glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed.

17 He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.

18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him.

19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.

20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle.

21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.

24 He shali enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

25 And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.

26 Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain.

27 And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against

the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and
return to his own land.

29 At the time appointed he shall return,
and come toward the south; but it shall not be
as the former, or as the latter.

30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall be corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.

34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

Here is a record of prophetic history. Prophetic history differs from secular history in that it wastes no thought upon incidentals. It leaps across great stretches of time, picking out a king here and a ruler there, compassing with a few verses whole civilizations. The time involved in this section dates from Darius the Mede to the overthrow of Antiochus Epiphanes the persecutor of the Jews, by Rome. The reason the prophet introduces these verses is to set before us the divine protraction. Throughout all the reigns mentioned here the main factor involved concerns Israel and the land of Palestine.

Years ago a certain father brought home to his children a children's game by which he intended to teach them the geography of our land. It consisted of a paste board map of the United States, cut up

in small pieces of different shape. They were to fit piece to piece till the map was reconstructed. It took them five minutes to complete the task. And when the father inquired how they succeeded so soon, they turned the map over. On the other side was the figure of George Washington. All they did was to put the man together, the arms and legs, hands and feet; and thus the difficulty of the map on the other side was completely solved.

So the key to human history is the Jew. Place him in his proper relationship to the Gentile nations and you solve the riddle of national destiny.

We talk much today about the Eastern question. If world statesmen understood scripture they would know that the Eastern question does not concern Constantinople, the Suez or the Dardanelles. It is primarily, "What will the human race do with Palestine?" Into every civilization God has protracted this question and will continue so to do until He brings his people Israel back again to their own land.

(c) PROTAGONIST. 11:36-45.

36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

38 But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen,

and with many ships; and he shall enter into
the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

41 He shall enter also into the glorious
land, and many countries shall be overthrown:
but these shall escape out of his hand, even
Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children
of Ammon.

42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the gloriuos holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

A protagonist is one who mimics or masquerades as an actor. In the previous section great suffering came upon the Jews in Palestine because of Antiochus Epiphanes. Here the prophet finds himself in the time of, "The great tribulation," a time still future. The church has been caught up out of the world, the Jewish people have returned to their own land where they enter into covenant with the Satanic protagonist. Masquerading as the Christ, he arrogates to himself divine titles, honors and affices. Although the Jews give place to him and he accepts their worship yet in the end he laughs them to scorn, bringing to bear upon them terrible persecution. His time is short, however, for Christ returning to earth with his victorious Church destroys him by the breath of His coming. This effort on the part of Satan to usurp the authority of Christ is nothing short of "Spiritual Madness," for the prophet says, "He shall come to his end and none shall help him.

For the believer in Christ thank God, Satan has already come to his end. We who live on this side of Calvary's Cross face a defeated foe. When the Savior said, "It is finished" he forever made it im

possible for the evil one to have dominion over us either in life or in death.

At a great university some examinations were being held. In one of the examining rooms sat a boy who unfortunately was not much of a student. That morning he had received a letter of warning from his father threatening to take him out of school if he failed again in another test. It happened that he was in his senior year. He needed to pass but this examination in order to graduate. He answered six out of ten questions but was utterly unable to answer the necessary additional one to give him a passing mark. Behind him sat a brilliant chap who having finished his own paper noted the difficulty his classmate was in. Writing the answer to one of the four remaining problems upon a slip of paper he arose and approached the instructor's desk. As he passed the seat of the man in front of him he slipped the piece of paper on to his lap. Thinking it was merely a note the young man read the answer. In a moment there stood before him victory, honour, father's approval, everything. Then took place a battle as only occurs in the souls of men. Squaring his shoulders he took up his unfinished examination paper and tearing it into pieces he left the room. Two years later the university authorities heard of his moral heroism and counting him a better son than many a man who had graduated with high honours they gave him a diploma. What was the secret of his strength? Ah, it lay in Jesus Christ and thus the great deceiver had no part in him. Years before he had dedicated his life to the Master. Brethren, there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."