The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-01-15
The Handwriting ef God IN the
Government Ct Men.
Y. RoMAN EMPIRE; OR, KINGDOM OF
CAESAR

Y. RoMAS EMPIRE; OR, KINGDOM OF
CAESAR.
We have thus far traced the king
doms Of Egypt and Assyria, and
then the three of the universal king
doms shown to Nebuchadnezzer in
his dream in the prophecy Of Dan
iel. We now come to the fourth
| great government as explained by
the Prophet.
This Roman government was first
seen in this vision of the king OF
Babylon in the second chapter Of the
| prophecy of Daniel, verses 80, "a
and 35, as follows:
His legs OF iron, his feet part OF
iron and part of clay.
Thou sawest till that stone was
cut out without hands, which smote
the image upon his feet that were Of
iron and clay, and brake them to
pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the
brass, the silver, and the gold broken
to pieces together, and became like
the chaff of the summer threshing-
floors; and the wind carried them
away, that no place was found for
them: and the stone that smote
became a great mountain, and filled
the whole earth.
Then the explanation Of it is by
Daniel the servant of God is from
verse Al to As, viz:
And whereas thou sawest the feet
and toes, part of potters' clay, and
part of iron, the kingdom shall be
divided; but there shall be in it the
strength of the iron, forasmuch as
thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
cley.
And as the toes of the feet were
part of iron, and part Of clay, so the
kingdom shall be partly strong, and
partly broken.
And whereas thou sawest iron
mixed with miry clay, they shall
mingle themselves with the seed Of
but they shall not cleave one to an
other, even as iron is not mixed with
clay.
And in the days of these kings
shall the God of heaven set up
kingdom, which shall never be de-
stroyed: and the kingdom shall not
be left to other people, but it shall
but it shall break in pieces and con-
sumo all these kingdoms, and it shall
stand for ever.
Forasmuch SIS thou sawest that
the stone was cut out Of the mount
ain without hands, and that it brake
in pieces the iron, the brass, the
clay, the silver, and the gold; the
great God hath made known to the
king what shall come to pass here
after: and the dream is certain, and
the Interpretation thereof sure.
To properly understand this entire
Book of Daniel, and especially the
dream of the king, it should be rc-
membered that the poor, simple
minded king was striving to erect
government which should never end
and he was trying to. effect this by
preparing a god Of gold, and a re-
ligious and a military and a civil
union to effect this end, and God, in
this dream and the Interpretation Of
it by Daniel, shows him that his king
dom and three others in turn would
be overthrown. That the God OF
heaven, and not the gods that he
know, would set up a kingdom, in
the time of the fourth kingdom,
which we will now see was the Ro-
man Empire, would break all others
in pieces and would have an eyerlast-
ing existence.
It was to be the only everlasting
kingdom. See verse 80, wherein the
legs and feet of the image were part
of iron, and part Of clay, andin verse
81 the stone to be cut out Of the
mountain was to brake the feet Of
the image. This stone, Of course,
was the kingdom which Christ did
set up in the days OF the Kings Of
Rome.
Verse a should be read is a fuller
and better explanation of verse 81,
and contains summary Of tie en-
tire Book of Daniel, and in it the
object and aim Of the whole Old
Testament have been very tersely
expressed. What remarkable warn
ing in that 44;h verse, viz? 'Ard
the kingdom shall not beleft to other
people, but it shall break in pieces
and consume all these Kingdoms and
it shall stand forever" No possible
eyn}anation can be given to this verse