Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/69

 is to be judged and destroyed," the number four standing over against the four horns does not only suggest that " for every enemy of God's people God has provided a counter acting power adequate to destroy it," but points to four powers also successive, though in the vision, like the four horns, presented together. And, if I am asked to state more definitely which four powers, I answer the first was the Medo-Persian, which by the hand of Cyrus broke down the horn of Babylon; the second was the Grecian, which by the hand of Alexander terrified and humbled the power of Persia; the third was Rome, which in its turn prostrated and trod down the power of Greece.

This last, the most terrible of all, not only acted as one of the " workmen " or " smiths " to terrify and break down the great world-power which immediately preceded it, but, in relation to the Jewish people and the Church of God, still exists as the last of the four horns; and in its revived form, under the leadership of the Satan-possessed head of the final confederacy of apostate Gentile world-powers, will bring about the climax of all the sorrows and the sufferings of Israel in the last " great tribulation, such as hath not