The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 113

or tho lowest o.nd weo.keet kingdom of the lneting kingrlom. It ie not limitc,1 either worldly system of dyno.stiee. When wo in extent or dnra.tion. Thie, ag"in, a11its look e.t o. meto.l, how homogeneous it ie I only the Church of Christ; fitted and With rooks, a.go.in, begins indivtdnnliem. intemled to fill the earth, it also hns an The more precious metnle, with their ex- unending duration. The world itself may treme ductility, seem to be further removed end, but the Church does not. We do not from this indivicluo.liem the.n the baser, snob mee.n to assert that Daniel foresaw this dis- o.e copper o.nd iron, o.nd cle.y ie still lees tinctly; tbe very idee. of thfl prophetic offic~ removed tha.n iron. But simple rock ie implied that the speaker often did not know furthest removed of a.II from mete.Ilic homo- the full import of hie own words. lt ,hal! geneousness; the gro.ine the.t compose it, lneak in pieces and conswme all these kingdoms, unlike the chemice.l e.tome of the mete.I, and it shall Btand for e1Jer. 'lbe silent, dis- are visible to the naked eye. The process of ruptive influence of Christianity ie exhibite•l ,legradntion, which hnd proceeded through in regard to slavery, which was the founda- kingdom e.rter kingdom, he.d now reached tion of the ancient state. Without opposing its lowest point. Wherever the setting slavery, to appearance, it laid down prin- up of this Meeeie.nio kingdom ie plo.ced, ciples which rendered slavery impossible. whenever it is held e.e occurring, it is The BDpreme dignity it gives to the in- certain it fits most nature.Uy the Christian dividual, as bearing the image of God, Church. The old civilization, represented o.ffirms the claims of democracy, o.nd so by the Assyrian monnrchy, he.d only one affirms them tho.t the modern state must free me.n in the ate.ta, e.nd that was the disappear. Forasmv.ch as thou sau:est the king. The Persians hnd nobles whose stone waa cut out of the mountain without power rendered the king's supremacy Ieee hands. Nothing could be more silent or o.bsolute the.n it had been in the Assyrian unobserved by the men of the world, or more de.ye. In the days of Greek and Roman unlikely to form the beginning of a new supremo.cy the freedom of citizenship was, world-power than Christianity. lf Judaism even in the republics, possessed only by a was regarded e.e "the mountain of the few, the rest were slo.ves. Still, the freedom Lord's house,'' then this new kingdom was was much more widely spread tho.n in the cut from it, ae Christianity was from Ju- Persian e.nd Aeeyrie.n monarchies; only daism. .And that it lnake, etc. The reason the Church, the kingdom of heaven, me.de of why N ebnchadnezzar had seen all this- slaves citizens. It ie the very acme of indi- the growth of this kingdom, the way it vidualism. Looked e.t from without, the destroyed all other kingdoms-was now to kingdom of heo.ven we.e e. thing to be de- be me.de known. The great God hath made spiscd-e. thing for freedmen e.nd slaves, for known to the king what ~hall come to pass poor workmen e.nd pee.ee.nts. In the Assyrian he,·eafter; or, as it ought to be rendered, form of government the king we.a the state; a great god. The word, as observed so the royal mete.I, gold, is need. In the by Professor Bevan, ie not in the atatns Persian the nobles rule; so wo he.ve silver. emphatiCU8; see Ezra v. 8, N::!"1 NnSN (elal,a In Greece it is the free citizens, therefore rabba ). Daniel thus recognizes the fact the artistic but Iese noble metnl, copper, or, that, to his heathen master, e.11 that in the perhaps, its composite form as bronze, ie first instance he can convey to him-the need. In Rome, in imperial times, it ie the only idea he can give him-of the great- soldiery, e.nd therefore iron is the meta.I ness of J ehova.h is that he is very great, the.t symbolizes them. Shall we step over not that he is the solely Great One in the intervening centuries of retrogression, the universe (see Behrmann). Zockler, and see in the clay the modern merce.ntile Ewald, Keil, and Kranichfeld assert that e.nd manufacturing interests? To the the fe.ct of the words "great god" (elah ordinary eye of the world, there is o. pro- rab) being in the absolute, not the em- gressive degenemcy here. The lowest phatic state, ie due to the elevation of point ie reached; not even the rich, not poetic language. In the first place, this is to speak of the noble o.nd learned, but the not poetry, and, in the second place, neither poor e.nd the ignorant, form the kingdom. of these writers gives any example of such o. Another contrast in the symbol is the.t change of construction taking place. Madd these metallic empires remained stationary ; k-noio-n to the king. Why was it to "the they reached o. limit, then could go no king"? One object secured by me.king this further-not growth, but stationariness, is revelation known to Nebuchadnezzar him- represented by their symbol; but this self was that it secured its publicity. Had stone cut out of the mountain "grows," the vision been mnde known to Daniel him- and ceases not till it has filled tho earth. self, he could not have announced that the F111"ther, the kingdoms which went to build empire of Babylon should pass away, with- 11[1 \he dreo.m-ste.tne enduro only for a out running the risk of being condemned timo; this rock-built kingdom is an ever- for treason. The king's nction had mlldlil  74 THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [CH, II, 1-fO.