The Closing Messages of the Gospel

THE IMAGE.—The image of the beast must be a government which strikingly resembles the papal power; not in its civil features, as represented by the number of its heads and horns, but in the exercise of similar power and authority. It is brought to life and clothed with authority in matters of religious worship by the remarkable government symbolized as a beast with two horns like a lamb. Rev. 13:11. If we can find the location of the two-horned beast, we shall learn where the image will be formed; for as the first beast was only a new form of the old Roman government, which was symbolized by the dragon of Rev. 12, and was established by the act of a Roman emperor, clothing the pope with universal and supreme power in matters of religious faith and worship; so the setting up of a standard of religious practice to which all must conform, will transform the lamblike beast into the image of the papal beast. The question therefore is, What earthly power fulfills the prophecy by answering the description of the second beast?

After describing the blasphemous and persecuting character of the first beast, the length of his reign, and his captivity at the end of that time, it is said: "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." Rev. 13:11.

The most notable governments are always pointed out in prophecy, and those most nearly connected with the history of the church of God. As the word of prophecy is infallible, one government, and only one, will fill the description of this beast, therefore, the one which fulfills every specification in the description is the subject of the prophecy. Let us apply this rule in our search for the location of the two-horned beast.

1. It is "another beast." Then it is not the papacy, which had just been described. In verse 12 papal Rome is called "the first beast." It cannot be both the first and the second. The ten horns of that beast represented the ten divisions of the Roman empire. The principal governments of Europe are symbolized by these horns, and therefore are a part of that beast; hence we look in vain for this other beast in all their territory.

Our first parents were placed "eastward in Eden;" and after the flood the ark rested on Mt. Arrarat, and thence the world was re-peopled. The course of empire, and the light of revelation, like that of the natural sun, have advanced from the east toward the west. Babylon, the first of the four great kingdoms noted in the prophecy, was situated upon the Euphrates in Asia. The dominion passed to the Medes and Persians; thence to the Grecians in the eastern part of Europe thence to the Romans in the western part, extending to the Atlantic. And there was yet another wonderful power to be developed; and where shall we find it, unless we cross the ocean still toward the west? Here, in America, we find a distinguished republican government, now stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Thus the earth is spanned, and its utmost verge is reached. Bishop Berkley, in his celebrated poem on America, written more than a hundred years ago, expressed the thought thus:—

"Westward the course of empire takes its way;

The four first acts already past.

The fifth shall close the drama with the day;

Time's noblest offering is the last."

We find no place for this remarkable power to arise on the Eastern continent, and nothing there to answer the description; consequently we are compelled to look to the Western continent. Is it reasonable to suppose that the New World is left out of prophecy as worthy of no notice? Is there nothing on this vast continent worthy of a place in the prophetic programme of the history of the world? And is it possible that the United States, the first and most distinguished government of the New World, so nearly connected with the people and work of God, being the asylum for the persecuted and oppressed of all nations as the consequence of religious light and freedom, should be utterly unnoticed in the prophetic history of the world? Such an admission might reasonably be urged as an objection to the inspiration of the prophecies, since they professedly foretell the history of the world down to the end.

2. We notice the manner of the rise of the beast with two horns. It was seen "coming up out of the earth." The first beast, which is the same as the second form of the fourth beast of Dan. 7, rose up out of the sea. Here is a contrast in the symbols used. The four beasts of Daniel came up out of the sea by the striving of the winds. Winds are emblematic of war and strife. Jer. 25:32; waters of "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." Rev. 17:15. Each of the four beasts arose by wars of conquest. As the waters are agitated by winds, the people were stirred by the commotions of war, and the result was the rise of those gigantic empires. In contrast with this the two-horned beast in its rise resembles the quiet growth of a plant springing up out of the earth; as if, away from the strivings of the people, the power was to arise by a natural growth in a territory previously unoccupied. The manner of its rise was to be, not by the conquest of other nations, but in a peaceable manner by natural increase and emigration. Such has been the history of the United States.

3. The time of its rise. Standing at the close of the career of the first or leopard beast, where he received the deadly wound, or was carried into captivity, which as we have seen was in 1798, the prophet says, "And I beheld another beast coming up;" as if he had not yet attained to his full power and greatness. Mr. Wesley looked for the whole work of the two-horned beast to be subsequent to this period. In his notes on Revelation he says of this 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." Eld. J. Litch truly says: "The two-horned beast is represented as a power existing and performing his part after the death and revival of the first beast." Now since this work of wounding and healing took place at the very close of the past century, it follows that the work of the two-horned beast is performed in the present century; for he causes them that dwell on the earth "to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed."

Now let us take a view of the world as it was at the close of the past century. What remarkable government was then rising in the world? Nothing can be found to answer the description in all the world, unless we look to this Western continent. And what do we find here? Colonies belonging to the governments of the Old World, the dominion of the first beast. Only one independent government here; and that is the United States. The declaration of independence was now about twenty-four years of age; the seven years war with the mother country in behalf of human rights was in the past; the difficulty with the French Directory arising from a demand of tribute from the United States, was settled by a treaty signed by Napoleon Bonaparte; and our government stood up a free and prosperous, though youthful nation, rapidly rising to power and eminence among the nations of the earth.

Thus at the right time, as well as in the right manner, we have a new and remarkable power, destined to be conspicuous among the nations of the whole world, rapidly "coming up" like a plant growing in a rich soil. And this is the only government in the whole world which could answer the prophetic description. And is not this nation, the asylum of the civilly oppressed and religiously persecuted, in which all civilized and Christian nations are so largely represented, worthy of a place in prophecy? And is it not reasonable and fitting that the closing messages of the gospel should go out from this western land to the nations of the earth?—that from this point should radiate the glory of the setting sun of the gospel of salvation to our race?

4. The character of this power. In it are found the widest extremes. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spake as a dragon. In the power thus symbolized there must be the fairest appearance or profession, but, ultimately, outrageously contradicted in practice. Horns are the emblem of power. The horns of a lamb must represent the mildest exercise of power. And is not the Protestant republican government of the United States the mildest and best government ever devised among men? No crowns were seen upon the lamb-like horns of this beast, as there were upon the ten horns of the first beast. It is evidently a government of the people. This position is sustained by the fact that the call for the image to be made is addressed to "them that dwell upon the earth," and not to a king or an emperor. It is said to the people that "they should make an image;" then the power is in their hands.

What then do these horns represent? Not a divided, but a united government; like as the two horns of the ram in Dan. 8 represented the union of the Medea and Persians. And since it is a government of the people, with no crowned heads, the horns must represent two distinct principles upon which the government is founded, generally acknowledged by the people, namely, civil equality, and religious freedom.