German Unity movement arose out of the wars against Napoleon I. the re-establishment of the imperial dignity has been a dream dear to the nation's heart.' The same writer calls the assumption of the proud name of Emperor by the King of Prussia 'the reinstitution of the title, once the grandest in Christendom... their beloved and at last accomplished ideal.' 2

12, 13. The horn is the wellknown symbol of power, and it is evident that these ten horns symbolise sovereign powers; for they appear crowned with royal diadems in the vision which represents the foundation of the Latin

and so, it is evident, that the prophet saw these ten horns growing from the head of the wild-beast. What an easily intelligible symbol! And how marvellously expressive of that unique system of medieval and modern Roman Christendom; a great Republic of independent sovereigns all agreeing to acknowledge the elected emperor, the Pope-crowned image of ancient Rome, as their lord paramount, and the theoretical source of their royal authority!

The closer the descriptive details of this marvellous vision are examined, the more exactly will they be found to correspond with the political system of Roman Christendom. How strange that the wild-beast should have only seven heads; and yet that he should be called by the interpreting angel in this vision 'an eighth' and 'out of the seven.'

There seems here an apparent contradiction. The wild-beast as seen by St. John in chapters xii., xiii., and in this vision has only seven heads and ten horns, growing, as we must suppose, out of one of the heads, and, if so,

Rev. xiii. 1.

then naturally out of the seventh or last head. But the angel describing him in this vision, in which he is represented as conspiring with his ten horns to fight against the Lamb, to support the harlot, and then to hate and destroy her, calls him an eighth, and yet adds that he belongs to or comes out of the seven. What an enigma we have here! And yet how easily solved! Without doing the slightest violence either to the text or to history, the system of Roman Christendom gives an easy and obvious answer to the riddle. The horns grow out of the seventh headthat is to say, Gibbon's Western Republic of independent sovereigns sprang from those barbarian monarchies which grew up in the interval between the fall of the Western Empire and the coronation of Charlemagne; and they continue to reign with him and all succeeding emperors up to the end.

And what is the Holy Roman Empire itself but in one sense an eighth phase of the worldpower, as being in origin and character widely different from

its predecessors; and yet in another sense one of the seven, and coming out of them, being simply an imitation and revival of the fallen majesty of the Western Empire?

14. This Emperor and these partly united, partly divided, kingdoms, the representatives of the ten toes of the prophetic image of Daniel, are, on the whole, and through the whole course of their history, but especially in the end, the enemies of the Lamb. They corrupt the Church and make her a harlot by supporting her blasphemous claims, and they execute her cruel commands against those who bear witness in sackcloth during the continuance of her long reign in the city of the seven hills. But in the end Christ will surely conquer them; because He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and those who are on His side are called and chosen and faithful.

15. Nothing can be more plainly stated than this figurative meaning of the mystical Euphrates on the banks of which Babylon is built, and by whose waters her destroyers are long

kept from hurting her. The harlot Church rules over emperors and kings because she is supported by the affections and fears of their subjects.

The time, however, seems coming, if it has not already come, when those waters will begin to be dried up, when that last support of her blasphemous claims will be taken from her.

16. Then will the rulers of this wicked world, who have long writhed under the galling yoke, cast it violently from their necks, and for ever reject their loathsome burden; and yet in no spirit friendly to the Lamb or to those who follow Him. In the end they fight against the Lamb, until He overcomes them; until, like a great mountain, he falls upon them and crushes them, and sets up the kingdom of His saints, which shall stand for ever.1

17. Meanwhile emperors and

1 Dan. ii. 44, 45.

kings must reign side by side until the decrees of God shall all

have come to pass. This verse sums up in few words the history of these rulers from the beginning to the end of their reign.

18. The final solution of the mystery of the woman which absolutely fixes the meaning of the symbol, and declares beyond all possibility of contradiction that she represents the City of Rome. What a mystery to the apostle ! How easy and intelligible to us, to whom the history of eighteen centuries has given the answer to the riddle! The city of the Cæsars has ever been drunken with the blood of saints from the age of St. John to our own days; and God has often given her blood to drink.2 As a pagan city she persecuted the saints of God. As a Christian city she shed the blood of Christians. As a Papal city she has long ridden on emperórs and kings, and rested

2 Rev. xvi. 6, 7.