Revelation 13:5-6

"And there was given unto him. mouth speaking great things and blasphemies: and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months."--13:5.

This beast had. mouth given unto it that spoke " great blasphemies. " Upon its heads were written (v. 1) the names of blasphemy. It is evidently. blasphemous power. Blasphemy is not simply profanity, but the claim of divine or undue power by. human. The Savior was condemned to die by the Jewish Sanhedrim, for affirming that he was the Son of God. They found him guilty of blasphemy. Has the beast claimed divine attributes? It claims to be "The vicar of Christ," "The King of kings and Lord of lords." It has claimed the power of legislation for the people of God, the power to forgive the sins of men, or to anathematize them to eternal perdition. It has long claimed that the decisions of its councils were as infallible as the voice of God, and in our own generation it has decreed that the Pope of Rome, "sitting as God in the temple of God," speaks with the infallible voice of the eternal God. If these facts do not constitute blasphemy, it is. crime beyond the compass of the human will. This power of the beast is to be exercised for. period of

FORTY-TWO MONTHS.

We have found that this period of 1260 days, or 1260 years, since. day is the symbol of. year, has been several times mentioned. The "Holy City," the true Church is trodden down by the Gentiles for forty-two months; the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth for one thousand two hundred and three-score days; the woman, or the true Church, is driven by the dragon into the wilderness for twelve hundred and sixty days, and the beast exercises power for forty-two months, which is the same period once more. There can be no doubt that the treading down of the Holy City, the two witnesses in sackcloth, the flight and sojourn of the Church in the wilderness, and the power of the beast, all take place during the same period, begin at the same time, are different parts of the same history, and end at the same epoch.. have decided these to begin in the reign of Justinian, when the Bishop of Rome was pronounced ruler of the Church, and when the secular power becomes the servant of. tyrannical and ambitious ecclesiastic, and is employed to force all to submit to his dominion. From that period there can be no doubt that Rome, either indirectly or directly, becomes the secular ruler of the West.

We have found that this period of 1260 years would end about the beginning of the nineteenth century. At the end of that time there is certainly an exaltation of the two witnesses,. return of the Church from the wilderness. Is there also. fatal shock to the temporal power of Rome? In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte effected the conquest of Italy, and the Pope,. prisoner, was. supplicant at his feet. In 1804, he ordered the Pope, who was now his puppet, to come to France to crown him emperor of the French. In 1805, he assumed the title of King of Italy. During the years of his power be ruled the Pope with an iron hand, broke up the old European system, emancipated the nations from the terror of Rome, and when he fell, the temporal authority of Rome had received. fatal wound. The influence of the Pope in the politics of the world was broken, and although the States of the Church were for. time placed in his hands, it was impossible for him to hold them in the new Europe that had been created. Shorn of his sceptre as. temporal prince, the Pope now locks himself within the walls of the Vatican, and gazes forth upon. Rome that is the, capital of. restored Italy, and in which Protestant church bells are ringing. These mighty changes which have gone on through three-quarters of. century, were all precipitated when the young General of the Directory, in 1798, scaled the Alps and descended on the plains of Italy.