pieces; already it brings all the unwilling into subjection;
already we see these things ourselves."--_"Treatise on Christ
and Antichrist," sec. 33._

Hippolytus also saw clearly from the prophecy that the empire of his day
would be divided, and he wrote of the kingdoms that were "yet to rise"
out of it. For Daniel's interpretation explained clearly the meaning of
the mingling of clay with the iron in the feet and toes of the great
image.

The Kingdoms of Modern Europe

"Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the
strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay.

"And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the
kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

"And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."

"The kingdom shall be divided." So declared the prophet of God. In the
height of its power, Rome scouted the thought that so mighty a fabric
could ever be broken up. Horace sang in his "Odes,"

"How, added to a conquered world,
Euphrates 'bates his tide,
And Huns, beyond our frontiers hurled,
O'er straitened deserts ride.

* * * * *

"The Goths beyond the sea may plot,
The warlike Basques may plan;
Friend, never heed them! vex thee not;
For this our mortal span
Of little wants."

--_Book 2, Marris's Translation._

But the words were written on the ancient parchment in the days of
Babylon, "The kingdom shall be divided;" and true to the word of the
prophet, the Roman Empire fell apart with the mixture of nations and
peoples that swept into it. The elements did not hold together, even as
the mixture of iron and clay in the image did not cleave together.
Broken up by the invasions of fresh nations from the north, the Western
Empire was divided into lesser kingdoms, out of which have grown the
modern nations of western Europe.

Not one word in the outline of the prophecy thus far has failed of
fulfilment. These modern kingdoms growing out of divided Rome have never
been reunited. "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men," said
the prophecy. Nearly all the reigning houses of Europe today are related
by interm