e _image_ of a man, and that image is
composed of inanimate materials, which, drawn from the department
of nature, refer to something political. We therefore have political
kingdoms set forth. The very fact that they are represented as
appearing in the form of a man, however, may at least allude to
their being political powers combined with religious systems. But the
combination is not such a one as would naturally lead us to conclude
that reference is made to God's church.

The description of Nebuchadnezzar's dream represented "a stone cut out
without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron
and clay, and brake them to pieces" (verse 34). The interpretation of
this event is given as follows: "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 forever"
(verse 44).

The kingdom of God appears as the fifth universal kingdom, destined
to survive and surpass all others. It is of divine origin, cut out
"without hands." The other kingdoms are similar in their nature and
closely connected, in the single image of a man; but the kingdom of
God is altogether different and antagonistic. The prophecy refers
to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the early days of
Christianity; for, _be it observed_, this stone struck the image _when
all its four divisions were yet standing_. Not, only was the iron and
the clay broken by the impact, but "the iron, the clay, _the brass,
the silver, and the gold_" were "_broken to pieces_ TOGETHER, and
became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors" (verse 35).

Here is a most important fact wholly unnoticed by those millennialists
who look to the future of our day for the establishment of the kingdom
of Christ. If the stone has not yet struck the image, then the chief
part of the prophetic description _never can be fulfilled_; for there
is no sense in which the advent of the divine kingdom in this late age
of the world can break in pieces the entire image of Nebuchadnezzar's
dream, there being no way in which it can truthfully be said that its
four divisions are yet standing. All these facts were true in the days
of Rome, however, when Christ appeared. The Roman Kingdom possessed
all the distinguishing marks and characteristics of the preceding
empires. This is true not only of their