by John Thomas

“ Now it is the saints who refuse to adore the imperial Roman image, or Eyes and Mouth of the Little Horn; and who have not the sign upon their foreheads, or in their right hands. These are the parties whom the image has caused war to be made upon, and who have been prevailed against, and killed with all the attendant enormities of promiscuous massacre. ”

“ So long as a people practically venerate a professional ministry, whether in the pay of the State, or of the people, to preach what pleases them more than "the law and the testimony"; so long as they are ignorant and faithless of "the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ," and glorify themselves in religious systems, which nowhere on the sacred page meet the eye of the unbiased student of God's word; so long as their pulpits are closed against men who would reason with the people out of the scriptures "concerning righteousness, and temperance ”

“ Then, like the Leonists of old, away with the clergy, the "blind leaders of the blind," "dumb dogs that cannot bark," who neither enter into the kingdom themselves, and them who would they hinder." "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." ”

“ A corrupt and vicious press is the ignoble and servile apologist of its treachery and blood. It flatters the grim assassins of the people, the soul of whose institutions is the ignorant stolidity and cruel superstition of a dark and iron age. Its sympathies are with profligate kings, blasphemous priests, and savage generals; while no epithet is too vile or opprobrious for those who, having endured to the uttermost the debasing and ruinous Oppression of their destroyers, seek to break their bonds, expel them from their thrones, and to diffuse truth and science among the people. ”

“ It is our own fault if we are not "Light in the Lord." He has plainly set before us what is happening in our day, and what is yet to occur. Hence, while the Priests of the State Church are drowsily exclaiming, while war and political murders abound, "Give peace in our time, O Lord!" -- and while peace-societies are with infidel voices crying "Peace and safety": they who take heed to the prophetic word "know before," that the hour of God's judgment is come, and that destruction is at the door. ”

“ They speculate upon passing events as though they thought that mankind were formed for no nobler destiny than to fret out a brief and crushing existence in a precarious competition for food and raiment; and to labour with asinine endurance for the behoof of those who, by violence, avarice, and fraud, have gained the ascendancy over them. God is not in their thoughts when they treat of the affairs of men. ”

“ This class of people may be found figuring largely in the history of all European nations. They are the hostile party to the beast in all "religious wars," and wars for liberty against the despotism of popes, emperors, kings, and priests. In these sanguinary wars their uniform has been sackcloth; yet they have devoured their enemies with fire and sword, and smitten the earth with all the plagues of war as often as they pleased. With various fortune they have combated with the tyrants of the world. ”

“ That is, there will be in the latter days a dominion, ruling over all the countries mainly comprehended in the limits of the successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome: and represented by the image as a whole; and which will be broken by a power from heaven, which will utterly destroy it, and set up an empire which will cover all the territory it possessed. ”

“ But while the liberty provided by the constitution of the United States, and practically enjoyed in England, is much to be appreciated by the people of these respective countries, there are but few of them who have tasted the sweets of that liberty which dwells in "the Holy City." "If the truth shall make you free," says Christ, "ye shall be free indeed." ”

“ She is reserved of God to antagonize Russia, as she did France, when all Europe was prostrate at the feet of Napoleon le Grand." The ten toes belong to the image as a united dominion; hence Britain cannot be included among them unless it is first conquered by the overshadowing power, which it will not be, as is clearly demonstrable from many parts of the divine testimony. Russia will command the land, and Britain rule the sea. They will contend for the dominion of the East , but neither will obtain it. It is not for mortal man to rule the world, and grasp the sole dominion of the globe. ”

“ Shalmaneser had destroyed the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel, and Sennacherib had blasphemed Jehovah, and the posterity of his son Esarhaddon had become effete: this was a dynasty which had become a pest, a plague spot upon the nations; but Nebuchadnezzar, though an idolater, was a man better suited to the purposes of God. There was more of the man, and less of the wild beast, in him than in the kings of the dynasty he had overthrown. Therefore, when the Assyrian lion was made to stand erect upon its hind feet like a man, Daniel says, that "a man's heart was given to it." ”

“ Sin in its most heartless and hateful deformity reigns the universal despot of the nations. It is enthroned, and decorated with crowns, tiaras, coronets, and mitres; and is gathering strength by fraud, hypocrisy, and murder, for a last and final effort to crush all future endeavours to cast it out unto the earth, and its angels with it. ”

“ It is because of this permitted ascendancy of the dynasties of the world for 1,260 years, that the popular insurrections in the territories of the Beasts and their image, have been invariably superseded by reactions which have re-established the reign of tyranny, hypocrisy, and superstition. Even the torment with fire and brimstone in war inflicted by Napoleon on the guilty dynasties which had murdered the saints in past ages, at length receded before the resuscitation of the old order of things, which this MAN OF THE EARTH had so signally demolished. ”

“ While a Christian would take no part in the armed melee, he is convinced that nothing but violence in the beginning, in order to punish and crush the tyrants, can prepare the way for the amelioration of society. This is the order, as I shall show, which God has ordained as preliminary to the setting up of His kingdom. ”

“ Existing theories require Britain to be counted in; but I have nothing to do with them; I propose to show a more consistent interpretation that shall harmonize with other important and interesting parts of the prophetic word.
The ten kingdoms enumerated above are all within the Roman limits. There are many other kingdoms beyond its frontiers, resting upon territory that never belonged to Rome, or the iron dominion; therefore they must not be named in the same category. Nebuchadnezzar's image has to do only with powers occupying the area of the golden, silver, brazen, and iron, dominions ”

“ Its spirit in all ages has shown itself in a terrible form. It is ferocious as the tiger, but it is a ferocity which is required by the nature of the work assigned it. The civil and ecclesiastical tyranny it has to combat, which is itself horribly terrific and blasphemous against God and His truth, must be encountered by a spirit as fierce. ”

“ A class of persons separated in the providence of God to execute any work for Him are His sanctified ones, irrespective of their moral relations to the gospel. They are designated in scripture by various names. They are styled witnesses, prophets, olive trees, candle-sticks, as well as saints; because they are exercised in these several capacities. They may have to bear witness for civil and religious liberty; to preach against the lion-mouth and his clergy; to stand forth as a lamp before God to enlighten the nations of the earth, etc. ”

“ Because a person is one of the saints it does not therefore follow that he is a righteous man. This is clear from the fact that the twelve tribes as a company of nations are termed "the Lord's witnesses"; concerning whom He says, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." They are styled "a holy nation," or a nation separated from all other nations by a divine constitution, by which they are made the people of God. Now this "holy nation" has proved itself to be "a stiffnecked and perverse race" ”

“ Nothing is more obvious to one of these saints than that these "times" have not yet run out; because the power still exists and prevails against them. Upwards of 1,260 years have elapsed since the Horns established themselves on the western Roman territory; so that the chronology of the symbol is not to be calculated from the rise or growth of the horns out of the Dragon's head. Indeed, if we had no other data than what are furnished us in the vision of the Fourth Beast, we could not tell when "the time, times, and dividing of time" should commence. ”

“ And it is worthy of remark here, with reference to the image at the crisis of its fate, that the Power which shall possess Persia in the Latter days will be the Bear, and consequently answer to the breast of silver. We have already in the heraldry of nations an intimation of the Power destined to act the part of the Bear, when the Four Beasts have " their dominion taken away." This Power is the Russian, whose symbol is a Bear. This is so well-known that the phrase " the Russian Bear" is as familiar as household words. ”

“ If a dying man, moved to remorse, disavowed in his last moments the Popish religion, to which he had conformed during his life, his dead body was dragged through the streets by the hangman, and was afterwards cast into a receptacle for filth, like the carcase of an unclean beast. ”

“ The impulses of the flesh would lead them to crush the tyrants who have drenched the earth with their blood, and to bruise their heads like serpents, but their Captain has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." ”

“ But, says the apostle, "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual." In his letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 6:14) , he enumerates them as the girdle of truth, the breast-plate of righteousness, the preparation of the gospel of peace for sandals, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. This is the "whole armour of God" which, "the people of the holies" are permitted to use. The two-edged sword of the spirit is the only offensive weapon they are allowed to wield in combat with the Beast. ”

“ It is He to whom all things are subjected; "for he ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men" (Dan 4:17) . This is the reason why men and women with so little wisdom, or rather possessed of so much positive folly and imbecility, are able to rule the nations without " setting on fire the course of nature." When their wickedness and stupidity become obstacles to His purpose, He removes them out of the way, and introduces other actors upon the stage. ”

“ This has been conquered from the Beast at a great cost of human life. The United States of America is a specimen of its handiwork; and but for the incurable condition of society in the old world by human efforts, as happy a state of things would ere this have been established on the European continent, as in some degree hath been in this island. The Roundheads, Puritans, and Lollards, or Bible-men, laid the foundation of American institutions on the soil of Britain. They successfully resisted the encroachments of an Act-of-Parliament-religion on the rights of men ”

“ It is the impulse of the flesh, hostile to the truth of God, which urges the Beast to war against those who adhere to that truth. The people of the holies are forbidden to act under such an impulse, but to imitate Jesus, who resisted not, but committed his cause to God. Unresisting suffering is the law of their spiritual warfare. If persecuted they must fly ”

“ The third, because when all other sects beget horror in the hearers by the outrageousness of their blasphemies against God, this of the Leonists have a great show of piety; because they live justly before men, and believe all things rightly concerning God and all the articles which are contained in the Creed; only they blaspheme the Church of Rome and the clergy, whom the multitude of the laity is easy to believe. ”

“ This is an inheritance, the divine legacy of Omnipotence, to Abraham, Shiloh, and the saints.
It is evident that the dominion of the Image is not broken by a human power. The stone which destroys it is represented as not in hands ”

“ Its golden, or imperial lion-head, was responsive to divine impressions, and gave utterance to sentiments which were entirely alien from the heart of the kings of Nineveh. "I blessed the Most High," said Nebuchadnezzar, "and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation; and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing ”

“ They ascribe glory and honour to Satan, though he has established a despotism over the nations which rivals the mythic dominion of Pluto. Everything dear to truth, righteousness, and liberty must be suppressed by armed mercenaries, provided only that bank, stock-exchange, and commercial speculations, and the "vested interests" of public plunderers in church and state be protected and preserved intact. ”

“ Knowing the signs, they are enabled to discern the times; and while consternation and dismay cause men's hearts to fail, they are courageous, and rejoice in perceiving the approach of the Kingdom of God. ”