Your ShelfYour Projects

Stout Looks and Pomp of the Little Horn

6%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 3, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 12.

Read the full edition

Stout Looks and Pomp of the Little Horn.

By John Norton Loughborough

DANIEL says, in his prophecy of the little horn, “His look was more stout than his fellows,” his fellows, meaning the other horns, or kingdoms. To see how he looks, as compared with them, we note what we have already presented, in that the papal hierarchy claims to be as far “superior to all other kingdoms as gold is to lead;” but we will quote concerning his claims and acts, from a work called, “Mystery of Iniquity,” by Henry Moore, D. D., published in London, 1664.
He says, “What can be more blasphemously antichristian than to suffer himself to be decked with the spoils of the divine attributes, to be styled ‘Our Lord God,’ ‘a God on earth, a visible Deity,’ declaring that his tribunal and that of God is one; that his power is absolute; that what he does, he does as God and not as man; that all must submit to his decrees as being infallible: that he is all, and above all; that he has the disposing of kingdoms, can pull down one and set up another; that he can do all that God can do; that he can change the nature of things, make something of nothing, make injustice justice, and wrong right; that all laws are in his breast; that he can dispense with the canon of the apostles, and with the New Testament itself; that he is the cause of causes; that it is sacrilege to doubt of his power; that he has dominion over angels, purgatory, and hell; that he is monarch of the world, and exceeds the imperial majesty as much as the sun does the moon; and that he is to be adored by all the potentates of the earth. This is one blazing eruption out of this infernal Ætna of Luciferan ambition.” Chap. x. par. 2.
“The second [blast of Ætna] was his haughty exaltation over excommunicated and subdued princes. First, for example, that it were most savagely antichristian for this triumphant patriarch of excommunication and submission to his power thereupon to make one emperor to wait for some days together, barefoot, and clad in canvass, with his empress, for absolution at his gate, and that in the midst of winter; to make him resign his imperial ornaments; and after all this to depose him, and give his empire to another. To make another prostrate himself publicly in the church, and in his prostration to set his foot on the emperor’s neck, as if he were crushing an adder or snake; to crown another, not with his hands, but with his feet, and then with the same feet to kick the crown from off the emperor’s head.” To make one prince resign his crown, and live for some days as a private person, and then, upon condition of becoming a vassal to his high-priestship, to permit him to receive it again at his legate’s hands, lowly kneeling at his feet. To make another, by way of penance, go creeping along his holy highness’ palace upon his hands and knees, with a collar about his neck like a dog; to whip another stark naked in an open cathedral, every monk or religious person bestowing some number of lashes upon him.” Chap. x. par. 3.
“According to the known service of this sacerdotal court, when his holy highness, universal head of the church, will be something still higher by getting on horseback, the emperor or king that is present must of duty hold the stirrup as he gets up; or if his will is upon some occasion to be transported in the chair of State, the emperor and king are to submit their necks to the yoke, and take up this stately man in his chair upon their shoulders.
“When this grand prelate also goeth to dinner, the emperor or king, there present, must have the honor bestowed upon them to serve him with water and a towel to wash his anointed hands; for which service they shall be permitted to sit down at table, after attendance till the first course be served.
“The emperor’s place in an ecumenical council shall be at this high priest’s feet, like a good son of a corporal. And finally, wheresoever this ecumenical patriarch goes, the people shall fall down on their knees, or if they do not that worship willingly and glibly, be knocked down upon them by the rigid guard.” Chap. x. par. 4.
The above, which might be still greatly extended by facts, is proof of the arrogance and assumptions of the little horn, and, at the same time, it is clear proof that the little horn whose “look was more stout than his fellows” was evidently prophetic of the papal power.
In Revelation, chap. 17, John has a view of this power, under the symbol of “a woman seated upon a scarlet-colored beast,” and he says of her that she “was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.”
We should judge that the power above represented was given to pomp, show, and processions of display. Surely this has been abundantly fulfilled in all the gaudy trappings and pomp of the Romish worship, to say nothing of their extravagance in church building. As a sample of their display, I quote from the Irish World of April 12, 1873, where there is an illustration and description of some of the ceremonies in Rome during “Holy Week.”
The writer says: “The ceremonies peculiar to “Holy Week” are carried out impressively everywhere, but especially in Rome, where the scenes and incidents during this time have been the theme for thousands of all shades of opinion to dilate admiringly on.” He speaks of it as “crowds of magnificently attired priests and prelates, churches whose interior dazzled the eye with that magnificence with which the church does honor to Almighty God; or grand illuminations, processions, and other features of the time.”
The writer says of St. Peter’s, “Neither pen nor pencil is adequate to convey an idea of the grandeur of this, the largest and noblest church edifice in Christendom. The church is the length of three ordinary blocks. The front of the basilica is as broad as five of the largest American churches would be standing side by side, and is about as high as three such churches piled one above the other. The roof of the nave is as high as the tallest of our city steeples.” He states that the dome and steeple are twice as high as Trinity steeple, New York.
Of the proportions of St. Peter’s, the writer in the World says: “It affords a fine opportunity for the display which constitutes the solemnities of Holy Week at Rome. The pyrotechnic exhibition has never had a parallel. The American Fourth of July fades into insignificance when compared with the illuminations of St. Peter’s, or the monster display of fireworks on the slope of the Pincian Hill. The illumination is made by means of hundreds of thousands of tiny oil lamps, whose white gleam has given the name of ‘silver illumination’ to this part of the display. All the lines of the vast façade of the church—the roof, the sites of the stupendous dome, the form of the lantern, and the cross surmounting all—are traced out with rows of these lamps; and as the golden light of an Italian sunset fades away, and the purple shadows of evening settle over the city, these are lighted, coming out like stars in heaven, until the whole structure blazes like a constellation. Every architectural line, every column, cornice, capital, every arch and entablature, are pricked out in fire against the sky. It is difficult for any description to suggest the magnificence of the spectacle of the illumination of St. Peter’s, because words cannot depict to the imagination the vastness of the edifice that is thus etherealized in light, and which seems to rise, or rather to hang, over the city above which it towers, shining and glittering in the calm night like a jewel.
“When about half an hour has elapsed, a gun sounds from the Castle of St. Angelo, and like magic the silver illumination becomes transformed into a golden one. The effect is very startling and the change is beautiful in the extreme. It is produced in the following manner: Large hanging pans, containing resinous matter, are placed at proper intervals along the architectural lines and curves of the basilica. The task of lighting up these pans devolves upon men who are stationed conveniently near them. When the signal gun booms out from the castle, each of the men lights three of the pans, and the powerful glare produced completely outshines the soft and delicate radiance which made the silver illumination. Nothing can be imagined so grand as this scene. Down below are the dense crowds of people with faces upturned, never wearying seemingly of gazing on the scene of fairy splendor which appears like a link joining earth and heaven. Then a great start is given as the enraptured stillness of the multitude is broken by the thunderous tones of the cannon reverberating from the castle. And now above, in the basilica, shadows are moving with great, but dangerous, rapidity, the silver hue is growing dim, and lo! ere the echoes of the signal gun have died away, the dazzling splendor of the golden illumination flashes out on the night, and whispers of admiration run through the thousands below.”
The writer says: “This scene has been described as THE MOST SURPASSINGLY BEAUTIFUL ever witnessed.” Further on he says: “With this grand display Holy Week is closed . . . ending in A HALO OF DAZZLING SPLENDOR.”
Connected with this procession and display, he says they have music from “a body of choral performers who have no equal in the world. Their music and poetry are grand on all occasions, but the part for Easter is certainly unequaled in the whole range of sacred music. . . . The effect is impressive in the extreme, once heard never to be forgotten.”
Of course all this display is gotten up to impress the senses of the people, and it has effect. The writer of the above says of those witnessing this gaudy display: “The most bigoted have acknowledged experiencing emotions such as could be occasioned only by a conviction that they were taking place in the center of religious truth on earth, and that they were being performed by the chosen priests of God’s own church.”
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.