Daniel shows that the fourth beast, and especially the little horn phase of it, const.i.tutes the leading feature of this vision?

"Then _I would know the truth of the fourth beast_, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of bra.s.s; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; _and of the ten horns_ that were in his head, and _of the other which came up_, and _before whom three fell_; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows." Verses 19, 20.

17. When was the little horn to arise?

"And another shall rise _after them_." Verse 24.

NOTE.-The ten horns, as already shown, arose when Rome, the fourth kingdom, was divided into ten kingdoms. This division was completed in A.D. 476. The little-horn power was to arise after them.

18. What was to be the character of the little horn?

"And he shall be _diverse_ from the first, and he shall _subdue three kings_." Same verse, last part.

NOTES.-That power which arose in the Roman Empire after the fall of Rome in A.D. 476, which was entirely different from all the ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided (for it demanded and exercised spiritual power over the other kingdoms), and before whom three of the other kings-the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths-fell, was the Papacy.

Having located the place and the time of the kingdom of the little horn, the study of its character and work will be considered in the readings which follow.

The Kingdom And Work Of Antichrist

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

The Papal Tiara. "He shall speak great words against the Most High." Dan.

7:25.

1. What is said of the little horn as compared with the ten horns of the fourth beast of Daniel 7?

"He shall be _diverse_ from the first, and he shall subdue three kings."

Dan. 7:24.

NOTE.-The Papacy, which arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire, differed from all previous forms of Roman power, in that it was an ecclesiastical despotism claiming universal dominion over both spiritual and temporal affairs, especially the former. It was a union of church and state, with the church dominant.

2. What att.i.tude of rivalry was the Papacy, represented by the little horn, to a.s.sume toward the Most High?

"And he shall _speak great words against the Most High_." Verse 25, first clause.

3. How does Paul, speaking of the man of sin, describe this same power?