The king had seen a great metallic image, excellent in brightness and terrible in form. It was a human figure of massive proportions, standing erect with outstretched arms, and of a mixed and strange composition. The head was of fine gold. The breast and arms were of silver. The belly and thighs of brass. The legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part of clay. While the king was gazing on this monstrous figure with intense interest, his attention was arrested by the appearance of a small stone—this stone was alone; there appeared no hands handling it or moving it. It was cut out of the mountain without hands. In this stone there appears to be a good deal of the supernatural. At once this little stone assaults the image, beginning at the feet. The battle is surely unequal; the battle continues, and during the struggle the stone actually grows; the image falls to pieces—the feet, thigh, breast, and head—and victory is with the stone. By the time the image is wholly destroyed the stone has become a mountain; or, as Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
In this vision and interpretation we have a line of history laid bare so clearly that we need not err. The beginning is the time and kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. The image stands for four great earthly monarchies, extending down through the centuries even to this time and day—and a little further; for these monarchies are not yet wholly destroyed, and the stone-kingdom does not yet fill the world. Of this fifth, or stone kingdom, there is to be no end by conquest, or decay, or succession. Daniel says that this kingdom shall not be left to other people—that is, it shall never be succeeded.
The peculiar features of the stone-kingdom make it interesting to ascertain what kingdom, monarchy, and people stand for it; for such kingdom, though small at the beginning, is to grow, prosper, and continue to the end of time. Guided by the Scriptures and history, let us look for these four earthly monarchies; and the better to accomplish our task, let us stretch the giant figure on his back; then his head of gold will rest in Babylon, his silver breast and arms will take in Media and Persia, his belly and thighs will take in Greece, and his legs and feet will take in Rome. Thus, then, the gold head stood for Babylon, and is now in this day represented and found in Russia—for Russia is a continuation of Babylon. The _Czar_ is on the line of Nebuchadne_zzar_. This gold-headed kingdom will be the last destroyed—the destruction begins at the feet. Russia, therefore, has yet a lease of life and prosperity; but, finally, she too will yield the contests and disappear before the stone-kingdom. The gold stands for work and endurance, as the head is significant of supremacy; but the stone will finally destroy it.