100 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



a leopard ; it had four heads, and the four quarters of 

 the world bowed down before it. Then came the north- 

 ern bear, its jaws armed with a triple row of teeth, and 

 Daniel heard a voice saying, "Arise, devour much flesh." 

 And while the bear rose up to its hideous banquet, 

 there appeared behind it another monster, more ter- 

 rible and strange than all the rest. Its teeth and claws 

 were of iron. It did not eat, but mangled, and when 

 it had mangled with its bloody jaws, it stamped the 

 residue with its feet. Upon its brow it wore an ever- 

 growing horn, the t}q)e of brute force. And this horn, 

 tJie seat, likewise, of its spiritual pride, had eyes like 

 the eyes of man, and a blaspheming mouth speaking 

 great things against righteousness and against God. 



Cease ! cease, ye gloomy visions ! I too have beheld 

 you with my own eyes, not in prophecy, but in history. 



II. Christian War, or Force in flie Service of Right. 



*-I beheld," continues Daniel (and this was Avritten 

 ages before the coming of Jesus Christ), " I beheld in 

 the night-vision, and behold with the clouds of heaven 

 came one like the Son of man, and drew near to the 

 Ancient of Days. And to him were given dominion and 

 glory and a kingdom, that all peo^ile, nations, and lan- 

 guages should serve him ; whose dominion is an ever- 

 lasting dominion, whicli sliall not pass away, and his 

 kingdom that Avhich shall not be destroyed."* On the 

 ruins of those empires of violence, the Redeemer has 

 come to })lant tliis new empire, under wliich all nations, 

 maintaining their independence, sluiU be, nevertheless, 

 one people of God. Tiiis is Christian civilization, or, 

 to use a more old-fashionod expression, this is Christcn- 



* Daniel, vii. 1.}, 11. 



