is a similitude of what Christ the Lord will do with the armies of Gog and all his multitude in the latter days is proved as follows.

In the tenth chapter of Isaiah (verse 26) where the destruction of the Assyrian is described, the Lord himself says, "And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock Oreb, and as his rod was upon the (Red) sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt" (when Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the sea). Again in the eighty-third Psalm it is written of the great confederation, Do unto them as unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kison, which perished at Endor; they became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, yea all their princes like Zebah and as Zalmunnah, who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession." These Scriptures, if there were no others, prove that the Lord intended this overthrow of the Midianites in the days of the Judges as a type of what he intends to do in the future; and if this is not enough, it is further testified in the second Psalm. The father decrees, saying of Christ, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." This the apostles apply to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead when he was begotten from the dead and declared to be the Son of God with power. Therefore after Christ was raised, then the Father says to him, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." And then as to the manner in which he will dispose of this inheritance, the Father continues saying, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

After Gog is dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel upon the mountains. of Israel, then the surrounding kings and judges of the earth are warned. saying, "Be wise, now therefore, O ye kings, be instructed ye judges of the earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling; kiss the Son (whom God raised from the dead) lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

The time when Christ enters upon this inheritance and when these things take effect is signified in the Psalm which says, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool." Again this power over the nations, Jesus will share with his brethren; therefore he speaks in one of his letters to the churches, saying, "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father" (Rev. 2: 26-28).

THE MANNER AND EFFECT OF THE BATTLE (REV. 19:20)

And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." This destruction of the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies is also described by the Prophet Daniel in his account of his vision of the four beasts which came

up out of the sea. The fourth he says, was "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." Among these ten came up a little horn that had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth that spake great things. "I beheld," says Daniel, " till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him; and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame."

In this graphic and impressive description of the coming of the great God, the Ancient of days, and our Lord Jesus Christ and all his saints to judgment, we are told that the fourth beast which is described as being dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, having great iron teeth, was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. This beast is the great commander of this mighty and terrible people, and his body which is given to the burning flame consists of his great army who are like the locusts of Egypt for multitude, whose work is done upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem, when the beast is slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.

As to what this burning flame consists of to which the body of the beast is given, that will appear by what the Prophet Ezekiel says in plainer language in speaking of this same judgment, saying (38: 18-22), "And it shall come to pass at the same time, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face." (Verse 21) "And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood, and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.'

The Prophet Isaiah also describes this same event in that day, saying (10: 16-19), “Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness, and under his glory he shall kindle a burning, like the burning of a fire; And the light of Israel (Christ) shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; and shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them." That is, a child instructed in Ezekiel's prophecy can write them down as being only one-sixth of the whole.

We will furnish one more account of the overthrow of the great Assyrian upon the mountains of Israel and round about Jerusalem in the day when the Ancient of days comes with his Son and his mighty hosts of saints and angels to judge his people and the mighty nations of the earth. The

Prophet Isaiah speaks again as follows (30: 27-33), "Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire (the name of the Lord covers and comprehends all those upon whom it is, or has been called), and his breath as an overflowing stream shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity, and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

"Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept: and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath made it deep, and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."

This is the Lord's account by the hand of the Prophet Isaiah of the great slaughter which will take place when the towers fall in the day when he breaks the yoke and bursts the bands of his people Israel, and removes the burden from off their shoulders, so that strangers shall no more serve themselves of him, even as the Lord hath said, saying, "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Isa. 14: 24-27).

THE DESTINY OF THOSE THAT ESCAPE

When Gog, the Assyrian, or the beast, by whatever name he may be called, falls upon the mountains of Israel, there is still a part of this great confederation of nations that escapes destruction at this time, but who will be pursued and overtaken and destroyed soon after the great destruction. Therefore Daniel speaks concerning them (7:12). After the fourth beast is slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame, then the prophet adds, saying, “As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time," which is a short period of a few years. By the hand of Ezekiel (39:5-6) the Lord also says of Gog and his multitude, "Thou shalt fall upon the open field; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God." And then he adds saying, "And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles; and they shall know that I am the Lord." And in the Revelation (19:21) it is said, "And the remnant were slain with the sword of him

that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls (the remnant of Israel) were filled with their flesh," that is to say, the spoils of war was given to them.

DESTRUCTION OF THE TWO-HORNED BEAST, OR FALSE PROPHET
(REV. 19:20)

The idolatrous kings of Israel and Judah survive the destruction of their kingdoms by the hand of the beast that rises out of the sea. The beast with two horns, that is, the king of Judah with the dragon, the king of Israel, as his ally and supporter,- which two kings form the two horns like a lamb called also "the false prophet," because his multitude of false prophets, as a mouth, have cried "Peace and safety" for him when sudden destruction was at the door,- is appointed to perish with the beast in whose honor he caused all those who dwelt upon the earth to make an image that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. He is appointed to utter destruction with the beast that he honored and glorified, as it is written of them saying, "These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone (Rev. 19:19).

But before the beast is slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame, he has on his hands an execution to perform which will rank among the first of his many famous acts which he will have done in his wonderful and checkered career before he goes into perdition. This consists in the execution of a great and notable king, one who, in the zenith of his power, made the earth tremble and did shake kingdoms, one that made the world a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof; who also destroyed his own land and slew his own people, wherefore it is written of him "The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned" (Isa. 14: 20).

The beast that rises out of the sea is the great and strong sword that God has provided with which to destroy him, and he will cause him to be slain in the presence of kings and princes of the earth, for thus it is written of him in Isaiah (27: 1), "In that day the Lord, with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."

Therefore under the similitude of the Prince of Tyrus, this prince of Jerusalem, who has said (Ezek. 28), “I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas" (of nations), received this reply, "Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God, behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the (bottomless) pit (the grave), and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slaveth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised (which shows that this prince is a circumcised person) by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God."

Moreover in the lamentation of this king of Tyrus, the Lord speaks again, saying to him (verses 17-18), "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; and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all them that behold thee."

In the interpretation of these highly figurative Scriptures as contained in the prophets, and especially in the Book of the Revelation, which speaks of the character and destiny of individuals as well as of nations in the latter days, we should take especial note of what the Lord says of the Assyrian, and the manner in which he employs him in executing his own purposes, as it is contained in the tenth chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, where he shows that he uses him as the woodman uses his axe, and as the sawyer uses his saw, and says to him, "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation." And the Lord continues, speaking of this powerful combination of nations under the command of the Assyrian, saying (Isa. 10:5-6), "I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." Now these sayings must be kept in mind if we would interpret aright what is said of the dragon in the Revelation. The hypocritical nation, the people of God's wrath that he sends the Assyrian against to punish in the latter days, is his own sinful nation, the rebellious house of Israel. After the mighty Assyrian has trampled the people of God's wrath as the mire of the streets, he will then complete his work and slay the dragon king of Israel.

Before proceeding further with the interpretation of the Scriptures which relate to the slaying and binding of the dragon, we will call especial attention to the work of the saints in the resurrection, as to what they are to do touching the kings, princes, and nobles of the people of Israel, as set forth in the one hundred and forty-ninth Psalm, saying, "Let the saints be joyful in glory (that is, having been sown in weakness and raised in glory, they are now said to be joyful in glory), let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people." The people referred to here are the people of Israel, as it is proved by what is contained in the second Psalm, saying, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" In the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles the people in this passage are shown to be the people of Israel. Even so also the people spoken of in the one hundred and forty-ninth Psalm are the people of Israel, and the kings and nobles there spoken of are the kings and nobles of the rebellious house of Israel in the latter days. And it is these kings and nobles that the saints are to bind with chains and fetters of iron, and to execute upon them the judgments written. This honor have all his saints. The first three verses of the twentieth chapter of the Revelation record the fulfillment of this very Scripture as contained in the one hundred and forty-ninth Psalm.