Daniels Great Prophecy

"The prophets of the Old Testament in a marked and special manner looked forward into the future. They personated and expressed the Hope of Israel and the Kingdom of God. Standing on their lofty watch-towers, and looking to the farthest horizon, they saw events unseen by ordinary men, and spoke of things to come long after the generations they served had passed into the tombs. They were the first in antiquity to perceive that the old East was dead. They celebrated its obsequies [i.e., funeral ceremonies] in advance of the dissolution they saw to be inevitable. They were the tragic chorus of the awful drama that was unfolding itself in the Eastern world. As kingdom after kingdom passed away, they sang the funeral dirge of each. There can be no question that the book of Daniel, containing the first mention of the great idea of the succession of the ages and of the growth of empires and races, is the first outline of the philosophy of history