of him that he should go before the Lord "in the spirit and power of Elias" (Luke 1: 17).

If Israel had received the King and the kingdom, then Rome would have rapidly

developed into the beast, and Herod was already at hand, a potential antichrist (see

Acts 12: 20-23). We are not, however, called upon to discuss what might have been, for

that leaves God out of the question. What actually took place was foreknown and

provided for:  Israel rejected their King and postponed their own restoration.  In

consequence of their folly a dispensation of hitherto unrevealed grace to an election from

among the Gentiles was instituted and no dominating power in the line of Gentile

dominion is revealed which would cover this period. Indeed, such would conflict with

the fact that, while Israel are not reckoned as God's people, the prophetic calendar is

unchecked and the prophetic voice silent. Nebuchadnezzar's vision, however, spans the

whole period from his own accession until the coming of the Lord, and Rome, by its

manifest sovereignty over Jerusalem, falls into line with the other powers. Rome's

dominion over Jerusalem, however, has not lasted throughout this long period. What

power succeeded Rome in its hold upon Jerusalem? We know that at the time of the

Crusades, in which one of our own kings, Richard 1:, took part, the city of Jerusalem was

held by the Mohammedan power, and so, though unnamed, that power succeeds Rome in

the line of Gentile dominion.

It has been objected that the Mohammedan power was never a "kingdom" in the same

sense as were Babylon, Persia or Greece. This is so, but instead of that fact being against

its inclusion, it is rather in favour of it, because from the time of Israel's rejection, and the

revelation of the dispensation of the mystery, the image of Daniel enters a protracted

period of indefinite length and character, and not until the time of the end does the image

emerge with any precision. The same features characterize gentile dominion at the

present moment. The next development will be tragic in its reality.

Does the Mohammedan power still dominate Jerusalem? No, another change has

taken place in our own days. When General Allenby received the keys of Jerusalem on

9th December, 1917, the dominion passed from the Mohammedan power to the present

Gentile domination of Jerusalem, the British mandate under the League of Nations.

Let us now see what these events mean, and how far they coincide with the prophetic

interpretation of the course of Gentile dominion given by Daniel:--

Here we have the whole Gentile dominion represented as being six-fold, stamped with

the number of man and the beast. We stand to-day at the junction of the feet and the

ten toes, which are ten kings, and which, presumably, will come out of the League of

Nations. When John wrote the book of Revelation he was "in spirit" writing from the