strange combination of iron and clay. This may simply refer to the
diminution of worldly glory, but it may also mean deterioration, morally
and otherwise. Is it not the teaching of Scripture that, unless God
interpose, society will steadily slide downwards? And has not the fact
been so, wherever the brake and lever of revelation have not arrested
the decline and effected elevation? We are told nowadays of evolution,
as if the progress of humanity were upwards; but if you withdraw the
influence of supernatural revelation, the evidence of power in manhood
to work itself clear of limitations and lower forms is very ambiguous at
the best--in reference to morals, at all events. Evil is capable of
development, as well as good; and perhaps Nebuchadnezzar's colossus is a
truer representation of the course of humanity than the dreams of modern
thinkers who see manhood becoming steadily better by its own effort, and
think that the clay and iron have inherent power to pass into fine gold.

The question of the identification of these successive monarchies does
not fall to be discussed here. But I may observe that the definite
statement of verse 44 ('in the days of these kings') seems to date the
rise of the everlasting kingdom of God in the period of the last of the
four, and therefore that the old interpretation of the fourth kingdom as
the Roman seems the most natural. The force of that remark may, no
doubt, be weakened by the consideration that the Old Testament prophets'
perspective of the future brought the coming of Messiah into immediate
juxtaposition with the limits of their own vision; but still it has
force.

The allocation of each part of the symbol is of less importance for us
than the lessons to be drawn from it as a whole. But the singular
amalgam of iron and clay in the fourth kingdom is worth notice. No
sculptor or metallurgist could make a strong unity out of such