The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-11-13 00:00:00

LECTURE IN THE CORN EXCHANGE.

The third of a series of lectures was given in
the Corn Exchange, on Wednesday evening last,
by Mr. Sarjeant, of Birmingham.
The subject of the lecture was the "Prophecies
concerning the last days now being aceomplished.".
The Lecturer opened his discourse by explaining
what was meant by the word " Prophecy, ' which
he defined as history in the bud, or history inver-
ted; whilst, on the other hand, history was pro-
phecy fulfilled. He then proceeded to prove the
fulfilment of prophecy, and said that in the 45th
chapter of Isaiah it is said, "Thus saith the Lord
to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him." • And in
the previous chapter it was said of Cyrus "He is
my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,
even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built; and
to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid." Thus,
nearly 200 years before Cyrus appeared upon the
scene, God, by the mouth of his prophet Isaiah,
foretold his coming, and especially with reference
to letting his people go free from the captivity of
Babylon, and laying the foundations of the Lord's
house. This was one instance in which prophecy
bore the mark of history in the bud. Cyrus 161-
filled all that. lUthe 53rd chapter of the same
Prophet Isaiah it was foretold that our blessed
Lord should grow up before his Father "a ten-
der plant, and as a root out of dry ground: he bath
no form of comeliness; and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him." It
was also declared that he should be despised and,
rejected of men, a man of sorrows, ke. Further,
it was declared that he should be wounded for our
transgressions and iniquities; that he should be
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his
,niouth. And he should make his grave with the
'wicked. Every one of those particulars had been
fulfilled. He brought those instances before their
notice, because that one, in particular was one
with which they were, or ought to be, perfectly
familiar. Now, what did they learn from that.
They learnt that as all those things were fulfilled, I
every other prediction concerning his coming and
glory should be as accurately fulfilled as those
concerning his coming in humility. Why should
not all the other gracious words of promise, which
spoke of his power and majesty be as exactly ful-
filled at his second advent, as those were at the first.
No reason could be given to the contrary. Now,
he would pass on to the prophecies relating to the
whole of the church and to the whole of the
nations. Those words of prophecy were not for,
the ear of the mocker and derider. They were a
sort of stumbling block to them, and would be to
the end; but to those who loved the word of God,
to such the word would indeed prove an inexhaus-
tible source of instruction, light and encouragement..
In the prophecy of Daniel, 2nd chapter, and 2Sth
verse, they were told "There is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the
King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter
days." Those were part of the words addressed
by Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar. They meant that
there was a God who should reveal to Nebuchad-
nezzar what should be done in the last days. Ne-
buchadnezzar had had a dream which he forgot
when lie awoke, and he desired the wise men that
were attached to his court to tell him what his
dream was, but they could not do so. There was,
however, one man of the children of captivity who
had the reputation of being wise; and he was
-brought in before the King. And after he had
heard the King's request he went away from his
presence, and he appealed to him, and he did not
fail him, and he revealed to him what he had
shown Nebuchadnezzar; but what the latter had
forgotten. It was this: "Thou, 0 king, sawest,
and behold a great image. This great image, whose
brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and
the form thereof was terrible." (The lecturer
here gave the whole of the dream, together with
the biblical interpretation of it.) They would see
that the image was composed of four metals—
gold, silver, brass, and iron, and the feet were part
also of clay. The stone that smote the image be-
came a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
All that meant that God had shewn to Nebuchad-
nezzar what should happen to the end of time.
The dream was, in fact, a grand prophetical chart
or outline of the political history of the world, not
only for the last 2,500 years, but for ever. Now,
they learnt from that four universal monarchies
should arise. The first of these, symbolised by the
golden head, was the Babylonian empire. That
was the empire of King Nebuchadnezzar. Then
came one represented by the silver breast and
arms.'" That was the Medo-Persian—the very em-
pire which began in the line of Cyrue. That em-
pire continued until.the universal monarchy came
into manifestation, which was under the power and
rule of Alexander the Great. That was the
Grecian empire, which was represented by the
brazen sides and belly of the image, and which ran
on its appointed course, until the fourth and last
of those empires—the Roman—was established.
This empire, of which the iron legs and iron and
• clay feet of the image were typical, absorbed the
, others that had gone before, and had continued
great up to the present time. This fourth empire
should pass through three successive conditions.
First, that symbolised by iron—unity and strength.
Second, in a divided state—iron and clay, which
would never mingle. Third, its final condition,
symbolised by the ten toes. Those wtre the three
successive stages in which that Roman empire was
to exist. First, in the strong, unbroken unity of
the iron. Next in a divided condition as the iron
and the clay. And, finally, it was to exist in a
tenfold condition, as signified by the ten toes of
the image. What was the history of this Roman
empire? In the time of our blessed Lord it existed
as symbolised by the iron. Rome claimed to be
mistress of the world. Bye-and-bye, some 400
years after the birth of our Lord, that was entirely
altered. The irruptions of the barbarians from
the north separated and divided it just as clay
and iron would not mix toe-ether. Ever since that
time the empire had existed in that condition, and
the present stage was only what might be called
the fourth Roman empire, showing that this last
division of the image should finally consist of ten
kingdoms, so now they came to this ultimate de-
velopment of the prophecy. "And in the days of
these kings," and not before, "shall the God of
, heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed," and it shall break in pieces and con
sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for
ever. When the fourth universal monarchy had
come, then God should establish his kingdom
which should not pass away. It was already a
matter of history how the Roman empire had been
split up and dismembered, and thatiten toes of the
image were about receiving their development.
Some would think that the stone which was to
break the image was the kingdom of God as they
now found it amongst men, and that it smote. the
image on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy
Ghost took up his place in the hearts of men. On
that day when the Holy Ghost had established
himself in the hearts of the faithful tbe image
had not reached its due development. The Roman
empire then existed in the very zenith of its
power. When the stone did smite the image the
powers that formed its component parts should be
swept from off the face of the earth, as the chaff
of the summer threshing floor. It was idle, there-
fore, to imagine that the stone had smitten the
image; for the remnant of the Assyrian, of the
Persian, and of the Greek, and of the broken king-
dom of the Roman were yet in existence. The
same truth was shown out in the seventh chapter
of Daniel, under the form of four wild beasts, the
last having ten horns, corresponding to the ten
toes of the image. St. John showed the. Chris-
tian Church wilt that fourth beast should do in
the last days. The lecturer here gave copious
quotations from the Book Of Revelations, Daniel,
descriptive of the doings of Antichrist upon
earth, until his final overthrow at the second-com-
iug of our Lord. He urged upon !his hearers to
be prepared for this time of trial, when Antichrist
should make war upon the saints, and God's people
should suffer grievously. But after that was the
time of the Lord's coming; it was the time of the
first resurrection and of the- translation ; it wasthe
time of the deliverance of God's ancient people
the Jews, their re-establishment in their own land,
and their exaltation to their destined glory as the
head of the nations of the earth. It was the time
vvhen the Church, the Bride Of the Lamb, should
be raised up to sit with him upon his throne, and
should rule and reign over the earth with him for
ever. It was the time when Christ shpuld come
forth in his glory and power. The lecture was an
exceedingly interesting one, the subject being.
treated in a most masterly, lucid, and logical luau-
ner by the lecturer. Another lecture on the smile I
subject will be delivered in the Corn Exchange,
next Wednesday evening, and we would te (vise
those of our readers who feel interested in the
solution of the prophecies contained in the bible
to attend and hear for themselves. The same
gentleman will preach at the Catholic Apostolic
Church, in this town, to-morrow (Sunday) evening,
on "Tile hour of temptation coming upon all the.
world," and we have no doubt there will be a large
congregation present.

-
We beg to remind our readers that two performance
will be given at the Theatre in this town this evening ,
end next Monday evening by the members of the'Stotir• ,
bridge Dramatic Club. The proceeds are to be deVoted to
the relief of the sufferers by the recent boiler explosion.
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