New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-12-06
The Lust Kingdom.
BY REV. Dr.. DURBIS.


in the Green st. Methodist Episcopal Church by Rev.
Dr. Durbin.
The tex; upon which the preacher founded his re-
marks Is to be found in the Book of Daniel 81 chap.
ii aid IS verses
Ard in the days Of these Kings shah the God Of heavea
set kingdom which shall be destroyed ard the
knEdCm shall not be left 10 other people bat II shall break
IN pieces sne consume al these hnsdons aud shall stand
forever.
'FoTsnueh =. thou saes that the stone out Of
the erntan without hands and thai brake IN pieces the
IOn the hTssS The clay the silver and the god the great
God hath m1ds known to the King what shall to PAs
hereasr ana the droam Certain and the interpretation
thereo; sure"
Tie world (saii DR.. Durbin) had demanded
ind unfortunately the Church had allowed the de-
nand, that the Christian religion should be regarded
wholly az Z miraculous, and therefore an unnatural
thing Slowly that idea was being corrected and there
was now throughout the Christian word-n the church
and outside Of the church-s growing impression that
the Christian religion was an institution among
sui jet general laws analogous in their administration
those which regulated the natural world Around
close analogy would be found to exist between Coils
natural government among men in former states cities
communities and families and the government OF his
church on earth Il was not his OR. D.s) purpose on
this occasion 10 infinitely dwell upon those anaogies
except in this enc respect that throughout the whole
course Of neiurs comprehending the material
world around us. ami Society considered
naturally, Sod regulated 81! these matters by fxsi 4
laws Froa the beginning God gave intimaiiOEs u
man Of the ra.urc Of those laws for ais gudanc. aud
conduct II was not 20 be denied that those inima
tons haG net been either very many very clear they
had only been such b excite the world and arouse
il 10 action for its own Improvement, and for the dis
cipline Of mankind Il also evident that those init
nations had led and would lead by slow degrees and
al long intervening periods to great and glorious results
In illustration of this he might observe how slowly
men cccuiscd q clear knowledge of what wa called
the system Of the heavens II required nearly six thou
sand years for men - ascertain the laws that governed
the heavens above rid yet during that long period
there were inrnatons made, suggesting to man what
were the true laws thnt governed the movements OF
the heavenly bodies above Should this be termed the
prophecy Of na,urc aforeshl1ow.ng Of what was sub
seouenily TO be discovered Again, how slowly had
end even not yet as an entire family arisen from
state ofbarbarismo state of civilization. Six thou
sard years hal passed away and It'll large portion of
the humon family were without any rational form
Of goverumcut-w without any ofhe appliances and com
fort resulting from the existence OF high civilization
We now regarded ourselves being in state Of high
civilization. But let trace civilization back to
the Anglo Saxon in England, aud wewould see how
many centuries required TO pass through be-
fore reached the position occupied the pres
ent dsy Thu truth might be applied with equal force
in relation TO the discoveries and improvements Of civ
lizaton Ia proof Of this, the agent, which TO
great extent modifying the condition Of the
world steam might be referred TO- Electricity might
alsobe noticed Ever since there clouds the cleo
tic shock had been produced Since FIRE and watcrex
listed. steam could be generated. Tho power Of the
electric fluid was in ceaving the mountain the
sturdy OAK the power Of steam in It's driving OF the
lid of an ordinary kettle 1t clear therefore,
that man received very slowly information as TO those
things which were to have such influence on the
civilization Of the world. In the text we had
a more interesting intimation by way OF proph-
ecy. But it was to be remarked that this prophecy
was not strictly a spiritual one-it was only spiritual
in It's saue The dream Of Nebuchadnezzar-inter-
prcted by Daniel-was an indication of what was to
come after The gold head of the image which ap-
pearcd to tie King in his dream represented the Baby
lonan empire-the silver whereof the breast and arms
were m de, represented the empire Of the Medes and
Porsians:he brass thighs a strong and powerful en-
pire-the Grecian and Macedonian and the iron feet
Of the image were the type Of great but not strong
kngdom-the Roman empire. The latter was com
posed Of heterogeneous elements Of different ma
lions entertaining different opinions, speaking divers
tongues AID among whom there WAS nothing homo
ceneoue-ihey min ged together, but they would not
combine Aud il was in the days Of this last kingdom
that God was 10 ret up his kingdom earth II might
be here remarked that the advent Of the Messiah
conciden, with the Establishment Of the Roman EN-
pire Thus il would be seen that the text per.
feet foreshadowing Of what TO 10 pass among
nations The historian would write Of this matter ms
m,tter that transpired naturally And so it did but
God however ioreshadowedt The point TO which all
these prophecies tended this that prophecy in
matters Of religion no more unusual or unreason-
able than prophecy in matters which were natural in
fine that all those indications in the world OF nature
VIII. foreshadowed things TO come, were prophecies
in respect TO nature and came from God certainly as
those which in reference TO the Christian religion
The copclurion 20 be drawn was this that a. no man
doubted the natural government of the Almighty over
the human family in its various forms OF community
60 God had established kingdom earth and put il
under tie care of Lord Jesus Christ with fixed and
deiermuae rules for it, administration and success
Though this kingdom wRs entirely Of divine origin
we were not to suppose that had nothing
10 do with carrying It foundation laws, admin
israton and uecess all under the divine arrange
ment and the divine grace. But was employed
ia carving on the economy of the department of ma
ture. SO was be employed in the department OF the
Kingdom Of God The Kingdoms spoken OF prepared
the way for the powerful Kingdom that was to come
after them The PersiEn Empire sprang from the
Babylonsu the GrceiAn from the Persian, and Roman
from the Grccisn But the Kingdom Of God did not
spring from any OF them On the contrary il was In
the language of the text like stone cut out OF the
mountains without hands The Kingdom Of God
was at rs, small in the text il represented as
little stone Was there anything in all the natural ex
rerienee Of maD that was small st the beginning'
This BY way OF analogy Were not the children OF men
small at irst were not nations that subsequently became
eminent for thcr greatness andpower email snd insight
fean when they made their first struggles to inerea'el
God did not make everything perfect At once Il was
necessary that msn should be educated, disciplined
and that could best be effected by experience 1t wa
the law progress and improvement What appeared
60 startling on the natural side Of the question appeared
,ror sprftl,ai heavenly -iie Oi