THE UNITED STATES IN THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY; OR, AN EXPOSITION OF REV. 13:11-17. BY URIAH SMITH. 1874 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. REV. 13:13. Preface. If we read the signs of the times aright, events are soon to transpireof such a nature as to preclude the necessity of any apology for thepublication of what is contained in the following pages. The numerousrays of light now shining from the book of prophecy, seem to find theirfocal point in our own times. The present age is illuminated in thisrespect above all others. Here we find the most emphatic touches of theprophetic pencil. The events to transpire, and the agents thereinconcerned, are brought out in a vivid and startling light. The question naturally arises, what part the United States has to act inthese scenes; for it must seem reasonable and probable that a nationwhich has arisen so suddenly as ours, made such unparalleled progress, and attained to such a pinnacle of greatness and power, must be asubject of divine prophecy, or at least of divine providence. To this question the following pages undertake to give a brief butscriptural, and so a reasonable and conclusive answer; and to such onlyas do not believe that God ever foretells the history of nations, orthat his providence ever works in their development and decline, canthe subject fail to be one of interest. That this little treatise is exhaustive of the subject is not claimed;but some facts are presented which are thought to be worthy of seriousconsideration, and enough evidence, we trust, produced in favor of theposition taken to show the reader that the subject is not one of meretheory, but of the highest practical importance; and so enough tostimulate thought and lead to further inquiry. If the position here taken be correct, this subject is to be one ofcontinually-increasing interest, and information respecting it isnecessary to an understanding of our duties and responsibilities in thesolemn and important times that are upon us. It is in this light that weespecially commend it to the serious consideration of the reader. U. S. BATTLE CREEK, Mich. , June, 1874. Contents Chapter One. Probabilities Considered, Pp. 9-19 Chapter Two. A Chain Of Prophecy, 20-30 Chapter Three. Location Of The Two-horned Beast, 31-40 Chapter Four. Chronology Of The Two-horned Beast, 41-51 Chapter Five. The United States Have Arisen In The Exact Manner In Which John Saw The Two-horned Beast Coming Up, 52-69 Chapter Six. Character Of The Government Represented By The Two-horned Beast, 70-78 Chapter Seven. The Dragon Voice, 79-88 Chapter Eight. He Doeth Great Wonders, 89-100 Chapter Nine. An Image To The Beast, 101-111 Chapter Ten. The Mark Of The Beast, 112-132 Chapter Eleven. The Beginning Of The End, 133-160 The United States In The Light Of Prophecy. Chapter One. Probabilities Considered. The United States--what are they? Two hundred years ago, this questioncould not have been answered; it could not even have been asked. Now itcan be answered by the dwellers in every quarter of the globe. Then afew small settlements of earnest men, flying from the religiousintolerance of the Old World, dotted a narrow strip of coast line on ourNew England border. Now a mighty nation, with a vast expanse ofterritory stretching from ocean to ocean, and from regions almost arcticon the north to regions equally torrid on the south, embracing moresquare leagues of habitable land than Rome ruled over in its palmiestdays, here holds a position of independence and glory among the nationsof the earth. And the sound of this new nation has gone into all the world. It hasreached the toiling millions of Europe; and they are swarming to ourshores to share its blessings. It has gone to the islands of the sea;and they have sent their contributions. It has reached the Orient, andopened as with a password the gates of nations long barred againstintercourse with other powers; and China and Japan, turning from theirbeaten track of forty centuries, are looking with wonder at the prodigyarising across the Pacific to the east of them, and catching some of theimpulse which this growing power is imparting to the nations of theearth. Less than one hundred years ago, with three millions of people, theUnited States became an independent government. It has now a populationof thirty-eight and a half millions of people, and a territory of threeand a half millions of square miles. Russia alone exceeds this nation inthese particulars, having forty millions more of people, and fourmillions more square miles of territory. Of all other nations on theglobe whose laws are framed by legislative bodies elected by the people, Brazil, which has the largest territory, has not quite three millions ofsquare miles; and France, the most populous, has not probably, considering her late reverses and misfortunes, a greater number ofinhabitants than our own country. So that in point of territory andpopulation combined, it will be seen that the United States now stand atthe head of the self-governing powers of the earth. Occupying a position altogether unique, this government excites equallythe astonishment and admiration of all beholders. The main features ofits history are such as have had no parallel since the distinction ofnations existed among men. 1. No nation ever acquired so vast a territory in so quiet a manner. 2. No nation ever rose to such greatness by so peaceable means. 3. No nation ever advanced so rapidly in all that constitutes nationalstrength and capital. 4. No nation ever rose to such a pinnacle of power in a space of time soincredibly short. 5. No nation in so limited a time has developed such unlimitedresources. 6. No nation has ever existed founded on principles of justice so pureand undefiled. 7. No nation has ever existed in which the conscience of men have beenleft so untrammeled and free. 8. In no nation and in no age of the world, have the arts and sciencesso flourished, so many improvements been made, and so great successesbeen achieved, as in our own country during the last fifty years. 9. In no nation and in no age has the gospel found such freedom, and thechurches of Christ had such liberty to spread abroad their principlesand develop their strength. 10. No age of the world has seen such an immigration as that which isnow pouring into our borders from all lands the millions who have longgroaned under despotic governments, and who now turn to this broadterritory of freedom as the avenue of hope, the Utopia of the nations. The most discerning minds have been intuitively impressed with the ideaof the future greatness and power of this government. In view of thegrand results developed and developing, the discovery of America byColumbus, not four hundred years ago, is set down as the greatest eventof all secular history. The progress of empire to this land was long agoexpected. Sir Thomas Brown, in 1682, predicted the growth of a power here, whichwould rival the European kingdoms in strength and prowess. In Burnaby's Travels through the middle settlements of North America, in1759 and 1760, published in 1775, is expressed this sentiment:-- "An idea, strange as it is visionary, has entered into the minds of the generality of mankind, that empire is traveling westward; and every one is looking forward with eager and impatient expectation to that destined moment when America is to give the law to the rest of the world. " John Adams, Oct. 12, 1775, wrote:--- "Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into this New World for conscience' sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire to America. " On the day after the Declaration of Independence, he wrote:-- "Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. " In 1776, Galiani, a Neapolitan, predicted the gradual decay of Europeaninstitutions, to renew themselves in America. In 1778, in reference tothe question as to which was to be the ruling power in the world, Europeor America, he said:-- "I will wager in favor of America. " Adam Smith of Scotland, in 1776, predicted the transfer of empire toAmerica. Governor Pownal, an English statesman, in 1780, while our Revolution wasin progress, predicted that this country would become independent, andthat a civilizing activity beyond what Europe could ever know, wouldanimate it; and that its commercial and naval power would be found inevery quarter of the globe. Again he said:-- "North America has advanced, and is every day advancing, to growth of state, with a steady and continually accelerating motion, of which there never has yet been any example in Europe. " David Hartley wrote from England in 1777:-- "At sea, which has hitherto been our prerogative element, they [the United States] rise against us at a stupendous rate; and if we cannot return to our old mutual hospitalities toward each other, a very few years will show us a most formidable hostile marine, ready to join hands with any of our enemies. " Count d'Aranda, one of the first of Spanish statesmen, in 1783 thuswrote of this republic:-- "This Federal Republic is born a pygmy, so to speak. It required the support and forces of two powers as great as Spain and France in order to attain independence. A day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus formidable in these countries. "[1] [1] These quotations are from an article by Hon. Charles Sumner, entitled, "Prophetic Voices about America, " published in the _AtlanticMonthly_ of September, 1807. Of these prophecies, some are now wholly fulfilled, and the rest far onthe road to fulfillment. This infant of yesterday stands forth to-day agiant, vigorous, active, and courageous, and accepts with dignity itsmanifest destiny at the head of powers and civilizations. Such, in brief, is the answer to the question proposed at the opening ofthis chapter. Another question immediately follows: Does the propheticpen which has so fully delineated the rise and progress of all the othergreat nations of the earth, pass this one by unnoticed? What are theprobabilities in this matter? As the student of prophecy, in common withall mankind, looks with wonder upon the unparalleled rise and progressof this nation, he cannot repress the conviction that the hand ofProvidence has been at work in this quiet but mighty revolution. Andthis conviction he shares in common with others. Gov. Pownal, from whom a quotation has already been presented, speakingof the establishment of this country as a free and sovereign power callsit "A revolution that has stronger marks of _divine interposition, _ superseding the ordinary course of human affairs than any other event which this world has experienced. " De Tocqueville, a French writer, speaking of our separation fromEngland, says:-- "It might seem their folly, but was really their fate, or, rather, the providence of God, who has doubtless a work for us to do, in which the massive materiality of the English character would have been too ponderous a dead weight upon our progress. " Geo. Alfred Townsend, speaking of the misfortunes that have attended theother governments on this continent (New World and Old, p. 635), says:-- "The history of the United States was separated by a beneficent Providence far from this wild and cruel history of the rest of the continent. " Again he says:-- "This hemisphere was laid away for no one race. " If Providence has been thus conspicuously present in our history, we maylook for some mention of this government in that Book which records theworkings of Providence among mankind. On what conditions have othernations found a place in the prophetic record? First, if they have actedany prominent part in the world's history; and secondly, and above-all, if they have had jurisdiction over, or maintained any relations with, the people of God. And both these conditions are fulfilled in ourgovernment. No nation has ever attracted more attention or excited moreprofound wonder, or given promise of greater eminence or influence. Andcertainly here, if anywhere on the globe, are to be found a strong arrayof Christians, such as are the salt of the earth, and the light of theworld. With these probabilities in our favor, let us now take a brief survey ofthose symbols found in the word of God, which represent earthlygovernments. These are found chiefly, if not entirely, in the books ofDaniel and Revelation. In Dan 2, a symbol is introduced in the form of agreat image. In Dan 7, we find a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a greatand terrible nondescript, which, after passing through a new andremarkable phase, goes into the lake of fire. In Dan. 8, we have a ram, a he goat, and a horn, little at first, but waxing exceeding great. InRevelation 9, we have locusts like unto horses. In Rev. 12, we have agreat red dragon. In Rev. 13, we have a blasphemous leopard beast, and abeast with two horns like a lamb. In Rev. 17, we have a scarlet-coloredbeast, upon which a woman sits holding in her hand a golden cup full offilthiness and abomination. What governments and what powers are represented by all these? Do anyof them symbolize our own? Some of these certainly represent earthlykingdoms; for so the prophecies themselves expressly inform us; and inthe application of nearly all of them there is quite a uniform agreementamong expositors. The four-parts of the great image of Dan. 2 representfour kingdoms, Babylon, or Chaldea, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Thelion of the seventh chapter also represents Babylon; the bear, Medo-Persia; the leopard, Grecia; and the great and-terrible beast, Rome. The horn, with human eyes and mouth, which appears in the secondphase of this beast, represents the papacy, and covers its history downto the time when it was temporarily overthrown by the French in 1798. InDan. 8, likewise, the ram represents Medo-Persia, the he goat, Grecia, and the little horn, Rome. All these have a very clear and definiteapplication to the governments named; none of them thus far can have anyreference to the United States. The symbols brought to view in Rev. 9, all are agreed in applying to theSaracens and Turks. The dragon of Rev. 12, is the acknowledged symbol ofPagan Rome. The leopard beast of Rev. 13 can be shown to be identicalwith the eleventh horn of the fourth beast of Dan. 7, and hence tosymbolize the papacy. The scarlet beast and woman of Rev. 17, asevidently apply also to Rome under papal rule, the symbols havingespecial reference to the distinction between the civil power and theecclesiastical, the one being represented by the beast, the other by thewoman seated thereon. There is one symbol left, and that is the two-horned beast of Rev. 13. On this there is more difference of opinion; and before seeking for anapplication, let us look at the ground covered by those alreadyexamined. Babylon and Medo-Persia covered all the civilized portion ofAsia. Greece covered eastern Europe including Russia. Rome, with the tenkingdoms into which it was divided, as represented by the ten toes ofthe image, the ten horns of the fourth beast of Dan. 7, the ten horns ofthe dragon of Rev. 12, and the ten horns of the leopard beast of Rev. 13, covered all Western Europe. In other words, all the civilizedportion of the eastern hemisphere is absorbed by the symbols alreadyexamined, respecting the application of which there is scarcely any roomfor doubt. But there is a mighty nation in this western hemisphere, worthy, as wehave seen, of being mentioned in prophecy, which is not yet brought in;and there is one symbol remaining, the application of which has not yetbeen made. All the symbols but one are applied, and all the availableportions of the eastern hemisphere are covered by the applications. Ofall the symbols mentioned, one, the two-horned beast of Rev. 13, isleft; and of all the countries of the earth respecting which any reasonexists why they should be mentioned in prophecy, the United States aloneare left. Do the two-horned beast and the United States belong together?If they do, then all the symbols find an application, and all the groundis covered. If they do not, it follows, first, that the United Statesare not represented in prophecy; and, secondly, that the two-hornedbeast finds no government to which it can apply. But the first of thesesuppositions is not probable; and the second is not possible. Chapter Two. A Chain Of Prophecy. We now enter upon a more particular examination of the second symbol ofRev. 13, with a view to determine with greater certainty itsapplication. What is said respecting this symbol, the beast with twohorns like a lamb, is not an isolated and independent prophecy, but isconnected with what precedes; and the symbol itself is but one of aseries. It is proper therefore to briefly examine the preceding symbols, since if we are able to make a satisfactory application of them, it willguide us in the interpretation of this. The line of prophecy of which this forms a part commences with Rev. 12. The book of Revelation is evidently not a consecutive prophecy of eventsto transpire from the beginning to the close of the gospel dispensation, but is composed of a series of prophetic lines, each taking up its ownclass of events, and tracing them through from the days of the prophetto the end of time. And when one line of prophecy is completed, anotheris taken up. That a new series of prophetic events is introduced in Rev. 12, is evident; since in the preceding chapter a line of prophecy iscompleted, bringing us down to the great day of God's wrath, thejudgment of the dead, and the eternal reward of those that fear God andrevere his name. No line of prophecy can go farther; and any events totranspire in probation, subsequently mentioned, must of course belong toa new series. Commencing, then, with chapter 12, how far does this line of prophecyextend? The first symbol introduced, which can be applied to an earthlygovernment, is the great red dragon. The second is the beast of Rev. 13, which, having the body of a leopard, we shall call, for brevity's sake, the leopard beast. To this beast the dragon gives his seat, power, andgreat authority. This beast, then, is connected with the dragon, andbelongs to this line of prophecy. The third symbol is the two-hornedbeast of Rev. 13. This beast exercises certain power in the presence ofthe leopard beast, and causes the earth and them that dwell therein toworship him. This beast, therefore, is connected with the leopard beast, and hence belongs to the same line of prophecy. No conclusion is reachedin chapter 13, and hence the prophecy is not there completed. Goingforward into chapter 14, we find a company brought to view who areredeemed from among men (which can mean nothing else than translationfrom among the living at the second coming of Christ); and they sing asong before the throne which none but themselves can learn. In chapter15, we have a company presented before us who have gotten the victoryover the beast, his image, the mark, and the number of his name--thevery things brought to view in the concluding portion of Rev. 13. Thiscompany also sing a song, even the song of Moses and the Lamb; and theysing it while standing upon the sea of glass, as stated in verse 2. Turning to chapter 4:6, we learn that this sea of glass is "before thethrone. " The conclusion, therefore, follows that those who sing beforethe throne, in chapter 14, are identical with those who sing on the seaof glass (before the throne), in chapter 15, inasmuch as they stand inthe same place, and the song they both sing is the first glad song ofactual redemption. But the declarations found in chapter 15 show thatthe company introduced in the opening of chapter 14 have been in directconflict with the powers brought to view in the closing verses ofchapter 13, and have gotten the victory over them. Being thus connectedwith those powers, they form a part of the same line of prophecy. Buthere this line of prophecy must end; for this company is spoken of asredeemed; and no line of prophecy, as already noticed, can go beyond theeternal state. The line of prophecy in which the two-horned beast stands, is, therefore, one which is very clearly defined: it commences with chapter12, and ends with verse 5 of chapter 14. The student of prophecy findsit one of vast importance; the humble child of God, one of transcendentinterest. It begins with the church, and ends with the church--thechurch, at first in humility, trial, and distress; at last, in victory, exaltation, and glory. This is the one object which ever appears thesame in all the scenes here described, and whose history is the leadingtheme of the prophecy, from first to last. Trampled under the feet ofthe three colossal persecuting powers here brought to view, thefollowers of Christ for long ages bow their heads to the pitiless stormof oppression and persecution; but the end repays them all; for Johnbeholds them at last, the storms all over, their conflicts all ended, waving palm-branches of victory, and striking on golden harps a song ofeverlasting triumph within the precincts of the heavenly land. We turn then to the inquiry, What power is designated by the great reddragon of chapter 12? The chapter first speaks of a woman clothed withthe sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelvestars. A woman is the symbol of the church; a lewd woman representing acorrupt or apostate church, as in Eze. 23:2-4, &c. , which refers to theJewish church in a state of backsliding, and in Rev. 17:3-6, 15, 18, which refers to the apostate Romish church; and a virtuous womanrepresenting the true church, as in the verse under consideration. Atwhat period in her history could the church be properly represented ashere described? Ans. At the opening of the gospel dispensation, and atno other time; for then the glory of this dispensation, like the lightof the sun, had just risen upon her; the former dispensation, which, like the moon, shone with a borrowed light, had just passed and laybeneath her feet. And twelve inspired apostles, like a crown of twelvestars, graced the first organization of the gospel church. To thisperiod these representations can apply, but to no other. The prophetantedates this period a little by referring to the time when the churchwith longing expectation was awaiting the advent into this world of theglorious Redeemer. A man child here represented as the offspring of this woman, appearsupon the stage. This child was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and was caught up to God and his throne. Verse 5. These declarations aretrue of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of no one else. See Ps. 2:7-9; Eph. 1:20, 21; Heb. 8:1; Rev. 3:21. There is therefore no mistaking thetime when the scenes here described took place. We mention these factsfor the purpose of identifying the power symbolized by the dragon; forthe dragon stood before the woman, to devour her child as soon as itshould be born. Who attempted the destruction of our Lord when heappeared as a babe in Bethlehem? Herod. And who was Herod? A Romangovernor. Rome, which then ruled over all the earth, Luke 2:1, was theresponsible party in this transaction. Rome was the only power which atthis time could be symbolized in prophecy, as its dominion wasuniversal. It is not without good reason, therefore, that Pagan Rome isconsidered among Protestant commentators to be the power indicated bythe great red dragon. And it may be a fact worth mentioning that duringthe second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries of the Christian era, next to the eagle, the dragon was the principal standard of the Romanlegions; and that dragon was painted red. There is but one objection we need pause to answer before passing tothe'next symbol. Is not the dragon plainly called in verse 9, the devil, and Satan? How then can it be applied to Pagan Rome? That the termdragon is primarily applied to the devil, there seems to be no doubt;but that it should be applied also to some of his chief agents, wouldseem to be appropriate and unobjectionable. Now Rome being at this timepagan, and the supreme empire of the world, was the great, if not almostthe sole, agent in the hands of the devil for carrying out his purposes. Hence the application of that term to the Roman power. The next symbol to engage our attention is the leopard beast of chapter13, to which the dragon gives his seat, his power, and great authority. It would be sufficient on this point to show to what power the dragon, Pagan Rome, transferred its seat and gave its power. The seat of anygovernment is certainly its capital city. The city of Rome was thedragon's seat. But in A. D. 330, Constantine transferred the seat ofempire from Rome to Constantinople; and Rome was given up to what? Todecay, desolation, and ruin? No; but to become far more celebrated thanit had ever before been, not as the seat of pagan emperors, but as thecity of St. Peter's successors, the seat of a spiritual hierarchy whichwas not only to become more powerful than any secular prince, butthrough the magic of its fatal sorcery was to exercise dominion over thekings of the earth. Thus was Rome given to the papacy; and the decree ofJustinian, issued in 533, and carried into effect in 538, constitutingthe pope the head of all the churches and the corrector of heretics, wasthe investing of the papacy with that power and authority which theprophet foresaw. It is very evident, therefore, that this leopard beast is a symbol ofthe papacy. But there are other considerations which prove this. Thisbeast has the body of a leopard, the mouth of a lion, and the feet of abear, which shows it to be some power which succeeded those three beastsof Daniel's prophecy, and retained some of the characteristics of themall; and that was Rome. But this is not the first, or pagan form of theRoman government; for that is represented by the dragon; and this is theform which succeeded that, which was the papal. But what most clearly shows that this beast represents the papacy, isits identity with the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, which all Protestants agree in applying to the papal power. 1. Their chronology. The little horn arises after the great and terriblebeast, which represents Rome in its first or pagan form, is fullydeveloped even to the existence of the ten horns, or the division of theRoman empire into ten parts. Dan. 7:24. The leopard beast succeeds thedragon which also represents Rome in its pagan form. These powers appeartherefore upon the stage of action at the same time. 2. Their location. The little horn plucked up three horns to make wayfor itself. The last of these, the Gothic horn, was plucked up when theGoths were driven from Rome in 538, and the city was left in the handsof the little horn, which has ever since held it as the seat of itspower. To the leopard beast also, the dragon gave its seat, the city ofRome. They therefore occupy the same location. 3. Their character. The little horn is a blasphemous power; for itspeaks great words against the Most High. Dan. 7:25. The leopard beastalso is a blasphemous power; for it bears upon its head the name ofblasphemy; it has a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and heopens his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and histabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. Rev. 13:1, 5, 6. 4. Their work, The little horn by a long and heartless course ofoppression against the saints of the Most High, wears them out; and theyare given into his hand. Dan. 7:25. He makes war against them, andprevails. Verse 21. The leopard beast also makes war upon the saints, and overcomes them. Rev. 13:7. 5. The time of their continuance, Power was given to the little horn tocontinue a "time and times, and the dividing of time. " Dan. 7:25. Atime in Scripture phraseology is one year. Dan, 4:25. (The "seventimes" of Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation, Josephus informs us, were sevenyears. ) Times, that is two times, the least that can be expressed by theplural, would be two years more; and the dividing of time, or half atime, half a year; making in all, three years and a half. To the leopardbeast power was also given to continue forty-two months, which at twelvemonths to the year, give us again just three years and a half. And thisbeing prophetic time, a day for a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), andthere being accord to Scripture reckoning thirty days to a month, orthree hundred and sixty days to a year (Gen, 7:11, 24; 8:4), we havein each case twelve hundred and sixty years, for the continuance of thelittle horn and the leopard beast. 6. Their overthrow. At the end of the time, times and a half, thedominion of the little horn was to be taken away. Dan. 7:26. At the endof the forty-two months, the same length of time, the leopard beast wasalso to be slain, politically, with the sword, and go into captivity. Rev. 13:3, 10. These are points which prove not merely similarity, but identity. Forwhenever two symbols, as in this instance, represent powers that comeupon the stage of action at the same time, occupy the same territory, maintain the same character, do the same work, continue the same lengthof time, and meet the same fate, those two symbols must represent oneand the same power. And in all these particulars there is, as we haveseen, the most exact co-incidence between the little horn of the fourthbeast of Dan. 7, and the leopard beast of Rev. 13; and all are fulfilledby one power, and that is the papacy. The papacy succeeded to the paganform of the Roman empire. It has, ever since it was first established, occupied the seat of the dragon, the city of Rome, building for itselfsuch a sanctuary, St, Peter's, as the world nowhere else beholds. It isa blasphemous power, speaking the most presumptuous words it is possiblefor mortal lips to utter against the Most High. It has worn out thesaints, the Religious Encyclopedia estimating that the lives of fiftymillions of Christians have been quenched in blood by its mercilessimplements of torture. It has continued a time, times and a half, orforty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years. Commencing in 538, when the decree of Justinian in behalf of papal supremacy was firstmade effectual by the overthrow of the Goths, the papacy enjoyed aperiod of uninterrupted supremacy for just twelve hundred and sixtyyears, when its power was temporarily overthrown, and its influencepermanently crippled, by the French in 1798. Can any one doubt that the papacy is the power in question, and that theinterpretation of this symbol brings us down within seventy-six years ofour own time? We regard the exposition of the prophecy, thus far, asclear beyond the possibility of refutation; and if this is so, ourfuture field of inquiry lies within a very narrow compass, as we shallpresently see. Chapter Three. Location Of The Two-horned Beast. Following the leopard, or papal beast of Rev. 13, in consecutive order, comes the two-horned beast, whose appearance the prophet delineates, andwhose work he describes, in the following language:-- Verse 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb; and he spake as a dragon. 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the eaith, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; 17; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. These few verses, with an allusion to the same power under the name of"the false prophet" in Rev. 16:13, and 19; 20, furnish all thetestimony we have respecting the two-horned beast; but brief as it is, it gives sufficient data for a very certain application of the symbol inquestion. As an example of the world of meaning which prophecy cancondense into a single word, the first verse of the foregoing quotationmay be instanced. Here, within a compass of twenty-five words, only fourof which are words of more than one syllable, six grand points are made, which taken together are sufficient to determine accurately theapplication of this symbol. The prophet says first, that it is "anotherbeast;" secondly, that when his attention was turned to it it was"coming up;" thirdly, that it came up "out of the earth;" fourthly, thatit had "two horns;" fifthly, that these horns were like those of "alamb;" and sixthly, that it spoke, and by speaking revealed its truecharacter; for the voice was that of "a dragon. " The two-horned beast then is "another beast, " in addition to, anddifferent from, the papal beast which the prophet had just had underconsideration; that is, it symbolizes a power separate and distinct fromthat which is denoted by the preceding beast. This which John calls"another beast" is certainly no part of the first beast; and the powersymbolized by it is likewise no part of that which is intended by thatbeast. This is fatal to the claim of those who, to avoid the applicationof this symbol to our own government, say that it denotes some phase ofthe papacy; for in that case it would be a part of the preceding, orleopard beast. To avoid this difficulty, it is claimed that the two-horned beastrepresents the religious or ecclesiastical, and the leopard beast thecivil, power of Rome under papal rule; that these symbols correspond tothe beast and woman in Rev. 17, the one representing the civil power, the other the ecclesiastical. But this claim also falls to the groundjust as soon as it is shown that the leopard beast represents thereligious as well as the civil element of that power. And nothing iseasier than to show this. Take the first symbol, the dragon. What does it represent? Rome. Butthis is not enough; for Rome has presented two great phases to theworld, and the inquirer wants to know which one is intended by thissymbol. The answer then is, Pagan Rome; but just as soon as we add"Pagan, " we introduce a religious element; for paganism is one of themightiest systems of false religion ever devised by the arch-enemy oftruth. It was, then, the religious element in the empire that determinedwhat symbol should be used to represent it; and the dragon representedRome while under the control of a particular form of religion. But the time comes when another symbol is introduced upon the scene--theleopard beast arises out of the sea. What power is symbolized by this?The answer is still, Rome. But the dragon symbolized Rome, and why notlet that symbol continue to represent it? Whoever attempts to answerthis question must say that it is because a change had taken place inthe power. What change? Two kinds of changes are conspicuous in thehistory of Rome: changes in form of government, and a change inreligion. But this cannot denote any change in the form of government;for the seven different forms of government that Rome consecutivelyassumed are represented by the seven heads of the dragon, and the sevenheads of the leopard beast. The religious change must therefore be alonedenoted by this change of symbols. Paganism and Christianity coalesced, and the mongrel production was the papacy; and this new religion, andthis alone, made a change in the symbol necessary. Every candid mindmust assent to this; and this assent is an admission of the utterabsurdity of trying to limit this symbol to the civil power alone. Sofar from its representing the civil power alone, it is to theecclesiastical element that it owes its very existence. That the leopard beast represents ecclesiastical as well as civil poweris further shown in the arguments already presented to prove that thisbeast is identical with the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast, whichsymbolizes the papacy in all its components parts and through all itshistory. It is the leopard beast alone that is identical with thislittle horn, not the leopard beast and the two-horned beast takentogether. Again, Pagan Rome gave its seat to the papacy. The dragon gave his seatto the leopard beast. If it takes both the leopard beast and thetwo-horned beast to constitute the papacy, the prophet should have saidthat the dragon gave his seat and power to these two beasts combined. The fact that his transfer was to the leopard beast alone, is proofpositive that that beast alone symbolizes the papacy in its entirety. When, therefore, John calls the two-horned beast "another beast, " it iscertain that he does not mean any particular phase, or any part, of thepapal power. It is claimed by others that the two-horned beast represents England; bystill others, France; and by some, Russia, &c. The first, among manyother fatal objections to all these applications, is, that the territoryoccupied by all these powers is already appropriated by precedingsymbols. If the two-homed beast symbolized any of these, it would be apart of other beasts instead of "another beast, " separate and distinctfrom all the rest. It is a law of symbols that each one occupiesterritory peculiarly its own; that is, the territory which constitutedthe original government, was no part of that which had been occupied bythe previous powers. Thus Medo-Persia rose on territory not occupied byBabylon; and Medo-Persia and Babylon together covered all that portionof Asia known to ancient civilization. The Grecian or Macedonian kingdomarose to the west of them, occupying all Eastern Europe, so far as itwas then known to the ancients. Rome arose still to the west, interritory unoccupied by Grecia. Rome was divided into ten kingdoms; butthough Rome conquered the world, we look for these divisions only tothat territory which had never been included in other kingdoms. We looknot to Eastern Europe; for that was included in the dominion of thethird beast: nor to Asia; for that constituted the empires of the firstand second beasts: but to Western Europe, which territory was unoccupiedtill taken by Rome and its divisions. The ten kingdoms which arose out of the old Roman Empire are enumeratedas follows by Machiavel, indorsed by Bp. Newton, Faber, and Dr. Hales:1. The Huns. 2. The Ostrogoths. 3. The Visigoths. 4. The Franks. 5. TheVandals. 6. The Suevi. 7. The Burgundians. 8. The Heruli. 9. TheAnglo-Saxons, and 10. The Lombards. These kingdoms have since beenknown, says Scott, as the "ten kingdoms of the western empire, " and theyare distinguishable at the present day, some of them even by theirmodern names, as Hungary from the Huns, Lombardy, from the Lombards, France from the Franks, and England from the Anglo-Saxons. These tenkingdoms being denoted by the ten horns of the leopard beast, it isevident that all the territory included in these ten kingdoms is to beconsidered as belonging to that beast. England is one of these tenkingdoms; France is another. If therefore we say that either of these isthe one represented by the two-horned beast, we make one of the horns ofthe leopard beast constitute the two-horned beast. But this the prophecyforbids; for while John sees the leopard beast fully developed, with hishorns all complete and distinct, he beholds the two-horned beast comingup, and calls it "another beast. " We are therefore to look for thegovernment which this beast symbolizes, in some country outside theterritory occupied by the four beasts and the ten horns already referredto. But these, as we have seen, cover all the available portions of theeastern continent. Another consideration pointing to the locality of this power is drawnfrom the fact that John saw it arising from the earth. If the sea fromwhich the leopard beast arose, Rev. 13:1, denotes peoples, nations, andmultitudes, Rev. 17:15, the earth would suggest, by contrast, a new andpreviously-unoccupied territory. Being thus excluded from the eastern continent, and impressed with theidea of looking to territory not previously known to civilization, weturn of necessity to the western hemisphere. And this is in full harmonywith the ideas already quoted, and more which might be presented, thatthe progress of empire is with the sun around the earth from east towest. Commencing in Asia, the cradle of the race, it would end on thiscontinent, which completes the circuit. Bishop Berkley, in hiscelebrated poem on America, written more than one hundred years ago, inthe following forcible lines, pointed out the then future position ofAmerica, and its connection with preceding empires. "Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last. " By the "four first acts already past, " the bishop had undoubtedreference to the four universal kingdoms of Daniel's prophecy. A fifthgreat power, the noblest and the last, was, according to his poem, toarise this side the Atlantic, and here close the drama of time, as theday here ends its circuit. To what part of the American continent shall we look for the power inquestion? To the most powerful and prominent nation certainly. This isso self-evident that we need not stop to pass in review the frozenfragments of humanity on the north of us, nor the weak, superstitious, semi-barbarous, revolutionary, and uninfluential kingdoms to the southof us. No; we come to the United States, and here we are held. To thisnation the question of the location of the two-horned beastundeviatingly leads us. As an objection to this view, it may occur to some minds that thetwo-horned beast exercises all the power of the first beast before him(Greek [Greek: enopion], literally, before his eyes) and does wonders inhis sight; and how can the United States, separated by an ocean fromEuropean kingdoms, hold such an intimate relation to them? We answer, Space and time are annihilated by the telegraph. Through the Atlanticcable (an enterprise which, by the way, owes its origin to the UnitedStates), the lightnings are continually picturing to European beholdersthe affairs of America. Any important event occurring here is describedthe next hour in the journals of Europe. So far as the transmission ofan account of our proceedings to the people of the Old World isconcerned, it is as if America lay at the mouth of the English Channel. And the eyes of all Europe are intently watching our movements. Says Mr, Townsend (New World and Old, p. 583):-- "All the great peoples of Europe are curiously interested and amazed in the rise of America, and their rulers at present compete for our friendship. 'Europe, ' said the prince Talleyrand, long ago, 'must have an eye on America, and take care not to offer any pretext for recrimination or retaliation. America is growing every day. She will become a colossal power, and the time will come when (discoveries enabling her to communicate more easily with Europe) she will want to say a word in our affairs, and have a hand in them. '" The time has come, and the discoveries have been made to whichTalleyrand referred. It is almost as easy now to communicate with Europeas with our nearest town. By these things the attention of the world isdrawn still more strongly toward us; and thus whatever the United Statesdoes, it is done in the sight, yes, even before the eyes, of all Europe. Chapter Four. Chronology Of The Two-horned Beast. Having become satisfied where the power symbolized by the two-hornedbeast must be located, we now inquire respecting the time when we maylook for its development. At what period in this world's history is therise of this power located in the prophecy? On this point, as on thepreceding, the foundation for the conclusions at which we must arrive, is already laid in the facts elicted in reference to the preceding orleopard beast. It was at the time when this beast went into captivity, or was killed (politically) with the sword, verse 10, or (which wesuppose to be the same thing), had one of its heads wounded to death, verse 3, that John saw the two-horned beast coming up. If the leopardbeast, as we have conclusively proved, signifies the papacy, and thegoing into captivity met its fulfillment in the temporary overthrow ofthe popedom by the French, in 1798, then we have the time definitelyspecified, when we are to look for the rising of this power. Theexpression, "coming up, " must signify that the power to which it applieswas but newly organized, and was then just rising into prominence andinfluence. The power represented by this symbol, must, then, be somepower which in 1798 stood in this position before the world. That the leopard beast is a symbol of the papacy, there can be noquestion; but some may want more evidence that the wounding of one ofits heads, or its going into captivity, was the overthrow of the papacyin 1798. This can easily be given. A nation being represented by a wildbeast, the government of that nation, that by which it is controlled, must as a very clear matter of course be considered as answering to thehead of the beast. The seven heads of this beast would therefore denoteseven different governments; but all the heads pertain to one beast, andhence all these seven different forms of government pertain to oneempire. But only one form of government can exist in a nation at onetime; hence the seven heads must denote seven forms of government toappear, not simultaneously, but successively. But these heads pertainalike to the dragon and the leopard beast; from which this oneconclusion only can be drawn: that Rome, during its whole history, embracing both its pagan and papal phases, would change its governmentsix times, presenting to the world seven different forms in all. And thehistorian records just that number as pertaining to Rome. Rome was firstruled by Kings; second, by Consuls; third, by Decemvirs; fourth, byDictators; fifth, by Triumvirs; sixth, by Emperors; and seventh, byPopes. John saw one of these heads wounded, as it were, to death. Which one?Can we tell? Let it be noticed, first, that it is one of the heads ofthe beast which is wounded to death, and not one of the heads of thedragon; that is, it is some form of government which existed in Romeafter the change of symbols from the dragon to the leopard beast. Wethen inquire, How many of the different forms of Roman governmentbelonged absolutely to the dragon, or existed in Rome while itmaintained its dragonic or pagan form? These same seven heads are againpresented to John in Rev. 17; and the angel there explains that they areseven kings, or forms of government, verse 10; and he informs John thatfive are fallen, and one is; that is, five of these forms of governmentwere already passed in John's day; and he was living under the sixth. Under what form did John live? The imperial; it being the cruel decreeof the emperor Domitian which banished him to the isle of Patmos wherethis vision was given. Kings, Consuls, Decemvirs, Dictators, andTriumvirs, were all in the past in John's day. Emperors were then rulingthe Roman world; and the empire was still pagan. Six of these heads, therefore, Kings, Consuls, Decemvirs, Dictators, Triumvirs, and Emperorsbelonged to the dragon; for they all existed while Rome was pagan: andit was no one of these that was wounded to death; for had it been, Johnwould have said, I saw one of the heads of the dragon wounded to death. The wound was inflicted after the empire had so changed in respect toits religion that it became necessary to represent it by the leopardbeast. But the beast had only seven heads, and if six of them pertain tothe dragon, only one remained to have an existence after this change inthe empire took place. After the Emperors, the sixth and last head thatexisted in Rome in its dragonic form, came the Popes, the only head thatexisted after the empire had nominally become Christian. The "Exarch ofRavenna" existed so "short a space, " Rev. 17:10, that it has no place inthe general enumeration of the heads of this power. From these considerations, it is evident that the head which receivedthe mortal wound, was none other than the papal head. This conclusioncannot be shaken. We have now only to inquire when the papal head waswounded to death. It could not certainly be till after its fulldevelopment; but after this, the prophecy marked out for it anuninterrupted rule of 1260 years from its establishment in 538, till therevolution of 1798. Then the papacy was, for the time being, overthrown. General Berthier, by order of the French Directory, moved against thedominions of the pope in January, 1798. February 10, he effected anentrance into the self styled eternal city, and, on the 15th of the samemonth, proclaimed the establishment of the Roman republic. The pope, after this deprivation of his authority, was conveyed to France as aprisoner, and died at Valence, Aug. 29, 1799. This would have been the end of the papacy, had this overthrow been madepermanent. The wound would have proved fatal had it not been healed. But, though the wound was healed, the scar, so to speak, has ever sinceremained. A new pope was elected in 1800, and the papacy was restored, but only to a partial possession of its former privileges. Let the reader look carefully at this event. It furnishes a completefulfillment of the prophecy; and it is the only event in all Romanhistory which does this; for though the first six heads were each, inturn; exterminated, or gave place to a succeeding head, of no one ofthem could it be said that it received a deadly wound, and was afterwardhealed. And as this overthrow of the papacy by the French military mustbe the wounding of the head mentioned in Rev. 13:3, so, likewise, mustit be the going into captivity, and the killing with the sword, mentioned in verse 10; for it is an event of the right nature to fulfillthe prophecy, and one which occurred at the right time; namely, at theend of the time, times, and a half, the forty-two months, or the 1260years; and no other event can be found answering to the record in theserespects. We are not left, therefore, with any discretionary power inthe application of this prophecy; for God, by his providence, hasmarked the era of its accomplishment in as plain a manner as if he hadproclaimed with an audible voice, Behold here the accomplishment of myprophetic word! Thus clearly is the exact time indicated in the prophecy when we are tolook far the rise of the two-horned beast; for John, as soon as hebeholds the captivity of the first or leopard beast, says: "And I beheldanother beast coming up. " And his use of the present participle, "coming" up, clearly connects this view with the preceding verse, andshows it to be an event transpiring simultaneously with the going intocaptivity of the previous beast. If he had said, "And I had seen anotherbeast coming up, " it would prove that when he saw it, it was coming up, but that the time when he beheld it was indefinitely in the past. If hehad said, "And I beheld another beast which had come up, " it would provethat although his attention was called to it at the time when the firstbeast went into captivity, yet its rise was still indefinitely in thepast. But when he says, "I beheld another beast _coming up_" it provesthat when he turned his eyes from the captivity of the first beast, hesaw another power right then in the process of rapid development amongthe nations of the earth. So, then, about the year 1798, the star ofthat power which is symbolized by the two-horned beast must be seenrising to the zenith of its glory. In view of these considerations, itis useless to speak of this power as having arisen ages in the past. Toattempt such an application is to show one's self utterly reckless inregard to the plainest statements of inspiration. Again, the work of the two-horned beast is plainly located, by verse 12, this side the captivity of the first beast. It is there stated, indirect terms, that the two-horned beast causes "the earth and them whichdwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound washealed. " But worship could not be rendered to a beast whose deadly woundwas healed, till after that healing was accomplished. This brings theworship unmistakably within the present century. Says Eld. J. Litch (Restitution, p. 131):-- "The two-horned beast is represented as a power existing and performing his part after the death and revival of the first beast. " Mr. Wesley, in his notes on Rev. 14, says of the two-horned beast:-- "He has not yet come, though he cannot be far off; for he is to appear at the end of the forty-two months of the first beast. " We find three additional declarations in the book of Revelation whichprove, in a general sense, that the two-horned beast performs his workwith that generation of men who are to behold the closing up of allearthly scenes, and the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; andthese will complete the argument on this point. The first is the message of the third angel, brought to view in the14th of Revelation. It is not our purpose to enter into an exposition ofthe three messages of that chapter. We call the attention of the readerto only one fact, which must be apparent to all; and that is, that thethird of these messages is the last warning of danger, and the lastoffer of mercy, before the close of human probation; for the event whichimmediately follows is the appearance of one like the Son of man on awhite cloud, coming to reap the harvest of the earth, verse 14, whichcan represent nothing else but the second advent of the Lord fromHeaven. Whatever views, therefore, a person may take of the first andsecond messages, and at whatever time he may apply them, it is verycertain that the third and last one covers the closing hours of time, and reaches down to the second coming of Christ. And what is the burdenof this message? It is a denunciation of the unmingled wrath of Godagainst these who worship the beast and his image. But this worship ofthe beast and his image is the very work which the two-horned beastendeavors to enforce upon the people. The third message, then, is awarning against the work of the two-horned beast. And as there would beno propriety in supposing this warning to be given after that work wasperformed; as it could appropriately be given only when the two-hornedbeast was about to enforce, and while he was endeavoring to enforce, that worship; and as the second coming of Christ immediately succeedsthe proclamation of this message, it follows that the duties enjoined bythis message, and the decrees enforced by the two-horned beast, constitute the last test to be brought to bear upon the world; and hencethe two-homed beast performs his work, not ages in the past, but amongthe last generation of men. The second passage, which shows that the work of the two-horned beast isperformed just before the close of time, is found in Rev. 15:2, which wehave shown to refer to the same company spoken of in chapter 14:1-5. Here is a company who have gotten the victory over the beast and hisimage and the mark and the number of his name; in other words, they havebeen in direct conflict with the two-horned beast, which endeavors toenforce the worship of the beast and the reception of his mark. Andthese are "redeemed from among men" (14:4), or are translated from amongthe living at the second coming of Christ. 1 Cor. 15:51, 52; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. This again shows conclusively that it is the last generationwhich witnesses the work of this power. The third passage is Rev. 19:20, which speaks of the two-horned beastunder the title of the false prophet, and mentions a point not given inRev. 13, namely, the doom he is to meet. In the battle of the great day, which takes place in connection with the second coming of Christ, verses11-19, the false prophet, or two-horned beast, is cast alive into a lakeof fire burning with brimstone; and the word "alive" signifies thatthis power will be at that time a living power performing its part inall its strength and vigor. This power is not to pass off the stage ofaction, and be succeeded by another; but is to be a ruling power tilldestroyed by the King of kings and Lord of lords, when he comes to dashthe nations in pieces with a rod of iron. The sum of the argument, then, on this matter of chronology, is this:That the two-horned beast does not come into the field of this visionprevious to the year 1798; that it performs its work while the lastgeneration of men is living on the earth; and that it comes up to thebattle of the great day a living power in the full vigor of itsstrength. As it was shown in the argument on the location of the two-horned beastthat we were limited in our application to this western continent, so weare limited still further by its chronology; for it must not only besome power which arises this side of the Atlantic, but one which is seencoming up here at a _particular time_. Taking our stand, then, in theyear 1798, the time indicated in the prophecy, we invite the carefulattention of the reader to this question: What independent power ineither North or South America was at that time "coming up" in a mannerto answer to the conditions of the prophecy? All that part of NorthAmerica lying to the north of us was under the dominion of Russia andGreat Britain. Mexico, to the south-west, was a Spanish colony. Passingto South America, Brazil belonged to Portugal, and most of the otherSouth American States were under Spanish control. In short, there wasnot then a single civilized, independent government in the New World, except our own United States. No other nation, therefore, can be the onerepresented in the prophecy; but this one so far answers to it mostaccurately. It has always taken the lead of all European settlements inthis hemisphere. It was "coming up" at the exact time indicated in theprophecy. Like a lofty monument in a field all its own, stand the UnitedStates on this continent, grand, unique, unexplainable. So far as God'sprovidence works among the nations for the accomplishment of hispurposes, it is visible in the development of this country as an agentto fulfill his word. On these two vital points of location andchronology the arguments which show that our country is the onerepresented by the symbol of the two-horned beast are absolutelyconclusive. Chapter Five. The United States Have Arisen In The Exact Manner In Which John Saw TheTwo-horned Beast Coming Up. The manner in which the two-horned beast was seen coming up shows, equally with its location and its chronology, that it is a symbol ofthese United States. John says he saw the beast coming up "out of theearth. " And this expression must have been designedly used to point outthe contrast between the rise of this beast, and that of other nationalprophetic symbols. The four beasts of Daniel 7, and the leopard beast ofRev. 13, all arose out of the sea. Says Daniel, The four winds of Heavenstrove upon the great sea, and four beasts came up from the sea. The seadenotes peoples, nations, and tongues, Rev. 17:15; and the winds denotepolitical strife and commotion. Jer. 35:32, 33. There was then, in thisscene, the dire commotion of nature's mightiest elements, the windabove, the waters benneath, the fury of the gale, the roaring anddashing of the waves, and the tumult of the raging storm; and in themidst of this war of elements, as if aroused from the depths of the seaby the fearful commotion, these beasts one after another appeared. Inother words, the governments of which these beasts were symbols owedtheir origin to movements among the people which would be wellrepresented by the sea lashed into foam by the sweeping gale; they aroseby the upheavals of revolution, and through the strife of war. But when the prophet beholds the rising of the two-horned beast, howdifferent the scene! No political tempest sweeps the horizon, no armiesclash together like the waves of the sea. He does not behold thetroubled and restless surface of the waters, but a calm and immovableexpanse of earth. And out of this earth, like a plant growing up in aquiet and sheltered spot, he sees this beast, bearing on his head thehorns of a lamb, those eloquent symbols of youth and innocence, dailyaugmenting in bodily proportions, and daily increasing in physicalstrength. Some may here point to the war of the Revolution as an event whichdestroys the force of this application; but this furnishes no objection;for 1. That war was at least fifteen years in the past when thetwo-horned beast was introduced into the field of this vision; and 2. The war of the Revolution was not a war of conquest. It was not waged tooverthrow any other kingdom, and build this government on its ruins, butonly to defend the just rights of the American people. An act ofresistance against continual attempts of injustice and tyranny, cannotcertainly be placed in the same catalogue with wars of aggression andconquest. The same may be said of the war of 1812. Hence, theseconflicts do not even partake of the nature of objections to theapplication here set forth. The word which John uses to describe the manner in which this beastcomes up is very expressive. It is [Greek: anabainon] (_anabainon_), oneof the prominent definitions of which is, "to grow or spring up as aplant. " And it is a remarkable fact that this very figure has beenchosen by political writers, as the one which best illustrates the riseof our government. Mr. G. A. Townsend, in his work entitled, "The NewWorld Compared with the Old, " p. 462, says:-- "Since America was discovered, she has been a subject of revolutionary thought in Europe. The mystery of _her coming forth from vacancy_, the marvel of her wealth in gold and silver, the spectacle of her captives led through European capitals, filled the minds of men with unrest: and unrest is the first stage of revolution. " On p. 635, he further says:-- "In this web of islands, the West Indies, began the life of both [North and South] Americas. There Columbus saw land, there Spain began her baneful and brilliant Western Empire; thence Cortez departed for Mexico, De Soto for the Mississippi, Balboa for the Pacific, and Pizarro for Peru. The history of the United States was separated by a beneficient Providence far from this wild and cruel history of the rest of the continent, and _like a silent seed, we grew into empire_; while empire itself, beginning in the South, was swept by so interminable a hurricane that what of its history we can ascertain is read by the very lightnings that devastated it. The growth of English America may be likened to a series of lyrics sung by separate singers, which, coalescing, at last make a vigorous chorus, and this, attracting many from afar, swells and is prolonged, until presently it assumes the dignity and proportions of epic song. " A writer in the _Dublin Nation_ about the year 1850 spoke of the UnitedStates as a wonderful empire which was "_emerging_, " and "_amid thesilence of the earth_ daily adding to its power and pride. " In Martyn's "History of the Great Reformation, " Vol. Iv, p. 238, is anextract from an oration of Edward Everett, on the English exiles whofounded this government, in which he says:-- "Did they look for a retired spot, inoffensive from its obscurity, safe in its remoteness from the haunts of despots, where the little church of Leyden might enjoy freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions over which in _peaceful conquest--victoria sine clade_--they have borne the banners of the cross. " We now ask the reader to look at these expressions side by side: "Comingup out of the earth, " "coming forth from vacancy, " "emerging amid thesilence of the earth, " "like a silent seed we grew into empire, " "mightyregions" secured by "peaceful conquest. " The first is from the prophet, stating what would be when the two-horned beast should arise; the othersare from political writers, telling what has been in the history of ourown government. Can any one fail to see that the last four are exactlysynonymous with the first, and that they record a completeaccomplishment of the prediction? And what is not a little remarkable, those who have thus recorded the fulfillment have, without any referenceto prophecy, used the very figure which the prophet employed. These men, therefore, being judges--men of large and cultivated minds, and whosepowers of discernment all will acknowledge to be sufficiently clear--itis certain that the particular manner in which the United States havearisen, answers most strikingly to the development of the symbol underconsideration. We now extend the inquiry a step further: Have the United States "comeup" in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? Has their progress beensufficiently great and sufficiently rapid to corresponds to that visibleand perceptible growth which John saw in the two-horned beast? Every person whose reading is ordinarily extensive, has something of anidea of what the United States are to-day; he likewise has an idea, sofar as words can convey it to his mind, of what they were at thecommencement of their history. The only object, then, in presentingstatistics and testimony on this point, is to show that our rapid growthhas struck mankind with the wonder of a constant miracle. Said Emile de Girardin, in _La Liberte_ (1868):-- "The population of America, not thinned by any conscription, multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and the day may before [long be] seen, when they will number sixty or eighty millions of souls. This _parvenu_ [one recently risen to notice] is aware of his importance and destiny. Hear him proudly exclaim, 'America for Americans!' See him promising his alliance to Russia; and we see that power which well knows what force is, grasp the hand of this giant of yesterday. "In view of his _unparalleled progress and combination_, what are the little toys with which we vex ourselves in Europe? What is this needle gun we are anxious to get from Prussia, that we may beat her next year with it? Had we not better take from America the principle of liberty she embodies, out of which have come her citizen pride, her gigantic industry, and her formidable loyalty to the destinies of her republican land?" The _Dublin_ (Ireland) _Nation_, already quoted, says:-- "In the east, there is arising a colossal centaur called the Russian Empire. With a civilized head and front, it has the sinews of a huge barbaric body. There one man's brain moves 70, 000, 000. There all the traditions of the people are of aggression and conquest in the west. There but two ranks are distinguishable--serfs and soldiers. There the map of the future includes Constantinople and Vienna as outposts of St. Petersburg. "In the west, an opposing and still more wonderful American Empire is emerging. We islanders have no conception of the extraordinary events which amid the silence of the earth are daily adding to the power and pride of this gigantic nation. Within three years, territories more extensive than these three kingdoms [Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland] France and Italy put together, have been quietly, and in almost 'matter of course' fashion, annexed to the Union. "Within seventy years, seventeen new sovereignties, the smallest of them larger than Great Britain, have peaceably united themselves to the Federation. No standing army was raised, no national debt sunk, no great exertion was made, but there they are. And the last mail brings news of three more great States about to be joined to the thirty: Minnesota in the north-west, Deseret in the south-west, and California on the shores of the Pacific. These three States will cover an area equal to one-half the European continent. " Mitchel, in his School Geography (4th revised edition), p. 101, speakingof the United States, says:-- "When it is considered that one hundred years ago the inhabitants numbered but 1, 000, 000, it presents the most striking instance of national growth to be found in the history of mankind. " Let us reduce these general statements to the more tangible form offacts and figures. A short time before the great Reformation in the daysof Martin Luther, not four hundred years ago, this Western Continent wasdiscovered. The Reformation brought out a large class of persons whowere determined to worship God according to the dictates of their ownconsciences. Being fettered and oppressed by the religious intoleranceof the Old World, they sought, in the wilds of America, that measure ofcivil and religious freedom which they so much desired. A little morethan two hundred years ago, Dec. 22, 1620, the Mayflower landed onehundred of these voluntary exiles on the coast of New England. Here, says Martyn, "New England was born, " and this was "its first baby cry, aprayer and a thanksgiving to the Lord. " Another permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va. , in1607. In process of time other settlements were made, and coloniesorganized, which were all subject to the English government till thedeclaration of Independence July 4, 1776. The population of these colonies, according to the _U. S. Magazine_ ofAugust, 1855, amounted in 1701, to 262, 000; in 1749, to 1, 046, 000; in1775, to 2, 803, 000. Then commenced the struggle of the American coloniesagainst the oppression of the mother country. In 1776, they declaredthemselves as, in justice and right, an independent nation. In 1777, delegates from the thirteen original States, New Hampshire, Massachussets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, SouthCarolina, and Georgia, in Congress assembled, adopted articles ofconfederation. In 1783, the war of the Revolution closed by a treaty ofpeace with Great Britain, whereby our independence was acknowledged, andterritory ceded to the extent of 815, 615 square miles. In 1787, theConstitution was framed and ratified by the foregoing thirteen States, and on the 1st of March, 1789, went into operation. Then the Americanship of State was fairly launched, with less than one million squaremiles of territory, and about three millions of souls. Thus we are brought to the time when, in our interpretation ofRevelation 13, this government is introduced into the prophecy as"coming up. " Our territorial growth since then has been as follows:Louisiana, acquired from France in 1803, comprising 930, 928 square milesof territory. Florida, from Spain in 1821, with 59, 268 square miles. Texas, admitted to the Union in 1845, with 237, 504 square miles. Oregon, as settled by treaty in 1846, with 380, 425 square miles. California, asconquered from Mexico in 1847, with 649, 762 square miles. Arizona (NewMexico), as acquired from Mexico by treaty in 1854, with 27, 500 squaremiles. Alaska, as acquired by purchase from Russia in 1867, with 577, 390square miles. This gives a grand total of three million, five hundredand seventy-eight thousand, three hundred and ninety-two (3, 578, 392)square miles of territory, which is about four-ninths of all NorthAmerica, and more than one-fifteenth of the whole land surface of theglobe. And while this expansion has been thus rapidly going forward here, howhas it been with the other leading nations of the globe? Macmillian &Co. , the London publishers, in announcing their "Statesman's Year Book"for 1867, make an interesting statement of the changes that took placein Europe during the half century between the years 1817 and 1867. Theysay:-- "The half century has extinguished three kingdoms, one grand duchy, eight duchies, four principalities, one electorate, and four republics. Three new kingdoms have arisen, and one kingdom has been transformed into an empire. There are now forty-one States in Europe against fifty-nine which existed in 1817. Not less remarkable is the territorial extension of the superior States of the world. Russia has annexed 567, 364 square miles; the United States, 1, 968, 009; France, 4, 620; Prussia, 29, 781; Sardinia, expanding into Italy, has increased by 83, 041; the Indian Empire has been augmented by 431, 616. The principal States that have lost territory are Turkey, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands. " We ask the especial attention of the reader to these particulars. Duringthe last half century, twenty-one goverments have disappearedaltogether; and only three new ones have arisen. Five have lost insteadof gained in territory. Only five, besides our own, have added to theirdomain. And the one which has done the most in this direction has addedonly a little over half a million of square miles, while we have addednearly two millions. Thus the United States government has added overfourteen hundred thousand square miles of territory more than any othersingle nation, and over eight hundred thousand more than have been addedby all the other nations of the earth put together: In view of thesefacts, can any one doubt, looking the whole world over, which governmentit is that has been, during this time, emphatically, "coming up"? In point of population, our increase since 1798, according to the censusof the several decades, has been as follows: In 1800, the total numberof inhabitants in the United States was 5, 305, 925; in 1810, 7, 239, 814;in 1820, 9, 638, 191; in 1830, 12, 866, 020; in 1840, 17, 069, 453; in 1850, 23, 191, 876; in 1860, 31, 445, 089; in 1870, 38, 555, 983. These figures arealmost too large for the mind to readily grasp. Perhaps a better ideacan be formed of the rapid increase of population by looking at a fewrepresentative cities. Boston, in 1792, had 18, 000 inhabitants; now, 250, 000. New York, in 1792, 30, 000; now, nearly 1, 000, 000. Chicago, about thirty years ago, was a little trading post, with a few huts; butyet it contained at the time of the great conflagration in October, 1871, nearly 350, 000 souls. San Francisco, twenty years ago, was abarren waste, but contains to-day 170, 000 inhabitants. Our industrial growth has been equally remarkable. In 1792, the UnitedStates had no cotton mill. In 1850, there were 1074, employing 100, 000hands. Only forty-one years ago the first section of the first railroadin this country, the Baltimore and Ohio, was opened to a distance oftwenty-three miles. We have now 52, 000 miles in operation. It was onlythirty-four years ago that the magnetic telegraph was invented. Now theestimated length of telegraph wire in operation is over 100, 000 miles. In 1833, the first reaper and mower was constructed, and in 1846, thefirst sewing machine was completed. Think of the hundreds of thousandsof both of these classes of machines now in use. And there are now morelines of telegraph and railroad projected and in process of constructionthan ever before, and greater facilities and larger plans formanufactories of all kinds than at any previous point of time. Andshould these industries increase in the same geometrical ratio, and timecontinue ten years, the figures we now chronicle would then read aboutas the records of a century ago now read to us. And Nature herself, by the physical features she has stamped upon ourcountry, has seemed to lay it out as a field for national development onthe most magnificent scale. Here we have the largest lakes, the longestrivers, the mightiest cataracts, the deepest caves, the broadest andmost fertile prairies, and the richest mines of gold and iron and coaland copper, to be found upon the globe. "When America was discovered, there were but sixty millions of gold in Europe. California and theterritories round her have produced one thousand millions of dollars ingold in twenty years. Sixty-one million dollars was the largest annualgold yield ever made in Australia. California has several times producedninety millions of gold in a year. " (Townsend, p. 384. ) "The area ofworkable coal beds in all the world outside the United States isestimated at 26, 000 square miles. That of the United States, notincluding Alaska, is estimated at over 200, 000 square miles, or _eighttimes as large as the available coal area of all the rest of theglobe!_" (American Year Book for 1869, p. 655. ) "The iron product andmanufacture of the United States has increased enormously within thelast few years, and the vast beds of iron convenient to coal in variousparts of the Union, are destined to make America the chief source ofsupply for the world. " "Three mountains of solid iron [in Missouri], known as Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, and Shepherd's Mountain, are amongthe most remarkable natural curiosities on our continent. " (_Id. _ p. 654. ) And the people have taken hold to lay out their work on the grand scalethat nature has indicated. Excepting only the Houses of Parliament inLondon, our national capitol at Washington is the most spacious andimposing national edifice in the world. By the unparalleled feat of asubterranean tunnel two miles out under the bottom of the lake, Chicagoobtains her water. The work of constructing a railroad tunnel across theDetroit river is already commenced, and the traveler will soon pass, inhis steam palace, under the bed of that river, while the immensecommerce of the lakes is floating upon its bosom over his head. Chicagois the most extensive grain and lumber market in the world; andPhiladelphia and New York contain the largest and best furnishedprinting establishments now in existence. The submarine cable, runninglike a thread of light through the depths of the broad Atlantic from theUnited States to England, a conception of American genius, is thegreatest achievement in the telegraphic line. The Pacific Railroad, thatiron highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, stands at the head of allmonuments of engineering skill in modern times. Following the firstAtlantic cable, soon came a second almost as a matter of course; andfollowing the Central Pacific R. R. , a northern line is now in process ofrapid construction. And what results are expected to flow from thesemighty enterprises? The _Scientific American_ of Oct. 6, 1866, says:-- "To exaggerate the importance of this transcontinental highway is almost impossible. To a certain extent it will change the relative positions of this country, Europe and Asia.... With the completion of the Pacific Railroad, instead of receiving our goods from India, China, Japan, and the 'isles of the sea, ' by way of London and Liverpool, we shall bring them direct by way of the Sandwich Islands and the railroad, and become the carriers to a great extent for Europe. But this is but a portion of the advantage of this work. Our western mountains are almost literally mountains of gold and silver. In them the Arabian fable of Aladdin is realized.... Let the road be completed, and the comforts as well as the necessaries furnished by Asia, the manufactures of Europe, and the productions of the States can be brought by the iron horse almost to the miner's door; and in the production and possession of the precious metals, the blood of commerce, we shall be the richest nation on the globe. But the substantial wealth created by the improvement of the soil and the development of the resources of the country, is a still more important element in the result of this vast work. " Thus, with the idea of becoming the carriers of the world, the highwayof the nations, and the richest power on the globe, the American heartswells with pride, and mounts up with aspirations, to which there is nolimit. And the extent to which we have come up is further shown by theinfluence which we are exerting on other nations. Speaking of AmericaMr. Townsend in the work above cited, p. 462, says:-- "Out of her discovery grew the European reformation in religion; out of our Revolutionary War grew the revolutionary period of Europe. And out of our rapid development among great States and happy peoples, has come an immigration more wonderful than that which invaded Europe from Asia in the latter centuries of the Roman Empire. When we raised our flag on the Atlantic, Europe sent her contributions; it appeared on the Pacific, and all orientalism felt the signal. They are coming in two endless fleets, eastward and westward, and the highway is swung between the ocean for them to tread upon. We have lightened Ireland of half her weight, and Germany is coming by the village load every day. England, herself, is sending the best of her working men now (1869), and in such numbers as to dismay her Jack Bunsbys. What is to be the limit of this mighty immigration?" Speaking of our influence and standing in the Pacific, the same writer, p. 608, says:-- "In the Pacific Ocean these four powers [England, France, Holland, and Russia] are squarely met by the United States, which, without possessions or the wish for them, has paramount influence in Japan, the favor of China, the friendly countenance of Russia, and good feeling with all the great English colonies planted there. The United States is the only power on the Pacific which has not been guilty of intrigue, of double-dealing, of envy and of bitterness, and it has taken the _front rank_ in influence without awakening the dislike of any of its competitors, possibly excepting those English who are never magnanimous. " And Hon. Wm. H. Seward, on his return from a late trip around the world, said, "Americans are now the fashion all over the world. " With one more extract we close the testimony on this point. In the N. Y. _Independent_ of July 7, 1870, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, then Vice-Presidentof the United States, glancing briefly at the past history of thiscountry, said:-- "Wonderful, indeed, has been that history. Springing into life from under the heel of tyranny, its progress has been onward, with the firm step of a conqueror. From the rugged clime of New England, from the banks of the Chesapeake, from the Savannahs of Carolina and Georgia, the descendants of the Puritans, the Cavalier, and the Huguenot, swept over the towering Alleghanies, but a century ago the barrier between civilization on the one side and almost unbroken barbarism on the other; and banners of the Republic waved from flagstaff and highland, through the broad valleys of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri. Nor stopped its progress there. Thence onward poured the tide of American civilization and, progress, over the vast regions of the Western plains; and from the snowy crests of the Sierras you look down on American States fronting the calm Pacific, an empire of themselves in resources and wealth, but loyal in our darkest hours to the nation whose authority they acknowledge and in whose glory they proudly share. "From a territorial area of less than nine hundred thousand square miles, it has expanded into over three millions and a half--fifteen times larger than that of Great Britain and France combined--with a shore-line, including Alaska, equal to the entire circumference of the earth, and with a domain within these lines far wider than that of the Romans in their proudest days of conquest and renown. With a river, lake, and coastwise commerce estimated at over two thousand millions of dollars per year; with railway traffic of four to six thousand millions per year, and the annual domestic exchanges of the country, running up to nearly ten thousand millions per year; with over two thousand millions of dollars invested in manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industry; with over five hundred millions of acres of land in actual occupancy, valued, with their appurtenances, at over seven thousand millions of dollars, and producing annually crops valued at over three thousand millions of dollars; with a realm which, if the density of Belgium's population were possible, would be vast enough to include all the present inhabitants of the world; and with equal rights guaranteed to even the poorest and humblest of our forty millions of people, we can, with a manly pride akin to that which distinguished the palmiest days of Rome, claim as the noblest title of the world, 'I am an American citizen. '" And how long a time has it taken for this wonderful transformation? Inthe language of Edward Everett, "They are but lately dead who saw thefirst-born of the pilgrims;" and Mr. Townsend (p. 21) says: "The memoryof one man can swing from that time of primitive government tothis--when thirty-eight millions of people living on two oceans and intwo zones, are represented in Washington, and their consuls andambassadors are in every port and metropolis of the globe. " Is this enough? The only objection we can anticipate is that this nationhas progressed too fast and too far--that the government has alreadyoutgrown the symbol. But what shall be thought of those who deny that ithas any place in prophecy at all? No; this prodigy has its place on theprophetic page; and the path which has thus far led us to the conclusionthat the two-horned beast is the prophetic symbol of the United States, is hedged in on either side by walls of adamant that reach to heaven. Tomake any other application is an utter impossibility. The thought wouldbe folly, and the attempt, abortion. Chapter Six. Character Of The Government Represented By The Two-horned Beast. Having given us data by which we determine the location, chronology, andrapid rise of this power, John now proceeds to describe the appearanceof the two-horned beast, and speak of his acts in such a manner as toclearly indicate his character both apparent and real. Everyspecification thus far examined has held the application imperatively tothe United States. We shall find this one no less strong in the samedirection. This symbol has "two horns like a lamb. " To those who have studied theprophecies of Daniel and John, horns upon a beast are no unfamiliarfeatures. The ram, Dan. 8:3, had two horns. The he goat that cameagainst him had, at first, one notable horn between his eyes. This wasbroken and four came up in its place toward the four winds of heaven. From one of these came forth another horn, which waxed exceeding great. The fourth beast of Daniel 7 had ten horns. Among these, a little hornwith eyes and mouth, far-seeing, crafty, and blasphemous, arose. Thedragon and leopard beast of Rev. 12 and 13, denoting the same as thefourth beast of Dan. 7, in its two phases, have each the same number ofhorns signifying the same thing. And the symbol under consideration hastwo horns like a lamb. From the use of the horns on the other symbols, some facts are apparent which may guide us to an understanding of theiruse on this last one. A horn is used in the Scriptures as a symbol of strength and power, asin Deut. 33:17, and glory and honor, as in Job 16:15. A horn is sometimes used to denote a nation as a whole, as the fourhorns of the goat, the little horn of Dan. 8, and the ten horns of thefourth beast of Dan. 7; and sometimes some particular feature of thegovernment, as the first horn of the goat, which denoted not the nationas a whole, but the civil power as centered in the first king, Alexanderthe Great. Horns do not always denote division, as in the case of the four horns ofthe goat, &c. ; for the two horns of the ram denote the _union_ of Mediaand Persia in one government. A horn is not used exclusively to represent civil power; for the littlehorn of Daniel's fourth beast, the papacy, was a horn when it plucked upthree other horns, and established itself in 538. But it was then purelyan ecclesiastical power, and so remained for two hundred and seventeenyears from that time, Pepin, in the year 755, making the Roman pontiff agrant of some rich provinces in Italy, which first constituted him atemporal monarch. (Goodrich's Hist. Of the Church, p. 98. Bower's Hist. Of the Popes, Vol. 2, p. 108. ) With these facts before us, we are prepared to examine into thesignificance of the two horns which pertain to this beast. Why does Johnsay that he has two horns like a lamb? Why not simply two horns? It mustbe because these horns possess peculiarities which indicate thecharacter of the power to which they belong. The horns of a lambindicate, first, youthfulness, and secondly, innocence and gentleness. As a power which has but recently arisen, the United States answer tothe symbol admirably in respect to age; while no other power, as hasalready abundantly been proved, can be found to do this. And consideredas an index of power and character, it can be decided what constitutesthe two horns of the government, if it can be ascertained what is thesecret of its strength and power, and what reveals its apparentcharacter, or constitutes its outward profession. The Hon. J. A. Binghamgives us the clue to the whole matter when he states that the object ofthose who first sought these shores was to found "what the world had notseen for ages; viz. , --a church without a pope, and a State without aking. " Expressed in other words, this would be a government in which thechurch should be free from the civil power, and civil and religiousliberty reign supreme. And what is the profession of this government in these respects? Thatgreat instrument which our forefathers set forth as their bill ofrights, the Declaration of Independence, contains these words: "We holdthese truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, thatthey are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; thatamong these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapiness. " And inArticle IV, Sec. 4, of the Constitution of the United States, we findthese words: "The United States shall guaranty to every State in thisUnion a republican form of government. " A republican form of governmentis one in which the power rests with the people, and the whole machineryof government is worked by representatives elected by them. And here, again, we see the fitness between the symbol and the government which issymbolized; for the horns of the two-horned beast have no crowns uponthem as do the horns of the dragon and leopard beast, showing that thegovernment which it represents cannot be monarchical, but is one inwhich the power is vested in the hands of the people. This is a sufficient guarantee of civil liberty. What is said respectingreligious freedom? In Art. VI of the Constitution, we read: "Noreligious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any officeor public trust under the United States. " In Art. I of Amendments of theConstitution, we read: "Congress shall make no law respecting anestablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. " In reply to questions as to the design of the Constitution from thecommittee of a Baptist society in Virginia, Geo. Washington wrote, Aug. 4, 1789, as follows:-- "If I had the least idea of any difficulty resulting from the Constitution adopted by the Convention, of which I had the honor to be President when it was formed, so as to endanger the rights of any religious denomination, then I never should have attached my name to that instrument. If I had any idea that the general government was so administered that the liberty of conscience was endangered, I pray you be assured that no man would be more willing than myself to revise and alter that part of it, so as to avoid all religious persecutions. You can, without doubt, remember that I have often expressed my opinion, that every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience. " In 1830, certain memorials for prohibiting the transportation of mailsand the opening of post-offices on Sunday were referred to theCongressional Committee on Post-offices and Post-roads. The committeereported unfavorably to the prayer of the memorialists. Their report wasadopted and printed by order of the Senate of the United States, and thecommittee discharged from the further consideration of the subject. Ofthe Constitution, they say:-- "We look in vain to that instrument for authority to say whether the first day, or seventh day, or whether any day, has been made holy by the Almighty. " "The Constitution regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian, and gives no more authority to adopt a measure affecting the conscience of a solitary individual than of a whole community. That representative who would violate this principle would lose his delegated character, and forfeit the confidence of his constituents. If Congress should declare the first day of the week holy, it would not convince the Jew nor the Sabbatarian. It would dissatisfy both, and consequently convert neither.... If a solemn act of legislation shall in one point define the law of God, or point out to the citizen one religious duty, it may with equal propriety define every part of revelation, and enforce every religious obligation, even to the forms and ceremonies of worship, the endowments of the church and support of the clergy. " "The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man's relation to his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth, we are conscious of it in our own bosom. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate. " "It is also a fact that counter memorials, equally respectable, oppose the interference of Congress on the ground that it would be legislating upon a religious subject, and therefore unconstitutional. " Hon. A. H. Cragin, of New Hamphshire, in a speech in the House ofRepresentatives, said:-- "When our forefathers reared the magnificent structure of a free Republic in this western land, they laid its foundations broad and deep in the eternal principles of right. Its materials were all quarried from the mountain of truth; and as it rose majestically before an astonished world, it rejoiced the hearts and hopes of mankind. Tyrants only cursed the workmen and their workmanship. Its architecture was new. It had no model in Grecian or Roman history. It seemed a paragon let down from Heaven to inspire the hopes of men, and to demonstrate God's favor to the people of the New World. The builders recognized the rights of human nature as universal. Liberty, the great first right of man, they claimed for 'all men, ' and claimed it from 'God himself. ' Upon this foundation they erected the temple, and dedicated it to Liberty, Humanity, Justice, and Equality. Washington was crowned its patron saint. Liberty was then the national goddess, worshiped by all the people. They sang of liberty, they harangued for liberty, they prayed for liberty. Slavery was then hateful. It was denounced by all. The British king was condemned for foisting it upon the colonies. Southern men were foremost in entering their protest against it. It was then everywhere regarded as an evil, and a crime against humanity. " Then the Bible and the Bible alone is the Protestant rule of faith; andliberty to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscienceis the standard of religious freedom in this land. And from thequotations herewith presented, it is evident that while the governmentpledges to all its citizens the largest amount of civil freedom, outsideof license, it has determined to lay upon the people no religiousrestrictions, but to guarantee to all liberty to worship God accordingto the Protestant principle. Here, then, are two great principles standing prominently before thepeople: _Republicanism_ and _Protestantism_. And what can be more just, and innocent, and lamb-like, than these? And here, also, is the secret ofour strength and power. Had some Caligula or Nero ruled this land, weshould look in vain for what we behold to-day. Immigration would nothave flowed to our shores, and this country would never have presentedto the world so unparalleled an example of national growth. Townsend, Old World and New, p. 341, says:-- "And what attached these people to us? In part, undoubtedly, our zone, and the natural endowments of this portion of the globe. In part, and of late years, our vindicated national character, and the safety of our Institutions. _But the magnet in America is, that we are a republic_. A republican people! Cursed with artificial government, however glittering, the people of Europe, like the sick, pine for nature with protection, for open vistas and blue sky, for independence without ceremony, for adventure in their own interest, --and here they find it!" One of these horns may therefore represent the civil republican power ofthis government, and the other, the Protestant ecclesiastical. Thisapplication is warranted by the facts already set forth respecting thehorns of the other powers. For (1) the two horns may belong to onebeast, and denote union instead of division, as in the case of the ram, Daniel 8; and (2) a horn may denote a purely ecclesiastical element, asthe little horn of Daniel's fourth beast; and (3) a horn may denote thecivil power alone, as in the case of the first horn of the Grecian goat. On the basis of these facts, we have these two elements, Republicanismand Protestantism here united in one government, and represented by twohorns like the horns of a lamb. And these are nowhere else to be found. Nor have they appeared since the time when we could consistently lookfor the rise of the two-horned beast, in any nation upon the face of theearth except our own. And with these horns there is no objection to be found. They are likethose of a lamb, the Bible symbol of purity and innocence. Theprinciples are all right. The outward appearance is unqualifiedly good. But, alas for our country! its acts are to give the lie to itsprofession. The lamb-like features are first developed; but the dragonvoice is to be heard hereafter. Chapter Seven. The Dragon Voice. From the facts thus far elicited in this argument, we have seen that thegovernment symbolized by the two-horned beast must be some governmentdistinct from the powers of the Old World, whether civil orecclesiastical; that it must arise this side the Atlantic; that it mustbe seen coming into influence and notoriety about the year 1798; that itmust rise in a peaceful manner; that its progress must be so rapid as tostrike the beholder with as much wonder as the perceptible growth of ananimal before his eyes; that it must be a republic; that it must exhibitbefore the world, as an index of its character, and the motives by whichit is governed, two great principles in themselves perfectly just, andinnocent, and lamb-like; and that it must perform its work in thepresent century. And we have seen that of these eight specifications, just two things canbe said: first, that they are all perfectly met in the history of theUnited States, thus far; and secondly, that they are not met in thehistory of any other government on the face of the earth. Behind theseeight lines of defense, therefore, the argument lies impregnablyintrenched. And the American patriot, he who loves his country, and takes a justpride in her thus-far glorious record and noble achievements, needs anargument no less ponderous and immovable, and an array of evidence noless clear, to enable him to accept the painful conclusion that theremainder of the prophecy also applies to this government, hitherto thebest the world has ever seen; for the prophet immediately turns to apart of the picture which is dark with injustice, and marred byoppression, deception, intolerance, and wrong. After describing the lamb-like appearance of this symbol, Johnimmediately adds, "And he spake as a dragon. " The dragon, the first linkin this chain of prophecy, was a relentless persecutor of the church ofGod. The leopard beast which follows, was likewise a persecuting power, grinding out for 1260 years the lives of millions of the followers ofChrist. The third actor in the scene, the two-horned beast, speaks likethe first, and thus shows himself to be a dragon at heart; "for out ofthe abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, " and actions are framed. This, then, like the rest, is a persecuting power; and it is for thisreason alone that any of them are mentioned in prophecy. God's care forthe church, his little flock, is what has led him to give a revelationof his will, and point out the foes with whom they would have tocontend. To his church, all the actions recorded of the dragon andleopard beast relate; and in reference to the church, therefore, weconclude that the dragon voice of this power is uttered. The "speaking" of any government must be the public promulgation of itswill on the part of its law-making and executive powers. Is this nation, then, to issue unjust and oppressive enactments against the people ofGod? Are the fires of persecution, which in other ages have devastatedother lands, to be lighted here also? We would fain believe otherwise;but notwithstanding the pure intentions of the noble founders of thisgovernment, notwithstanding the worthy motives and objects of thousandsof Christian patriots to-day, we can but take the prophecy as it reads, and expect nothing less than what it predicts. John heard this powerspeak; and the voice was that of a dragon. Nor is this so improbable an issue as might at first appear. The peopleof the United States are not all saints. The masses, notwithstanding allour gospel light and gospel principles, are still in a position forSatan to suddenly fire their hearts with the basest of impulses. Thisnation, as we have seen, is to exist to the coming of Christ; and theBible very fully sets forth the moral condition of the people in thedays that immediately precede that event. Iniquity is to abound, and thelove of many to wax cold. Evil men and seducers are to wax worse andworse. Scoffers are to arise, saying, Where is the promise of hiscoming? The whole land is to be full of violence as it was in the daysof Noah, and full of licentiousness as in the city of Sodom in the daysof Lot. And when the Lord appears, faith will scarcely be found upon theearth, and those who are ready for his coming will be but a "littleflock. " Can the people of God expect to go through this period, and notsuffer persecution? No. This would be contrary to the lessons taught byall past experience, and just the reverse of what we are warranted bythe word of God to expect. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesusshall suffer persecution. " If ever this was true in the history of thechurch, we may expect it to be emphatically so when, in the last days, the world is in its aphelion as related to God, and the wicked touchtheir lowest depths of iniquity and sin. Let, then, a general spirit of persecution arise in this country, andwhat is more probable than that it should assume an organized form? Herethe will of the people is law. And let there be a general desire on thepart of the people for certain oppressive enactments against believersin unpopular doctrines, and what would be more easy and natural thanthat such desire should immediately crystallize into systematic action, and their oppressive measures take the form of law? Then we have justwhat the prophecy indicates. Then is heard the voice of the dragon. And there are elements already in existence which furnish a luxuriantsoil for a baleful crop of future evil. But a few years ago three and ahalf millions of human beings were held in our country in a state ofabject bondage, deprived of every vestige of freedom and every trace ofmanhood. But why refer to slavery, it may be asked, since it has alreadybecome a thing of the past? Slavery, to be sure, on the ground ofpolitical expediency, has been abolished. For the time being, theballots and bayonets of its opponents have outnumbered those of itspartisans. But has this changed the disposition by which it hasheretofore been fostered? Has it converted the South? Have they beenbrought to look upon it as an evil which should be given up on accountof its own intrinsic wrong? We would that we could answer thesequestions in the affirmative. But there are acts too patent to bedenied, which show that the virus of this great iniquity still ranklesin the body politic; that the system of slavery has been given up by thepeople of the South simply as a matter of necessity; that if they hadthe power they would re-instate it again though they should rend andruin the Republic in their attempt; and hundreds of thousands in theNorth would sympathize with them in the movement, and second them intheir efforts. The disease is driven from the surface, but it is notcured. It may be a source of serious trouble hereafter. Political corruption is preparing the way for deeper sin. It pervadesall parties. Look at the dishonest means resorted to to obtain office, the bribery, the deceptions, the ballot-stuffing. Look at the stupendousrevelations of municipal corruption just disclosed in New York city:millions upon millions stolen directly and barefacedly rom the citytreasury by its corrupt officials. Look at the civil service of thisgovernment. Speaking on this point, _The Nation_ of Nov. 17, 1870, said:-- "The newspapers are generally believed to exaggerate most of the abuses they denounce; but we say deliberately, that no denunciation of the civil service of the United States which has ever appeared in print has come up as a picture, of selfishness, greed, fraud, corruption, falsehood, and cruelty, to the accounts which are given privately by those who have seen the real workings of the machine. " Enumeration is here unnecessary. Enough crops out in every day's historyto show that moral principle, the only guarantee in a government likeours for justice and honesty, is sadly wanting. And evil is also threatening from another quarter. Creeping up from thedarkness of the dark ages, a hideous monster is intently watching toseize the throat of liberty in our land. It thrusts itself up into thenoonday of the ninteenth century, not that it may be benefited by itslight and freedom, but that it may suppress and obscure them. The nameof this monster is Popery; and it has fixed its rapacious andbloodthirsty eyes on this land, determined to make it its helpless prey. It already decides the election in some of our largest cities. Itcontrols the revenues of the most populous State in the Union, andappropriates annually hundreds of thousands of dollars raised fromProtestant taxes to the support of its own ecclesiastical organizations, and to the furtherance of its own religious and political ends. It hasreached that measure of influence that it is only by a mighty effort ofProtestant patriotism that measures can now be carried, against whichthe Romish element combines its strength. And corrupt and unscrupulouspoliticians stand ready to concede to its demands to secure its support, for the purpose of advancing their own ambitious aims. Rome is in thefield with the basest and most fatal intentions, and with the mostwatchful and tireless energy. It is destined to play an important partin our future troubles; for this is the very beast which the two-hornedbeast is to cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship, andbefore whose eyes it is to perform its wonders. And in our own better Protestant churches there is that which threatensto lead to most serious evils. On this point one of their own popularministers, who is well qualified to speak, may testify. A sermon byCharles Beecher contains the following statements:-- "Our best, most humble, most devoted servants of Christ are fostering in their midst what will one day, not long hence, show itself to be the spawn of the dragon. They shrink from any rude word against creeds with the same sensitiveness with which those holy fathers would have shrunk from a rude word against the rising veneration of saints and martyrs which they were fostering.... The Protestant evangelical denominations have so tied up one another's hands, and their own, that, between them all, a man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without accepting some book besides the Bible.... And is not the Protestant church apostate? Oh! remember, the final form of apostasy shall rise, not by crosses, processions, baubles. We understand all that. Apostasy never comes on the outside. It develops. It is an apostasy that shall spring into life within us; an apostasy that shall martyr a man who believes his Bible ever so holily; yea, who may even believe what the creed contains, but who may happen to agree with the Westminster Assembly that, proposed as a test, it is an unwarrantable imposition. That is the apostasy we have to fear, and is it not already formed?... Will it be said that our fears are imaginary? Imaginary? Did not the Rev. John M. Duncan, in the years 1825-6, or thereabouts, sincerely believe the Bible? Did he not even believe substantially the confession of faith? And was he not, for daring to say what the Westminster Assembly said, that, to require the reception of that creed as a test of ministerial qualification was an unwarrantable imposition, brought to trial, condemned, excommunicated, and his pulpit declared vacant? There is nothing imaginary in the statement that the creed-power is now beginning to prohibit the Bible as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way. "Oh! woful day! Oh! unhappy church of Christ! fast rushing round and round the fatal circle of absorbing ruin!... Daily does every one see that things are going wrong. With sighs does every true heart confess that rottenness is somewhere; but, ah! it is hopeless of reform. We all pass on, and the tide rolls down to night. The waves of coming conflict which is to convulse Christendom to her center are beginning to be felt. The deep heavings begin to swell beneath us. 'All the old signs fail. ' 'God answers no more by Urim and Thummim, nor by dream, nor by prophet. ' Men's hearts are failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth. Thunders mutter in the distance. Winds moan across the surging bosom of the deep. All things betide the rising of that final storm of divine indignation which shall sweep away the vain refuge of lies. " In addition to this, we have spiritualism, infidelity, socialism, andfree-love, the trades unions, or labor against capital, and communism, all assiduously spreading their principles among the masses. These arethe very principles that worked among the people, as the exciting cause, just prior to the terrible French revolution of 1789-1800. Human natureis the same in all ages, and like causes will surely produce likeresults. These causes are now all in active operation; and how soon theywill culminate in a state of anarchy, and a reign of terror as much morefrightful than the French revolution as they are now more widelyextended, no man can say. Such are some of the elements already at work; such the direction inwhich events are moving. And how much further is it necessary that theyshould progress in this manner, before an open war-cry of persecutionfrom the masses, against those whose simple adherence to the Bible shallput to shame their man-made theology, and whose godly lives shallcondemn their wicked practices, would seem in nowise startling orincongruous? But some may say, through an all-absorbing faith in theincreasing virtue of the American people, that they do not believe thatthe United States will ever raise the hand of persecution against anyclass. Very well. This is not a matter over which we need to indulge inany controversy. No process of reasoning, nor any amount of argument, can ever show that it will not be so. We think we have shown good groundfor strong probabilities in this direction; and we shall present moreforcible evidence, and speak of more significant movements hereafter. Aswe interpret the prophecy, we look upon it as inevitable. But thedecision of the question must be left to time. We can neither help norhinder its work. That will soon solve all doubts and correct all errors. Chapter Eight. He Doeth Great Wonders. In further predicting the work of the two-horned beast, the prophetsays: "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the firstbeast, whose deadly wound was healed. " This language is urged by some toprove that the two-horned beast must be some power which holds the reinsof government in the very territory occupied by the first beast; for, otherwise, how could he exercise his power? If the word "before" denoted precedence in time, and the first beastpassed off the stage of action when the two-horned beast came on, justas Babylon gave place to Persia, which then exercised all the power ofBabylon before it, there would be some plausibility in the claim. Butthe word rendered "before" is [Greek: enopion] (_enopion_) whichmeans, literally, "in the presence of. " And so the language, instead ofproving what is claimed, becomes a most positive proof that these beastsare distinct and cotemporary powers. The first beast is in existence, having all its symbolic vitality, atthe very time the two-horned beast is exercising power in his presence. But this could not be, if his dominion had passed into the hands of thetwo-horned beast; for a beast in prophecy ceases to exist when hisdominion is taken away. What caused the change in the symbols from thelion, representing Babylon, to the bear representing Persia? Simply atransfer of dominion from Babylon to Persia. And so the prophecyexplains the successive passing away of these beasts, by saying thattheir lives were prolonged, but their dominion was taken away; that is, the territory of the kingdom was not blotted from the map, nor the livesof the people destroyed ed, but there was a transfer of power from onenationality to another. So the fact that the leopard beast is spoken ofas still an existing power, when the two-horned beast works in hispresence, is proof that he is, at that time, in possession of all thedominion that was ever necessary to constitute him a symbol in prophecy. What power then does the two-horned beast exercise? Not the power whichbelongs to, and is in the hands of, the leopard beast, surely; but heexercises, or essays to exercise, in his presence, power of the samekind and to the same extent. The power which the first beast exercisedwas a terrible power of oppression against the people of God. And thisis a further indication of the character which the two-horned beast isfinally to sustain in this respect. The latter part of the verse, "And causeth the earth and them whichdwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound washealed, " is still further proof that the two-horned beast is no phasenor feature of the papacy; for the first beast is certainly competent toenforce his own worship in his own country, and from his own subjects. But it is the two-horned beast which causes the earth (the territory outof which it arose and over which it rules) and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast. This shows that this beast occupiesterritory over which the first beast has no jurisdiction. "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down fromheaven on the earth in the sight of men. " That we are living in an ageof wonders none deny. Time was, and that not two score of years ago, when the bare mention of achievements which now constitute the warp andwoof of every-day life, were considered the wildest chimeras of adiseased imagination. Now, nothing is too wonderful to be believed, nortoo strange to happen. Go back fifty years, and the world with respectto those things which tend to domestic convenience and comfort, themeans of illumination, the production and application of heat, and theperformance of various household operations; with respect to methods ofrapid locomotion from place to place, and the transmission ofintelligence from point to point, stood about where it did in the daysof the patriarchs. Suddenly waters of that long stream over whosedrowsy surface scarcely a ripple of improvement had passed for threethousand years, broke into the white foam of violent agitation. Theworld awoke from the slumber and darkness of ages. The divine fingerlifted the seal from the prophetic books, and brought that predictedperiod when men should run to and fro, and knowledge should beincreased. Then men bound the elements to their chariots, and reachingup laid hold upon the very lightning and made it their message-beareraround the world. Nahum foretold that at a certain time the chariotsshould be with flaming torches and run like the lightnings. Who canbehold in the darkness of the night, the locomotive dashing over itsiron track, the fiery glare of its great lidless eye driving the shadowsfrom its path, and torrents of smoke and sparks and flame pouring fromits burning throat, and not realize that ours are the eyes that areprivileged to look upon a fulfillment of Nahum's prophecy. But when thisshould take place, the prophet said that the times would be burdenedwith the solemn work of God's preparation. "Canst thou send lightnings, " said God to Job, "that they may go and sayunto thee, Here we are?" If Job were living to day, he could answer, Yes. It is one of the current sayings of our time that Franklin tamedthe lightning, and Prof. Morse taught it the English language. So, in every department of the arts and sciences, the advancement thathas been made within the last half century is without precedent in theworld's history. And in all these the United States take the lead. Thesefacts are not, indeed, to be taken as a fulfillment of the prophecy, butthey show the spirit of the age in which we live, and point to this timeas a period when we may look for wonders of every kind. The particular wonders to which the prophecy refers are evidentlywrought for the purpose of deceiving the people; for verse 14 reads, "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracleswhich he had power to do in the sight of the beast. " This identifies thetwo-horned beast with the false prophet of Rev. 19:20; for this falseprophet is the power that works miracles before the beast, "with which, "says John, "he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image, " the identical work of the two-hornedbeast. We can now ascertain by what means the miracles in question arewrought; for Rev. 16:13, 14, speaks of spirits of devils workingmiracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the wholeworld to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, andthese miracle-working spirits go forth out of the mouths of certainpowers, one of which is this very false prophet, or two-horned beast. Miracles are of two kinds, true and false, just as we have a trueChrist and false Christs, true and false prophets, and true and falseapostles. By a false miracle, we mean not a pretended miracle, which isno miracle at all, but a real miracle, a supernatural performance, wrought for the purpose of deceiving, or of proving a lie. The miraclesof this power are real miracles, but are wrought for the purpose ofdeception. The prophecy does not read that he deceived the people bymeans of the miracles which he claimed that he was able to perform, orwhich he pretended to do; but which he _had power_ to do. They, therefore, fall far short of the prophecy who suppose that the greatwonders wrought by this power were fulfilled by Napoleon when he toldthe Mussulmans that he could command a fiery chariot to come down fromheaven, but never did it, or by the pretended miracles of the Romishchurch, which are only shams, mere tricks played off by ungodly anddesigning priests upon their ignorant and superstitious dupes. Miracles, or wonders, such as are to be wrought by the two-horned beast, and withal, as we think, the very ones referred to in the prophecy, arementioned by Paul in 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. Speaking of the second coming ofChrist, he says, "Whose coming is after ([Greek: kata], at the timeof) the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, andwith all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, becausethey received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. "These are no slight-of-hand performances, but such a working of Satan asthe world has never before seen. To work with all power and signs andlying wonders, is certainly to do a real and an astounding work, but onewhich is designed to prove a lie. Again, the Saviour, predicting events to occur just before his secondcoming, says, "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it werepossible, they shall deceive the very elect. " Here, again, are wondersforetold, wrought for the purpose of deception, so powerful that, wereit possible, even the very elect would be deceived by them. Thus we have a series of prophecies setting forth the development, inthe last days, of a wonder-working power, manifested to a startling andunprecedented degree, in the interests of falsehood and error. All referto one and the same thing. The earthly government, with which it was tobe especially connected, is that represented by the two-horned beast, orfalse prophet. The agency lying back of the outward manifestations wasto be Satanic, the spirits of devils. The prophecy calls for such a workas this in our own country at the present time. Do we behold anythinglike it? Read the answer in the lamentation of the prophet: "Woe to theinhabiters of the earth, and of the sea! for the devil is come down untoyou having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a shorttime. " Stand aghast, O Earth! Tremble, ye people, but be not deceived. The huge specter of evil confronts us, as the prophet declared. Satan isloosed. From the depth of Tartarus, myriads of demons swarm over theland. The prince of darkness manifests himself as never before, and, stealing a word from the vocabulary of Heaven to designate his work, hecalls it--_Spiritualism_. 1. Does spiritualism, then, bear these marks of Satanic agency? 1st. The spirits which communicate claim to be the spirits of ourdeparted friends. But the Bible, in the most explicit terms, assures usthat the dead are wholly inactive and unconscious till the resurrection;that the dead know not anything; Eccl. 9:5; that every operation of themind has ceased; Ps. 146:4; that every emotion of the heart issuspended; Eccl. 9:6; and that there is neither work, nor device, norknowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where they lie. Eccl. 9:10. Whatever intelligence, therefore, comes to us professing to be one ofour dead friends, comes claiming to be what, from the word of God, weknow he is not. But angels of God don't lie; therefore these are not thegood angels. Spirits of devils will lie; this is their work; and theseare the credentials which at the very outset they hand us. 2dly. The doctrines which they teach are from the lowest and foulestdepths of the pit of lies. They deny God. They deny Christ. They denythe atonement. They deny the Bible. They deny the existence of sin, andall distinction between right and wrong. They deny the sacredness of themarriage covenant; and, interspersing their utterances with the mosthorrid blasphemies against God and his Son, and everything that islovely, and good, and pure, they give the freest license to everypropensity to sin, and to every carnal and fleshly lust. Tell us notthat these things, openly taught under the garb of religion, and backedup by supernatural sights and sounds, are anything less than Satan'smasterpiece. 2. Spiritualism answers accurately to the prophecy in the exhibition ofgreat signs and wonders. Among its many achievements, these may bementioned: Various articles have been transported from place to place byspirits alone. Beautiful music has been produced, independent of humanagency, with and without the aid of visible instruments. Manywell-attested cases of healing have been presented. Persons have beencarried through the air by the spirits in the presence of many others. Tables have been suspended in the air with several persons upon them. And, finally, spirits have represented themselves in bodily form andtalked with an audible voice. A writer in the _Spiritual Clarion_ speaksas follows of the manner in which spiritualism has arisen, and theastounding progress it has made:-- "This revelation has been with a power, a might, that if divested of its almost universal benevolence, had been a terror to the very soul; the hair of the very bravest had stood on end, and his chilled blood had crept back upon his heart at the sights and sounds of its inexplicable phenomena. It comes with foretokening, with warning. It has been, from the very first, its own best prophet, and step by step it has foretold the progress it would make. It comes, too, most triumphant. No faith before it ever took so victorious a stand in its infancy. It has swept like a hurricane of fire through the land, compelling faith from the baffled scoffer and the most determined doubter. " 3. Spiritualism answers to the prophecy in that it had its origin in ourown country, thus connecting its wonders with the work of the two-hornedbeast. Commencing in Hydesville, N. Y. , in the family of Mr. John D. Fox, in the latter part of March, 1848, it spread with incredible rapiditythrough all the States. The estimates of the number of spiritualists inthis country at the present time, only twenty-six short years from itscommencement, though differing somewhat from each other, arenevertheless such as to show that the progress of spiritualism has beenwithout a parallel. Thus, Judge Edmonds puts the number at five or sixmillions (5, 000, 000 or 6, 000, 000); Hepworth Dixon, three millions(3, 000, 000); A. J. Davis, four millions, two hundred and thirty thousand(4, 230, 000); Warren Chase, eight millions (8, 000, 000); and the RomanCatholic Council at Baltimore, between ten and eleven millions(10, 000, 000 to 11, 000, 000). Of those who have become its devotees, Judge Edmonds said as long ago as 1853:-- "Besides the undistinguished multitude, there are many now of high standing and talent ranked among them--doctors, lawyers, and clergymen, in great numbers, a Protestant bishop, the learned and reverend president of a college, judges of our higher courts, members of Congress, foreign ambassadors, and ex-members of the United States Senate. " This statement was written more than twenty years since; and from thattime to this, the work of the spirits has been steadily progressing, andspreading among all classes of people. And from this nation, spiritualism has gone abroad into all the earth. Queen Victoria is almost an insane devotee of the new philosophy. Thelate Emperor and Empress of France, the late Queen of Spain, the RomanPontiff, and the Emperor and Grand Dukes of Russia are all said to havesought to these spirits for knowledge. Thus it is working its way to thepotentates of the earth, and fast preparing to accomplish its realmission, which is, by deceiving the world with its miracles, to gatherthe nations to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Here we pause. Let this work go on a little longer, as it has beengoing, and as it is still going, and what a scene is before us! Havingseen so much fulfilled, we cannot now draw back and deny the remainder. And so we look for the onward march of this last great wonder-workingdeception, till that is accomplished which in the days of Elijah was atest between Jehovah and Baal, and fire is brought down from heaven toearth in the sight of men. Then will be the hour of the power ofdarkness, the hour of temptation that is coming upon all the world totry them that dwell upon the earth. Rev. 3:10. Then all will be sweptfrom their anchorage by the strong current of delusion, except thosewhom it is not possible to deceive--the elect of God. And still the world sleeps on, while Satan, with lightning fingers andhellish energy, weaves over them his last fatal snare. It is time somemighty move was made to waken the world and rouse the church to thedangers we are in. It is time every honest heart should learn that theonly safeguard against the great deception, whose incipient and evenwell-advanced workings we already behold before our eyes, is to make thetruths of God's holy and immutable word our shield and buckler. Chapter Nine. An Image To The Beast. The imposing miracles wrought before the people having riveted upon themthe chains of a fatal deception, leading them to suppose they havewitnessed the great power of God, and must therefore be doing himservice, when they have only been dazed with a mighty display of Satanicwonders, and are led captive by the devil at his will, they are preparedto do the further bidding of the two-horned beast, which is to make animage to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. Once more we remind the reader of the impregnable strength of theargument already presented in previous chapters, fixing the applicationof this symbol to these United States. This is an establishedproposition, and needs no farther support. An exposition of theremainder of the prophecy will therefore consist chiefly of an effort todetermine what acts are to be performed by this government, and a searchfor indications, if any exist, that they are about to be accomplished. If we shall find evidences springing up on all sides, that thisgovernment is now moving as rapidly as possible in the very directionmarked out by the prophet, though these are not necessary to establishthe application of the symbol to this government, they will serve tostifle the last excuse of skepticism, and become to the believer animpressive evidence of our proximity to the end; for the acts ascribedto this symbol are but few; and while yet in mid career, he is engulfedin the lake of fire of the last great day. We may, however, notice in passing, another evidence that the governmentsymbolized by the two-horned beast is certainly a republic. This isproved by the language used respecting the formation of the image. Itdoes not read that this power, as an act of imperial or kinglyauthority, makes an image to the beast; but it says to them that dwellon the earth, that is, the people occupying the territory where itarises, that _they_ should make an image to the beast. Appeal is made tothe people, showing conclusively that the power is in their hands. Butjust as surely as the government symbolized is a republic, so surely isit none other than the United States of America. We have seen that the wonder-working Satanic agencies, which are toperform the foretold miracles, and prepare the people for the next stepin the prophecy, the formation of the image, are already in the field, and have even now wrought out a work of vast proportion in our country;and we now hasten forward to the very important inquiry, What willconstitute the image? and what steps are necessary to its formation? The people are to be called upon to make an image _to_ the beast, whichexpression doubtless involves the idea of some deferential actiontoward, or concessions to, that power; and the image, when made, is animage, likeness, or representation _of_ the beast. Verse 15. The beastfrom which the image is modeled, is the one which had a wound by a swordand did live, or the papacy. From this point is seen the collusion ofthe two-horned beast with the leopard or papal beast. He does greatwonders in the sight of that beast; he causes men to worship that beast;he leads them to make an image to that beast; and he causes all toreceive a mark, which is the mark of that beast. These palpableevidences of co-operation with the papal power, led Eld. J. Litch, about1842, to write concerning the two-horned beast thus:-- "I think it is a power yet to be developed or made manifest, as an accomplice of the papacy in subjecting the world. " To understand what would be an image of the papacy, we must first form adefinite idea of what constitutes the papacy itself. Papal supremacydates from the time when the decree of Justinian, constituting the popethe head of the church and the corrector of heretics, was carried intoeffect, in 538. The papacy, then, was a church clothed with civil power, an ecclesiastical body, having authority to punish all dissenters withconfiscation, imprisonment, torture, and death. What would be an imageof the papacy? Another ecclesiastical establishment clothed with similarpower. How could such an image be formed in this country? Let theProtestant churches in our land be clothed with power to define andpunish heresy, to enforce their dogmas under the pains and penalties ofthe civil law, and should we not have an exact representation of thepapacy during the days of its supremacy? It may be objected that whereas the papal church was comparatively aunit, and hence could act in harmony in all its departments in enforcingits dogmas, the Protestant church is so divided as to be unable to agreein regard to what doctrines shall be made imperative on the people. Weanswer, there are certain points which they hold in common, and whichare sufficient to form a basis of co-operation. Chief among these may bementioned the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead and theimmortality of the soul, which is both the foundation and superstructureof spiritualism, and also the doctrine that the first day of the week isthe Christian Sabbath. It may be objected again that this view makes one of the horns, theProtestant church, finally constitute the image of the beast. If thereader supposes that the Protestant church constitutes one of the hornsof the two-horned beast, we reply that this is a conception of his own. No such idea is here taught. And we mention this objection only becauseit has been actually urged as a legitimate consequence of the positionshere taken. And then the question is asked, If the Protestant churchconstitutes one horn, may not the Catholic church constitute the other?Under the shadow of that hypothetical "if, " perhaps it might. Butneither the one nor the other performs such an office. In chapter six ofthis work, it was shown that the two great principles of Republicanismand Protestantism were the proper objects to be symbolized by these twolamb-like horns. But there is the plainest distinction betweenProtestantism as an embodiment of the great principle of religionsliberty, and the different religious bodies that have grown up under itsfostering influence; just as plain as there is between Republicanism, orcivil liberty, and the individual who lives in the enjoyment of suchliberty. The supposition, therefore, that the Protestant church is tofurnish the material for the image, involves no violation of thesymbolic harmony of this prophecy. Let us look a moment at the fitness of the material. We are notunmindful of the noble service the Protestant churches have rendered tothe world, to humanity, and to religion, by introducing and defending, so far as they have, the great principles of Protestantism. But theyhave made a fatal mistake in stereotyping their doctrines into creeds, and thus taking the first steps backward toward the spiritual tyrannyof Rome. Thus the good promise they gave of a free religion and anunfettered conscience is already broken. For, if the right of privatejudgment is allowed by the Protestant church, why are men condemned andexpelled from that church for ncwother crime than honestly attempting toobey the word of God, in some particulars not in accordance with hercreed? This is the beginning of apostasy. Read Chas. Beecher's work, "The Bible a Sufficient Creed. " "Is not the Protestant church, " he asks, "apostate?" Is not the apostasy which we have reason to fear, "alreadyformed?" But apostasy in principle always leads to corruption inpractice. And so Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, sets forth the condition of theprofessed church of Christ in the last days. A rank growth of twentyheinous sins, with no redeeming virtues, shows that the fruits of theSpirit will be choked and rooted out by the works of the flesh. We canlook nowhere else for this picture of Paul's to be fulfilled except tothe Protestant church; for the class of which he speaks maintain a formof godliness, or the outward services of a true Christian worship. And is not the church of our day beginning to manifest to an alarmingdegree the very characteristics which the apostle has specified? Fifteenclergymen of the city of Rochester, N. Y. , on Sunday, Feb. 5, 1871, distributed a circular, entitled "A Testimony, " to fifteen congregationsof that city. To this circular the Rochester _Democrat_ of Feb. 7 madereference as follows:-- "The 'Testimony' sets out by stating that the foregoing pastors are constrained to bear witness to what they 'conceive to be a fact of our time; viz. , That the prevailing standard of piety, among the professed people of God, is alarmingly low; that a tide of worldliness is setting in upon us, indicating the rapid approach of an era, such as is foretold by Paul in his second letter to Timothy, in the words, "In the last days perilous times shall come. "' These conclusions are reached, not by comparisons with former times, but by applying the tests found in the Scriptures. They instance as proof, 'the spirit of lawlessness which prevails. ' The circular then explains how this lawlessness (religious) is shown. Men have the name of religion, but they obey none of its injunctions. There is also a growing disposition to practice, in religious circles, what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God. The tendency to adopt worldly amusements, by professed Christians, is further stated in evidence. " This testimony is very explicit. When men "have the name of religion, but obey none of its injunctions, " they certainly may be said to have aform of godliness, but to deny the power; and when they "practice inreligious circles what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, ratherthan the duties prescribed by the word of God, " they may be truthfullysaid to be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. " And Rochesteris not an exception in this respect. It is so all over the land, as thecandid everywhere, by a sad array of facts, are compelled to admit. That the majority of the Christians in our land are still to be foundin connection with these churches is undoubtedly true. But a change inthis respect is also approaching. For Paul exhorts all true Christians, in his words to Timothy above referred to, to turn away from those whohave a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof; and those whodesire to live pure and holy lives, who mourn over the desolations oftheir Zion, and sigh for the abominations done in the land, willcertainly heed this injunction of the apostle. There is another prophecywhich also shows that when the spirit of worldliness and apostasy has sofar taken possession of the professed churches of Christ as to placethem beyond the reach of reform, God's true children are every one to becalled out, that they become not partakers of their sins, and so receivenot of their plagues. Rev. 18:4. From the course which church members are everywhere pursuing, it isplain to be seen in what direction the Protestant churches are drifting;and from the declarations of God's word it is evident that all whosehearts are touched by God's grace and molded by his love will soon comeout from a connection in which, while they can do no good to others, they will receive only evil to themselves. And now we ask the reader to consider seriously for a moment what thestate of the religious world will be when this change shall have takenplace. We shall then have an array of proud and popular churches fromwhose communion all the good have departed, from whom the Holy Spirit iswithdrawn, and who are in a state of hopeless departure from God. God isno respecter of persons nor of churches; and if the Protestant churchesapostatize from him, will they not be just as efficient agents in thehand of the enemy as ever pagans or papists have been? Will they notthen be ready for any desperate measure of bigotry and oppression inwhich he may wish to enlist them? After the Jewish church had finallyrejected Christ, how soon they were ready to imbrue their hands in theblood of his crucifixion. And is it not the testimony of all history, that just in proportion as any popular and extensive ecclesiasticalorganization loses the Spirit and power of God, it clamors for thesupport of the civil arm? Let, now, an ecclesiastical organization be formed by these churches;let the government legalize such organization, and give it power (apower which it will not have till the government does grant it) toenforce upon the people the dogmas which the different denominations canall adopt as the basis of union, and what do we have? Just what theprophecy represents: an image to the papal beast, endowed with life bythe two-horned beast, to speak and act with power. And are there any indications of such a movement? The preliminaryquestion, that of the grand union of all the churches, is now profoundlyagitating the religious world. In May, 1869, S. M. Manning, D. D. , in a sermon in Broadway Tabernacle, New York, spoke of the recent efforts to unite all the churches in theland into co-operation on the common points of their faith, as a"_prominent and noteworthy sign of the times_" Dr. Lyman Beecher is quoted as saying:-- "There is a state of society to be formed by an extended combination of institutions, religious, civil and literary, which never exists without the co-operation of an educated ministry. " Chas. Beecher, in his sermon at the dedication of the SecondPresbyterian church, Ft. Wayne, Ind. , Feb. 22, 1846, said:-- "Thus are the ministry of the evangelical Protestant denominations not only formed all the way up under a tremendous pressure of merely human fear, but they live, and move, and breathe, in a state of things radically corrupt, and appealing every hour to every baser element of their nature to hush up the truth and bow the knee to the power of apostasy. Was not this the way things went with Rome? Are we not living her life over again? And what do we see just ahead? Another general council! A world's convention! Evangelical Alliance and Universal Creed. " The _Banner of Light_ of July 30, 1864, said:-- "A system will be unfolded sooner or later that will embrace in its folds Church and State; for the object of the two should be one and the same. The time is rapidly approaching when the world will be startled by a voice that shall say to every form of oppression and wrong, 'Thus far shalt thou go and no farther. ' Old things are rapidly passing away in the religious and social, as well as in the political, world. Behold all things must be formed anew. " The _Church Advocate_, in March, 1870, speaking of the formation of an"Independent American Catholic Church, " a movement now agitated in thiscountry, said:-- "There is evidently some secret power at work which may be preparing the world for great events in the near future. " A Mr. Havens, in a speech delivered in New York, a few years ago, said:-- "For my own part I wait to see the day when a Luther shall spring up in this country who shall found a great American Catholic church, instead of a great Roman Catholic church; and who shall teach men that they can be good Catholics without professing allegiance to a pontiff on the other side of the Atlantic. " There is every indication that at no distant day such a church will beseen, not indeed, raised up through the instrumentality of a Luther, butrather through the operation of the same spirit that inspired a FernandoNunez or a Torquemada. Chapter Ten. The Mark Of The Beast. The principal acts ascribed to the two-horned beast, which seem to beperformed with special reference to the papal beast, are, the causing ofmen to worship that beast, causing them to make an image to that beast, and enforcing upon them the mark of the beast. The image, after it iscreated and endowed with life, undertakes to enforce the worship ofitself. To avoid confusion, we must keep these parties distinct in ourminds. There are three here brought before us: 1. The papal beast. Thispower is designated as "the beast, " "the first beast, " "the beast whichhad the wound by a sword and did live, " and, the "beast whose deadlywound was healed. " These expressions all refer to the same power; andwherever they occur in this prophecy, they have exclusive reference tothe papacy. 2. The two-horned beast. This power, after its introductionin verse 11, is represented through the remainder of the prophecy by thepronoun "he;" and wherever this pronoun occurs, down to the 17th verse(with possibly the exception of the 16th verse, which perhaps may referto the image), it refers invariably to the two-horned beast. 3. Theimage of the beast. This is, every time, with the exception juststated, called the image; so that there is no danger of confounding thiswith any other agent. The acts ascribed to the image are speaking and enforcing the worship ofitself under the penalty of death; and this is the only enactment whichthe prophecy mentions as enforced under the death penalty. Just whatwill constitute this worship, it will perhaps be impossible to determinetill the image itself shall have an existence. It will evidently be someact or acts by which men will be required to acknowledge the authorityof that image and yield obedience to its mandates. The mark of the beast is enforced by the two-horned beast eitherdirectly or through the image. The penalty attached to a refusal toreceive this mark is a forfeiture of all social privileges, adeprivation of the right to buy and sell. The mark is the mark of thepapal beast. Against this worship of the beast and his image, and thereception of his mark, the third angel's message of Rev. 14:9-12, is amost solemn and thrilling warning. Here, then, is the issue before us. Human organizations, controlled andinspired by the spirit of the dragon, are to command men to do thoseacts which are in reality the worshiping of an apostate religious power, and the receiving of his mark, or lose the rights of citizenship andbecome outlaws in the land; and to do that which constitutes theworship of the image of the beast, or forfeit their lives. On the otherhand, God says by a message, mercifully sent out a little before thefearful crisis is upon us, Do any of these things, and you "shall drinkof the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture intothe cup of his indignation. " He who refuses to comply with these demandsof earthly powers exposes himself to the severest penalties which humanbeings can inflict; and he who does comply, exposes himself to the mostterrible threatening of divine wrath to be found in the word of God. Thequestion whether we will obey God or man is to be decided by the peopleof the present age, under the heaviest pressure, from either side, thathas ever been brought to bear upon any generation. The worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark, must be something that involves the greatest offense that can becommitted against God, to call down so severe a denunciation of wrathagainst it. This is a work, as was shown in chapter 4, which takes placein the last days; and as God has given us in his word most abundantevidence to show when we are in the last days, so that no one need to beovertaken by the day of the Lord as by a thief, so likewise it must bethat he has given us the means whereby we may determine what this greatlatter-day sin is which he has so strongly condemned, that we may avoidthe fearful penalty so sure to follow its commission. God does not sotrifle with human hopes and human destinies as to denounce a mostfearful doom against a certain sin, and then place it out of our powerto understand what that sin is, so that we have no means of guardingagainst it. That we are now living in the last days, the volumes both of revelationand nature bear ample and harmonious testimony. Evidence on this pointwe need not here stop to introduce; for the testimony already presentedin the foregoing chapters of this series, showing that the two-hornedbeast is now on the stage of action, is in itself conclusive proof ofthis great fact, inasmuch as the power exists and performs its work inthe very closing period of human history. All these things tell us thatthe time has now come for the proclamation of the third message of Rev. 14, to be given, and for men to understand the terms which it uses, andthe warning it gives. We therefore now call attention to the very important inquiry, Whatconstitutes the mark of the beast? The figure of a mark is borrowed froman ancient custom. Says Bp. Newton (Dissert on Proph. , vol. Iii, p. 241):-- "It was customary among the ancients for servants to receive the mark of their master, and soldiers of their general, and those who were devoted to any particular deity, of the particular deity to whom they were devoted. These marks were usually impressed on their right hand, or on their foreheads, and consisted of some hieroglyphic character, or of the name expressed in vulgar letters, or of the name disguised in numerical letters according to the fancy of the imposer. " Prideaux says that Ptolemy Philopater ordered all the Jews who appliedto be enrolled as citizens of Alexandria to have the form of an ivy leaf(the badge of his god, Bacchus) impressed upon them with a hot iron, under pain of death. (Connection B. C. 216. ) The word used for mark in this prophecy is [Greek: charagma](_charagma_), and is defined to mean, "a graving, sculpture, a mark cutin or stamped. " It occurs nine times in the New Testament, and with thesingle exception of Acts 17:29, refers every time to the mark of thebeast. We are not, of course, to understand in this symbolic prophecy, that a literal mark is intended; but the giving of the literal mark, aspracticed in ancient times, is used as a figure to illustrate certainacts that will be performed in the fulfillment of this prophecy. Andfrom the literal mark as formerly employed, we learn something of itsmeaning as used in the prophecy; for between the symbol and the thingsymbolized there must be some resemblance. The mark, as literally used, signified that the person receiving it was the servant of, acknowledgedthe authority of, or professed allegiance to, the person whose mark hebore. So the mark of the beast, or the papacy, must be some act orprofession by which the authority of that power is acknowledged. Whatis it? It would be naturally looked for in some of the special characteristicsof the papal power. Daniel, describing that power under the symbol of alittle horn, speaks of it as waging a special warfare against God, wearing out the saints of the Most High, and thinking to change timesand laws. The prophet expressly specifies on this point: "He shall_think_ to change times and laws. " These laws must certainly be the lawsof the Most High. To apply it to human laws, and make the prophecy read, "And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wearout the saints of the Most High, and think to change human laws, " wouldbe doing evident violence to the language of the prophet. But to applyit to the laws of God, and let it read, "And he shall speak great wordsagainst the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and laws of the Most High"--then allis consistent and forcible. The Septuagint reads, [Greek: nomos](_nomos_), in the singular, "the law, " which more directly suggests thelaw of God. So far as human laws are concerned, the papacy has been ableto do more than merely "think" to change them. It has been able tochange them at pleasure. It has annulled the decrees of kings andemperors, and absolved subjects from allegiance to their rightfulsovereigns. It has thrust its long arm into the affairs of nations, andbrought rulers to its feet in the most abject humility. But the prophetbeholds greater acts of presumption than these. He sees it endeavor todo, what it was not able to do, but could only think to do; he sees itattempt an act which no man, nor any combination of men, can everaccomplish; and that is, to change the laws of the Most High. Bear thisin mind while we look at the testimony of another sacred writer on thisvery point. Paul speaks of the same power in 2 Thess. 2; and he describes it, in theperson of the pope, as the man of sin, and as sitting as God in thetemple of God (that is, the church), and as exalting himself above allthat is called God or that is worshiped. According to this, the popesets himself up as the one for all the church to look to for authority, in the place of God. And now we ask the reader to ponder carefully thequestion how he can exalt himself _above_ God. Search through the wholerange of human devices; go to the extent of human effort; by what plan, by what move, by what claim, could this usurper exalt himself above God?He might institute any number of ceremonies, he might prescribe any formof worship, he might exhibit any degree of power; but so long as God hadrequirements which the people felt bound to regard in preference to hisown, so long he would not be above God. He might enact a law and teachthe people that they were under as great obligations to that as to thelaw of God. Then he would only make himself equal with God. But he is todo more than this: he is to attempt to raise himself above him. Then hemust promulgate a law which _conflicts_ with the law of God, and demandobedience to his own in preference to God's. There is no other possibleway in which he could place himself in the position assigned in theprophecy. But this is simply to change the law of God; and if he cancause this change to be adopted by the people in place of the originalenactment, then he, the law-changer, is above God, the law-maker. Andthis is the very work that Daniel said he should think to do. Such a work as this, then, the papacy must accomplish according to theprophecy; and the prophecy cannot fail. And when this is done, what dothe people of the world have? They have two laws demanding from themobedience: one, the law of God as originally enacted by him, anembodiment of his will, and expressing his claims upon his creatures;the other, a revised edition of that law, emanating from the pope ofRome, and expressing his will. And how is it to be determined which ofthese powers the people honor and worship? It is determined by the lawwhich they keep. If they keep the law of God as given by him, theyworship and obey God. If they keep the law as changed by the papacy, they worship that power. But further, the prophecy does not say that thelittle horn should set aside the law of God and give one entirelydifferent. This would not be to change the law, but simply to give a newone. He was only to attempt a change, so that the law as it comes fromGod, and the law as it comes from the hands of the papacy, are preciselyalike, excepting the change which the papacy has made therein. They havemany points in common. But none of the precepts which they contain incommon can distinguish a person as the worshiper of either power inpreference to the other. If God's law says, "Thou shalt not kill, " andthe law as given by the papacy says the same, no one can tell by aperson's observance of that precept whether he designed to obey Godrather than the pope, or the pope rather than God. But when a preceptthat has been changed is the subject of action, then whoever observesthat precept as originally given by God is thereby distinguished as aworshiper of God; and he who keeps it as changed, is thereby marked as afollower of the power that made the change. In no other way can the twoclasses of worshipers be distinguished. From this conclusion, no candidmind can dissent; but in this conclusion we have a general answer to thequestion before us, "What constitutes the mark of the beast?" THE MARKOF THE BEAST is THE CHANGE HE HAS MADE IN THE LAW OF GOD. We now inquire what that change is. By the law of God, we mean the morallaw, the only law in the universe of immutable and perpetual obligation, the law of which Webster says, defining the terms according to the sensein which they are almost universally used in Christendom, "The moral lawis summarily contained in the decalogue, written by the finger of God ontwo tables of stone, and delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. " If, now, the reader will compare the ten commandments as found in RomanCatholic catechisms with those commandments as found in the Bible, hewill see in the catechisms that the second commandment is left out, thatthe tenth is divided into two commandments to make up the lack ofleaving out the second, and keep good the number ten, and that thefourth commandment (called the third in their enumeration) is made toenjoin the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, and prescribe that theday shall be spent in hearing mass devoutly, attending vespers, andreading moral and pious books. Here are several variations from thedecalogue as found in the Bible. Which of them constitutes the change ofthe law intended in the prophecy? or, are they all included in thatchange? Let it be borne in mind that, according to the prophecy, he wasto _think_ to change times and laws. This plainly conveys the idea of_intention_ and _design_, and makes these qualities essential to thechange in question. But respecting the omission of the secondcommandment, Catholics argue that it is included in the first, and, hence, should not be numbered as a separate commandment. And, on thetenth, they claim that there is so plain a distinction of ideas as torequire two commandments. So they make the coveting of a neighbor's wifethe ninth commandment, and the coveting of his goods the tenth. In all this they claim that they are giving the commandments exactly asGod intended to have them understood. So, while we may regard them aserrors in their interpretation of the commandments, we cannot set themdown as _intentional changes_. Not so, however, with the fourthcommandment. Respecting this commandment, they do not claim that theirversion is like that given by God. They expressly claim a change here, and also that the change has been made by the church. A few quotationsfrom standard Catholic works will make this matter plain. In a workentitled, Treatise of Thirty Controversies, we find these words:-- "The word of God commandeth the seventh day to be the Sabbath of our Lord, and to be kept holy; you [Protestants], without any precept of Scripture, change it to the first day of the week, only authorized by our traditions. Divers English Puritans oppose, against this point, that the observation of the first day is proved out of Scripture, where it is said, the first day of the week. Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10. Have they not spun a fair thread in quoting these places? If we should produce no better for purgatory, and prayers for the dead, invocation of the saints, and the like, they might have good cause, indeed, to laugh us to scorn; for where is it written that these were Sabbath days in which those meetings were kept? Or where is it ordained they should be always observed? Or, which is the sum of all, where is it decreed that the observation of the first day should abrogate or abolish the sanctifying of the seventh day, which God commanded everlastingly to be kept holy? _Not_ one of those is expressed in the written word of God. " In the "Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion, " on the subject of thethird (fourth) commandment, we find these questions and answers:-- "_Ques. _ What does God ordain by this commandment? "_Ans. _ He ordains that we sanctify, in a special manner, this day on which he rested from the labor of creation. "_Q. _ What is this day of rest? "_A. _ The seventh day of the week, or Saturday; for he employed six days in creation, and rested on the seventh. Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:1, &c. "_Q. _ Is it then Saturday we should sanctify in order to obey the ordinance of God? "_A. _ During the old law, Saturday was the day sanctified; but _the church, _ instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the first, not the seventh, day. Sunday means, and now is, the day of the Lord. " In "Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, " we find this testimony:-- "_Ques. _ How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? "_Ans. _ By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church. "_Q. _ How prove you that? "_A. _ Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin. " In the "Catholic Christian Instructed, " again we read:-- "_Ques. _ What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday, preferable to the ancient Sabbath, which was the Saturday? "_Ans. _ We have for it the authority of the Catholic church and apostolic tradition. "_Q. _ Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath? "_A. _ The Scripture commands us to hear the church (Matt. 18:17; Luke 10:16), and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2 Thess. 2:15. But the Scriptures do not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath. " In the "Doctrinal Catechism, " we find furthertestimony to the same point:-- "_Ques. _ Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? "_Ans. _ Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her--she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority. " And finally, W. Lockhart, late B. A. Of Oxford, in the Toronto (Cath. )_Mirror, _ offered the following "challenge" to all the Protestants ofIreland; a challenge as well calculated for this latitude as that. Hesays:-- "I do, therefore, solemnly challenge the Protestants of Ireland to prove, by plain texts of Scripture, the questions concerning the obligation of the Christian Sabbath. 1. That Christians may work on Saturday, the old seventh day. 2. That they are bound to keep holy the first day, namely, Sunday. 3. That they are not bound to keep holy the seventh day also. " This is what the papal power claims to have done respecting the fourthcommandment. Catholics plainly acknowledge that there is no scripturalauthority for the change they have made, but that it rests wholly uponthe authority of the church; and they claim it has a token or mark ofthe authority of that church; the "_very act of changing the Sabbathinto Sunday_" being set forth as proof of its power in this respect. Forfurther testimony on this point, the reader is referred to a tractpublished at the _Review_ Office, Battle Creek, Mich. , entitled, "WhoChanged the Sabbath?" in which are also extracts from Catholic writers, refuting the arguments usually relied upon to prove the Sunday Sabbath, and showing that its only authority is the Catholic church. "But, " says one, "I supposed that Christ changed the Sabbath. " A greatmany suppose so; and it is natural that they should; for they have beenso taught. And while we have no words of denunciation to utter againstany such for so believing, we would have them at once understand that itis, in reality, one of the most enormous of all errors. We wouldtherefore remind such persons that, according to the prophecy, the onlychange ever to be made in the law of God, was to be made by the littlehorn of Dan. 7, and the man of sin of 2 Thess. 2; and the only changethat has been made in it, is the change of the Sabbath. Now, if Christmade this change, he filled the office of the blasphemous power spokenof by both Daniel and Paul--a conclusion sufficiently hideous to driveany Christian from the view which leads thereto. But why should any one labor to prove that Christ changed the Sabbath?Whoever does this is performing a thankless task. The pope will notthank him; for if it is proved that Christ wrought this change, then thepope is robbed of his badge of authority and power. And no trulyenlightened Protestant will thank him; for if he succeeds, he only showsthat the papacy has not done the work which it was predicted that itshould do, and so that the prophecy has failed, and the Scriptures areunreliable. The matter had better stand as the propheqy has placed it, and the claim which the pope unwittingly puts forth, had better begranted. When a person is charged with any work, and that person stepsforth and confesses that he has done the work, that is usuallyconsidered sufficient to settle the matter. So, when the prophecyaffirms that a certain power shall change the law of God, and that verypower in due time arises, does the work foretold, and then openly claimsthat he has done it, what need have we of further evidence? The worldshould not forget that the great apostasy foretold by Paul has takenplace; that the man of sin for long ages held almost a monopoly ofChristian teaching in the world; that the mystery of iniquity has castthe darkness of its shadow and the errors of its doctrines over almostall Christendom; and out of this era of error and darkness andcorruption, the theology of our day has come. Would it then be anythingstrange if there were yet some relics of popery to be discarded ere thereformation will be complete? A. Campbell (Baptism, p. 15), speaking ofthe different Prostestant sects, says:-- "All of them retain in their bosom, in their ecclesiastic organizations, worship, doctrines, and observances, various relics of popery. They are at best a reformation of popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and traditions of men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands. " The nature of the change which the little horn has attempted to effectin the law of God is worthy of notice. With true Satanic instinct, heundertakes to change that commandment which, of all others, is thefundamental commandment of the law, the one which makes known who theLaw-giver is, and contains his signature of royalty. The fourthcommandment does this; no other one does. Four others, it is true, contain the word God, and three of them the word Lord, also. But who isthis Lord God of whom they speak? Without the fourth commandment it isimpossible to tell; for idolaters of every grade apply these terms tothe multitudinous objects of their adoration. With the fourthcommandment to point out the Author of the decalogue, the claims ofevery false god are annulled at one stroke; for the God who here demandsour worship is not any created being, but the One who created them all. The maker of the earth and sea, the sun and moon, and all the starryhost, the upholder and governor of the universe, is the One who claims, and who, from his position, has a right to claim, our supreme regard inpreference to every other object. The commandment which makes knownthese facts is therefore the very one we might suppose that power wouldundertake to change, which designed to exalt itself above God. God gavethe Sabbath as a memorial of himself, a weekly reminder to the sons ofmen, of his work in creating the heavens and the earth, a great barrieragainst atheism and idolatry. It is the signature and seal of the law. This the papacy has torn from its place, and erected in its stead, onits own authority, an institution designed to serve another purpose. This change of the fourth commandment must therefore be the change towhich the prophecy points; and Sunday-keeping must be the mark of thebeast! Some who have long been taught to regard this institution withreverence will perhaps start back with little less than feelings ofhorror at this conclusion. We have not space, nor is this perhaps theplace, to enter into an extended argument on the Sabbath question, andan exposition of the origin and nature of the observance of the firstday of the week. Let us submit this one proposition: If the seventh dayis still the Sabbath enjoined in the fourth commandment; if theobservance of the first day of the week has no foundation whatever inthe Scriptures; if this observance has been brought in as a Christianinstitution and designedly put in place of the Sabbath of the decalogue, by that power which is symbolized by the beast, and placed there as abadge and token of its power to legislate for the church, is it notinevitably the mark of the beast? The answer must be in the affirmative. But all these hypotheses can easily be shown to be certainties, SeeHistory of the Sabbath, and other works on the subject, published atthe _Review_ Office. To these we can only refer the reader, in passing. It will be said again, then all Sunday-keepers have the mark of thebeast; then all the good of past ages who kept this day had the mark ofthe beast; then Luther, Whitefield, the Wesleys, and all who have done agood and noble work of reformation, had the mark of the beast; then allthe blessings that have been poured upon the reformed churches have beenpoured upon those who had the mark of the beast. We answer, _No_! And weare sorry to say that some professedly religious teachers, though manytimes corrected, persist in misrepresenting us on this point. We havenever so held; we have never so taught. Our premises lead to no suchconclusions. Give ear: The mark and worship of the beast are enforced bythe two-horned beast. The receiving of the mark of the beast is aspecific act which the two-horned beast is to cause to be done. Thethird message of Rev. 14, is a warning mercifully sent out in advance toprepare the people for the coming danger. There can therefore be noworship of the beast, nor reception of his mark, such as is contemplatedin the prophecy, till it is enforced by the two-horned beast. We haveseen that _intention_ was essential to the change which the papacy hasmade in the law of God, to constitute it the mark of that power. So_intention_ is necessary in the adoption of that change to make it onthe part of any individual the reception of that mark. In other words, aperson must adopt the change, knowing it to be the work of the beast, and receive it on the authority of that power, in opposition to therequirement of God. But how with those referred to above who have kept Sunday in the past, and the majority of those who are keeping it to-day? Do they keep it asan institution of the papacy? No. Have they decided between this and theSabbath of the Lord, understanding the claims of each? No. On whatground have they kept it, and do they keep it? They suppose they arekeeping a commandment of God. Have such the mark of the beast? By nomeans. Their course is attributable to an error unwittingly receivedfrom the church of Rome, not to an act of worship rendered to it. But how is it to be? The church which is to be prepared for the secondcoming of Christ must be entirely free from papal errors andcorruptions. A reform must hence be made on the Sabbath question. Thethird angel proclaims the commandments of God, leading men to the truein the place of the counterfeit. The dragon is stirred, and so controlsthe wicked governments of the earth that all authority of human powershall be exerted to enforce the claims of the man of sin. Then the issueis fairly before the people. On one hand, they are required to keep thetrue Sabbath; on the other, a counterfeit. For refusing to keep thetrue, the message denounces the unmingled wrath of God; for refusing thefalse, earthly governments threaten them with persecution and death. With this issue before the people, what does he do who yields to thehuman requirement? He virtually says to God, I know your claims, but Iwill not yield to them. I know that the power I am required to worshipis anti-Christian; but I yield to save my life. I renounce yourallegiance, and bow to the usurper. The beast is henceforth the objectof my adoration; under his banner, in opposition to your authority, Ihenceforth array myself; to him, in defiance of your claims, Ihenceforth yield the obedience of my heart and life. Such is the spiritwhich will actuate the hearts of the beast-worshipers; a spirit whichinsults the God of the universe to his face, and is prevented only bylack of power from overthrowing his government and annihilating histhrone. Is it any wonder that Jehovah denounces against so Heaven-daringa course the most terrible threatening that his word contains? Chapter Eleven. The Beginning Of The End. We have now found what, according to the prophecy, is to constitute theimage which the two-horned beast is to cause to be made, and the markwhich it will attempt to enforce. The movement which is to fulfill thisportion of the prophecy, is to be looked for in the popular churches ofour land. First, a union must be effected between these churches, withsome degree of coalition also between these bodies and the beast power, or Roman Catholicism; and, secondly, steps must be taken to bring thelaw of the land to the support of the Sunday Sabbath. These movementsthe prophecy calls for. And the line of argument leading to theseconclusions is so direct and well-defined that there is no avoidingthem. They are a clear and logical sequence from the premises given us. When first the application of Rev. 13:11-17 to the United States wasmade, over twenty years ago, these positions respecting a union of thechurches and a grand Sunday movement were taken. But at that time, nosign appeared above or beneath, at home or abroad, no token was seen, noindication existed, that such an issue would ever be made. But therewas the prophecy, and that must stand. The United States government hadgiven abundant evidence, by its location, the time of its rise, themanner of its rise, and its apparent character, that it was the powersymbolized by the two-horned beast. There could be no mistake in theconclusion that it was the very nation intended by that symbol. Thisbeing so, it must take the course, and perform the acts, foretold. Buthere were predictions which could be fulfilled by nothing less than themovement above named respecting Church and State, and the enforcement ofthe papal Sabbath as the mark of the beast. To take the position at that time that this government was to pursuesuch a policy and engage in such a work, without any apparentprobability in its favor, was no small act of faith. On the other hand, to deny or ignore it, while admitting the application of the symbol tothis government, would be in accordance with neither Scripture norlogic. The only course for the humble, confiding student of prophecy topursue in such cases, is to take the light as it is given, and believethe prophecy in all its parts. So the stand was boldly taken; and openproclamation has been made from that day to this, that such a work wouldbe seen in these United States. With every review of the argument, newfeatures of strength have been discovered in the application; and amid astorm of scornful incredulity, we have watched the progress of events, and waited the hour, of fulfillment. Meanwhile, spiritualism has astonished the world with its terribleprogress, and shown itself to be the wonder-working element which was toexist in connection with this power. This has mightily strengthened theforce of the application. And now, within a few years past, what have wefurther seen? No less than the commencement of that very movementrespecting the formation of the image and the enactment of Sunday laws, which we have so long expected, and which is to complete the prophecy, and close the scene. Reference was made in chapter nine to the movement now on foot for agrand union of all the churches; not a union which arises from theputting away of error and uniting upon the harmonious principles oftruth, but simply a combination of sects, each retaining its ownparticular creed, but confederated for the purpose of carrying out moreextensively the common points of our faith. This movement finds a strongundercurrent of favor in all the churches. And men are engaged to carryit through who are not easily turned from their purpose. And there has suddenly arisen a class of men whose souls are absorbedwith the cognate idea of Sunday reform, and who have dedicated everyenergy of their being to the carrying forward of this kindred movement. The "New York Sabbath Committee" have labored zealously by means ofbooks, tracts, speeches, and sermons, to create a strong publicsentiment in behalf of Sunday. Making slow progress through moralsuasion, they seek a shorter path to the accomplishment of theirpurposes through political power. And why not? Christianity has becomepopular, and her professed adherents are numerous. Why not availthemselves of the power of the ballot to secure their ends? Rev. J. S. Smart (Methodist), in a published sermon on the "Political Duties ofChristian Men and Ministers, " expresses a largely-prevailing sentimenton this question, when he says:-- "I claim that we have, and ought to have, just as much concern in the government of this couniry as any other men.... We are the mass of the people. Virtue in this country is not weak; her ranks are strong in numbers, and invincible from the righteousness of her cause--invincible if united. Let not her ranks be broken by party names. " A "National Association" has been in existence for a number of years, which has for its object the securing of such amendments to the NationalConstitution as shall express the religious views of the majority of thepeople, and make it an instrument under which the keeping of Sunday canbe enforced as the Christian Sabbath. This Association already embraceswithin its organization a long array of eminent and honorable names:Governors of our States, Presidents of our colleges, Bishops, Doctors ofDivinity, Doctors of Law, and men who occupy high positions in all thewalks of life. In the Address issued by the officers of this Association, they say:-- "Men of high standing, in every walk of life, of every section of the country, and of every shade of political sentiment and religious belief, have concurred in the measure. " In their appeal, they most earnestly request every lover of his countryto join in forming auxiliary associations, circulate documents, attendconventions, sign the memorial to Congress, &c. , &c. In their plea for an amended Constitution, they ask the people to "Consider that God is not once named in our National Constitution. There is nothing in it which requires an 'oath of God, ' as the Bible styles it (which, after all, is the great bond both of loyalty in the citizen and of fidel in the magistrate); nothing which requires the ob of the day of rest and of worship, or which re its sanctity. If we do not have the mails carried and the post-offices open on Sunday, it is because we have a Postmaster-General who respects the day. If our Supreme Courts are not held, and if Congress does not sit on that day, it is custom, and not law, that makes it so. Nothing in the Constitution gives Sunday quiet to the custom house, the navy yard, the barracks, or any of the departments of government. "Consider that they fairly express the mind of the great body of the American people. This is a Christian people. These amendments agree with the faith, the feelings, and the forms of every Christian church or sect. The Catholic and the Protestant, the Unitarian and the Trinitarian, profess and approve all that is here proposed. Why should their wishes not become law? Why should not the Constitution be made to suhf and to represent a constituency so overwhelmingly in the majority?... "This great majority is becoming daily more conscious not only of their rights, but of their power. Their number grows, and their column becomes more solid. They have quietly, steadily opposed infidelity, until it has, at least, become politically unpopular. They have asserted the rights of man and the rights of the government, until the nation's faith has become measurably fixed and declared on these points. And now that the close of the war gives us occasion to amend our Constitution, that it may clearly and fully represent the mind of the people on these points, they feel that it should also be so amended as to recognize the rights of God in man and in government. Is it anything but due to their long patience that they be at length allowed to speak out the great facts and principles which give to all government its dignity, stability, and beneficence?" Thus for several years a movement has been on foot, daily growing inextent, and importance, and power, to fulfill that portion of theprophecy of Rev. 13:11-17, which first calls forth the dissent of theobjector, and which appears from every point of view the most improbableof all the specifications; namely, the erection of the image and theenforcing of the mark. Beyond this, nothing remains but the sharpconflict of the people of God with this earthly power, and the eternaltriumph of the overcomer. An Association, even now national in its character, as already noticed, and endeavoring, as is appropriate for those who have such objects inview, to secure their purposes under the sanction of the highestauthority of the land, the National Constitution, already has thismatter in hand. In the interest of this Association there is published, in Philadelphia, a semi-monthly paper called the _Christian Statesman_, in advocacy of this movement. Every issue of that paper goes forthfilled with arguments and appeals from some of the ablest pens in ourland, in favor of the desired Constitutional amendment. These are thevery methods, by which, in a country like ours, great revolutions arebrought about; and no movement has ever arisen so suddenly as this to sohigh a position in public esteem with certain classes, and taken sostrong a hold upon their hearts. Says Mr. G. A. Townsend (New World and Old, p. 212):-- "Church and State has several times crept into American politics, as in the contentions over the Bible in the public schools, the Anti-Catholic party of 1844, &c. Our people have been wise enough heretofore to respect the clergy in all religious questions, and to entertain a wholesome jealousy of them in politics. The latest _politico-theological movement_ [italics ours] is to insert the name of the Deity in the Constitution. " The present movements of this National Association and the progress ithas made luay be gathered somewhat from the report of the proceedings ofthe Convention held in Cincinnati, Jan. 31, 1872. From the Report of the Executive Committee it appeared that ten thousandcopies of the proceedings of the Philadelphia Convention have beengratuitously distributed; that a General Secretary (Rev. D. McAllister)has been appointed, with a salary of $2, 500; and that a long andelaborate paper by Prof. Taylor Lewis, of Union College, in advocacy ofthe ideas and objects of the Association, will soon be published; thatthe number of the Executive Committee is recommended to be increased totwenty-five, besides including all presidents of auxiliary associations;that $2, 177 have been raised the past year by the Association, and thata balance of over $90 remains in the treasury. Nearly $1, 800 were raisedat this Convention. The Business Committee recommended that the delegates to this Conventionhold meetings in their respective localities to ratify the resolutionsadopted at Cincinnati; that twenty thousand copies of the proceedings ofthis Convention be published in tract form; and that the friends of theAssociation be urged to form auxiliary associations. All theserecommendations were adopted. The resolutions passed were as follows:-- "_Resolved_, That it is the right and duty of the United States, as anation settled by Christians, a nation with Christian laws and usages, and with Christianity as its greatest social force, to acknowledgeitself in its written Constitution, to be a Christian nation. "_Resolved_, That, as the disregard of sound theory always leads tomischievous practical results, so in this case the failure of our nationto acknowledge, in its organic laws, its relation to God and his morallaws, as a Christian nation, has fostered the theory that government hasnothing to do with religion but to let it alone, and that consequentlyState laws in favor of the Sabbath, Christian marriage, and the use ofthe Bible in the schools, are unconstitutional. "_Resolved_, That we recognize the necessity of complete harmony betweenour written constitution and the actual facts of our national life; andwe maintain that tho true way to eflect this undoubted harmony is not toexpel the Bible and all idea of God and religion from our schools, abrogate laws enforcing Christian morality, and abolish all devoutobservances in connection with government, but to insert an explicitacknowledgment of God and the Bible in our fundamental law. "_Resolved_, That the proposed religious amendment, so far from tendingto a union of Church and State, is directly opposed to such union, inasmuch as it recognizes the nation's own relations to God, and insiststhat the nation should acknowledge these relations for itself, and notthrough the medium of any church establishment. " Mr. F. E. Abbott, editor of the _Index_, Toledo, O. , who was present atthe foregoing Convention, and presented a protest against its aims andefforts, says of those who stand at the head of the movement:-- "We found them to be so thoroughly sincere and earnest in their purpose that they did not fear the effect of a decided but temperate protest. This fact speaks volumes in their praise, as men of character and convictions. We saw no indication of the artful management which characterizes most conventions. The leading men--Rev. D. McAllister, Rev. A. M. Milligan, Prof. Sloane, Prof. Stoddard, Prof. Wright, Rev. T. P. Stephenson--impressed us as able, clear-headed, and thoroughly honest men; and we could not but conceive a great respect for their motives and their intentions. It is such qualities as these in the leaders of the movement that give it its most formidable character. They have definite and consistent ideas; they perceive the logical connection of these ideas, and advocate them in a very cogent and powerful manner; and they propose to push them with determination and zeal. Concede their premises, and it is impossible to deny their conclusions; and since these premises are axiomatic truths with the great majority of Protestant Christians, the effect of the vigorous campaign on which they are entering cannot be small or despicable. The very respect with which we were compelled to regard them only increases our sense of the evils which lie germinant in their doctrines; and we came home with the conviction that religious liberty in America must do battle for its very existence hereafter. The movement in which these men are engaged has too many elements of strength to be contemned by any far-seeing liberal. Blindness or sluggishness to-day means slavery to-morrow. Radicalism must pass now from thought to action, or it will deserve the oppression that lies in wait to overwhelm it. " As to the probability of the success of this movement, there is atpresent some difference of opinion. While a very few pass it by with aslur as a mere temporary sensation of little or no consequence, it isgenerally regarded as a work of growing strength and importance, both byits advocates and opposers. Petitions and remonstrances are both beingcirculated with activity, and shrewd observers, who have watched themovement with a jealous eye, and heretofore hoped it would amount tonothing, now confess that it "means business. " No movement of equalmagnitude of purpose has ever sprung up and become strong, and securedfavor so rapidly as this. Indeed, none of equal magnitude has ever beensprung upon the American mind, as this aims to remodel the wholeframework of our government, and give to it a strong religious cast--athing which the framers of our Constitution were careful to exclude fromit. They not only ask that the Bible, and God, and Christ, shall berecognized in the Constitution, but that it shall indicate this as "aChristian nation, and place all Christian laws, institutions, andusages, in our government on an undeniable legal basis in thefundamental law of the nation. " Of course, appropriate legislation will be required to carry suchamendments into effect, and somebody will have to decide what are"Christian laws and institutions. " From what we know of such movementsin the past in other countries, and of the temper of the churches ofthis, and of human nature when it has power suddenly conferred upon it, we look for no good from this movement. From a lengthy article in theLansing _State Republican_ in reference to the Cincinnati Convention, wetake the following extract:-- "Now there are hundreds and thousands of moral and professedly Christian people in this nation to-day who do not recognize the doctrine of the Trinity, do not recognize Jesus Christ the same as God. And there are hundreds and thousands of men and women who do not recognize the Bible as the revelation of God. The attempt to make any such amendment to the Constitution would be regarded by a large minority, perhaps a majority, of our nation as a palpable violation of liberty of conscience. Thousands of men, if called upon to vote for such an amendment, would hesitate to vote against God, although they may not believe that the amendment was necessary or that it is right; and such men would either vote affirmatively or not at all. In every case, such an amendment would be likely to receive an affirmative vote, which would by no means indicate the true sentiment of the people. And the same rule would hold good in relation to the adoption of such an amendment by Congress or by the Legislatures of three-quarters of the States. Men who make politics a trade would hesitate to record their names against the proposed Constitutional Amendment, advocated by the leaders of the great religious denominations of the land, and indorsed by such men as Bishop Simpson, Bishop McIlvaine, Bishop Eastburn, President Finney, Prof. Lewis, Prof. Seelye, Bishop Huntington, Bishop Kerfoot, Dr. Patterson, Dr. Cuyler, and many other divines who are the representative men of their respective denominations. " Not only the representative men of the churches are pledged to thismovement, but governors, judges, and many of the most eminent men of theland are working for it. Who doubts the power of the "representative menof the denominations" to rally the strength of their denominations tosustain this work at their call? We utter no prophecy of the future; itis not needed. Events transpire in these days faster than our minds areprepared to grasp them. Let us heed the admonition to "watch!" and, withreliance upon God, prepare for "those things which are coming on theearth. " But it may be asked how the Sunday question is to be affected by theproposed Constitutional Amendment. Answer: The object, or, to say theleast, one object of this amendment is to put the Sunday institution ona legal basis, and compel its observance by the arm of the law. At theNational Convention held in Philadelphia, Jan. 18 and 19, 1871, thefollowing resolution was among the first offered by the BusinessCommittee:-- "_Resolved_, That, in view of the controlling power of the Constitution in shaping State, as well as national, policy, it is of immediate importance to public morals, and to social order, to secure such an amendment as will indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all Christian laws, institutions, and usages in our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the nation, specially those which secure a proper oath, and which protect society against blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, and polygamy. " By Sabbath-breaking is meant nothing else but Sunday-breaking. In aconvention of the friends of Sunday, assembled Nov. 29, 1870, in NewConcord, Ohio, the Rev. James White is reported to have said: "Thequestion [of Sunday observance] is closely connected with the NationalReform Movement; for until the government comes to know God and honorhis law, we need not expect to restrain Sabbath-breaking corporations. "Here again the idea of the legal enforcement of Sunday observance standsuppermost. Once more: The Philadelphia _Press_ of Dec. 5, 1870, stated that someCongressmen, including Vice-president Colfax, arrived in Washington bySunday trains, Dec. 4, on which the _Christian Statesman_ commented asfollows (we give italics as we find them):-- "1. _Not one of those men ivho thus violated the Sabbath is fit to hold any official position in a Christian nation_. * * "He who violates the Sabbath may not steal because the judgment of society so strongly condemns theft, or because he believes that honesty is the best policy; but tempt him with the prospect of concealment, or the prospect of advantage, and there can be no reason why he who robs God will not rob his neighbor also. For this reason, the Sabbath law lies at the foundation of morality. Its observance is an acknowledgment of the sovereign rights of God over us. "2. _The sin of these Congressmen is a national sin_, because the nation hath not said to them in the Constitution, the supreme rule for our public servants, 'We charge you to serve us in accordance with the higher law of God. ' These Sabbath-breaking railroads, moreover, are corporations created by the State, and amenable to it. The State is responsible to God for the conduct of these creatures which it calls into being. It is bound, therefore, to restrain them from this as from other crimes, and any violation of the Sabbath, by any corporation, should work immediate forfeiture of its charter. And the Constitution of the United States, with which all State legislation is required to be in harmony, should be of such a character as to prevent any State from tolerating such infractions of fundamental moral law. "3. Give us in the National Constitution the simple acknowledgment of the law of God as the supreme law of nations, and _all the results indicated in this note will ultimately be secured_. Let no one say that the movement does not contemplate sufficiently practical ends. " From all this, we see the important place the Sabbath question is tohold in this movement--the important place it even now holds in theminds of those who are urging it forward. Let the amendment called forbe granted, "and all the results indicated in this note, " says thewriter, "will ultimately be secured;" that is, individuals andcorporations will be restrained from violating the Sunday observance. The acknowledgment of God in the Constitution may do very well as abanner under which to sail; but the practical bearing of the movementrelates to the compulsory observance of the first day of the week. Even now the question is agitated why the Jew should be allowed tofollow his business on the first day after having observed the seventh. The same question is equally pertinent to all seventh-day keepers. Awriter signing himself "American, " in the Boston _Herald_ of Dec. 14, 1871, said:-- "The President in his late message in speaking of the Mormon question, says, 'They shall not be permitted to break the law under the cloak of religion. ' This, undoubtedly, meets the approval of every American citizen, and I wish to cite a parallel case, and ask: Why should the Jews of this country be allowed to keep open their stores on the Sabbath under the cloak of their religion while I, or any other true American, will be arrested and suffer punishment if we do the same thing? If there is a provision made allowing a few to conduct business on the Sabbath, what justice and equality can there be in any such provision, and why should it not be stopped at once?" And this question, we apprehend, will be very summarily decided, whenonce the Consitutional Amendment has been secured. At a Ministerial Association of the M. E. Church held in Healdsburg, Cal. , April 26-28, 1870, Rev. Mr. Trefren, of Napa, speaking of S. D. A. Ministers, said, "I predict for them a short race. What we want is lawin the matter. " Then, referring to the present movement for a law, headded, "And we will have it, too; and when we get the power into ourhands, we will show these men what their end will be. " From a work recently published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, entitled "The Sabbath, " by Chas. Elliott, Professor of BiblicalLiterature and Exegesis in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of theNorth West, Chicago, Ill. , we take this paragraph:-- "But it may be asked, Would not the Jew be denied equality of rights by legislation protecting the Christian Sabbath and ignoring the Jewish? The answer is, We are not a Jewish but a Christian nation; therefore, our legislation must be conformed to the institutions and spirit of Christianity. This is absolutely necessary from the nature of the case. " There is no mistaking the import of this language: No matter if the Jewdoes not secure equal rights with others. We are not a Jewish nation, but a Christian; and all must be made to conform to what the majoritydecide to be Christian institutions. This affects all who observe theseventh day as much as the Jews. And we apprehend it will not be adifficult matter to lead the masses, whose prejudices incline them inthis direction, to believe that it is "absolutely necessary" that alllegislation must take such a form, and cause them to act accordingly. Several years since, Dr. Durbin of the _Christian Advocate and Journal_;gave his views on this subject as follows:-- "I infer, therefore, that the civil magistrate may not be called upon to enforce the observance of the Sabbath [Sunday] as required in the spiritual kingdom of Christ; but when Christianity becomes the moral and spiritual life of the State, the State is bound through her magistrates to prevent the open violation of the holy Sabbath, as a measure of self-preservation. She cannot, without injuring her own vitality and incurring the divine displeasure, be recreant to her duty in this matter. " At a meeting held at Saratoga Springs, Aug. 12, 1860, ex-presidentFillmore said that "while he deemed it needful to legislate cautiouslyin all matters connected with public morals, and to avoid coercivemeasures affecting religion, the right of every citizen to a day of restand worship could not be questioned, and laws securing that right shouldbe enforced. " And the _Christian Statesman_ of Dec. 15, 1871, speaking of the generaldisregard of the Sabbath [Sunday] in the arrangements for welcoming theGrand Duke Alexis, says:-- "How long will it be before the Christian masses of this country can be roused to enact a law compelling their public servants to respect the Sabbath?" A very marked and rapid change is taking place in public opinionrelative to the proposed religious amendment of the Constitution. Wehave learned of instances of men who were at first openly hostile to themovement, now giving their influence for its advancement, and clamoringloudly for a Sunday law. And some who at first regarded it withindifference, are now becoming its warm partisans. As a sample of thischange of feeling, the following paragraph from the _Christian Press_ ofJan, 1872, may be presented. The _Christian Press_ is the organ of theWestern Book and Tract Society, Cincinnati, Ohio, and its editor, speaking of the National Association above referred to, says:-- "When this Association was formed, while we were prepared to bid it God speed, we did not then feel that there was any pressing need for the object sought; and as our mission was specially directed to the Christianizing, enlightening and elevating, the masses of the people, we have said little in our columns on the subject, being assured that if the people are right, it is easy to set the government right. The late combined efforts, however, of various classes of our citizens to exclude the Bible from our schools, repeal our Sabbath laws, and divorce our government entirely from religion, and thus make it an atheistic government--for every government must be for God or against him, and must be administered in the interests of religion and good morals, or in the interests of irreligion and immorality--have changed our mind, and we are now prepared to urge the necessity for an explicit acknowledgment in the National Constitution of the authority of God and the supremacy of his law, as revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. " With the anti-Sunday movements of the present day, considering theirassociations, and the manner and object in and for which they arecarried forward, we have no sympathy. They aim at utter no-Sabbathism, freedom from all moral restraint, and all the evils of unbridledintemperance--ends which we abhor with all the strength of a moralnature quickened by the most intense religious convictions. And whilethe indignation of the batter portion of the community will be arousedat the want of religious principle and the immorality attending thepopular anti-Sunday movement, a little lack of discrimination, by nomeans uncommon, will on account of our opposition to the day, though weoppose it on entirely different ground, easily associate us with theclass above-mentioned, and subject us to the same odium. Meanwhile, some see the evils involved in this movement, and raise thevoice of alarm. The _Christian Union_, Jan. , 1871, said: "The friends of the measure are not likely ever to agree among themselves. The Convention which met in Philadelphia on the 18th inst. To consider this subject, refused to accept a phraseology which simply recognizes the Deity, and insisted upon including in the emendation the name of Jesus Christ as well. A party, in behalf of the Holy Spirit, which is so conspicuously slighted, will be the next in order; and then the way will be open for a proposition to recognize the 'Vicegerent of Christ on earth, ' as the true source of power among the nations! If the proposed amendment is anything more than a bit of sentimental cant, it is to have a _legal_ effect. It is to alter the status of the non-Christian citizen before the law. It is to affect the legal oaths and instruments, the matrimonial contracts, the sumptuary laws, &c. , &c. , of the country. This would be an outrage on natural right. " The Janesville (Wis. ) _Gazette_, at the close of an article on theproposed amendment, speaks thus of the effect of the movement, should itsucceed:-- "But independent of the question as to what extent we are a Christian nation, it may well be doubted whether, if the gentlemen who are agitating this question should succeed, they would not do society a very great injury. Such measures are but the initiatory steps which ultimately lead to _restrictions of religious freedom_, and to commit the government to measures which are as foreign to its powers and purposes as would be its action if it should undertake to determine a disputed question of theology. " The _Weekly Alta Californian_ of San Francisco, March 12, 1870, said:-- "The parties who have been recently holding a convention for the somewhat novel purpose of procuring an amendment to the Constitution of the United States recognizing the Deity, do not fairly state the case when they assert that it is the right of a Christian people to govern themselves in a Christian manner. If we are not governing ourselves in a Christian manner, how shall the doings of our government be designated? The fact is, that the movement is one to bring about in this country that union of church and State which all other nations are trying to dissolve. " The N. Y. _Independent_, Feb. , 1870, spoke of the movement as having thesame chance of success that a union of church and State would have. The Champlain _Journal_, speaking of the incorporating the religiousprinciple into the Constitution, and its effect upon the Jews, said:-- "However slight, it is the entering wedge between church and State. If we may cut off ever so few persons from the right of citizenship on account of difference of religious belief, then with equal justice and propriety may a majority at any time dictate the adoption of still further articles of belief, until our Constitution is but the text book of a sect beneath whose tyrannical sway _all liberty of religious opinion will be crushed_. " For a union of church and State, strictly so-called, we do not look. Inplace of this, we apprehend that what is called "the image, " a creationas strange as it is unique, comes in--not a State controlled by thechurch, and the church in turn supported by the State, but anecclesiastical establishment empowered to enforce its own decrees bycivil penalties; which, in all its practical bearings, amounts toexactly the same thing. The direct aim of the movement is undoubtedly aunion of church and State; a result which it will so nearly accomplishas to secure, by way of compromise, the erection of the image. Some one may now say, As you expect this movement to carry, you mustlook for a period of religious persecution in this country; nay, more, you must take the position that all the saints of God are to be put todeath; for the image is to cause that all who will not worship it shallbe killed. There would, perhaps, be some ground for such a conclusion, were we notelsewhere informed that in this dire conflict God does not abandon hispeople to defeat, but grants them a complete victory over the beast, hisimage, his mark, and the number of his name. Rev. 15:2. We further readrespecting this earthly power, that he causeth all to receive a mark intheir right hand or their foreheads; yet chapter 20:4, speaks of thepeople of God as those who do not receive the mark or worship the image. If, then, he could "cause" all to receive the mark, and yet all notactually receive it, in like manner his causing all to be put to deathwho will not worship the image does not necessarily signify that theirlives are actually to be taken. But how can this be? Answer: It evidently comes under that rule ofinterpretation in accordance with which verbs of action sometimessignify merely the will and endeavor to do the action in question, andnot the actual performance of the thing specified. George Bush, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in New York City University, makes this matter plain. In his notes on Ex. 7:11, he says:-- "It is a canon of interpretation of frequent use in the exposition of the sacred writings that verbs of action sometimes signify merely the _will_ and _endeavor_ to do the action in question. Thus in Eze. 24:13: 'I have _purified_ thee, and thou wast not purged;' _i. E. _, I have endeavored, used means, been at pains, to purify thee. John 5:44: 'How can ye believe which _receive_ honor one of another;' _i. E. _, endeavor to receive. Rom. 2:4: 'The goodness of God _leadeth_ thee to repentance;' _i. E. _, endeavors, or tends, to lead thee. Amos 9:3: 'Though they be _hid_ from my sight in the bottom of the sea;' _i. E. _, though they aim to be hid. 1 Cor. 10:33: 'I _please_ all men;' _i. E. _, endeavor to please. Gal. 5:4: 'Whosoever of you are _justified_ by the law;' _i. E. _, seek and endeavor to be justified. Ps. 69:4: 'They that _destroy_ me are mighty;' _i. E. _, that endeavor to destroy me. Eng. , 'That _would_ destroy me. ' Acts 7:26: 'And _set them at one_ again;' _i. E. _, wished and endeavored. Eng. , '_Would_ have set them. '" So in the passage before us: He causes all to receive a mark, and allwho will not worship the image to be killed; that is, he wills, purposes, and endeavors, to do this; he makes such an enactment, passessuch a law, but is not able to execute it; for God interposes in behalfof his people; and then those who have kept the word of Christ'spatience are kept from falling in this hour of temptation, according toRev. 3:10; then those who have made God their refuge are kept from allevil, and no plague comes nigh their dwelling, according to Ps. 91:9, 10; then all who are found written in the book are delivered, according to Dan. 12:1; and, being victors over the beast and hisimage, they are redeemed from among men, and raise a song of triumphbefore the throne of God, according to Rev. 14:4; 15:2. The objector may further say: You are altogether too credulous insupposing that all the skeptics of our land, the spiritualists, theGerman infidels, and the irreligious masses generally, can be so farbrought to favor the religious observance of Sunday that a general lawcan be promulgated in its behalf. We answer: The prophecy must be fulfilled; and if the prophecy requiressuch a revolution, it will be accomplished. But we do not know that itis necessary. Permit us to suggest an idea, which, though it is onlyconjecture, may show how enough can be accomplished to fulfill theprophecy without involving the classes mentioned. This movement, as hasbeen shown, must originate with the churches of our land, and be carriedforward by them. They wish to enforce certain practices among all thepeople; and it would be very natural that, in reference to those pointsrespecting which they wish to influence the outside masses, they shouldsee the necessity of first having absolute conformity among all theevangelical denominations. They could not expect to influencenon-religionists to any great degree on questions respecting which theywere divided among themselves. So, then, let union be had on those viewsand practices which the great majority already entertain. To this endcoercion may first be attempted. But here are a few who cannot possiblyattach to the observance of the first day, which the majority wish tosecure, any religious obligation; and would it be anything strange forthe sentence to be given, Let these few factionists be made to conform, by persuasion if possible, by force, if necessary. Thus the blow mayfall on conscientious commandment-keepers, before the outside masses areinvolved in the issue at all. And should events take this not improbableturn, it would be sufficient to meet the prophecy, and leave no groundfor the objection proposed. To receive the mark of the beast in the forehead, is, we understand, togive the assent of the mind and judgment to his authority in theadoption of that institution which constitutes the mark. By parity ofreasoning, to receive it in the hand would be to signify allegiance bysome outward act. The number, over which the saints are also to get the victory, is thenumber of the papal beast, called also the number of his name, and thenumber of a man, and said to be six hundred threescore and six. The popewears upon his pontifical crown in jeweled letters, this title:"_Vicarius Filii Dei_, " "Vicegerent of the Son of God;" the numericalvalue of which title is just six hundred and sixty-six. The mostplausible supposition we have ever seen on this point is that here wefind the number in question. It is the number of the beast, the papacy;it is the number of his name; for he adopts it as his distinctive title;it is the number of a man; for he who bears it is the "man of sin. " Weget the victory over it by refusing those institutions and practiceswhich he sets forth as evidence of his power to sit supreme in thetemple of God, and by adopting which we should acknowledge the validityof his title, by conceding his right to act for the church in behalf ofthe Son of God. And now, reader, we leave with you this subject. We confidently submitthe argument as one which is invulnerable in all its points. We ask youto review it carefully. Take in, if thought can comprehend it, thewonderful phenomenon of our own nation. Consider its location, the timeof its rise, the manner of its rise, its character, Satan's masterpieceof lying wonders which he has here sprung upon the world, and theelements which are everywhere working to fulfill in just as accurate amanner every other specification of the prophecy. Can you doubt theapplication. We know not how. Then the last agents to appear in thisworld's history are on the stage of action, the close of thisdispensation is at hand, and the Lord cometh speedily to judge theworld. Then an issue of appalling magnitude is before us. It is no lessthan this: To yield to unrighteous human enactments soon to be made, andthus expose ourselves to the unmingled wrath of an insulted Creator, orto remain loyal to our God and brave the utmost wrath of the dragon andhis infuriated hosts. In reference to this issue, the third angel now utters his solemn andvehement warning. To aid in sounding over the land this timely note ofalarm, to impress upon hearts the importance of a right position in thecoming issue, and the necessity of pursuing such a course as will securethe favor of God in the season of earth's direst extremity, and a shareat last in his glorious salvation, is the object of this effort. And ifwith any it shall have this effect, the prayer of the writer will not beutterly unanswered, nor his labor be wholly lost.