IF anybody fails to see that the Papacy is now fast moving into the place of the greatest influence of any earthly organization, not only in Europe, but in this nation as well, we can only wonder what he can be doing. In Europe, to say nothing of Catholic countries, which, as a matter of course, are subject to the Pope, Germany is subject to the dictation of the Pope; England is glad to obtain his help in her political affairs; and even the autocrat of all the Russias is willing to make overtures to the Pope.SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.1

In our own country Rome’s influence is growing faster than any other one thing. Everybody knows that it was the word “Romanism” in an unfortunate alliteration that cost Blaine the presidency in 1884. The editor of the Converted Catholic says that more senators and representatives send their sons to the Jesuit College at Georgetown, than to all the other institutions of learning at Washington. This proves, either that a large number of senators and representatives are Catholics, or that Rome has more influence with senators and representatives than have all the other educational institutions in Washington put together.SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.2

L. Q. C. Lamar was lately Secretary of the Interior. He was charged with giving to Catholics more positions in his department than to other denominations. His reply was, that “if the Roman Catholics have been recognized to a greater extent than other denominations, it is only because they have asked more largely;” and explains this by saying that the Romish Church has at Washington “an energetic and tireless director, who is active to seize opportunities for extending missionary and educational work among the Indians.” The Government superintendent of Indian schools is a Catholic; and the Christian Union says that four-fifths of the Government Indian schools, under religious control, have been given to the Romish Church.SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.3

The assistant attorney-general of the United States—Mr. Zach. Montgomery—is a Roman Catholic, with all the Roman Catholic enmity to the public schools, and hesitates not to use his official influence to show it. Not only since, in an address at Carroll Institute, he openly denounced the public-school system as godless, anti-parental, and destructive of happiness. And the Senate knew his enmity to the public schools when it confirmed him as assistant attorney-general.SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.4

We would not have a word to say against Catholics being given public and official positions in any department of Government, were it not that the allegiance of every Catholic is paid to the Pope before it is to the United States; and must be so paid, or else he ceases to be a good Catholic; every soul of them enters politics, or into official positions, as a Catholic; and the Pope has commanded all Catholics to do all in their power to cause the legislation of States to be shaped upon the model of the “true church.”SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.5

Next the secular press is captivated by the seductive influences of the Papacy. Not only is this true of that portion of the press which makes politics a trade, and which professedly follows, while it leads, public influence; it is equally true of the great magazines. In the Century for May, 1888, there was published a most flattering tribute to the Pope, with full-page portrait, under the title of “The Personality of Leo XIII.” And in the Forum for April, 1888, Rome forms the subject of two long articles—one, “Civil Government and Papacy,” the other, “Socialism and the Catholic Church.”SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.6

In a letter to Hon. Warner Miller, delegate at large from the State of New York to the late National Republican Convention, the Hon. John Jay, late United States Minister to Austria, in referring to Layfayette’s remark about the “invisible hand of the Jesuit” disturbing our liberties, says:—SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.7

“The hand is no longer invisible, and the voice once soft and alluring, is that of a conqueror so assured of his power—or so confident of increasing it by indulging in ‘unlimited brag’—that they coolly discuss the disposition they will make of the United States, as a people already subject to the control of Canada, wrote to Lord Randolph Churchill (the Churchman, New York, April 2, 1887): ‘The Irish vote is a great factor in America.’ ‘The power of their organizations is increasing every day.’ ‘They hold already the balance of power in the presidential and other elections.’ A further remark threw light upon the continual forcing into our politics of foreign questions of race and religion, and indicated the use that they are proposing to make of their power in America in case they shall find it convenient to involve the republic in war with England. ‘Should a misunderstanding,’ remarked his Grace, complacently, ‘happen between England and the United States, Canada would, in a few days, be overrun with American troops. It would cost that republic very little, as Irish-American military organizations would very largely supply both men and money.’SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.8

“A similarly dictatorial tone is of late constantly heard at home. The announcement of Mr. Chamberlain’s appointment as fishery commissioner was promptly followed by a reminder that he was not a persona grata to the Irish nation, and that no treaty he might make would stand a chance of ratification. The suggestion that Mr. Phelps, our Minister to England, might be nominated as chief justice, brought a quick announcement that the nomination would be defeated; and when the so-called ‘Freedom of Worship’ Bill for classifying children in religious classes, and subjecting them to Jesuit discipline, was pending in the New York Legislature the ‘Catholic Union,’ with a Jesuit as an adviser, reproduced in a tract intended for the Legislature of the State, a threat from the Catholic Review against all who should oppose the bill, of ‘political damnation;’ accompanied with the boast, ‘We have already marred the political future of more than one political bigot, and we advise all others to note the fact.’SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.9

“The disposition to boast of their achievements in controlling at will our legislative bodies, is not confined to the State Legislature. It was recently stated in the United States Senate (February 16, 1888), in a debate on the bill for ‘national aid in the establishment and temporary support of common schools’—the bill so honorably sustained by Mr. Blair against obstacles that might have dismayed a less resolute legislator, the bill which originated with Chief Justice Waite, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Stuart, Mr. Evarts, Dr. Curry, and other trustees of the Peabody Fund, as essential to arrest illiteracy at the South and fit the freedmen for their duties as citizens—that a senator had showed to the speaker, who had read it with his own eyes, the original letter of a Jesuit priest. In this letter he begged a member of Congress to oppose the bill and kill it, saying that they had organized all over the country for its destruction, that they had succeeded in the Committee of the House, and that they would destroy the bill inevitably; and it is a fact that the bill, having three times passed the Senate in three different Congresses, each time with a larger vote in its favor, has been repeatedly smothered in the Committee of the House, by those who knew that there was a majority in the House in favor of the bill; and for six years the legislation of Congress has been arrested.”SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.10

Next after the political world and the secular press, there is the “Protestant” religious world and its press. And in hardly anything does this take second place after the others, in this truckling flattery to the Papacy. The Evangelist, the Christian Union, the Christian at Work, the Independent, and other papers of lesser note, all pay flattering tribute to Rome. The Evangelist acknowledges Cardinal Gibbons as its “only cardinal;” the Independent wishes the Pope “a long reign and Godspeed in his liberalizing policy;” the Christian at Work salutes him as “Holy Father,” and in the name of “the whole Christian world” glorifies him as this “venerable man whose loyalty to God and zeal for the welfare of humanity are as conspicuous as his freedom from many of the errors and bigotries of his predecessors, is remarkable;” and the Christian Union acknowledges him as “a temporal prince” and “Supreme Pontiff.” Nor are the “Protestant” doctors of divinity one whit behind these “Protestant” papers. Rev. Charles W. Shields, D.D., of Princeton College, writing of the reunion of Christendom, said of a certain position, that it would not do to take it because—SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.11

“You would exclude the Roman Catholic Church, the mother of us all; the church of scholars and saints, of Augustine, and Aquinas, and Bernard, and Fenelon; the church of all races, ranks, and classes, which already gives signs of being American as well as Roman, and the only church fitted, by its hold upon the working masses, to grapple with the labor problem before which our Protestant Christianity stands baffled to-day.”—New York Evangelist, February 9, 1888.SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.12

Yes, the Catholic Church does give signs of becoming American as well as Roman, and the surest sign of this is the readiness with which Americans and professed Protestants surrender to her all their dearest interests of man in order to secure her influence.SITI July 6, 1888, page 407.13

“The Third Angel’s Message. The Time of the Message” The Signs of the Times 14, 26, pp. 410, 411.

THE TIME OF THE MESSAGE

(Lesson 3, Sabbath, July 21.)

1. WHAT warning does God give, against the worship of the beast and his image?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.1

“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:9-11.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.2

2. This text says, “The third angel followed them;” followed whom?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.3

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Verses 6, 8.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.4

3. The sixth verse says, “I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven;” to what does this seem to direct us?—To another one that had been seen somewhere.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.5

4. Where is the record of John’s seeing another angel flying thus?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.6

“And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” Revelation 8:13.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.7

5. What is the burden of this angel’s cry?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.8

6. How many woes?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.9

7. By reason of what?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.10

8. Then with what are these three woes connected?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.11

9. To what does the fifth trumpet—the first woe—refer?—To the rise and spread of Mohammedanism. “With surprising unanimity, commentators have agreed in regard to this as referring to the empire of the Saracens, or to the rise and progress of the religion and the empire of Mohammed.”—Albert Barnes.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.12

10. What did the prophet say should be commanded them?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.13

“And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Revelation 9:4.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.14

11. What was commanded them? See note.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.15

12. For what specific length of time were they to torment men?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.16

“And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.” “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power [was] to hurt men five months.” Revelation 9:5, 10.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.17

13. When did this period being?—“It was on the twenty-seventh day of July, in the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the Christian era, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia.”—Gibbon, chap. 64, par. 13.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.18

14. Then at what time did the first woe end?—July 27, 1449.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.19

15. What followed?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.20

“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.” Revelation 9:13.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.21

16. How long was the sixth trumpet—the second woe—to continue?SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.22

“And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.” Verse 15.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.23

17. Literally what length of time is this?—391 years and 15 days.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.24

18. When did it end?—August 11, 1840.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.25

19. What historical event marks the ending of this time at that date?—On that day the four great powers of Europe,—England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia,—assumed control of all the foreign affairs of the Government of Turkey, and have held it ever since. See “Thoughts on the Revelation,” 9:18, 19.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.26

NOTES

QUESTION 11. “Remember that you are always in the presence of God; on the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment, and the hope of paradise. Avoid injustice and oppression; consult with your brethren, and study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. When you fight the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men, without turning your backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries. And you will find another sort of people, that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mahometans or pay tribute.”—Gibbon, chap. 51, par. 10.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.27

IN Revelation 14:9 we read: “The third angel followed them.” Followed whom? Why, certain angels that had gone before. The eighth verse says, “There followed another angel.” As this angel likewise “followed” someone, we must go yet farther back. So in the sixth verse we read, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” We must know then, the time of the angel of the sixth verse, before we can know the time of the angel of the eighth, or of the ninth verse; for the angel of verse 8 follows the angel of verse 6, and the third angel, of verse 9, follows both these. Therefore the time of the angel of verse 6 must be known, to know the time of the third angel, verse 9.SITI July 6, 1888, page 410.28

NOTICE again verse 6. It does not read, And I saw an angel, but it reads, “And I saw another angel.” By this word “another,” there is direct reference made to some angel or angels that the prophet had seen before. Tracing backward in the book to find what will answer to this we find none until we come to chapter 10:1, where we read, “And I saw another mighty angel.” But this text also uses the word “another,” and therefore we must go further back. So we go on backward till we come to chapter 8:13, where we read, “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven.” Here the word “another” is not used, but simply, “I beheld, and heard an angel.” This, then, is the first of certain angels which the prophet saw which the language used will connect directly with the angel of chapter 14:6, thus: “I beheld, and heard an angel” (chap. 8:13), “And I saw another mighty angel” (10:1), “And I saw another angel” (14:16).SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.1

NOTICE further that these angels appear upon the scene in the midst of the events that accompany the last three of the seven trumpet angels. In chapter 8:2 John saw seven angels to whom were given seven trumpets; and in verse 6 he says, “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” Then after the first four had sounded, this angel of chapter 8:13 appears, when the prophet says, “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” Now as this angel is connected, by the expressions used, with the angel of chapter 14:6, and as this angel appears just before the sounding of the fifth trumpet is a proper starting-point to find the time of the message of chapter 14:6. If we can find the time of the first trumpet, we can find the time of the angel of chapter 14:6.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.2

IN chapter 9:1-11 is the prophecy of the events of the fifth trumpet, of which says Albert Barnes, “With surprising unanimity, commentators have agreed in regarding this as referring to the empire of the Saracens, or to the rise and progress of the religion and the empire set up by Mohammed.” We cannot see how anyone who will read the prophecy, and Gibbon’s history of Mohammed and his successors in the light of it, can disagree with the application of the prophecy to the Mahammedans. We cannot here go into a detailed explanation and application of the prophecy to the Mohammedans. We cannot here go into a detailed explanation and application of the different points of the prophecy—for that see the work, “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” or “The Seven Trumpets,” both published at this office—we can here only notice the time referred to in the prophecy. The rise of Mohammedanism is shown under the symbol of a cloud of locusts, but in verses 7-9 the symbol is explained by the words, “The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; ... and their faces were as the faces of man; ... and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” And says the Scripture, “Their power was to hurt men five months.” Five months are one hundred and fifty days; this being prophetic time,—a day for a year,—equals one hundred and fifty years, during which they were to hurt men.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.3

THIS one hundred and fifty years is to be counted from the time that they had a king over them, as says verse 11: “They had a king over them ... whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon [margin “a destroyer”).” For more than six hundred years the Mohammedans had no regularly organized Government, and recognized no such dignitary as that which answers to the title of king. Each tribe, under its own chief, was independent of all the others, and came and went as it pleased. While this was the case it is evident, and it is the fact, too, that their character as “a destroyer” was not, and could not be, such as it was after they were solidly united in one Government under the sway of a ruler recognized by all. This is made more apparent when it is seen what was to be destroyed by this “destroyer.” The first four trumpets show the ruin of the Western Empire of Rome, and the fifth relates to the destruction of the Eastern Empire. And it is in the character of the final destroyer of the last remains of the Roman Empire that this power acts. It was not as a destroyer of men as such, for of them it is said “that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months,” “and their power was to hurt men five months.” It is evident then that his character and work as “a destroyer” relate to the final destruction of the Roman Empire, which was then represented in the Eastern Empire with the capital at New Rome—Constantinople.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.4

OTHMAN was the caliph who established the organized Government of the Mohammedans, and from him is descended the name and title of the Ottoman Empire. It was under the organized power of Othman that the work of the destroyer began. In closing his account of the devastating rage of the Moguls and Tartars under Zingis Khan and his generals, Gibbon says:—SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.5

“In this shipwreck of nations [A.D. 1240-1304] some surprise may be excited by the escape of the Roman Empire, whose relics, at the time of the Mogul invasion, were dismembered by the Greeks and Latins.”—Decline and Fall, chap. 64, par. 13.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.6

BUT when the decline of the Moguls gave free scope to the rise of the Moslems, under Othman, of him he says:—SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.7

“He was situate on the verge of the Greek Empire; the Koran sanctified his gazi, or holy war, against the infidels; and their political errors unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus, and invited him to descend unto the plains of Bithynia.... It was on July 27, A.D. 1299, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of the monster.”—Id., par. 14.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.8

THE work of destruction, then, which was to subvert the last remains of the Roman Empire, began July 27, 1299, and never ceased till the imperial power passed into the hands of Amurath, July 27, 1499. Then the first woe was passed, verse 12, and the sixth angel sounded, and the four angels of the Euphrates were loosed “which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.” This also being prophetic time, each day represents a year. A year = 360 years, a month 30 years, a day 1 year, an hour, the twenty-fourth part of 360 = 15 days, altogether = 360 + 30 + 1 = 391 years and 15 days. This, from July 27, 1449, onward, gives us August 11, 1840, when the imperial power passed out of the hands of the Ottoman Emperor into the hands of the Great Powers of Europe, just as it passed into his hands 491 years and 15 days before. Then it was that the second woe passed, and behold the third woe was to come quickly. Chap. 11:14.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.9

THEN it is between the second and third woes, in the space marked by the word “quickly,” that Revelation 10:1 applies: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from Heaven, clothed with a cloud; ... and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth.... And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” Notice that this angel refers to the sounding of the seventh trumpet as then future—“the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound.” Of that sounding we read in chapter 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.10

THE kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ at the second coming of Christ. Says Paul: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, Preach the word.” 2 Timothy 4:1. When he comes, “he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Now mark, the sixth trumpet and the second woe ended August 11, A.D. 1840. Then saith the word of God, the third woe and the seventh trumpet comes quickly; and when that comes, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. This is at the coming of Christ, and the coming of Christ is the end of the world. The first four trumpets mark the downfall of the Western Empire of Rome; the fifth marks the destruction of the Eastern Empire of Rome; and the seventh trumpet marks the downfall of all empires, all kingdoms, and all nations; for when the God of Heaven sets up his kingdom, “it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms.” Daniel 2:44. The woe of the fifth trumpet was called by Gibbon the “shipwreck of nations;” but the woe of the seventh trumpet will be not only the shipwreck of nations, but of the great globe itself; for in Revelation 11:19, among the events of the seventh trumpet—the third woe—are that earthquake by which every mountain and island are moved out of their places, and that great hail, both of which come in the seventh plague, when God “ariseth to shake terribly the earth,” and the great voice is heard out of the temple of Heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. Revelation 16:17-21. J.SITI July 6, 1888, page 411.11

June 29, 1888

July 13, 1888