The United States in the Light of Prophecy by Uriah Smith

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2. Spiritualism answers accurately to the prophecy in the exhibition of
great signs and wonders. Among its many achievements, these may be
mentioned: Various articles have been transported from place to place by
spirits alone. Beautiful music has been produced, independent of human
agency, with and without the aid of visible instruments. Many
well-attested cases of healing have been presented. Persons have been
carried through the air by the spirits in the presence of many others.
Tables have been suspended in the air with several persons upon them.
And, finally, spirits have represented themselves in bodily form and
talked with an audible voice. A writer in the _Spiritual Clarion_ speaks
as follows of the manner in which spiritualism has arisen, and the
astounding progress it has made:--

"This revelation has been with a power, a might, that if divested
of its almost universal benevolence, had been a terror to the very
soul; the hair of the very bravest had stood on end, and his
chilled blood had crept back upon his heart at the sights and
sounds of its inexplicable phenomena. It comes with foretokening,
with warning. It has been, from the very first, its own best
prophet, and step by step it has foretold the progress it would
make. It comes, too, most triumphant. No faith before it ever took
so victorious a stand in its infancy. It has swept like a hurricane
of fire through the land, compelling faith from the baffled scoffer
and the most determined doubter."

3. Spiritualism answers to the prophecy in that it had its origin in our
own country, thus connecting its wonders with the work of the two-horned
beast. Commencing in Hydesville, N.Y., in the family of Mr. John D. Fox,
in the latter part of March, 1848, it spread with incredible rapidity
through all the States. The estimates of the number of spiritualists in
this country at the present time, only twenty-six short years from its
commencement, though differing somewhat from each other, are
nevertheless such as to show that the progress of spiritualism has been
without a parallel. Thus, Judge Edmonds puts the number at five or six
millions (5,000,000 or 6,000,000); Hepworth Dixon, three millions
(3,000,000); A.J. Davis, four millions, two hundred and thirty thousand
(4,230,000); Warren Chase, eight millions (8,000,000); and the Roman
Catholic Council at Baltimore, between ten and eleven millions
(10,000,000 to 11,000,000). Of those who have become its devotees,
Judge Edmonds said as long ago as 1853:--

"Besides the undistinguished multitude, there are many now of high
standing and talent ranked among them--doctors, lawyers, and
clergymen, in great numbers, a Protestant bishop, the learned and
reverend president of a college, judges of our higher courts,
members of Congress, foreign ambassadors, and ex-members of the
United States Senate."

This statement was written more than twenty years since; and from that
time to this, the work of the spirits has been steadily progressing, and
spreading among all classes of people.

And from this nation, spiritualism has gone abroad into all the earth.
Queen Victoria is almost an insane devotee of the new philosophy. The
late Emperor and Empress of France, the late Queen of Spain, the Roman
Pontiff, and the Emperor and Grand Dukes of Russia are all said to have
sought to these spirits for knowledge. Thus it is working its way to the
potentates of the earth, and fast preparing to accomplish its real
mission, which is, by deceiving the world with its miracles, to gather
the nations to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

Here we pause. Let this work go on a little longer, as it has been
going, and as it is still going, and what a scene is before us! Having
seen so much fulfilled, we cannot now draw back and deny the remainder.
And so we look for the onward march of this last great wonder-working
deception, till that is accomplished which in the days of Elijah was a
test between Jehovah and Baal, and fire is brought down from heaven to
earth in the sight of men. Then will be the hour of the power of
darkness, the hour of temptation that is coming upon all the world to
try them that dwell upon the earth. Rev. 3:10. Then all will be swept
from their anchorage by the strong current of delusion, except those
whom it is not possible to deceive--the elect of God.

And still the world sleeps on, while Satan, with lightning fingers and
hellish energy, weaves over them his last fatal snare. It is time some
mighty move was made to waken the world and rouse the church to the
dangers we are in. It is time every honest heart should learn that the
only safeguard against the great deception, whose incipient and even
well-advanced workings we already behold before our eyes, is to make the
truths of God's holy and immutable word our shield and buckler.

Chapter Nine.

An Image To The Beast.

The imposing miracles wrought before the people having riveted upon them
the chains of a fatal deception, leading them to suppose they have
witnessed the great power of God, and must therefore be doing him
service, when they have only been dazed with a mighty display of Satanic
wonders, and are led captive by the devil at his will, they are prepared
to do the further bidding of the two-horned beast, which is to make an
image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.

Once more we remind the reader of the impregnable strength of the
argument already presented in previous chapters, fixing the application
of this symbol to these United States. This is an established
proposition, and needs no farther support. An exposition of the
remainder of the prophecy will therefore consist chiefly of an effort to
determine what acts are to be performed by this government, and a search
for indications, if any exist, that they are about to be accomplished.
If we shall find evidences springing up on all sides, that this
government is now moving as rapidly as possible in the very direction
marked out by the prophet, though these are not necessary to establish
the application of the symbol to this government, they will serve to
stifle the last excuse of skepticism, and become to the believer an
impressive evidence of our proximity to the end; for the acts ascribed
to this symbol are but few; and while yet in mid career, he is engulfed
in the lake of fire of the last great day.

We may, however, notice in passing, another evidence that the government
symbolized by the two-horned beast is certainly a republic. This is
proved by the language used respecting the formation of the image. It
does not read that this power, as an act of imperial or kingly
authority, makes an image to the beast; but it says to them that dwell
on the earth, that is, the people occupying the territory where it
arises, that _they_ should make an image to the beast. Appeal is made to
the people, showing conclusively that the power is in their hands. But
just as surely as the government symbolized is a republic, so surely is
it none other than the United States of America.

We have seen that the wonder-working Satanic agencies, which are to
perform the foretold miracles, and prepare the people for the next step
in the prophecy, the formation of the image, are already in the field,
and have even now wrought out a work of vast proportion in our country;
and we now hasten forward to the very important inquiry, What will
constitute the image? and what steps are necessary to its formation?

The people are to be called upon to make an image _to_ the beast, which
expression doubtless involves the idea of some deferential action
toward, or concessions to, that power; and the image, when made, is an
image, likeness, or representation _of_ the beast. Verse 15. The beast
from which the image is modeled, is the one which had a wound by a sword
and did live, or the papacy. From this point is seen the collusion of
the two-horned beast with the leopard or papal beast. He does great
wonders in the sight of that beast; he causes men to worship that beast;
he leads them to make an image to that beast; and he causes all to
receive a mark, which is the mark of that beast. These palpable
evidences of co-operation with the papal power, led Eld. J. Litch, about
1842, to write concerning the two-horned beast thus:--

"I think it is a power yet to be developed or made manifest, as an
accomplice of the papacy in subjecting the world."

To understand what would be an image of the papacy, we must first form a
definite idea of what constitutes the papacy itself. Papal supremacy
dates from the time when the decree of Justinian, constituting the pope
the head of the church and the corrector of heretics, was carried into
effect, in 538. The papacy, then, was a church clothed with civil power,
an ecclesiastical body, having authority to punish all dissenters with
confiscation, imprisonment, torture, and death. What would be an image
of the papacy? Another ecclesiastical establishment clothed with similar
power. How could such an image be formed in this country? Let the
Protestant churches in our land be clothed with power to define and
punish heresy, to enforce their dogmas under the pains and penalties of
the civil law, and should we not have an exact representation of the
papacy during the days of its supremacy?

It may be objected that whereas the papal church was comparatively a
unit, and hence could act in harmony in all its departments in enforcing
its dogmas, the Protestant church is so divided as to be unable to agree
in regard to what doctrines shall be made imperative on the people. We
answer, there are certain points which they hold in common, and which
are sufficient to form a basis of co-operation. Chief among these may be
mentioned the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead and the
immortality of the soul, which is both the foundation and superstructure
of spiritualism, and also the doctrine that the first day of the week is
the Christian Sabbath.

It may be objected again that this view makes one of the horns, the
Protestant church, finally constitute the image of the beast. If the
reader supposes that the Protestant church constitutes one of the horns
of the two-horned beast, we reply that this is a conception of his own.
No such idea is here taught. And we mention this objection only because
it has been actually urged as a legitimate consequence of the positions
here taken. And then the question is asked, If the Protestant church
constitutes one horn, may not the Catholic church constitute the other?
Under the shadow of that hypothetical "if," perhaps it might. But
neither the one nor the other performs such an office. In chapter six of
this work, it was shown that the two great principles of Republicanism
and Protestantism were the proper objects to be symbolized by these two
lamb-like horns. But there is the plainest distinction between
Protestantism as an embodiment of the great principle of religions
liberty, and the different religious bodies that have grown up under its
fostering influence; just as plain as there is between Republicanism, or
civil liberty, and the individual who lives in the enjoyment of such
liberty. The supposition, therefore, that the Protestant church is to
furnish the material for the image, involves no violation of the
symbolic harmony of this prophecy.

Let us look a moment at the fitness of the material. We are not
unmindful of the noble service the Protestant churches have rendered to
the world, to humanity, and to religion, by introducing and defending,
so far as they have, the great principles of Protestantism. But they
have made a fatal mistake in stereotyping their doctrines into creeds,
and thus taking the first steps backward toward the spiritual tyranny
of Rome. Thus the good promise they gave of a free religion and an
unfettered conscience is already broken. For, if the right of private
judgment is allowed by the Protestant church, why are men condemned and
expelled from that church for ncwother crime than honestly attempting to
obey the word of God, in some particulars not in accordance with her
creed? This is the beginning of apostasy. Read Chas. Beecher's work,
"The Bible a Sufficient Creed." "Is not the Protestant church," he asks,
"apostate?" Is not the apostasy which we have reason to fear, "already
formed?" But apostasy in principle always leads to corruption in
practice. And so Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, sets forth the condition of the
professed church of Christ in the last days. A rank growth of twenty
heinous sins, with no redeeming virtues, shows that the fruits of the
Spirit will be choked and rooted out by the works of the flesh. We can
look nowhere else for this picture of Paul's to be fulfilled except to
the Protestant church; for the class of which he speaks maintain a form
of godliness, or the outward services of a true Christian worship.

And is not the church of our day beginning to manifest to an alarming
degree the very characteristics which the apostle has specified? Fifteen
clergymen of the city of Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday, Feb. 5, 1871,
distributed a circular, entitled "A Testimony," to fifteen congregations
of that city. To this circular the Rochester _Democrat_ of Feb. 7 made
reference as follows:--

"The 'Testimony' sets out by stating that the foregoing pastors are
constrained to bear witness to what they 'conceive to be a fact of
our time; viz., That the prevailing standard of piety, among the
professed people of God, is alarmingly low; that a tide of
worldliness is setting in upon us, indicating the rapid approach of
an era, such as is foretold by Paul in his second letter to
Timothy, in the words, "In the last days perilous times shall
come."' These conclusions are reached, not by comparisons with
former times, but by applying the tests found in the Scriptures.
They instance as proof, 'the spirit of lawlessness which prevails.'
The circular then explains how this lawlessness (religious) is
shown. Men have the name of religion, but they obey none of its
injunctions. There is also a growing disposition to practice, in
religious circles, what is agreeable to the natural inclinations,
rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God. The tendency
to adopt worldly amusements, by professed Christians, is further
stated in evidence."

This testimony is very explicit. When men "have the name of religion,
but obey none of its injunctions," they certainly may be said to have a
form of godliness, but to deny the power; and when they "practice in
religious circles what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather
than the duties prescribed by the word of God," they may be truthfully
said to be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." And Rochester
is not an exception in this respect. It is so all over the land, as the
candid everywhere, by a sad array of facts, are compelled to admit.

That the majority of the Christians in our land are still to be found
in connection with these churches is undoubtedly true. But a change in
this respect is also approaching. For Paul exhorts all true Christians,
in his words to Timothy above referred to, to turn away from those who
have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof; and those who
desire to live pure and holy lives, who mourn over the desolations of
their Zion, and sigh for the abominations done in the land, will
certainly heed this injunction of the apostle. There is another prophecy
which also shows that when the spirit of worldliness and apostasy has so
far taken possession of the professed churches of Christ as to place
them beyond the reach of reform, God's true children are every one to be
called out, that they become not partakers of their sins, and so receive
not of their plagues. Rev. 18:4.

From the course which church members are everywhere pursuing, it is
plain to be seen in what direction the Protestant churches are drifting;
and from the declarations of God's word it is evident that all whose
hearts are touched by God's grace and molded by his love will soon come
out from a connection in which, while they can do no good to others,
they will receive only evil to themselves.

And now we ask the reader to consider seriously for a moment what the
state of the religious world will be when this change shall have taken
place. We shall then have an array of proud and popular churches from
whose communion all the good have departed, from whom the Holy Spirit is
withdrawn, and who are in a state of hopeless departure from God. God is
no respecter of persons nor of churches; and if the Protestant churches
apostatize from him, will they not be just as efficient agents in the
hand of the enemy as ever pagans or papists have been? Will they not
then be ready for any desperate measure of bigotry and oppression in
which he may wish to enlist them? After the Jewish church had finally
rejected Christ, how soon they were ready to imbrue their hands in the
blood of his crucifixion. And is it not the testimony of all history,
that just in proportion as any popular and extensive ecclesiastical
organization loses the Spirit and power of God, it clamors for the
support of the civil arm?

Let, now, an ecclesiastical organization be formed by these churches;
let the government legalize such organization, and give it power (a
power which it will not have till the government does grant it) to
enforce upon the people the dogmas which the different denominations can
all adopt as the basis of union, and what do we have? Just what the
prophecy represents: an image to the papal beast, endowed with life by
the two-horned beast, to speak and act with power.

And are there any indications of such a movement? The preliminary
question, that of the grand union of all the churches, is now profoundly
agitating the religious world.

In May, 1869, S.M. Manning, D.D., in a sermon in Broadway Tabernacle,
New York, spoke of the recent efforts to unite all the churches in the
land into co-operation on the common points of their faith, as a
"_prominent and noteworthy sign of the times_"

Dr. Lyman Beecher is quoted as saying:--

"There is a state of society to be formed by an extended
combination of institutions, religious, civil and literary, which
never exists without the co-operation of an educated ministry."

Chas. Beecher, in his sermon at the dedication of the Second
Presbyterian church, Ft. Wayne, Ind., Feb. 22, 1846, said:--

"Thus are the ministry of the evangelical Protestant denominations
not only formed all the way up under a tremendous pressure of
merely human fear, but they live, and move, and breathe, in a state
of things radically corrupt, and appealing every hour to every
baser element of their nature to hush up the truth and bow the knee
to the power of apostasy. Was not this the way things went with
Rome? Are we not living her life over again? And what do we see
just ahead? Another general council! A world's convention!
Evangelical Alliance and Universal Creed."

The _Banner of Light_ of July 30, 1864, said:--

"A system will be unfolded sooner or later that will embrace in
its folds Church and State; for the object of the two should be one
and the same. The time is rapidly approaching when the world will
be startled by a voice that shall say to every form of oppression
and wrong, 'Thus far shalt thou go and no farther.' Old things are
rapidly passing away in the religious and social, as well as in the
political, world. Behold all things must be formed anew."

The _Church Advocate_, in March, 1870, speaking of the formation of an
"Independent American Catholic Church," a movement now agitated in this
country, said:--

"There is evidently some secret power at work which may be
preparing the world for great events in the near future."

A Mr. Havens, in a speech delivered in New York, a few years ago,
said:--

"For my own part I wait to see the day when a Luther shall spring
up in this country who shall found a great American Catholic
church, instead of a great Roman Catholic church; and who shall
teach men that they can be good Catholics without professing
allegiance to a pontiff on the other side of the Atlantic."

There is every indication that at no distant day such a church will be
seen, not indeed, raised up through the instrumentality of a Luther, but
rather through the operation of the same spirit that inspired a Fernando
Nunez or a Torquemada.

Chapter Ten.

The Mark Of The Beast.

The principal acts ascribed to the two-horned beast, which seem to be
performed with special reference to the papal beast, are, the causing of
men to worship that beast, causing them to make an image to that beast,
and enforcing upon them the mark of the beast. The image, after it is
created and endowed with life, undertakes to enforce the worship of
itself. To avoid confusion, we must keep these parties distinct in our
minds. There are three here brought before us: 1. The papal beast. This
power is designated as "the beast," "the first beast," "the beast which
had the wound by a sword and did live," and, the "beast whose deadly
wound was healed." These expressions all refer to the same power; and
wherever they occur in this prophecy, they have exclusive reference to
the papacy. 2. The two-horned beast. This power, after its introduction
in verse 11, is represented through the remainder of the prophecy by the
pronoun "he;" and wherever this pronoun occurs, down to the 17th verse
(with possibly the exception of the 16th verse, which perhaps may refer
to the image), it refers invariably to the two-horned beast. 3. The
image of the beast. This is, every time, with the exception just
stated, called the image; so that there is no danger of confounding this
with any other agent.

The acts ascribed to the image are speaking and enforcing the worship of
itself under the penalty of death; and this is the only enactment which
the prophecy mentions as enforced under the death penalty. Just what
will constitute this worship, it will perhaps be impossible to determine
till the image itself shall have an existence. It will evidently be some
act or acts by which men will be required to acknowledge the authority
of that image and yield obedience to its mandates.

The mark of the beast is enforced by the two-horned beast either
directly or through the image. The penalty attached to a refusal to
receive this mark is a forfeiture of all social privileges, a
deprivation of the right to buy and sell. The mark is the mark of the
papal beast. Against this worship of the beast and his image, and the
reception of his mark, the third angel's message of Rev. 14:9-12, is a
most solemn and thrilling warning.

Here, then, is the issue before us. Human organizations, controlled and
inspired by the spirit of the dragon, are to command men to do those
acts which are in reality the worshiping of an apostate religious power,
and the receiving of his mark, or lose the rights of citizenship and
become outlaws in the land; and to do that which constitutes the
worship of the image of the beast, or forfeit their lives. On the other
hand, God says by a message, mercifully sent out a little before the
fearful crisis is upon us, Do any of these things, and you "shall drink
of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into
the cup of his indignation." He who refuses to comply with these demands
of earthly powers exposes himself to the severest penalties which human
beings can inflict; and he who does comply, exposes himself to the most
terrible threatening of divine wrath to be found in the word of God. The
question whether we will obey God or man is to be decided by the people
of the present age, under the heaviest pressure, from either side, that
has ever been brought to bear upon any generation.

The worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark,
must be something that involves the greatest offense that can be
committed against God, to call down so severe a denunciation of wrath
against it. This is a work, as was shown in chapter 4, which takes place
in the last days; and as God has given us in his word most abundant
evidence to show when we are in the last days, so that no one need to be
overtaken by the day of the Lord as by a thief, so likewise it must be
that he has given us the means whereby we may determine what this great
latter-day sin is which he has so strongly condemned, that we may avoid
the fearful penalty so sure to follow its commission. God does not so
trifle with human hopes and human destinies as to denounce a most
fearful doom against a certain sin, and then place it out of our power
to understand what that sin is, so that we have no means of guarding
against it.

That we are now living in the last days, the volumes both of revelation
and nature bear ample and harmonious testimony. Evidence on this point
we need not here stop to introduce; for the testimony already presented
in the foregoing chapters of this series, showing that the two-horned
beast is now on the stage of action, is in itself conclusive proof of
this great fact, inasmuch as the power exists and performs its work in
the very closing period of human history. All these things tell us that
the time has now come for the proclamation of the third message of Rev.
14, to be given, and for men to understand the terms which it uses, and
the warning it gives.

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