MEDO-PERSIA AND GREECE

            DANIEL 8

WHILE BABYLON'S POWER BEGAN TO WANE
THE PROPHET SAW A VISION CLEAR
THE NEXT TWO KINGDOMS TO ARISE
WERE SEEN IN RAMS AND GOAT DISGUISE.

THE RAM'S TWO HORNS WERE JUST THE SAME
AS DANIEL'S VISION OF THE BEAR
ALONG WITH SILVER ARMS AND CHEST
THE MEDO-PERSIANS PUSHED OUT WEST.

WHEN CYRUS FORMED HIS POWER GRID
NO ARMY WAS AS LARGE OR STRONG
IMPREGNABLE WAS BABYLON'S CLAIM
YET ON DRY BANKS HER CONQUEROR'S CAME.

IN TIME THE JEWS RETURNED TO BUILD
THEIR TEMPLE AND THEIR BROKEN WALLS
WHILE PERSIA PUSHED BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH
ITS LONG PREDICTED RULE PLAYED OUT.

A SUDDEN CHANGE CAME INTO VIEW
THE GREAT-HORNED GOAT CAME CHARGING THROUGH
IT WAS THE KING OF GRECIAN FAME
TWAS ALEXANDER'S FEAR FILLED NAME.

IN EIGHT SHORT YEARS HIS KINGDOM SPREAD
FROM EGYPT'S SHORE TO INDIA'S HEAD
BUT ONCE THE GOAT'S GREAT HORN WAS BROKE
FOUR OTHER SMALLER HORNS AWOKE.

CASSANDER RULED THE WESTERN FLANK
LYSIMACUS THE NORTHERN PART
SELEUCUS TOOK THE EASTERN SEAT
WITH PTOLEMY AT EGYPT'S FEET.

BUT WHAT PERPLEXED THE PROPHET MOST
WAS FROM THESE HORNS A SMALL ONE ROSE
A KING WITH FIERCE AND CRUEL INTENT
WITH EVERY FORM OF EVIL BENT.

ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES
REMOVED THE TEMPLE'S SACRIFICE
BY DESECRATING YAHWEH'S NAME
AND OFFERING BLOOD THAT BROUGHT HIM SHAME.

BUT THEN THE ANGEL SEEMED TO POINT
TO YET A FUTURE LITTLE HORN
WHO CLAIMED THE RIGHT TO DAVID'S THRONE
PROCLAIMING HE WAS CHRIST ALONE.

THE SHADOW OF ANTIOCHUS
A PROTOTYPE OF ANTICHRIST
HAS FOLLOWED HISTORY THROUGH EACH AGE
AS DEMAGOGUES ON EUROPE'S STAGE.
--B. Pent