and yet among them. It is not agreed who were the three, that were pushed out of the head by the roots, at the coming of the little one; but it is perfectly well known who of all the crowned heads of the divided empire and civilized world, wears a triple tiara; and I take his three towering crowns to be evidence against the wearer, that he is that one of the eight, who took away the place of three: for no other of these monarchs wears but a single crown. And it is the same horn which has eyes and a mouth and the triple crown, and which arose after the ten.

Daniel was troubled with the vision, and we may well be also not with its application, for that is easy; but with the astonishing exhibition of human depravity, which it presents, in the last form of the fourth empire. It was told Daniel in the way of explanation:

"These four beasts are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth; but the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.

I have before spoken of the technical use of words in every profession, when I took occasion to explain the use of the word "day" in the prophets. By a peculiarity of their own, they use "king" for kingdom, with all freedom, as in this quotation. The prophet is told for his comfort, in view of the fearful beasts before him, that they are four earthly monarchies, which will all pass away in time: but the saints shall take an endless dominion.

How can it be endless, if it be in the flesh? It must be the kingdom of the risen dead, of which Messiah is the "appointed heir;" "expecting till his enemies be made his footstool;" and whose kingdom must shortly come, by the word of Revelation, according to the prophet Daniel, and according to the prophet John, in the Apocalypse, and according to the preached gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every minister

of the gospel preaches it so, with conscious power, when mingled with holy love.

This is an old and familiar doctrine, sometimes well understood, and almost universally received. My desire is, to hold it in perfect simplicity, and to hold it directly in view; preaching and believing, as the Lord said: "For the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" without a long purgatory between, on the one hand, or a millennium of carnal security between, on the other hand; and denying that it came eighteen hundred years ago. Either of these doctrines plainly conflicts with the tenor of the word of God, and makes confusion with the simplicity, and greatly detracts from the power, of the doctrine of Christ, taught in that form of sound words, in which, as a beautiful casket, he inclosed "the faith once" for all time "delivered to" his apostles, "the saints."

Some men are afraid of this doctrine; it takes so powerful hold on the mind. They can hear common preaching, and believe it all unmoved, and sit half a century under it, unconverted. They do often sit under the common sound of the gospel, with hearts of stone, while time whitens their head, and they become fairly covered with the moss of indifferBut this doctrine comes to them, clothed in such terrors of heavenly majesty, that it agitates them who hear it, and drives them from their seat of repose in the congregation, or from a dead faith. They must be upon their feet in view of it. They must deny its truth, and resist it; they must hear it with scorn, and treat it with any thing but in

ence.

difference, or it will work in them; until they are ready to cry out with the three thousand: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" It is a doctrine of unequalled power, which must be either forgotten, or treated with direct hostility, or else it will convert the hearers, and make them serve God, in spirit and in truth, who have all their life time served the world, and the flesh, not considering much about the end of all things, and the coming of the Lord.

It is a doctrine also calculated to disturb them that are at ease in Zion, who have much goods laid up in store for many years; who are worldly minded, rich, and have need of nothing. It is poison to them: they cannot take it: and, sure, I would not offer it to them, except in the faith, that the death of this world is the only way to the life of the world to come.

But the suffering millions of wretched mortals, the poor to whom this gospel always was, and will be, glad tidings; they will hear it with joy: and when they see what things have already come to pass, they will "know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." "Then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21: 28, 31.)

And it is a doctrine, like purifying fire, able to consume, and wholly to destroy the walls of separation between brethren, which our Babylon has built; and also to burn up those paltry thorns of dissension, which now rankle in many bosoms, both in civil, and in social, and in religious relations of close intercourse in life; and which thorns anger them one with another, and cause them to offend against both God and man, in whosesoever bosoms they are planted. Yet, how difficult, how utterly impossible, by any ordinary means, even of gospel grace, to pluck up and destroy such roots of bitterness in the paths of life; and to reconcile discordant brethren!

The Lord be praised, that, amidst the many discoveries of this inventive age, one is made of a doctrine from heaven, strong enough to contend successfully with this world and its circean cup; and to uncover the syren plots, and wily schemes of the adversary; and strong enough to make men of this apostate age, Christians of the stamp of primitive ages, when they came forth from paganism at the birth, armed at all points, and instructed in the knowledge of the use of the Christian armor, not unlike the fabled goddess of wisdom, under the hand of Vulcan, from the head of Jupiter, whose agile leap, and shield, and quivering spear, bespoke her heavenly origin, and attracted no little surprise and admiration, even among the gods, and inhabitants of the celestial city. The difficulty is at this day, to get attention to the holy word; to withdraw people from the attractive pursuits of gain, of politics, and of fleeting pleasure. "Every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure, things new and old :" (Mat. 13: 52,) and never did an age call on the householder for new things with the old, as does this age; and this doctrine of the kingdom of heaven at hand, supplies his need exactly, that he may furnish to every one a word in season: and those who are discerning, will not fear to bring it forth; for it is from the Lord, legibly written in his word.

From this humble episode, I return to the book of Daniel, anxious with the prophet to learn still more about the fourth empire, in whose day we live.

THE LITTLE HORN.

"He comes, he comes, the judge severe,
"The seventh trumpet speaks him near!

"The lightnings flash, the thunders roll,
"He's welcome to the faithful soul."

"Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell: even that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them: UNTIL the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." (Dan. 7: 19 to 23.)

No words can make plainer the order of events in the succession of changes under the fourth empire to the end of the world, and to the day of judgment than this language of the prophet: and this is the third time, in the same vision of the beasts, that he has enumerated that order: once in the first 14 verses; again from the 14th to the 19th, and now from the 19th to the 23d. The little kingdom with the stout look, be it which, or be it whatsoever it may, "made war with the saints and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came," and with him the judgment.

No room is here for the millennium, until after the Ancient of days comes to judgment; until after the little horn ceases to make war with the saints, and to prevail; until the stone from on high smites the image in the feet and toes of it, and destroys it altogether, so that no more place is found for any particle of it. This dispensation under which we

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