materials, of which the combination could only be apparent and
superficial. The fact to which it points is the artificial unity into
which the great conquering empires of old crushed their unfortunate
subject peoples, who were hammered, not fused, together. 'They shall
mingle themselves with the seed of men' (ver. 43), may either refer to
the attempts to bring about unity by marriages among different races, or
to other vain efforts to the same end. To obliterate nationalities has
always been the conquering despot's effort, from Nebuchadnezzar to the
Czar of Russia, and it always fails. This is the weakness of these huge
empires of antiquity, which have no internal cohesion, and tumble to
pieces as soon as some external bond is loosened. There is only one
kingdom which has no disintegrating forces lodged in it, because it
unites men individually to its king, and so binds them to one another;
and that is the kingdom which Nebuchadnezzar saw in its destructive
aspect.

II. So we have now to think of the stone cut out without hands.

Three things are specified with regard to it: its origin, its duration,
and its destructive energy. The origin is heavenly, in sharp contrast to
the human origin of the kingdoms symbolised in the colossal man. That
idea is twice expressed: once in plain words, 'the God of heaven shall
set up a kingdom'; and once figuratively as being cut out of the
mountain without hands. By the mountain we are probably to understand
Zion, from which, according to many a prophecy, the Messiah King was to
rule the earth (Ps. ii.; Isa. ii. 3).

The fulfilment of this prediction is found, not only in the supernatural
birth of Jesus Christ, but in the spread of the gospel without any of
the weapons and aids of human power. Twelve poor men spoke, and the
world was shaken and the kingdoms remoulded. The seer had learned the
omnipotence of ideas and the weakness of outward force. A thought from
God is stronger than all armies, and outconquers conquerors. By the
mystery of Christ's Incarnation, by the power of weakness in the
preachers of the Cross, by the energies of the transforming Spirit, the
God of heaven has set up the kingdom. 'It shall never be destroyed.' Its
divine origin guarantees its perpetual duration. The kingdoms of man's
founding, whether they be in the realm of thought or of outward
dominion, 'have their day, and cease to be,' but the kingdom of Christ
lasts as long as the eternal life of its King