ITS RISE

John says, “I beheld another beast coming up,” etc.; from which we are led to suppose that wherever the prophecy of the two-horned beast had its accomplishment, a government would be developed enterprising and prosperous.TBUS 23.3

God has represented in prophecy, the governments of foreign lands at this time, as in a state of brokenness and disunion. “Iron mixed with miry clay.”... “they shall not cleave one to another, as iron is not mixed with miry clay.” England is certainly looked upon by all nations as bankrupt. France is not much in advance. The kingdoms of Spain are in a decaying condition. While we see other kingdoms of earth in this position and that in their rise they have not answered the specifications of the prophecy, we have been led to look elsewhere than among them for the development of that power. As our own nation has arisen at the right time to answer the specifications of the prophecy, as well as in the right manner, we may with confidence expect it to “come up” [while its career is measured by prophecy as in a rising condition] even to the astonishment of its own citizens. To show how this power has “come up,” we will compare the census of 1792, with that of 1855:TBUS 23.4

An “English Journalist” [in 1853] speaking of the unexampled growth of the United States, in all the elements of national prosperity, sums up in this wise:TBUS 24.1

“In an interval of little more than half a century it appears that this extraordinary people have increased above 500 per cent, in numbers; their national revenue has augmented nearly 700 per cent, while their public expenditure has increased little more than 400 per cent. The prodigious extension of their commerce is indicated by an increase of nearly 500 per cent in their imports and exports, and 600 per cent in their shipping. The increased activity of their internal communication is expounded by the number of post-offices, which has increased more than a hundred fold, the extent of their post-roads which has been increased thirty-six fold, and the cost of their post-office, which has been augmented in a seventy-two fold ratio. The augmentation of their machinery of public instruction is indicated by the extent of their public libraries, which have increased in a thirty-two fold ratio, and by the creation of school libraries, amounting to 2,000,000 volumes. They have completed a system of canal navigation, which, placed in a continuous line, would extend from London to Calcutta, and a system of railways which, continuously extended, would reach from London to Van Diemn’s Land, (14,350 miles,) and have provided locomotive machinery by which that distance could be traveled over in three weeks, at the cost of 1,5d per mile. They have created a system of inland navigation, the aggregate tonnage of which is probably not inferior in amount to the collective inland tonnage of all the other countries in the world, and they possess many hundreds of river steamers, which impart to the roads of water the marvelous celerity of roads of iron. They have in fine, constructed lines of electric telegraph which, laid continuously, would extend over a space longer by 3000 miles than the distance from the North to the South pole, and have provided apparatus of transmission by which a message of 300 words dispatched under such circumstances from the North pole might be delivered in writing at the South pole in one minute, and by which, consequently an answer of equal length might be sent back to the North pole in an equal interval. These are social and commercial phenomena for which it would be vain to seek a parallel in the past history of the human race.”TBUS 24.2

And still year by year they are “coming up,” growing in numbers, power and pride. It is stated that at the recent world’s fair in London, the United States was brought into a position among the nations, and obtained a name which far excels all her former reputation. There as the United States displayed her wonderful improvements, her apartment in the great palace was thronged with astonished admirers of her ingenuity.TBUS 25.1

The rise of this nation, since the time of the settlement of these colonies, just prior to the reformation in the territory of the Papal beast, has not a parallel in human history. And who would dare to say in regard to its spread of dominion, (were it not for the coming of the long expected and Just One,) “Thus far thou shalt go, and no farther!” Some at present are so bold as to state, that should ten or twenty years roll away, United States’ boundaries will be the boundaries of North America!TBUS 25.2

The next point that shall claim our attention is theTBUS 26.1