and a half years. That reign is savage, cruel, and pitiless. Then, shortened "for the elect's sake" (Matt. 24:22) it comes to an end at the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus. The sinful, blasphemous, relentless embodiment of the world's hatred and enmity to the true Christ meets his doom in the coming of the real Christ. "Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." are the graphic words which picture his end (2 Thess. 2:8). The word "destroy" is a striking one. It means "to make of none effect" or to render helpless. No definite exercise of miraculous power of the Lord is needed to compass the overthrow of the Anti-Christ. The power and splendor of His glorious presence is alone sufficient to "make of non-effect" the false world-king. And here the picture of the doom of the Man of Sin is like that of one who has been withered by the stroke of paralysis, or smitten to helplessness by the hissing, forth-leaping lightning from mid-heaven. Jesus Christ's consuming presence palsies him in an instant, the instant of His appearing. Thus utterly consumed and destroyed, yet not annihilated, his eternal destiny is seen in the last words of the Book concerning him (Rev. 19:20). "And the Beast was taken...... and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” The World and Its Kingdoms The second chapter of the prophecy of Daniel is a remarkable one. It contains the story of the forgotten dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. In that dream the king had seen a strange, composite image of huge size and remarkable composition. A few terse verses furnish its description: (THE DREAM.) 31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee: and the form thereof was terrible. 32. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. 33. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. 34. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. (THE INTERPRETATION.) Thou art this head of gold. 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 41. 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 of the 35. 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 the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 36. This is the dream: and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42. 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. 43. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain 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 hereafter and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Curious, fantastic and mystical this image might seem to some to be. As a fact it is a clear, simple, picture-story, so plain, when interpreted by God, that a child might understand it. Note some of the important truths which stand out in that picture. This image is God's picture of the kingdoms of this world from the Babylonian empire down to the end of this present age. The There can be no question as to this. For to Nebuchadnezzar the head of the Babylonian empire God, through Daniel, distinctly says "Thou art this head of gold” (v. 38). Thus the Babylonian is the beginning of the world-kingdoms here pictured. Then all the parts of the image which follow are definitely spoken of as “kingdoms." The second kingdom is of silver. The third is of brass. The fourth is of iron. legs of the fourth are also of iron, but the feet and toes part of iron and part of clay signifying mingled strength and weakness. Now as we turn to the open pages of human history in the thousands of years that have elapsed since the picture of this image was drawn in God's Word we find a startling and wonderful confirmation to the minutest details of God's statements concerning the course of Gentile government since Nebuchadnezzar's time. After him came the Medo-Persian empire. With the fall of MediaPersia came Greece with its world-conqueror, Alexander the Great. Then Greece was succeeded by Rome, with its strength of iron and its world-wide dominion. Then the Roman empire was divided into the Eastern and Western empires, as typified in the iron legs of the great image. Afterward from these two branches of that same empire sprung the nations descended from Rome which exist today. Some are strong and some weak, as set forth in the image-symbol of toes of iron and brittle clay. The last stage of these world-kingdoms will be that of a confederation of ten kingdoms at the end of this present age. The image-picture makes this clear. As the head was the beginning of the world-kingdoms so the ten toes are the last stage of the same. They are the same as the ten horns of Dan. 7:24, and these are specifically declared to be "ten kings" in that passage. So in Rev. 13: 1 we have another picture of the last form of human government under the Anti-Christ and in it also there are ten horns standing for ten kingdoms. It is in "the days of these kings" (Dan. 2:44) that the downfall of the image comes; that human worldgovernments end. This confederation of ten kingdoms descended from the Roman Empire, is then yet to come, and this suggests a thought at once intensely interesting and sobering. Men are saying "What about this great world-war? Has it been predicted in God's Word? Is there |