In 1793-98, by the French Revolution and the temporary overthrow of the Papacy in the latter year.

2. What did the prophet see coming up at this time?

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Rev. 3:11.

NOTES.-Mr. Wesley, in his notes or Revelation 13, written in 1754, says of the two-horned beast: "He is not yet come, though he cannot be far off; for he is to appear at the end of the forty-two months of the first beast."
The previous beast came up out of the "sea," which indicates its rise among the peoples and nations of the world then in existence (Rev. 17:15); while this one comes up out of the "earth." This would indicate that the later beast would arise where there had not before been "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." In 1798, when the papal power received its deadly wound, the government of the United States, located in the western continent, was the only great and independent nation then coming into prominence in territory not previously occupied by people, multitudes, and nations. Only nine years receding this (1789), the United States adopted its national Constitution.
It is within the territory of the United States, therefore, that we may look, according to the prophecy, for an ecclesiastical movement to arise, and exercise a dominating control, not only in the civil government of this country, but also in the other nations of the whole world as well.

3. What is the character of this new power?

"He had two horns like a lamb." Rev. 13:11.

NOTE.-The Pilgrim Fathers were the vanguard of a great multitude of Protestants, who, when persecuted and outlawed in the lands of their birth, sought refuge in the New World, where they developed rapidly under the protection of a government founded on the great Christian principles of civil and religious freedom. The two horns may well symbolize these two fundamental principles.

4. Not withstanding the lamblike appearance of this power, what is it ultimately to do?

"And he spake as a dragon." Rev. 13:11.

NOTE.-The voice of the dragon is the voice of intolerance and persecution. This indicates that the ecclesiastical development dealt with in this prophecy, obtaining a foothold for its initial power and influence in the government of the United States, will repudiate the mild and lamblike principles of civil and religious liberty, and become like the beast before it, a world-wide persecuting power. This is why in Rev. 19:20 it is called "the false prophet." Born of the Reformation, it will repudiate Reformation principles.

5. How much power will this beast exercise?

"And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Verse 12.

NOTE.-The "first beast before him" (papal Rome) exercised the power of persecution and putting to death all who differed from it in religious matters. The only way the earth can be made to worship is by causing work to cease on it through voluntary or enforced rest, or sabbath keeping. "For as long as she [the land] lay desolate she kept sabbath." 2 Chron. 36:21. Enforced Sunday observance is evidently implied here.

6. What means will be employed to lead the people back into this false worship?

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." Verse 14, first part.

7. What will this power propose that the people shall do?

"Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." Verse 14, latter part.

NOTE.- The beast "which had the wound by a sword, and did live," is the Papacy. That was a church dominating the civil power. In other words, it was a union of church and state, and enforced its religious dogmas by the civil power, under pain of confiscation of goods, imprisonment, and death. An image to this beast would be another ecclesiastical organization clothed with civil power - another union of church and state - to enforce religious dogmas by law.

8. Is there any evidence that such an image will be made?

Large and influential organizations, such as the National Reform Association, the International Reform Bureau, the Lord’s Day Alliance of the United States, and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, have been formed, by professed Protestants, and for years have been persistently working to that end. Many Roman Catholic societies recently formed in the United States, such as the Knights of Columbus and the American Federation of Catholic Societies, are looking to a like end - that of making America Catholic.

9. What according to its constitution, is the avowed object of the National Reform Association?

"To secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as shall . . . indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of the government on a undeniably legal basis in the fundamental law of the land." - Article II of the Constitution.

10. How does this association regard the Catholic Church on this point?

"We cordially, gladly, recognize the fact that in South American republics, in France and other European countries the Roman Catholics are the recognized advocates of national Christianity, and stand opposed to all the proposals of secularism. . . . Whenever they are willing to cooperate in resisting the progress of political atheism, we will gladly join hands with them in a world’s conference for the promotion of national Christianity, which ought to be held at no distant day. Many countries could be represented only by Roman Catholics." - Christian Statesman, Dec. 11, 1884, official organ of the a National Reform Association.