Page 36 - 07 - The Four Beasts

DANIEL AND THE REVELATION-Uriah Smith

~The Response of History to the Voice of Prophecy~

Chapter 7 – The Four Beasts
astonished at this fourth beast, so unnatural

and dreadful; for the further we come down

the stream of time, the further it is necessary

to depart from nature in forming symbols to

represent accurately the degenerating

governments of this earth. The lion is a

production of nature; but it must have the

unnatural addition of two wings’ to represent

the kingdom of Babylon. The bear we also find

in nature; but as a symbol of Medo-Persia an

unnatural ferocity must be denoted by the

insertion of three ribs into its mouth. So the

leopard is a beast of nature; but fitly to

represent Grecia there is a departure from

nature in respect to wings, and the number of

heads. But nature furnishes no symbol which

can fitly illustrate the fourth kingdom. A beast

the likeness of which never was seen, is taken;

a beast dreadful and terrible, with nails of