violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore will I cast thee as profane, out of the Mount of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

"Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries (the temple) by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee; it shall 'devour thee; I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." This is the Lord's parable of the man of sin, by the hand of Ezekiel, in which he says, "I am a God, I sit in the seat of God." Now God's seat is in his holy Temple. Paul quoting this oracle says of him, "He exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped, so that he as God, sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God." As we shall have more to say concerning this remarkable character, as he is brought to view in different places in the Scriptures, what we have already said will suffice for our present purpose.

That Which Hindered

Now what was it that existed in Paul's day which hindered, and had to be removed out of the way before the man of sin could make his appearance? The Thessalonian Christians knew, for Paul says so, in these words, “Remember ye not that when I was with you, I told you these things? and now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time." But the interpreters, who are under the veil which is now spread over all nations know not, neither do they understand. And their speculations concerning these things are as far from the truth as the east is from the west. The Protestant interpreters commonly say that the man of sin is the Pope of Rome, and that that which in Paul's day hindered the manifestation of papal Rome was pagan Rome, and they charge upon the popes of Rome, past, present, and future, all that Paul lays at the door of the man of sin. Now while the popes and their people are bad enough, and their bishops, cardinals, and priests are proud, haughty and presumptuous, abounding in error and things which are contrary to the truth and sound doctrine, as well as their Protestant dissenting brethren, yet neither among Roman Catholics, or Greek Catholics, nor among Protestants, can anything be found to answer to, or to fulfil the word of God by the hand of Paul touching these things.

That which hindered, in Paul's day, was Judah. Judah had not yet been removed out of God's sight, as the prophets had foretold, as follows (II Kings 21: 10-15), "And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets saying, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will

wipe Jerusalem, as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a spoil and a prey to all their enemies; because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even until this day."

"The Line of Samaria, and the Plummet of the House of Ahab"

What was the line of Samaria, and plummet of the house of Ahab that the God of Israel threatens that he will stretch over Jerusalem? The answer to this is found in the following record,

"In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, began Hoshea, the son of Elah, to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel which were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years.

"In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

"Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves and a grove, and worshipped all the host

of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divinations and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to

anger.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of the spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; and they departed not from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day" (II Kings 17: 1-23).

This ancient record shows that the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, consisted in delivering his rebellious people into the hand of spoilers, into the hands of their enemies, who carried them away captives out of their own land and placed them in the Assyrian countries, in the lands of their enemies, because of their transgressions. The Lord cast them out of his sight, and they have disappeared to such an extent that they are spoken of as the lost tribes to this day.

After the Lord had rejected all the seed of Israel and removed them out of his sight, Judah still remained in the land, but they followed hard after the evil ways of the children of Israel, whom the Lord had cast out, and the Lord suffered their manners for a period of about one hundred and thirty years after he had cast out the ten tribes. And although Josiah arose, a good king in Judah, yet the wrath of God against Judah could not be restrained, as it is said, And like unto him (Josiah) was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with his whole heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might according to all the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his wrath was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal, And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also, out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house (Temple) of which I said, My name shall be there" (II Kings 23:25-27). To fulfil this word the Lord sent against Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who destroyed the Temple and the holy city, and burned them up with fire, and brake down the walls and carried the people captives to Babylon, as it is testified in the twenty-fourth chapter of II Kings, and elsewhere.

This captivity, however, was only for a limited period of seventy years, whereas the captivity of the ten tribes has continued without interruption from the time that they were carried away into Assyria until the present day. When Judah was carried away to Babylon for seventy years, they had to be returned again before entering upon that long dispersion that they are now undergoing, or the Scriptures would have been broken. Christ had not yet

come when Judah was carried away captive to Babylon, and the prophecy of Jacob says, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come."

Therefore Judah was brought back again and remained in the land until after the days of Jesus, to fulfil the word of the Lord by the hand of Jeremiah saying, For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jer. 29: 10-15).

The "expected end" that the Lord here speaks of was the coming of Christ. It was expected, because it was promised to take place before the sceptre should finally depart from Judah, as it had already departed from Israel. Therefore about forty-nine years after Christ came and suffered, because Judah knew not the time of their visitation and because of their many transgressions, the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab was drawn upon Jerusalem and her people in a more full and complete sense than it had been done when they were carried captive to Babylon. For now they were to be again scattered by the Romans, their Temple and city laid in ashes, and they themselves removed out of God's sight, to remain in their enemies' lands, wanderers among the nations like the ten tribes, till the second exodus of the latter days.

The Mystery of Iniquity

(II Thess. 2:7), "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way." The mystery of iniquity refers to that blindness and hardness of heart that was manifest among the rulers and chief men among the Jews, especially in the days of Jesus and his apostles, as it is spoken of in John's gospel (12: 37-43), "But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." And Paul said, “According as it is written (Rom. 11:8), God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear. . . . And David saith, Let their table be made a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them; let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway."

The mystery of iniquity in its ultra form consists in giving unto evil men miraculous power to perform miracles, signs and wonders, by which the wicked may be confirmed in their wickedness and perish. For the coming of that wicked one, says Paul, is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and in the latter days these deceptions will be manifest among

the wicked in Israel in their most dangerous and blinding forms, insomuch that if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived.

"He who now letteth," says Paul, "will let, until he be taken out of the way," that is, removed out of God's sight, as Israel had been removed; " And then shall that wicked (man of sin) be revealed, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders." That is, we must understand that Christ's coming to execute the judgments written is after the manifestation of Satan, or the man of sin, and not before it, and that the man of sin is destroyed by Christ's coming; so that in brief it stands thus: first, Judah had to be removed out of God's sight, as he had removed Israel; second, the man of sin is to be manifested in Israel after they are returned to their own land and fall away again into the idolatry of their ancestors; third, Christ's coming is not until after the man of sin has made his appearance and completed his work; then he will be consumed by the brightness of Christ's coming.

It must be observed here that Paul calls the man of sin, "Satan," and in the Revelation he is called "that old serpent, the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world," the same as is said of mystical Babylon, "By her sorceries were all nations deceived" (Rev. 18:23). And Jeremiah says of Jerusalem, As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness" (6:7); and again, "From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land" (23: 15).

In speaking of the visions of Daniel and others, and in other Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, we shall have occasion to refer to other similitudes by which this man of sin is pointed out and his career and destiny described, for he, like Judas, goeth into perdition when his work is finished.

And now as we purpose to give considerable attention to the things contained in the Book of Revelation, besides these already referred to, especially the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven last plagues, and many other wonderful things contained in the great prophecy of Jesus, as it is called; before proceeding to do this we will first speak of Nebuchadnezzar's image that was shown him, and Daniel's visions, inasmuch as the visions and similitudes that the Lord has employed by the ministry of the prophets are necessary to be understood, or we cannot interpret the Revelations, as the Book of the Revelation is the prophecy and testimony of Jesus, and "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," that is, a condensation and a concentration of all the things spoken of by the prophets, in which mostly the similitudes, figures, and symbols used by the prophets are preserved, and the plain language is largely left out, so that no small degree of discernment is required to call up the plain language employed by the prophets which unfolds the meaning the symbol of