Chapter III: Part 3

The "speaking" of any government must be the public promulgation of its will on the part of its law-making and executive powers. Is this nation, then, to issue unjust and oppressive enactments against the people of God? Are the fires of persecution, which in other ages have devastated other lands, to be lighted here also? We would fain believe otherwise; but notwithstanding the pure intentions of the noble founders of this government, notwithstanding the worthy motives and objects of thousands of Christian patriots to-day, we can but take the prophecy as it reads, and expect nothing less than what it predicts. John heard this power speak; and the voice was that of a dragon.

Nor is this so improbable an issue as might at first appear. The people of the United States are not all saints. The masses, notwithstanding all our gospel light and gospel principles, are still in a position for Satan to suddenly fire their hearts with the basest of impulses. This nation, as we have seen, is to exist to the coming of Christ; and the Bible very fully sets forth the moral condition of the people in the days that immediately precede that event. Iniquity is to abound, and the love of many to wax cold. Evil men and seducers are to wax worse and worse. Scoffers are to arise, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? The whole land is to be full of violence as it was in the days of Noah, and full of licentiousness as in the city of Sodom in the days of Lot. And when the Lord appears, faith will scarcely be found upon the earth, and those who are ready for his coming will be but a "little flock." Can the people of God expect to go through this period, and not suffer persecution? No. This would be contrary to the lessons taught by all past experience, and just the reverse of what we are warranted by the word of God to expect. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." If ever this was true in the history of the church, 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 touch their lowest depths of iniquity and sin.

Let, then, a general spirit of persecution arise in this country, and what is more probable than that it should assume an organized form? Here the will of the people is law. And let there be a general desire on the part of the people for certain oppressive enactments against believers in unpopular doctrines, and what would be more easy and natural than that such desire should immediately crystallize into systematic action, and their oppressive measures take the form of law? Then we have just what the prophecy indicates. Then is heard the voice of the dragon.

And there are elements already in existence which furnish a luxuriant soil for a baleful crop of future evil. But a few years ago three and a half millions of human beings were held in our country in a state of abject bondage, deprived of every vestige of freedom and every trace of manhood. But why refer to slavery, it may be asked, since it has already become a thing of the past? Slavery, to be sure, on the ground of political expediency, has been abolished. For the time being, the ballots and bayonets of its opponents have outnumbered those of its partisans. But has this changed the disposition by which it has heretofore been fostered? Has it converted the South? Have they been brought to look upon it as an evil which should be given up on account of its own intrinsic wrong? We would that we could answer these questions in the affirmative. But there are acts too patent to be denied, which show that the virus of this great iniquity still rankles in the body politic; that the system of slavery has been given up by the people of the South simply as a matter of necessity; that if they had the power they would re-instate it again though they should rend and ruin the Republic in their attempt; and hundreds of thousands in the North would sympathize with them in the movement, and second them in their efforts. The disease is driven from the surface, but it is not cured. It may be a source of serious trouble hereafter.

Political corruption is preparing the way for deeper sin. It pervades all parties. Look at the dishonest means resorted to to obtain office, the bribery, the deceptions, the ballot-stuffing. Look at the stupendous revelations of municipal corruption just disclosed in New York city: millions upon millions stolen directly and barefacedly rom the city treasury by its corrupt officials. Look at the civil service of this government. 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 history to show that moral principle, the only guarantee in a government like ours for justice and honesty, is sadly wanting.

And evil is also threatening from another quarter. Creeping up from the darkness of the dark ages, a hideous monster is intently watching to seize the throat of liberty in our land. It thrusts itself up into the noonday of the ninteenth century, not that it may be benefited by its light and freedom, but that it may suppress and obscure them. The name of this monster is Popery; and it has fixed its rapacious and bloodthirsty eyes on this land, determined to make it its helpless prey. It already decides the election in some of our largest cities. It controls the revenues of the most populous State in the Union, and appropriates annually hundreds of thousands of dollars raised from Protestant taxes to the support of its own ecclesiastical organizations, and to the furtherance of its own religious and political ends. It has reached that measure of influence that it is only by a mighty effort of Protestant patriotism that measures can now be carried, against which the Romish element combines its strength. And corrupt and unscrupulous politicians stand ready to concede to its demands to secure its support, for the purpose of advancing their own ambitious aims. Rome is in the field with the basest and most fatal intentions, and with the most watchful and tireless energy. It is destined to play an important part in our future troubles; for this is the very beast which the two-horned beast is to cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship, and before whose eyes it is to perform its wonders.

And in our own better Protestant churches there is that which threatens to lead to most serious evils. On this point one of their own popular ministers, who is well qualified to speak, may testify. A sermon by Charles 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, and free-love, the trades unions, or labor against capital, and communism, all assiduously spreading their principles among the masses. These are the very principles that worked among the people, as the exciting cause, just prior to the terrible French revolution of 1789-1800. Human nature is the same in all ages, and like causes will surely produce like results. These causes are now all in active operation; and how soon they will culminate in a state of anarchy, and a reign of terror as much more frightful than the French revolution as they are now more widely extended, no man can say.

Such are some of the elements already at work; such the direction in which events are moving. And how much further is it necessary that they should progress in this manner, before an open war-cry of persecution from the masses, against those whose simple adherence to the Bible shall put to shame their man-made theology, and whose godly lives shall condemn their wicked practices, would seem in nowise startling or incongruous? But some may say, through an all-absorbing faith in the increasing virtue of the American people, that they do not believe that the United States will ever raise the hand of persecution against any class. Very well. This is not a matter over which we need to indulge in any 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 ground for strong probabilities in this direction; and we shall present more forcible evidence, and speak of more significant movements hereafter. As we interpret the prophecy, we look upon it as inevitable. But the decision of the question must be left to time. We can neither help nor hinder 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 prophet says: "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." This language is urged by some to prove that the two-horned beast must be some power which holds the reins of 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 beast passed off the stage of action when the two-horned beast came on, just as Babylon gave place to Persia, which then exercised all the power of Babylon before it, there would be some plausibility in the claim. But the word rendered "before" is [Greek: enopion] (_enopion_) which means, literally, "in the presence of." And so the language, instead of proving what is claimed, becomes a most positive proof that these beasts are distinct and cotemporary powers.

The first beast is in existence, having all its symbolic vitality, at the 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 the two-horned beast; for a beast in prophecy ceases to exist when his dominion is taken away. What caused the change in the symbols from the lion, representing Babylon, to the bear representing Persia? Simply a transfer of dominion from Babylon to Persia. And so the prophecy explains the successive passing away of these beasts, by saying that their lives were prolonged, but their dominion was taken away; that is, the territory of the kingdom was not blotted from the map, nor the lives of the people destroyed ed, but there was a transfer of power from one nationality to another. So the fact that the leopard beast is spoken of as still an existing power, when the two-horned beast works in his presence, is proof that he is, at that time, in possession of all the dominion that was ever necessary to constitute him a symbol in prophecy.

What power then does the two-horned beast exercise? Not the power which belongs to, and is in the hands of, the leopard beast, surely; but he exercises, or essays to exercise, in his presence, power of the same kind and to the same extent. The power which the first beast exercised was a terrible power of oppression against the people of God. And this is a further indication of the character which the two-horned beast is finally to sustain in this respect.

The latter part of the verse, "And causeth the earth and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed," is still further proof that the two-horned beast is no phase nor feature of the papacy; for the first beast is certainly competent to enforce 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 out of which it arose and over which it rules) and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast. This shows that this beast occupies territory over which the first beast has no jurisdiction.

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." That we are living in an age of wonders none deny. Time was, and that not two score of years ago, when the bare mention of achievements which now constitute the warp and woof of every-day life, were considered the wildest chimeras of a diseased imagination. Now, nothing is too wonderful to be believed, nor too strange to happen. Go back fifty years, and the world with respect to those things which tend to domestic convenience and comfort, the means of illumination, the production and application of heat, and the performance of various household operations; with respect to methods of rapid locomotion from place to place, and the transmission of intelligence from point to point, stood about where it did in the days of the patriarchs. Suddenly waters of that long stream over whose drowsy surface scarcely a ripple of improvement had passed for three thousand years, broke into the white foam of violent agitation. The world awoke from the slumber and darkness of ages. The divine finger lifted the seal from the prophetic books, and brought that predicted period when men should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased. Then men bound the elements to their chariots, and reaching up laid hold upon the very lightning and made it their message-bearer around the world. Nahum foretold that at a certain time the chariots should be with flaming torches and run like the lightnings. Who can behold in the darkness of the night, the locomotive dashing over its iron track, the fiery glare of its great lidless eye driving the shadows from its path, and torrents of smoke and sparks and flame pouring from its burning throat, and not realize that ours are the eyes that are privileged to look upon a fulfillment of Nahum's prophecy. But when this should take place, the prophet said that the times would be burdened with the solemn work of God's preparation.

"Canst thou send lightnings," said God to Job, "that they may go and say unto 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 tamed the lightning, and Prof. Morse taught it the English language.

So, in every department of the arts and sciences, the advancement that has been made within the last half century is without precedent in the world's history. And in all these the United States take the lead. These facts are not, indeed, to be taken as a fulfillment of the prophecy, but they show the spirit of the age in which we live, and point to this time as a period when we may look for wonders of every kind.

The particular wonders to which the prophecy refers are evidently wrought for the purpose of deceiving the people; for verse 14 reads, "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." This identifies the two-horned beast with the false prophet of Rev. 19:20; for this false prophet 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-horned beast. We can now ascertain by what means the miracles in question are wrought; for Rev. 16:13, 14, speaks of spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, and these miracle-working spirits go forth out of the mouths of certain powers, 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 true Christ and false Christs, true and false prophets, and true and false apostles. By a false miracle, we mean not a pretended miracle, which is no miracle at all, but a real miracle, a supernatural performance, wrought for the purpose of deceiving, or of proving a lie. The miracles of this power are real miracles, but are wrought for the purpose of deception. The prophecy does not read that he deceived the people by means of the miracles which he claimed that he was able to perform, or which he pretended to do; but which he _had power_ to do. They, therefore, fall far short of the prophecy who suppose that the great wonders wrought by this power were fulfilled by Napoleon when he told the Mussulmans that he could command a fiery chariot to come down from heaven, but never did it, or by the pretended miracles of the Romish church, which are only shams, mere tricks played off by ungodly and designing 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, are mentioned by Paul in 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. Speaking of the second coming of Christ, he says, "Whose coming is after ([Greek: kata], at the time of) the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they 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 as the world has never before seen. To work with all power and signs and lying wonders, is certainly to do a real and an astounding work, but one which is designed to prove a lie.

Again, the Saviour, predicting events to occur just before his second coming, says, "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Here, again, are wonders foretold, wrought for the purpose of deception, so powerful that, were it possible, even the very elect would be deceived by them.

Thus we have a series of prophecies setting forth the development, in the last days, of a wonder-working power, manifested to a startling and unprecedented degree, in the interests of falsehood and error. All refer to one and the same thing. The earthly government, with which it was to be especially connected, is that represented by the two-horned beast, or false prophet. The agency lying back of the outward manifestations was to be Satanic, the spirits of devils. The prophecy calls for such a work as this in our own country at the present time. Do we behold anything like it? Read the answer in the lamentation of the prophet: "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Stand aghast, O Earth! Tremble, ye people, but be not deceived. The huge specter of evil confronts us, as the prophet declared. Satan is loosed. From the depth of Tartarus, myriads of demons swarm over the land. The prince of darkness manifests himself as never before, and, stealing a word from the vocabulary of Heaven to designate his work, he calls it--_Spiritualism_.

1. Does spiritualism, then, bear these marks of Satanic agency?

1st. The spirits which communicate claim to be the spirits of our departed friends. But the Bible, in the most explicit terms, assures us that the dead are wholly inactive and unconscious till the resurrection; that the dead know not anything; Eccl. 9:5; that every operation of the mind has ceased; Ps. 146:4; that every emotion of the heart is suspended; Eccl. 9:6; and that there is neither work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where they lie. Eccl. 9:10. Whatever intelligence, therefore, comes to us professing to be one of our dead friends, comes claiming to be what, from the word of God, we know he is not. But angels of God don't lie; therefore these are not the good angels. Spirits of devils will lie; this is their work; and these are the credentials which at the very outset they hand us.

2dly. The doctrines which they teach are from the lowest and foulest depths of the pit of lies. They deny God. They deny Christ. They deny the atonement. They deny the Bible. They deny the existence of sin, and all distinction between right and wrong. They deny the sacredness of the marriage covenant; and, interspersing their utterances with the most horrid blasphemies against God and his Son, and everything that is lovely, and good, and pure, they give the freest license to every propensity to sin, and to every carnal and fleshly lust. Tell us not that these things, openly taught under the garb of religion, and backed up by supernatural sights and sounds, are anything less than Satan's masterpiece.

2. Spiritualism answers accurately to the prophecy in the exhibition of great signs and wonders. Among its many achievements, these may be mentioned: Various articles have been transported from place to place by spirits alone. Beautiful music has been produced, independent of human agency, with and without the aid of visible instruments. Many well-attested cases of healing have been presented. Persons have been carried 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 and talked with an audible voice. A writer in the _Spiritual Clarion_ speaks as follows of the manner in which spiritualism has arisen, and the astounding 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 our own country, thus connecting its wonders with the work of the two-horned beast. Commencing in Hydesville, N.Y., in the family of Mr. John D. Fox, in the latter part of March, 1848, it spread with incredible rapidity through all the States. The estimates of the number of spiritualists in this country at the present time, only twenty-six short years from its commencement, though differing somewhat from each other, are nevertheless such as to show that the progress of spiritualism has been without a parallel. Thus, Judge Edmonds puts the number at five or six millions (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 Roman Catholic 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 that time to this, the work of the spirits has been steadily progressing, and spreading 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. The late Emperor and Empress of France, the late Queen of Spain, the Roman Pontiff, and the Emperor and Grand Dukes of Russia are all said to have sought to these spirits for knowledge. Thus it is working its way to the potentates of the earth, and fast preparing to accomplish its real mission, which is, by deceiving the world with its miracles, to gather the 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 been going, and as it is still going, and what a scene is before us! Having seen 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-working deception, till that is accomplished which in the days of Elijah was a test between Jehovah and Baal, and fire is brought down from heaven to earth in the sight of men. Then will be the hour of the power of darkness, the hour of temptation that is coming upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Rev. 3:10. Then all will be swept from their anchorage by the strong current of delusion, except those whom it is not possible to deceive--the elect of God.

And still the world sleeps on, while Satan, with lightning fingers and hellish energy, weaves over them his last fatal snare. It is time some mighty move was made to waken the world and rouse the church to the dangers we are in. It is time every honest heart should learn that the only safeguard against the great deception, whose incipient and even well-advanced workings we already behold before our eyes, is to make the truths 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 them the chains of a fatal deception, leading them to suppose they have witnessed the great power of God, and must therefore be doing him service, when they have only been dazed with a mighty display of Satanic wonders, and are led captive by the devil at his will, they are prepared to do the further bidding of the two-horned beast, which is to make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.

Once more we remind the reader of the impregnable strength of the argument already presented in previous chapters, fixing the application of this symbol to these United States. This is an established proposition, and needs no farther support. An exposition of the remainder of the prophecy will therefore consist chiefly of an effort to determine what acts are to be performed by this government, and a search for indications, if any exist, that they are about to be accomplished. If we shall find evidences springing up on all sides, that this government is now moving as rapidly as possible in the very direction marked out by the prophet, though these are not necessary to establish the application of the symbol to this government, they will serve to stifle the last excuse of skepticism, and become to the believer an impressive evidence of our proximity to the end; for the acts ascribed to this symbol are but few; and while yet in mid career, he is engulfed in the lake of fire of the last great day.

We may, however, notice in passing, another evidence that the government symbolized by the two-horned beast is certainly a republic. This is proved by the language used respecting the formation of the image. It does not read that this power, as an act of imperial or kingly authority, makes an image to the beast; but it says to them that dwell on the earth, that is, the people occupying the territory where it arises, that _they_ should make an image to the beast. Appeal is made to the people, showing conclusively that the power is in their hands. But just as surely as the government symbolized is a republic, so surely is it none other than the United States of America.

We have seen that the wonder-working Satanic agencies, which are to perform the foretold miracles, and prepare the people for the next step in 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 will constitute the image? and what steps are necessary to its formation?

The people are to be called upon to make an image _to_ the beast, which expression doubtless involves the idea of some deferential action toward, or concessions to, that power; and the image, when made, is an image, likeness, or representation _of_ the beast. Verse 15. The beast from which the image is modeled, is the one which had a wound by a sword and did live, or the papacy. From this point is seen the collusion of the two-horned beast with the leopard or papal beast. He does great wonders 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 to receive a mark, which is the mark of that beast. These palpable evidences of co-operation with the papal power, led Eld. J. Litch, about 1842, 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 a definite idea of what constitutes the papacy itself. Papal supremacy dates from the time when the decree of Justinian, constituting the pope the head of the church and the corrector of heretics, was carried into effect, in 538. The papacy, then, was a church clothed with civil power, an ecclesiastical body, having authority to punish all dissenters with confiscation, imprisonment, torture, and death. What would be an image of the papacy? Another ecclesiastical establishment clothed with similar power. How could such an image be formed in this country? Let the Protestant churches in our land be clothed with power to define and punish heresy, to enforce their dogmas under the pains and penalties of the civil law, and should we not have an exact representation of the papacy during the days of its supremacy?

It may be objected that whereas the papal church was comparatively a unit, and hence could act in harmony in all its departments in enforcing its dogmas, the Protestant church is so divided as to be unable to agree in regard to what doctrines shall be made imperative on the people. We answer, there are certain points which they hold in common, and which are sufficient to form a basis of co-operation. Chief among these may be mentioned the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead and the immortality of the soul, which is both the foundation and superstructure of spiritualism, and also the doctrine that the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath.

It may be objected again that this view makes one of the horns, the Protestant church, finally constitute the image of the beast. If the reader supposes that the Protestant church constitutes one of the horns of 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 because it has been actually urged as a legitimate consequence of the positions here taken. And then the question is asked, If the Protestant church constitutes one horn, may not the Catholic church constitute the other? Under the shadow of that hypothetical "if," perhaps it might. But neither the one nor the other performs such an office. In chapter six of this work, it was shown that the two great principles of Republicanism and Protestantism were the proper objects to be symbolized by these two lamb-like horns. But there is the plainest distinction between Protestantism as an embodiment of the great principle of religions liberty, and the different religious bodies that have grown up under its fostering influence; just as plain as there is between Republicanism, or civil liberty, and the individual who lives in the enjoyment of such liberty. The supposition, therefore, that the Protestant church is to furnish the material for the image, involves no violation of the symbolic harmony of this prophecy.

Let us look a moment at the fitness of the material. We are not unmindful of the noble service the Protestant churches have rendered to the world, to humanity, and to religion, by introducing and defending, so far as they have, the great principles of Protestantism. But they have made a fatal mistake in stereotyping their doctrines into creeds, and thus taking the first steps backward toward the spiritual tyranny of Rome. Thus the good promise they gave of a free religion and an unfettered conscience is already broken. For, if the right of private judgment is allowed by the Protestant church, why are men condemned and expelled from that church for ncwother crime than honestly attempting to obey the word of God, in some particulars not in accordance with her creed? 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, "already formed?" But apostasy in principle always leads to corruption in practice. And so Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, sets forth the condition of the professed church of Christ in the last days. A rank growth of twenty heinous sins, with no redeeming virtues, shows that the fruits of the Spirit will be choked and rooted out by the works of the flesh. We can look nowhere else for this picture of Paul's to be fulfilled except to the Protestant church; for the class of which he speaks maintain a form of godliness, or the outward services of a true Christian worship.

And is not the church of our day beginning to manifest to an alarming degree the very characteristics which the apostle has specified? Fifteen clergymen of the city of Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday, Feb. 5, 1871, distributed a circular, entitled "A Testimony," to fifteen congregations of that city. To this circular the Rochester _Democrat_ of Feb. 7 made reference 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 a form of godliness, but to deny the power; and when they "practice in religious circles what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God," they may be truthfully said to be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." And Rochester is not an exception in this respect. It is so all over the land, as the candid everywhere, by a sad array of facts, are compelled to admit.

That the majority of the Christians in our land are still to be found in connection with these churches is undoubtedly true. But a change in this respect is also approaching. For Paul exhorts all true Christians, in his words to Timothy above referred to, to turn away from those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof; and those who desire to live pure and holy lives, who mourn over the desolations of their Zion, and sigh for the abominations done in the land, will certainly heed this injunction of the apostle. There is another prophecy which also shows that when the spirit of worldliness and apostasy has so far taken possession of the professed churches of Christ as to place them beyond the reach of reform, God's true children are every one to be called out, that they become not partakers of their sins, and so receive not of their plagues. Rev. 18:4.

From the course which church members are everywhere pursuing, it is plain to be seen in what direction the Protestant churches are drifting; and from the declarations of God's word it is evident that all whose hearts are touched by God's grace and molded by his love will soon come out 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 the state of the religious world will be when this change shall have taken place. We shall then have an array of proud and popular churches from whose communion all the good have departed, from whom the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, and who are in a state of hopeless departure from God. God is no respecter of persons nor of churches; and if the Protestant churches apostatize from him, will they not be just as efficient agents in the hand of the enemy as ever pagans or papists have been? Will they not then be ready for any desperate measure of bigotry and oppression in which he may wish to enlist them? After the Jewish church had finally rejected Christ, how soon they were ready to imbrue their hands in the blood of his crucifixion. And is it not the testimony of all history, that just in proportion as any popular and extensive ecclesiastical organization loses the Spirit and power of God, it clamors for the support of the civil arm?

Let, now, an ecclesiastical organization be formed by these churches; let the government legalize such organization, and give it power (a power which it will not have till the government does grant it) to enforce upon the people the dogmas which the different denominations can all adopt as the basis of union, and what do we have? Just what the prophecy represents: an image to the papal beast, endowed with life by the two-horned beast, to speak and act with power.

And are there any indications of such a movement? The preliminary question, that of the grand union of all the churches, is now profoundly agitating 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 the land 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 Second Presbyterian 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 this country, 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 be seen, not indeed, raised up through the instrumentality of a Luther, but rather through the operation of the same spirit that inspired a Fernando Nunez or a Torquemada.

Chapter Ten.

The Mark Of The Beast.

The principal acts ascribed to the two-horned beast, which seem to be performed with special reference to the papal beast, are, the causing of men 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 is created and endowed with life, undertakes to enforce the worship of itself. To avoid confusion, we must keep these parties distinct in our minds. There are three here brought before us: 1. The papal beast. This power is designated as "the beast," "the first beast," "the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live," and, the "beast whose deadly wound was healed." These expressions all refer to the same power; and wherever they occur in this prophecy, they have exclusive reference to the papacy. 2. The two-horned beast. This power, after its introduction in verse 11, is represented through the remainder of the prophecy by the pronoun "he;" and wherever this pronoun occurs, down to the 17th verse (with possibly the exception of the 16th verse, which perhaps may refer to the image), it refers invariably to the two-horned beast. 3. The image of the beast. This is, every time, with the exception just stated, called the image; so that there is no danger of confounding this with any other agent.

The acts ascribed to the image are speaking and enforcing the worship of itself under the penalty of death; and this is the only enactment which the prophecy mentions as enforced under the death penalty. Just what will constitute this worship, it will perhaps be impossible to determine till the image itself shall have an existence. It will evidently be some act or acts by which men will be required to acknowledge the authority of that image and yield obedience to its mandates.

The mark of the beast is enforced by the two-horned beast either directly or through the image. The penalty attached to a refusal to receive this mark is a forfeiture of all social privileges, a deprivation of the right to buy and sell. The mark is the mark of the papal beast. Against this worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark, the third angel's message of Rev. 14:9-12, is a most solemn and thrilling warning.

Here, then, is the issue before us. Human organizations, controlled and inspired by the spirit of the dragon, are to command men to do those acts which are in reality the worshiping of an apostate religious power, and the receiving of his mark, or lose the rights of citizenship and become outlaws in the land; and to do that which constitutes the worship of the image of the beast, or forfeit their lives. On the other hand, God says by a message, mercifully sent out a little before the fearful crisis is upon us, Do any of these things, and you "shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." He who refuses to comply with these demands of earthly powers exposes himself to the severest penalties which human beings can inflict; and he who does comply, exposes himself to the most terrible threatening of divine wrath to be found in the word of God. The question whether we will obey God or man is to be decided by the people of the present age, under the heaviest pressure, from either side, that has 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 be committed against God, to call down so severe a denunciation of wrath against it. This is a work, as was shown in chapter 4, which takes place in the last days; and as God has given us in his word most abundant evidence to show when we are in the last days, so that no one need to be overtaken by the day of the Lord as by a thief, so likewise it must be that he has given us the means whereby we may determine what this great latter-day sin is which he has so strongly condemned, that we may avoid the fearful penalty so sure to follow its commission. God does not so trifle with human hopes and human destinies as to denounce a most fearful doom against a certain sin, and then place it out of our power to understand what that sin is, so that we have no means of guarding against it.

That we are now living in the last days, the volumes both of revelation and nature bear ample and harmonious testimony. Evidence on this point we need not here stop to introduce; for the testimony already presented in the foregoing chapters of this series, showing that the two-horned beast is now on the stage of action, is in itself conclusive proof of this great fact, inasmuch as the power exists and performs its work in the very closing period of human history. All these things tell us that the 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, and the warning it gives.

We therefore now call attention to the very important inquiry, What constitutes the mark of the beast? The figure of a mark is borrowed from an 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 applied to 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 cut in or stamped." It occurs nine times in the New Testament, and with the single exception of Acts 17:29, refers every time to the mark of the beast. We are not, of course, to understand in this symbolic prophecy, that a literal mark is intended; but the giving of the literal mark, as practiced in ancient times, is used as a figure to illustrate certain acts that will be performed in the fulfillment of this prophecy. And from the literal mark as formerly employed, we learn something of its meaning as used in the prophecy; for between the symbol and the thing symbolized there must be some resemblance. The mark, as literally used, signified that the person receiving it was the servant of, acknowledged the authority of, or professed allegiance to, the person whose mark he bore. So the mark of the beast, or the papacy, must be some act or profession by which the authority of that power is acknowledged. What is it?