vial be poured upon their seat or source of life, it must affect both forms throughout the world. This is self-evident, and needs no argument to prove it. If the heart be touched, the whole body must, of course, suffer. It remains for us to trace the subject further in history, and see if such has been the case. Have great calamities fallen upon political and ecclesiastical despotism, since 1798, in other parts of the world? I must remind you, again, that we do not trace all the calamities which we shall name, to the fifth vial, but to others, in connection. It will be remembered, that some of the battles foreshadowed under the third vial, occurred after the above named year; and all the wars of Napoleon, as foreshadowed by the fourth vial, after that date. I have alluded to, and shall speak again of, their fate in France, Italy and Austria, in the course of current events. attention to Spain, where despotic government and religious. intolerance have lately been overthrown; also, to England, where there has been a steady, and, for. staid Englishmen, a rapid advance towards the full recognition of the rights of the masses. There have, also, been encouraging signs of progress in other and minor nations of Europe. But one of the most cheering indications is the manumission of the serfs in Russia, without bloodshed. When we heard of that great Exodus from Slavery, we felt like shouting across the seas: Imperial Russia, hail to thy great Czar, Who spake the word, and serfdom ceased to be, Thy forty million serfs, at once made free, With our enfranchised sons of toil, may raise Their psalms of Freedom, borne above the sea, To our predestinating God, and praise I call The goodness that foreshows his wondrous works and ways. This was a great advance. But a great work must yet be done in that extensive Empire before its Emperor shall become only the executive of the will of the people; and we will hope that all her advances may be as peaceful as this. It would be interesting to trace, more minutely, this advance in Europe; but I must leave the subject here. During the course of my preparation of the poem, to which these lectures are designed to be, mainly, introductory, a friend asked me: Do you find America* in Prophecy?" I told him I had what seemed to me a plausible theory on that point. I purpose to present it here. I have a good deal of confidence that it is true. But let me say, that I do not profess to be sustained by authority. My hypothesis must stand or fall on its own merits, as it is not bolstered up by any great names. Let me refer the reader back to the twelfth chapter of Revelation: And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice, saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accusers of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God, day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. *Note 45, Canto I, stanza 100. Note 46, Canto I, stanza 100. Note 47, Canto I, stanza 102. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. I have already called your attention to the dragon, as a symbol of civil despotism, as exercised in the persecutions of Pagan Rome, such an awfully malicious and bloody power, that John further designates it as the Devil and Satan. I showed that it was the same power, under modified administrations, which is designated in the seventeenth chapter, as "the beast that was and is not, and yet is." I hinted at the fact that this beast, political despotism, as a hindrance to the progress of a pure Christianity, would be the last to go down under the shock of the armies of heaven, on white horses. We may call this dragon the symbol of that which has another name, and that is KINGLY prerogative," as interpreted by absolutists. It means the same as that to which we have already called attention. In such a connection, a few notes on the symbolism will be interesting and profitable, though not coming directly under my subject. The prophet says, there was war in heaven." Satan had, as of old, come up to present himself before God. Kingly prerogative claims that kings reign by divine right. Why not? God says in His Word, "By me kings reign." But if we had His own interpretation of this expression, we should, beyond a doubt, find it destructive of the claims of absolutism. The first king which the Bible tells us of being chosen by divine direction, was given to His people as a mark of His wrath. It would be pretty hard work to establish the divine right of kings from such examples, surely. This claim was contested in heaven.* Michael and his angels warring with the dragon, cast him down to earth, 66 *Note 49, Canto I, stanza 105. though he had drawn after himself one-third of the stars, who became the fallen angels, always on the side of wrong and oppression. Heaven repudiated the claim, and earth must become the theatre of the contest. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb;" i. e., by the power of a Christianity embodying the great work of atonement, despotism is to fall. A woe* is uttered against the inhabitants of the earth, because the devil is come down among them, filled with great wrath, because he knoweth his time is short; i. e., heaven having solemnly repudiated the claim that one man may be born with the right to rule over the body and soul of another, and that being proclaimed to the inhabitants. of the earth, they will soon repudiate it too. Let us refer, here, to the woman,† clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, having upon her head a crown of twelve stars. All agree that this woman symbolizes the Church, or that body of men that receives and practices the doctrines of Christ and his Apostles, a glorious woman, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. "She was persecuted by the dragon." Despotism has instinctively recoiled from the pure religion of Jesus; and in the Roman Empire it was a matter of State policy with her most politic Emperors, to suppress it, if possible, and they sought to do it by bloody persecutions. They foresaw what it would do to the Empire. It was this instinct which led that power, when it found that Christianity could not be crushed, to corrupt it, and make it a Ganymede to pander to the lusts of kingly prerogative. So the great significancy of the conversion of the Roman Empire from Paganism to Christianity, consisted in the acknowledgment that it had become too strong to admit of a hope of its ever being crushed by violence. The symbols of the sun, moon and stars, must not be pressed too far. They simply show the great glory with which the Church is yet to be surrounded and crowned. When the dragon began to persecute the woman, after he was cast down, she made her first flight to the wilderness, * Note 50, Canto I, stanza 106. + Note 51, ibid. Note 52, Canto I, stanza 106, where she should be nourished a thousand two hundred and three score days. Go with the Church of Christ, after the Papacy was fully installed on the seven hills; follow her into the vales of Piedmont, tracking her by the blood of her martyrs; listen to her solemn prayers and praises among the fastnesses of the Alps, whither she was driven by persecution; hear her groans in the dismal dungeons of the Inquisition of Spain; see her flying to the glens of Scotland; behold the smoke of her torture rising from the bloodstained fields of Bohemia, where the martyr, Huss, was burned at the stake as a witness for Jesus; see her contending, with unparalleled bravery, for existence on the dykes of Holland; follow her, in later times, in her second flight across the stormy Atlantic, in the cabin of the Mayflower, to this then vast wilderness, and tell me if you could find a happier symbol of her than John has here furnished us. I call your attention, before proceeding further in this line, to the period of the woman's exile.* The days are symbolic of years-twelve hundred and sixty years—at the expiration of which she and her offspring should cease to be exiles, and become the aggressors upon the persecuting powers of despotism. Of course, the only difficulty in knowing when this event shall come, consists in determining when the period began. The task of fixing the exact date of the full installation of the Papal power as a politicoreligious despotism, as symbolized by the second beast, is difficult, if not impossible. Authorities differ by a number of years. But all Protestant expositors, so far as I know, place this event near the beginning of the seventh century, when ecclesiastical prerogative made exceedingly rapid advances. Some of the dates at which various authorities have fixed this, are as follows: 538, 588, 606, 610 and 629. Adding the 1260 years to each of these numbers, gives us the following remarkable dates: 1798, 1848, 1866, 1870 and 1889. It may be remarked that the dates for the beginning of this power, were fixed by the different authorities in years when, according to the same authorities, the Papacy had made some large advance. I cannot stop to point them *Note 53, Canto I, stanza 106. |