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originated it a thousand years before, now comes to an irreparable end; as the angel says-goes into perditionmeets its final overthrow. There has been no such empire in Europe no such formidable array of military power, as this French empire, since its overthrow; nor will there ever be again, while the truth of Christian prophecy remainswhich consigned this empire to perdition.

The angel continues his explanations. In the 12th verse, he says: And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

This part of the explanation takes us back to the early days of the scarlet-colored beast, when all the kingdoms of Europe were pretty much under the dominion of the woman who sat upon the beast. These ten horns were so many sovereignties not under the same relation to the empire as the seven heads were; they received power as kings one hour with the beast; that is, they exercised a power independent of the emperor-moved in a circle exclusively their own; but still, as the 13th verse says: these have one mind; and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14th verse these shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them, &c. This explains what is meant by having one mind, and giving their power and strength unto the beast -they united their power with the imperial power in opposing the Reformation—in making war with the Lamb.

But in the progress of the Reformation, these powers, or horns, became converted from the Romish to the Protestant religion, and, as the angel says, in the 16th verse, they turned their hostility against the woman; they are represented in the strong figurative language of the prophecy, as hating the woman and making her desolate and naked, and as eating her flesh, and burning her with fire; expressions which imply a strong and unwavering purpose to subdue and annihilate the object or thing which has produced the hostility. The costly and magnificent drapery with which

the woman is adorned will be torn off; her supporters and admirers will forsake her; she will be left desolate and naked; the powers that have upheld her will turn from her, and she will thus be reduced to a condition of helpless wretchedness. Eating her flesh, is that figurative expression of a dead carcase thrown out for the fowls of the air to feed upon; a thing not only worthless, as having no vitality in it, but also disgusting and offensive: a dead carcase given to birds and beasts of prey.

Burning her with fire signifies the particular means by which this desolation of the woman will be chiefly brought about-wars and revolutions. Her strong fortresses of political power will be fired; the despotic governments of Europe that constitute her defence will be overthrown by the progress of enlightened and liberal principles. Every fresh revolution, having for its object the rights and liberties of the people, will serve to burn away the props which uphold ecclesiastical as well as civil despotism.

These reverses began sensibly to shake the dominion of the woman, even in the reign of Charles V. During his reign, half of Germany, as well as much of the population of the countries on the continent, together with England and Scotland, began to assail the errors and expose the corruptions of the Church of Rome. The powerful arguments and appeals of the reformers uncovered the deformities of the woman, and exposed her nakedness to the world. The French Revolution and its subsequent events carried the assaults upon her still further, and began to eat her flesh; while the present age is ever and anon, by the outburst of revolutionary struggles, giving signs of the burning which is finally to consume the whole system by the overthrow of all despotic governments. The aim and ultimate purpose of Christianity, in what it is to accomplish even in the present world, demands the entire freedom of the human mind. Every shackle, whether civil or religious, that binds down the mind of man to VOL. II.--5*

a state below its proper destiny, will inevitably be torn away.

There are two explanations made by the angel yet to be noticed.

In the first verse of this chapter he calls the attention of the prophet to the woman sitting upon many waters; and in the fifteenth verse he informs him that these waters represent peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues. And finally, in the concluding verse of the chapter, the angel declares that the woman is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. No one can be at a loss to know what church is here meant. The city and the woman are mere symbols, the thing meant is a church. And the church that has reigned over the kings of the earth, and extended her power over peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, is the woman of the seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse. The explanations of the angel close with this chapter, and the prophet resumes the narrative of his visions.

In the succeeding chapter we shall be entertained with a very vivid picture of the actual effects, which were foretold by the angel, as the consequence of the converson of the ten horns. In short, we shall see the wonderful changes which have taken place in the civil and religious world since the influence of the Reformation has pervaded Europe, down to the present time, and what yet remains to be accomplished in its future history.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE ART OF PRINTING, and the DOWNFALL OF

BABYLON.

THE preceding chapter presents a striking picture of the control which the church exercised over the kingdoms of Europe at the commencement of the Reformation, and the persecutions and bloodshed that tried the faith and destroyed the lives of multitudes of those who had renounced her doctrines, after the light of that event had imparted the true knowledge of Christianity.

This power of the church grew out of the practice of the emperors-first the French, and afterwards the German-of receiving their crowns from the Pope.

This was at first a mere ceremony, condescended to as complimentary of the Pope; but the practice, by usage, at length acquired the force of law, and the kings and emperors who did not acknowledge the paramount authority of the Pope, were made to hear and to feel the thunders of the Vatican.

When kings bowed before this authority, what else could their subjects do but render like homage to it, and honestly believe, too, that all power, whether of a heavenly or earthly nature, must be in the hands of the Pope.

This was the moral night of the world, and so it would have remained, waxing darker, and darker to this day, if its gloom had not been penetrated by the light of the Reformation and the power of the press.

The preaching alone of Luther and Zuinglius and their fellow-laborers, would have effected but little in the way of pull

ing down the thrones of error and superstition, if their efforts had not been assisted by the art of printing. The press became the great engine of spreading light amongst the people.

The discovery of the art of printing preceded the rise of the Reformation, as it was proper it should do. Before it could be fully prepared for the great work it had to do, it had to undergo many changes and improvements; it had to construct its presses, prepare and perfect its types, and acquire a facility in using them, so as to secure despatch and accuracy. The labor of improving this wonderful engine of spreading knowledge was going on for nearly half a century before the Reformation took the stand which required its active assistance.

Luther had only disturbed the slumbers of the Wittenbergers, to whom he first denounced the errors of his own church, and preached a better gospel than Rome promulgated. But the time soon after arrived when the long and deep sleep of the world was to be broken. The voice of the gospel was heard, in the language of one of old, crying to the people, awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light. The doctrines of the Reformation were spread amongst the people, by means of printing, to an extent that they never could have been without its co-operation. These two instrumentalities of publishing to the world the true religion, in their harmonious action have produced the great light referred to in the text: And the earth was lightened with his glory.

This glory comprehends more than spreading a pure Christianity, although this is its greatest excellency. But the arts and sciences also have risen to a perfection and permanency which they probably never would have attained without the power of this angel. The fact is plain before the eyes of the world, that the arts and sciences, as well as government, and whatever tends to improve the condition of man and promote his happiness, are in a state of improvement and perfection in those countries where a free press and a free religion ex

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