Not improbably the ten kingdoms of the reconstructed Roman Empire will arise as a result of political and social confusion. Thus it was in the case of the French Revolution and the consequent uprising of Napoleon. A repetition of such events on a far wider scale in the future is quite conceivable. In the prophetic vision given to the Apostle John, the beast was seen "coming up out of the sea" (Rev. 13. 1). Now the sea is in Scripture used figuratively of the nations, its characteristic restlessness symbolising their commotion and strife. Compare the words of Isaiah: "Ah, the uproar of many peoples, which roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of many waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but He shall rebuke them" (Isa. 17. 12, 13; see also Psa. 65. 7; and Ezek. 26. 3). To national unrest the Lord Jesus applied similar language when He foretold to the disciples that there would be "upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world" (Luke 21. 25, 26). So also the waters which John had seen in his vision are described by the angel as "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues" (Rev. 17. 15). Daniel, too, saw the four great beasts come up from the sea as a result of the breaking forth of the four winds of the Heaven upon it, an undoubted representation of a condition of national disturbance (Dan. 7. 2, 3). That the beast of Revelation 13. 1 was seen coming up out of the sea points, therefore, to the probability that the ten kings who will have brief authority over the revived Empire will be raised to their kingdom, not by constitutional methods, but as the result of revolutions and the collapse of present-day governments and institutions. Revolutions and their Issues. Should any great measure of success attend the syndicalist and communist movements of the day, and especially if they are internationalised, the inevitable revolutions and disorder would almost certainly issue, as revolutions have so frequently issued, in despotism and autocracy, and perhaps in this way the ten kings would arise. The overthrow of the governments in the countries involved would remove what has certainly been the great restraint upon lawlessness[A] from the times of the apostles until now. Everything would be ripe for the appearance of a universal potentate. The cry would arise for "a man," a controlling organiser to bring order out of chaos. The unstable character of the rule of the ten kings, and the impoverishment of their kingdoms, would lead them, as a matter of diplomacy, to hand over their authority to him. [A] See "The Epistles to the Thessalonians, with Notes Exegetical and Expository," by C. F. Hogg and W. E. Vine, note _c._ pp. 259, 260. (Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis. 3/9, p.f.) The Iron and the Clay.