96 THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
not be, if his dominion had passed into the hands of
the two-horned beast; for a beast, in prophecy, ceases
to exist when his dominion is taken away. What
caused the change in the symbols from the lion, rep-
resenting Babylon, to the bear, representing Persia?
Simply a transfer of dominion from Babylon to Per-
sia. And so the prophecy explains the successive
passing away of these beasts, by saying that their
lives were prolonged, but their dominion was taken
away; that is, the territory of the kingdom was not
blotted from the map, nor the lives of the people de-
stroyed, but there was a transfer of power from onc
nationality to another. So the fact that the leopard
beast is spoken of as still an existing power, when
the two-horned beast works in his presence, is proof
that he is, at that time, in possession of all the do-
minion that was ever necessary to constitute him a
symbol in prophecy.
What power, then, does the two-horned beast ex-
ercise? Not the power which belongs to, and is in
the hands of, the leopard beast, surely; but he exer-
cises, or essays to exercise, in his presence, power of
the same kind and to the same extent. The power
which the first beast exercised was a terrible power |
of oppression against the people of God; and this is
a further indication of the character which the two-
horned beast is finally to sustain in this respect.
The latter part of the verse, “And causeth the
earth and them which dwell therein to worship the
first beast, whose deadly wound was healed,” is still
further proof that the two-horned beast is no phase
or feature of the papacy; for the first beast is cor-
tainly competent to enforce his own worship in his
own country, and from his own subjects. But it is
the two-horned beast which causes the earth (the
territory out of which it arose, and over which it
rules), and them which dwell therein, to worship the
HE DOETH GREAT WONDERS.
1 | first beast. This shows that this beast occupies ter-
.  ritory over which the first beast has no jurisdiction.
« And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh
fire come down from heaven on the earth in the
sight of men.” That we are living in an age of
| wonders, none deny. Time was, and that not two-
- score of years ago, when the bare mention of achieve-
| ments which now constitute the warp and woof of
: every-day life, was considered the wildest chimera
* of a diseased imagination.
| wonderful to be believed, nor too strange to happen.
. Go back only a little more than half a century, and
| the world, with respect to those things which tend
. to domestic convenience and comfort, —the means of
- illumination, the production and application of heat,
Now, nothing is too
and the performance of various household operations;
i with respect to methods of rapid locomotion from
place to place, and the transmission of intelligence
from point to point, stood about where it did in the
days of the patriarchs. Suddenly the waters of that
long stream over whose drowsy surface scarcely a
tripple of improvemen ous
1 i 1 gitation.
years, broke into the white foam of violent agitatio
t had passed for three thousand
kness of
Th 1d awoke from the slumber and dar
ages. The divine finger lifted the seal from the pro-
1 ic books, and brought that predicted period
oe should run to and fro, and knowledge
. should be increased. Then men bound the elements
. to their chariots, and, reaching up, laid hold upon
i the very lightning, and made it their message-bearer
around the world. Nahum foretold that at a cer-
| tain time the chariots should be with flaming torches
>and run like the lightnings. Who can behold, in
. the darkness of the night, the locomotive dashing
© over its iron track, the fiery glare of its great lidless
eye driving the shadows from 1ts path, and torrents
”~
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