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all that he wished to know. Then
Daniel went to his three friends,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego,
and told them what had been done,
and asked them to pray with him to
God, that this wonderful dream
might be made known to them,
and that they might not perish
with the wise men of Babylon.
And God heard their prayer, and
revealed the secret to Daniel in a
night vision.

In the morning, Daniel went to
Arioch, the captain of the guard,
who had been commanded to de-
stroy the wise men, and told him,
that he now knew the dream, and
could interpet it ; so Arioch brought
him before the king. Then Ne-
buchadnezzar spoke to Daniel, and
said, “ Art thou able to make known
to me the dream which I have seen,
and the interpretation?” Daniel
answered, “The secret which the
king has demanded cannot be shown
by any of the wise men of Babylon.
But there isa God in Heaven who
reveals secrets, and He will make
known to the king what shall be
hereafter. And this secret has been
revealed to me ; not because of my
wisdom and my goodness; but for
the sake of my friends and com-
panions, and that thou mightest
know the thoughts of thy heart.”
Then Daniel told the king what the
dream was, and afterwards he ex-
plained to him its meaning. Daniel
said, “ Thou, O king, sawest a great
image. Its head was gold; its
breast and arms silver; its thighs
brass; its legs iron; its feet part of
iron and part of clay. Thou sawest
till a stone was cut out without
hands, which smote the image,
upon its feet of iron and clay, and

THE FOUR GREAT EMPIRES.

brake them to pieces; and after.
wards, this stone became a great
mountain, and filled the whole
earth.”

This was the dream, and then
Daniel showed the king the inter.
pretation of it. The vision was sent
by God, who knows the future ag
well as the past, and it was meant
to teach Daniel, and Nebuchadnez.-.
zar, and all the people who heard it,
many great events which would
come to pass, when they were dead
and in their graves. ‘The different
parts of the image signified four
great empires, which should, one
after another, have great power and
dominion in the world. The head
of gold was the first of those great
empires, the Babylonian, of which
Nebuchadnezzar was then the rich
and mighty king. But Nebuchad-
nezzar would soon die; his king-
dom too would soon pass away, and
be taken possession of by another
people, and another king. We shall
soon read how this happened ;—
how Cyrus came, and the Medes
and Persians, and took Babylon;
and then that great monarchy was
gone for ever. The breast and arms
of silver in the image, signified the
second empire ;—that of the Medes
and Persians, the most powerful in
the world, after the Babylonian
monarchy was destroyed. We shall
read a great deal about Cyrus, the
famous king of Persia, and all the
good things he did for God’s people,
the Jews. But Cyrus died, and
many kings, who reigned after him
in Persia, died; and, at last, the
Persian monarchy was overcome
and destroyed by a new empire,—
the Macedonian. The thighs of
brass in the image, represented this