2 6o The Plan of the Ages.
prophecy: "Ibehelditofc .,<rft*r the decree against this ' horn, ' after its consumption had begun] because of the voice of the GREAT WORDS which the horn spake." Dan. 7 ? n.
Thus we are brought down in history to our own day, and made to see that the thing to "be expedted, so far as the empires of the earth are concerned, is their utter destruc- tion. The next thing in order is described by the words, " I beheld even till the beast was skin and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame." The slaying and burn- ing are symbols, as well as the beast itself, and signify the utter and hopeless destruction of present organized govern- ment. In verse 12 the prophet notes a difference between the end of this fourth beast and its predecessors. They three successively (Babylon, Persia and Greece) had their dominion taken from them; they ceased to hold the ruling power of earth ; but their lives as nations did not cease immediately. Greece and Persia still have some li fe, though it is long centuries since universal dominion passed from their grasp. Not so, however, with the Roman Empire, the fourth and last of these beasts. It will lose dominion and life at once, and go into titter destruction ; and with it the others will pass away also. Daniel 2 : 35.
No matter what may be the means or instrumentality used, the causa of this fall will be the establishment of the Fifth Universal Empire of earth, the Kingdom of God, under Christ, whose right it is to take the dominion. The transfer of the kingdom from the fourth beast, which for its appointed time was * ordained of God," to the fifth kingdom, under the Messiah, when its appointed season has come, is described by the Prophet in these words : "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. And there was given unto him [the Christ head and body complete] dominion, and glory,
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