Hippolytus foresaw the democratic age into which the feudal era of iron should pass, corroding in the toes by contact with the miry clay of the despised plebs, “the seed of men.” No lasting strength was to be imparted to imperialism by the plébiscite (Dan. ii. 43); and the prophet might almost be supposed to have the epoch of dynamite in his sight, as he speaks of the unwillingness of the people to cleave to the effete system of empire. Now, then, if “the failing estate” of the world was apparent in the days of Philip and Decius, how much more in our own! Sixteen human lives span the gulf of time between us and them, for we have many centenarians among us; and with the Lord “a thousand years are as one day.” Compare 2 Pet. iii. 9. And, putting such Scriptures together, is it not clear that “the last time” (i.e., the last of the seven times of the Gentiles) is drawing to its close? The three and a half times of Daniel extend to the convulsive epoch of Mohammed; the second moiety (of the seven) to our own age. See Faber, Sacred Calendar, vol. i. cap. iii. pp. 308, 309, etc.