Homilist Daniel 2:31-33 You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you… Look at evil as represented by this colossal image. I. IT IS A COMPOUND THING. The image was made up of various substances: gold, silver, brass, iron, clay. Evil does not often appear here in its naked simplicity, it is mixed up with other things. Errors in combination with truths, selfishness with benevolence, superstition with religion, infidelity with science, injustice with law and evil, too, is in combination with customs, systems, institutions. It is a huge conglomeration. Unmixed naked evil could not, perhaps, exist. Worldly souls so compound it as to make evil seem good. II. IT IS A BIG THING. This image was the biggest thing in the imagination of the monarch. Evil is the biggest thing in the world. The image represents here what Paul meant by the "world," the mighty aggregation of evil. Alas, evil is the great image in the world's mind. III. IT IS AN IMPERIAL THING. The various substances that composed the image, Daniel tells us, represent kingdoms — Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Evil here is imperial. The New Testament calls it "The kingdom of darkness." It wears the purple, occupies the throne, and wields the sceptre of nations. IV. IT IS A HUMAN THING. The colossal image was a human figure — human head, breast, arms, legs, feet; and of human manufacture. All the errors of the world are the fabrications of the human brain; all the had passions of the world are the lusts of the human heart; all the wrong institutions of the world are the productions of human power. Evil is human, it thinks with the human brain; it speaks with the human tongue; it works with the human hand. Man is at once its creator, organ, and victim. V. IT IS A TOTTERING THING. On what does the figure stand? On marble, on iron, or brass? No, on clay; his feet part of iron and part of clay. Evil, big, grand, and imperial though it be, lacks standing power; it is not firm-footed. It has clay feet, and must one day tumble to pieces. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. |
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