p. 61 | THE TWO WITNESSES by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 21, 1862

THE TWO WITNESSES.

By John Norton Loughborough

(Concluded.)

CONCERNING the witnesses we read [verses 9, 10], “And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations (that is, they of other nations), shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.” Although the French Revolution continued some six or seven years, there was only about three and a half years of this time that they warred against the Bible. During the time of this warfare their great effort was to destroy the Bible, religion, and all who dared to speak in favor of either; but in the last portion of the revolution we find some of those very persons speaking in its favor, as was the case with Robespierre. Toward the end of the three and a half years (that is, in 1794) he made a speech in the National Convention of France, in which he plead for the existence of a supreme being, and at the close of his speech the two following articles were unanimously passed by the Convention:

“Art. 1. The French people acknowledges the existence of the Supreme Being, &c.

“Art. 2. It acknowledges that the worship most worthy of the Supreme Being is the practice of the duties of man.”

From that day the words, virtue, and supreme being, were in every mouth. Instead of the inscription, To Reason, placed upon the fronts of the churches, there was now inscribed, To the Supreme Being. Thiers’ French Rev. Vol. iii, pp. 13–15.

From that point commenced a turn of affairs in France. About one year from that time, i. e., at the close of the three and a half years, they permitted the priests to return to their churches, and the people to have the Bible again.

During this three and a half years’ warfare, other nations, seeing the sad course the French were taking, would not join in with it, but kept the Scriptures sacredly, and after this war on the witnesses was ended, assisted in the work of exalting them. An attempt was made to draw England, America, and other countries into the same views of this matter as those of the French. Paine, for this purpose, sent 14000 copies of his work against the Bible into England. Gibbon, Hume, Voltaire, and others, exerted their influence in the same direction, but all without the desired effect. The nations would not join in the work of exterminating the Bible. Although they beheld it dead in the streets of France, they kept it from being exterminated, or “put in graves.” The English, fearing the awful results of the deistical principles that were gaining ground in France, made a strenuous effort to introduce the word of God among them, and for this purpose organized the French Bible Society, May, 1792, just at the time the Revolution broke out. “The Revolutionary war put a period to all communication between the countries. The funds remitted were lost. We have lived in times,” said the printer, still alive in 1801, “which have destroyed everything, overturned everything, and all must begin afresh.” Anderson’s Annals of the Eng. Bible, pp. 498, 499. Shortly after this, i. e., in 1804, they did indeed begin anew, and organized The British and Foreign Bible Society, which has circulated millions of copies of the Scriptures in France.

In verse 10 we get a further account of the time in which these witnesses were slain. “And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.” There are three points in the above verse that will claim our attention. 1. Rejoicing. 2. Making merry, and 3. Sending the gifts. This is all done by those who had been “tormented” by the witnesses. It will of course apply to the French people. That they had been “tormented” by the witnesses, is evident from the statement of Collot-d’Herbois, that “religion” was the only obstacle to the triumph of the worship of reason. Their war was of course against the object of their hatred and trouble, and that was the Bible.

But before passing further with this subject, it may be well to notice an objection that is sometimes urged against this application of the slaying of the witnesses. That is, this warfare was mostly on the Catholic church, and it cannot be that such a warfare fulfilled this scripture, as that is an apostate church.

I reply, 1. That this war was made against all religion, but directly against the Bible; so it fell on Papists and Protestants alike. 2. If it were true that it was Papists alone who were the religionists of France, and suffered in that struggle, it would be in that church alone that the witnesses could be found in France. On the Catholics, then, would be the place to strike an effective blow to kill the witnesses.

But to return to the course of those who killed the witnesses. This war, as already stated, was for the extermination of the Bible. “Never let it be forgotten that before the Revolution of 1792, the promoters of infidelity in France are stated to have raised among themselves, and spent, a sum equal to nine hundred thousand pounds in one year, nay, again and again, in purchasing, printing, and dispersing books, to corrupt the minds of the people, and prepare them for desperate measures!” Anderson’s Annals of the Eng. Bible, p. 494.

“The way for such a revolution was prepared by the writings of Voltaire, Mirabeau, Diderot, Helvetius, D’Alembert, Condorcet, Rousseau, and others of the same stamp, in which they endeavored to disseminate principles subversive both of natural and revealed religion. Revolution was not only impugned, but entirely set aside; the Deity was banished from the universe, and an imaginary phantom, under the name of the goddess of Reason, substituted in its place. . . . The carved work of all religious belief and moral practice was boldly cut down by Carnot, Robespierre, and their atheistical associates. Nature was investigated by pretended philosophers, only with a view to darken the mind, to prevent mankind from considering anything as real but what the hand could grasp or the corporeal eye perceive.” Dick on the Improvement of Society, p. 154.

It is said that those who slew the witnesses rejoiced and made merry. This is apparent from the account of the Festival of Reason. “They went in procession to the Convention, and the rabble, indulging their fondness for the burlesque, caricatured in the most ludicrous manner the ceremonies of religion, and took as much delight in profaning, as they had done in celebrating them. Men, wearing surplices and copes, came singing hallelujahs, and dancing barmagnole, to the bar of the Convention. There they deposited the host, the boxes in which it was kept, and the statues of gold and silver. They made burlesque speeches, and sometimes addressed the most singular apostrophes to the saints themselves. ‘O you!’ exclaimed a deputation from St. Denis, ‘O you, instruments of fanaticism, blessed saints of all kinds, be at length patriotic, rise en masse, serve the country by going to the mint to be melted, and give us in this world that felicity which you wanted to obtain for us in the other!’ These scenes of merriment were followed all at once by scenes of reverence and devotion. . . . A festival was instituted for all the Decades,* to supercede the Catholic ceremonies of Sunday. . . . The first Festival of Reason was held with pomp on the 20th of Brumaire (the 10th of November). . . . A young woman represented the goddess of Reason. She was the wife of Momoro, the printer, one of the friends of Vincent, Ronsin, Chaumette, Herbert, and the like. She was dressed in a white drapery; a mantle of azure blue hung from her shoulders. Her flowing hair was covered with the cap of liberty. She sat on an antique seat, entwined with ivy, and borne by four citizens. Young girls dressed in white, and crowned with roses, preceded and followed the goddess. Then came the busts of Lepelletier and Marat, musicians, troops, and all the armed sections. Speeches were delivered, and hymns sung, in the Temple of Reason. They then proceeded to the Convention, and Chaumette spoke in these terms:

“Legislators! Fanaticism has given way to reason. Its bleared eyes could not endure the brilliancy of the light. This day an immense concourse has assembled beneath those gothic vaults, which, for the first time, re-echoed the truth. There the French have celebrated the only true worship, that of liberty, that of reason. There we have formed wishes for the prosperity of the arms of the republic. There we have abandoned inanimate idols for reason, for that animated image, the master-piece of nature.”

“As he uttered these words, Chaumette pointed to the living goddess of Reason. The young and beautiful woman descended from her seat and went up to the president, who gave her the fraternal kiss, amid universal bravoes and shouts of The Republic forever! Reason forever! Down with fanaticism!” Thiers’ French Rev. Vol. ii, pp. 369–371.

Such is a sample only of the scenes of rejoicing and merriment that they indulged in.

“And they shall send gifts one to another.” It is a striking fact that those who were the prime movers and executioners in the September massacre of 1792, actually received gifts of large sums of money for their services by which they had struck terror into all religionists. From Sept. 2 to 7, they put to death 9,000 victims. The Commune paid, Sept. 4, the sum of 1463 livres as a present to these terrorists. Thiers’ French Rev. Vol. i, pp. 361, 365.

The scenes of horror that filled France during this reign of terror far exceeded anything of the kind in the annals of history. “While infidelity was enthroned in power, it wielded the sword of vengeance with infernal ferocity against the priests of the Romish church, who were butchered wherever found, hunted as wild beasts, frequently roasted alive, or drowned in hundreds together, without other accusation or trial. At Nantes, no less than 360 priests were shot, and 460 drowned. In one night 48 were shut up in a barge and drowned in the Loire; 292 priests were massacred during the bloody scenes of the 10th of August and the 22d of September, 1792; and 1135 were guillotined under the government of the National Convention, from the month of September, 1792, till the end of 1795, besides vast numbers, hunted by the infidel republicans like owls and partridges, who perished in different ways throughout the provinces of France.” Dick on Diffusion of Knowledge, p. 155.

Thiers says: “The number of persons guillotined during the reign of terror in France was 1,022,851. This does not include the massacre at Versailles, at the Abbaye, the Carmelites, or other prisons, on Sept. 2, the victims Glaciere of Avignon, those shot at Toulon and Marseilles, or the persons slain in the little town of Bedou, the whole population of which perished.” Thiers’ French Rev. Vol. iii, p. 106.

Dr. Dick, in speaking of the results of this Revolution, says: “Such was the rapidity with which the work of destruction was carried on, that within the short space of ten years, not less than three millions of human beings (one-half more than the whole population of Scotland) are supposed to have perished in that country alone, chiefly through the influence of immoral principles, and the seductions of a false philosophy.” Dick’s Improvement of Society, p. 154.

Concerning the winding up of this scene we read, [Rev. xi, 11], “And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” Almost simultaneously with the close of the French Revolution, Bible societies were organized, and the Scriptures have spread with that rapidity that in all civilized countries the before obscured, or sackcloth covered, witnesses may be read by every family. The Scriptures are so within the reach of all that their prominent position is represented by their ascension to heaven “in a cloud.”

“Their enemies beheld them.” Yes, even infidel France, with all her boasted statements that she should destroy religion, has had to behold the world-wide spread of the Bible.

Verse 13. “And the same hour was there a great earthquake,” representing the great political revolution of France, which shook many portions of the government of the Old World. “And the tenth part of the city fell.” This city is the same as the woman of Rev. xvii, the Papal church. France was one of the ten original divisions of Western Rome, which had been given into the hands of the Papal church by the decree of Justinian in 1798. By the breaking out of this Revolution one of the ten parts of the Catholic hierarchy was destroyed, here represented by a “tenth part of the city” falling. “And in the earthquake were slain of men (margin, names of men, titles) seven thousand.” This Revolution was a war on titles, as the following will show: “At the same moment a member proposed to abolish the titles of count, marquis, baron, &c.; to prohibit liveries; in short, to suppress all hereditary titles.” “Its first decree relative to the ceremonial, abolished the titles of sire, and majesty, usually given to the king.” Thiers’ French Rev. Vol. i, pp. 150, 201. It has been estimated that something like 7000 titles were destroyed in that Revolution, which had as its object to bring all down upon a level. In the massacres of Aug. 10, and Sept. 2, 1792, the watchword of the rabble was, “Down with the Aristocrats!” meaning all those who hitherto had had any titles of distinction or of office.

“And the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Many who were zealous in this Revolution saw the folly of their course and endorsed the Bible; and even “Collot-d’Herbois died calling on that very God whom he had impiously blasphemed.” Thiers’ French Rev. Vol. iii, p. 221. Note. I am inclined to think, however, that “the remnant” has reference to the other nine parts of the city; that is, to the same as the nations, &c., who would not suffer the witnesses to be buried. These rejoiced when they saw the horrid scene end, and the word of God exalted.

Here we behold another striking evidence that God is the author of the prophecy, Revelation, in the accurate fulfillment of these predictions concerning the treatment of his word. “The third woe cometh quickly,” is the language that follows this prophecy. That woe is now doubtless coming on the earth. National calamities are increasing. “Evil is going forth from nation to nation.” Nations are commencing to understand what is meant by being “distressed with perplexity.” Soon the nations will be angry, and God’s wrath come as marked out under the seventh trumpet. Lord, arouse thy people for the conflict, for it is surely coming, and that speedily.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.