A LEAF FROM PROPHECY AND HISTORY.
By S. C. Palmer
“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. No other beast among all the prophetic symbols is mentioned as “coming up” in this way. The four beasts representing four universal monarchies, came up out of the sea, as the four winds of heaven strove upon it. Dan. 7:2, 3. “The waters which thou sawest,” says the angel to the prophet in Rev. 17:15, “are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” The four kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, came up out of strife and war, by conquest and oppression. This one is seen “coming up,” or, as some define the original word, “growing up as a plant,” “out of the earth.” The same thought is unwittingly expressed by a modern historian, who writes of the United States, “Like a silent seed we grew into empire.” It is we; for ours is the nation which the prophet saw. The last of the four, as each of the others, bore rule over all the earth, all that was then known. This is another beast. But it will be objected that Daniel wrote one prophecy and John the other six hundred years later. Very well. Now note the marks or characteristics of the first beast of this same chapter, Rev. 13:2: “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard [Grecia], and his feet were as the feet of a bear [Medo-Persia], and his mouth as the mouth of a lion [Grecia];” this grew up out of Medo-Persian territory; for there was none other. In the light of Daniel, how fitting is the symbol of the first beast of Revelation 13, with its body like that out of which it had just grown. Indeed, the empire, as symbolized, was Græco-Roman. Of course, the beast should have a leopard’s body. Now another beast could not well be made up of this one or any part of it, and especially at the time while it is still on the stage of action. Further, the miracles of the two-horned beast are performed in the presence of the first or Roman beast. Now, as to the time when it should arise, we are not left to any guesswork or haphazard interpretation; but when the first beast was going into captivity (verse 10), this one is seen coming up, and (verse 12) he exercises the power of the first beast in his presence. The going into captivity was not utter destruction, but a deadly wound which was healed. This deadly wound the Papacy received in February, 1798, at the close of its 1260 years, or forty and two months of supremacy. The French army at that time entered the city of Rome, proclaimed it a republic, took captive Pope Pius VI. (or VII. as some enumerate them) and carried him away a prisoner of war; he died in exile at Valence, in France, August, 1799. Thus is the prophecy fulfilled: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword;” and that this meant the papal persecutions and not ordinary war, is plainly shown in the next clause, added, no doubt, for that purpose. “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” Here is the end of 1260 long, dark, bloody years of papal, Roman Catholic persecution. This is the “time of the end,” of which Daniel wrote (Dan. 12:4), when many should run to and fro, and knowledge be increased. These things show that “prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21. The year 1798, then, is the date when this nation must be seen “coming up.” In 1753 John Wesley wrote, “He cannot be far off, for He must come at the end of the forty and two months of the first beast.” Within less than twenty-four years our Declaration of Independence was signed, and we began to be known as a nation by those who dared to recognize us. But you will say 1776 is not 1798. Very well; twenty-two years is but a short space, and let us see how it was spent before we jump too quickly at a conclusion. First, it takes seven years to prove to the mother country that the colonies are old enough to be weaned; nine more are used up in developing our Constitution and getting the government fairly organized. This brings us to 1792, for while the Constitution was adopted in convention September 17, 1787, it was not ratified by the requisite number of States until late in 1788, and two States took no part in the first election of a chief magistrate, while the last one of them was gently persuaded to adopt or ratify the Constitution in 1792. Six years only are left, and these are more full of interest than all that have preceded them, if possible. It is a maxim old as Grecian proverbs that “he whose money passes current is king.” The coinage of money is a sign of sovereignty. Our first national mint was established by Act of Congress, April 2, 1792; the first coins were struck in 1793, and silver dollars were coined the next year. Commerce would carry these, and in them the knowledge of a new nation, to all the world. Five years are left, and the first of these, 1794, is spent in quelling our first real insurrection, the whisky rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. The power to lay and collect taxes is a most substantial sign of sovereignty. See Luke 2:1. This insurrection was a refusal to pay tax, and it took a force of 15,000 militia under Gen. Benjamin Lincoln to suppress it. Thus, 1794 was spent in establishing our sovereignty at home. Three years more are to pass before the date which marks the “time of the end” of papal supremacy. How are these years occupied? For 350 years time was not when the Mediterranean Sea was free from pirates, Turkish pirates. Though Turkey was somewhat checked in her career as Turkey itself, her allies, nay, her subjects—for such they were in fact—in Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, etc., continued to carry on a regular system of piracy, prying upon the commerce of all nations. None were exempt. But the merchantmen of all nations, even the “mistress of the seas,” paid tribute and ransom to these Turkish pirates. For 350 years the hopeless wail of the captive man, woman, and child went up from Algerine dungeons and Tripolitan prison ships. Christian maidens languished and found a living tomb in the harems of the unspeakable Turk. No power in Europe could cope with these pirates; gold was the only ransom, and that often failed. This state of affairs prevailed in the Mediterranean in 1795, not only there but in all the world. Their ravages were felt by all who went down to the sea in ships. Tripoli was their headquarters; and in 1795 the United States of America sent a naval force to Tripoli, captured the bey in his own stronghold, and humbled the pride of the pirates of the Barbary Coast. This was no temporary triumph of day, but a permanent victory. That power whose hand had not been stayed by all the kings of Europe and the world, now stood ready and glad to make substantial peace with the beast with two horns like a lamb. A treaty was prepared in 1796, ratified by the Senate and signed by the first President of the new nation that year. Copies of this were exchanged with the bey of Tripoli, May 26, 1797, and this document became part of the supreme law of the land. (See Constitution of the United States, article 6, clause 2.) This treaty is completed within less than a year from the time, February, 1798, when the papal beast goes into captivity. So the very last of the 1260 years sees the two-horned beast “coming up.” But, say you, why is this more of a coming up than our treaty with Great Britain when she acknowledged our independence, September 3, 1783? That was one nation making unwilling acknowledgment of the autonomy of a power which she still regarded as only an experiment in government, and the other nations of Europe and the world generally so regarded us at that time. Our ambassadors were treated as commercial agents merely, in almost every court of Europe. When John Adams was sent as an ambassador to the Dutch Republic, he was laughed at and treated as a tramp adventurer in the streets of Amsterdam, then the capital of the Netherlands. But of this particular treaty with Tripoli, 1796-97, we may well notice one article, the eleventh, in which the lamblike character is forcibly set forth, and in two particulars. Let us read the words:— ARTICLE 2. As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded in the Christian religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musulmans; and as the said States have never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. Now note: “No character of enmity against the laws . . . of Musulmans.” Our government not being founded in any sense upon the Christian religion, or, indeed, upon any religion, being wholly a civil government, and not in any sense a religious one, it could have no character of enmity against the laws of297Mussulmans any more than against the laws of Germans, or Turcomans, or men of any nation. Civil governments have no character of enmity, for enmity is not born of civility. Let republicanism, democracy, civil liberty rather, be inscribed upon one lamblike horn! “No character of enmity against the . . . religion . . . of Mussulmans.” How could it have a character of enmity against a religion, any religion, when, as Madison truthfully says, “religion is not in the purview of human government”? Let me add: When governments begin to make religious laws, they then and there invade the realm of conscience, which is the realm of God. They then and there put themselves in the place of God, showing themselves as his vicegerent. The Papacy does no more. Let Protestantism—religious liberty, rather—be inscribed on the other horn, for since Protestants have ceased to protest, Protestantism is a term that expresses a sort of unknown quantity. Two horns like a lamb are thus shown to the world, with the words “civil liberty” upon one and “religious liberty” upon the other. “No character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity;” this last word fitly sets forth also a lamblike character. The words of this treaty when compared with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of our government, are found to set forth the exact truth with regard to our national character at that time. That character was maintained for one hundred years, but, alas! in the year 1892 it may be inscribed upon our banners no more. It is a thing of the past. It has gone into history, as the SIGNS has abundantly shown in the past.