December Twelfth.
DANIEL'S VISION.
"I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him."—Dan. vii. 13.
DANIEL, in his vision of the four beasts, or living creatures, says, that at the consummation of the fourth kingdom, the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, the greatness of which under heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and shall not be destroyed.
This result is represented in the vision by the appearance of one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven; and it is said that he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him before him—or, as it might be more faithfully rendered, into contact or union with him—and there was given to him dominion and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. (Dan. vii. 14.)
Again, in the vision of the great image (Dan. ii. 41), it is said: "The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; but the kingdom shall be divided, yet there shall be in it of the strength of the iron; but the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest that the iron was 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. And in the days of these
