Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-08
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON
For July 9. Dan. 2.
BY DIR. MARION MICH. HULL

kings question Daniel answers
clearly and confidently. THE secret
can not be told by men, but there
is a God in heaven who can and who
has revealed to you what shall be in
the latter days" This statement is
very significant 1t honored God; it
disclaimed any honor for himself; it
defined the time and purpose. Let
us study.
The Dream
Nebuchadnezzar saw a great i'm.
age, Of excellent brightness, and Of
terrible form. Its head was of gold,
it's chest and arms of silver, it's body
and sides of brass, its legs of iron,
its feet Of iron and clay mixed. Then
a stone was cut out Of the mountain
without hands and smote the image
on the feet and broke them to
pieces. Then all was broken to
pieces and carried away like chaff,
so that no place was found for them.
Then the stone became a great
mountain; filled the earth.
Daniels Interpretation was-there
are to be four great world powers.
Yours is the first; it will be sup
planted by one inferior, and it in
turn by another. The fourth will
be strong as iron and destructive,
sweeping everything before it. In its
final form it will be mixture, and
federation of 10 Kingdoms. These
shall be smitten by the stone, and
all Of the world empires destroyed;
and the kingdom of God established
forever on the ruins of the. world
empires.
Note, these characteristics Of the
world empires-degener divis-
ion, destruction. Gold is supplanted
By silver; it in. turn by brass; it by
iron; it by iron mixed with clay. The
head is one; the chest and arms are
two, the legs are two and distinct;
the toes are 10. The gold and silver
| and brass and iron and iron and
clay are not changed by the stone,
but are destroyed by it. The image
also is top-heavy; gold is of higher
specific gravity than silver, silver
higher than brass, brass higher than
iron. iron than the mixture.
After Nebuchadnezzar's death
Daniel had a vision and saw prac.
tically the same thing but with more
detail Oh. y. He saw four beasts
the first a lion with eagles wings
whose feathers were plucked (refer.
ring to acknowledgements and his
period Of insanity; the second a bear
raising himself on one side (referrine
to Medo. Persian empire, one Of
which dominated the other: the
third leopard with four wings and
four heads referring to the rapidity
of Alexander's conquest and the four
divisions into which it was made at
MS early DEATH; the fourth, unlike
anything else, so dreadful and ter
Tlble, with iron teeth and 10 horns
!reIerrlng to the Roman empire and
us future 10-kingdom confederacy)
And this beast was destroyed by the
coming OF the Son of Man to Whom
was given a kingdom which shall
! be everlasting, and shall not, like
the others, pass away or be
destroyed.
To Nebuchadnezzar was given q
revelation OF the outward aspect OF
! the world kingdoms that should oc
cupy the whole times of the Gen.
Tiles" the period during which the
kingdom is taken away from the
chosen people of Israel and given
| into the hands of the Gentiles until
Israel has been sufficiently punished
for her sins that she may be brought
back and blessed as the God Of Is
rael would like to bless her. Te
| Daniel, later, was given a reveIa
| ton OF, the inner character of these
same world Kingdoms, showing them
to be essentially beastly and increas
lngly degenerate.
His story has supplied for us the
fulfillment of most of these dreams
and visions. The Kingdoms of Baby
Ion was the most splendid the world
! ever knew in many respects. II
was the head Of gold. The Medic
Persian empire which followed il
was inferior to it in every way. The
/ Greco Macedonian empire, which
/ succeeded it was swift as a leopard
! but it was soon divided into four
Syria, Egypt, Macedonia and Asia
Minor. While it had it's glory, il
did not compare favorably will
these which had gone before. The
Roman empire was strong, cruel, ag
gressive, and in many respects con
t1ruous. The two divisions-eas
and west-came later in history
after the birth of Christ. It's laws
and it's civilization are in force to
DAY. almost all over the world; while
its imperialism has not yet beer
eradicated from Europe even though
monarchies have been destroyed
The Genoa conference has don,
much to bring us toward its fina
forni-a 10-kingdom confederation O
democracy with limited monarchy
Even America, with our boosted
i democracy, is becoming more AM
more saturated with Roman 'autoc
4 racy every day CThis has no refer
ence to the Roman Catholic church
but only to. the increasing central
ization of power in government ant
its Industry The history of tn,
world Kingdoms since Nebuchad
nezzar has been increasingly degen
crate.
4 The Shifting Stone
4 But what about the stone? Their,
has been great confusion and mis-
understanding Of the truth which
God revealed to Daniel about thi
stone cut out of the mountain with
out hands. The prevailing view
among most Christians has beef
that it represents the virgin brit
l of Christ, that it foretold the begin
ming of a spiritual kingdom which
should grow and grow, the world be
coming gradually better and TIL
world Kingdoms being gradual.
brought under the principles o
Christ until the kingdom of Coz
should fill the whole earth.
. Pray, how can such a deduction
be made from this Scripture? TIL
stone can not mean the birth o
Christ because it does not appea
until after the 10 toes When Jesus
was born the Roman empire was no