Editor’s Table: Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

order that there may be no misunderstanding as to what we want, we give an example or two of single thoughts from good writers, this, for example, from Swift:

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see the m not ashamed.

And again, from the same writer:

When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.

And this as an example of one of greater length:

The common fluency of -speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth; so people come faster out of church when it is almost empty, than when a crowd is at the door.

The "Best Thoughts" must be original, we want them to be indeed j^z^rj, expressed in your language. Nothing more will be necessary than the "thought," signed by the writer with his address accompanying it. In order to be in time for publication in the February number, it will be necessary for copy to be in the hands of the editor by the tenth of January; but as we shall run the symposium through two numbers of the magazine, all contributions will receive careful attention that come to hand later than that date; and all suitable "thoughts" will be published. But we would like to receive as many responses to this invitation as possible during January. The contributors are not limited to any subject; just give us your best thought on any subject, and use any number of words within the limit of one hundred.

We especially call the attention of the presidents of associations to this matter, and ask them to invite their members to participate in this exercise, as surely nothing can be more conducive to improvement than the expression and interchange of thought.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM.

A gentleman from Alabama asks us several questions concerning the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, interpreted by

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Daniel the prophet. Both the dream and the interpretations are recorded in the second chapter of Daniel's prophecy. The questions bear chiefly on the interpretation of the dream, and more especially on that part which relates to the kingdoms represented by the feet and toes of the image. The treatment of the subject will require a brief statement of the dream itself. King Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image, whose brightness was excellent, whose form was terrible. The head of the image was of gold, his breast and arms of silver, the body and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet and the toes part of iron and part of clay. The king also saw a little stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that smote the image upon the feet, and broke it to pieces — ground it to powder, in fact, until it became like the chaff of the summer thrashingfloors, and the winds of heaven carried it away, that no place was found for it; but the stone, which smote the image, became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

This very remarkable dream is regarded as a prophetic history of the rise and fall of the great political powers that should dominate the destiny of the world from the time it was given until the time of the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth. We learn from the interpretation given by the prophet Daniel that the Babylonian kingdom, with Nebuchadnezzar as its king, was represented in the image as the head of gold: that kingdom existed in the fifth and sixth centuries, B. C. The Babylonian kingdom was succeded by the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, represented in the image by the chest and arms of silver; and was the dominating political power from about 538 B. C, to 331 B. C. It was succeeded as a dominant power by the Macedonian empire, represented in the image by the body and thighs of brass, and existed from 331 B. C, to 161 B. C. This great power was succeeded by the Roman Empire, represented in the image in question by the legs of iron; and ruled the destinies of the world from the fall of the Macedonian empire to the close of the fourth century, A. D. The Roman Empire was succeeded by the modern kingdoms of the world, represented in the great image of the dream by the feet and toes, consisting partly of

SO

iron and partly of clay, the striking pecularity of which kingdoms was to be that they would not "cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." "And in the days of these kings," the God of heaven is to set up his kingdom, which is never to be destroyed, nor given to another people than those to whom it is first given. This kingdom is represented in the dream of the Babylonian king by the little stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which destroys the other kingdoms and fills the whole earth.

In the interpretation usually given by Christian writers to this wonderful revelation of the rise and fall of the great kingdoms of the world, they insist on considering that part of the dream which relates to the setting up of the kingdom of God, as taking place when Jesus of Nazareth established his Church among men by the preaching of the gospel. Against this contention an insurmountable obstacle presents itself. The fact that the church of Christ was not set up in the days of the kings represented in the feet and toes of the image. On the contrary, the Messiah established his church at the time when the kingdom represented by the legs of iron, that is, the Roman empire, was in full power — nay, when it was at the full height of its power; and not in the days of the kings represented by the feet and toes of the image. It is evident, then, that this part of the great prophecy was not fulfilled in the founding of the church of Christ in Palestine, nineteen centuries ago; but its fulfillment was reserved for some later time, in the days of the kingdoms that succeeded the Roman empire. Moreover, it is to be a peculiarity of this kingdom of God, spoken of in the dream, that when it is established among men, it "shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people." These terms of the prophecy were not fulfilled in that institution founded by the personal ministry of Christ. He himself said to the Jews: "Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from among you, and gwen to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,'"'^ and accordingly the institution founded by the personal ministry of Jesus was taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles — another evidence that the kingdom of God spoken of by Daniel was not ■"•Matt. XXI; 43.

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set Up in the days of Messiah's personal ministry in Judea.

Among those who take this latter view of the case are some who think that the terms of the prophecy require that the old Roman empire should be broken up into exactly ten kingdoms, to correspond with the ten toes of the image. Some of the later sects have taken this view in order, apparently, to justify their own existence; and have attempted to show just when the Roman empire was divided into ten kingdoms. In some instances, too, it may be that elders of the Church of Jesus Christ have attempted to argue in the same way. The writer, however, has never yet seen any argument on those lines that seemed to him conclusive. And then if the feet and toes of the image are to represent the exact number of kingdoms the state preceding them is to be broken up into, would not the theory demand twelve kingdoms instead of ten, since there are the two feet as well as the ten toes to account for? But all this speculation about the division of the Roman empire into exactly ten kingdoms is unnecessary, as the kingdoms that arose from the ruins of that empire are represented by the separate pieces of iron and of clay in the feet and toes of the image, rather than by the ten toes and two feet. It is to be observed that in the other kingdoms represented in the image the members of the parts of the body are not made to stand for the subdivisions of the respective kingdoms; take, for example, the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, generally conceded to be represented in the image by the arms and chest of silver; nobody insists that you must find ten subdivisions in that kingdom to correspond to the number of fingers of the hands of the image. Why then should such an explanation be required in the case of the kingdoms represented by the iron and clay in the feet and toes of the image?

It was upon this point that our correspondent's chief question was asked; namely, when was the Roman empire divided into ten kingdoms, and was the kingdom of God then established? The answer to the question is to deny the necessity for maintaining that the terms of the prophecy require that the Roman empire, represented by the legs of iron in the image, must be broken up into just ten or even twelve,