of it our Lord says, "When he speaketh the lie, he speaketh of his own." (John 8:44, Diaglott.) Speaking of it again, the Apostle Paul says, of the worshipers of the beast and his image, "They admitted not the love of the Truth that they might be saved. And on this account God will send to them an energy of delusion, to their believing the falsehood." (2 Thes. 2:10, 11.) In each case the Greek gives the definite article. The frog issuing from the false prophet (the image of the beast) is the doctrine of human immortality. These deluded souls actually believe this error, and will be able to prove it to the satisfaction of the dragon, without a doubt. This error lies at the bottom of the doctrines of eternal torment and of the trinity. There is a hint in 1 John 4:1-3 that the cardinal error on which the false prophet will insist is that when Jesus came from the Father He was more than flesh, i. e., had at least an immortal soul.-Rev. 13:11, 13, 14, 15; 14:9, 11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; 20:10; Matt. 24:24.

"All Christian people credit the book of Revelation to our Lord, as St. John does. (Rev. 1:1.) Therefore we are not responsible for the symbolism used in that book. There are so many ways in which one might be misunderstood, even by good Christian people, that we naturally feel a delicacy about expressing our views. As we proceed to set forth our understanding of the symbols of the Revelation, we wish to state most emphatically that we are saying nothing whatever against godly Christians anywhere, at any time, whether in any church or out of any church. We have nothing to say respecting people. We discuss PRINCIPLES, DOCTRINES, ALWAYS; individuals, NEVER! God has not commissioned us to discuss people; it is ours to discuss His Word.

"Throughout the Bible, a Beast is the symbol used to represent a government. In Daniel's prophecy the great universal empires of the earth are thus symbolized. Babylon was the Lion, Medo-Persia the Bear, Greece the Leopard, and Rome the Dragon. (Dan. 7:1-8.) The Roman Empire still persists. The Dragon, then, symbolizes the Roman power, represented by the civil power in the world. The Beast is the Papal system of government. The third symbol, the False Prophet, remains to be interpreted. This, we believe, is another name for the system elsewhere called 'the Image of the Beast.' (Rev. 13:14.) According to the Scriptures, this Image is a very exact representation of the Beast. The False Prophet, or Image of the Beast, we understand to mean the Protestant Federation of Churches. "Three unclean spirits like frogs came out of the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Prophet.' In this passage,

the spirit is a doctrine-an unclean doctrine-a false doctrine. Each of these systems will utter the same things, and these utterances will have the effect of gathering the kingdoms of earth together to the Battle of Armageddon. "The symbolism of Scripture, rightly understood, is very forceful, and there is always a close resemblance between the symbol itself and the thing symbolized. When the

Holy Spirit uses a frog to represent certain doctrines or teachings, we may be sure that the application will fit well. While a frog is a small creature, yet it puffs itself up until it almost bursts with the effort to be somebody. A frog has a very wise look, even though it does not know very much. Then a frog croaks whenever it utters a sound. "The three most prominent characteristics of a frog, then, are pomposity, an air of superior wisdom and knowledge, and a continual croaking. Applying these characteristics to the picture given in the Divine Word, we learn that from kingly power, from the Catholic Church and from the Federation of Protestant Churches, will go forth the same teachings. The spirit of all will be boastful; an air of superior knowledge and wisdom will be assumed; all will foretell dire results to follow any failure to obey their counsels. However conflicting the creeds, the differences will be ignored in the general proposition that nothing ancient must be disturbed, or investigated, or repudiated. "The boasted Divine authority of the Church, and the Divine right of kings aside from the Church, will not be allowed to conflict; for both will be indorsed. Any persons or teachings in conflict with these boastful, unscriptural claims will be branded as everything vile, at the mouths of the frogs, croaking from pulpits and platforms, and through the religious and secular press. The nobler sentiments of some will be strangled by the philosophy of the same evil spirit which spoke through Caiaphas, the high priest, respecting our Lord Jesus. As Caiaphas declared it expedient to commit a crime in violation of justice, both human and Divine, to be rid of Jesus and His teachings, so this frog-like spirit will approve of any and every violation of principle necessary to self-protection.

"Every true Christian is ashamed to look back upon the pages of history and see what terrible deeds were done in the name of God and justice, and in the name of our Lord Jesus. We are not to think for a moment that these frog spirits, or doctrines, are all bad, but rather that they are doctrines of bombast and pomposity, representing themselves to be very wise and great, and having the backing of centuries. Out of the mouth of the Dragon comes the doctrine of the Divine right of Kings: 'Do not look back of the curtain of history to see where the kings got that

right. Accept the doctrine; for if you do not, and if men look into the matter, there will be a terrible revolution and everything will go down!'

Do

"The Beast and the False Prophet have similar croakings. The Catholic Church says, 'Do not look behind! not question anything about the Church!' Protestantism says, also, 'We are great, we are wise, we know a great deal. Keep quiet! No one will then know that you know nothing.' All say (croaking), 'We tell you that if you say anything against present arrangements, terrible things will come to pass.'

"Political parties are figuring in this. All declare, 'If any change should come, it will mean terrible disaster!' Some have the backbone and some have the civil power behind them, but unitedly they croak to the people that if any change is made, it will mean ruin to the present order. In the language of our day, 'Stand pat!' is the order in Church and in State; but the people are being moved by fear. It is this croaking of the Beast, the Dragon and the False Prophet that will arouse the kings of earth and gather them together to the Armageddon Battle.

"The ecclesiastical kings and princes, with their retinue of clergy and faithful adherents, will be gathered in solid phalanx-Protestant and Catholic. The political kings and kaisers, princes, and all in high places, with their henchmen and retainers, will follow in line on the same side. The financial kings and merchant princes, and all whom they can influence by the most gigantic power ever yet exercised in the world, will join the same side, according to this prophecy. They do not realize, however, that they are coming to Armageddon; yet strange to say, this is a part of their very cry, 'Come together to Armageddon!'

"Speaking of our day, our Lord declared, 'Men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.' (Luke 21:26.) The kings of Europe know not what to do. All sectarianism is being shaken.

"The croaking of the frog spirits, or doctrines, will gather the kings and princes, financial, political, religious and industrial, into one great army. The spirit of fear, inspired by the croaking, will scourge the passions of otherwise good and reasonable men to fury-desperation. In their blind following of these evil spirits, evil doctrines, they will be ready to sacrifice life and everything on what they mistakenly suppose is the altar of Justice, Truth and Righteousness under a Divine arrangement.

"Many noble people in this great army will assume an attitude quite contrary to their preference. For a time the wheels of liberty and progress will be turned back

ward, and mediæval restraints will be considered necessary for self-preservation-for the maintenance of the present order of things and for the prevention of the new order which God has decreed, the due time for which is at hand. Even those who may be God's people do not stop to consider whether it is His will that things should continue as they have been for the past six thousand years. The Bible says that such is not God's will, but that there is to be a great overturning, that a new order is coming in. "For a brief time, as we understand the Scriptures, these combined forces of Armageddon will triumph. Free speech, free mails, and other liberties which have come to be the very breath of the masses in our day, will be ruthlessly shut off on the plea of necessity, the glory of God, the commands of the Church, etc. The safety-valve will be sat upon, and thus will cease to annoy earth's kings with the sound of escaping steam; and all will seem to be sereneuntil the great social explosion described in the Revelation as an earthquake will take place. In symbolic language an earthquake signifies social revolution, and the Scriptural declaration is that none like it ever before occurred. (Rev. 16:18, 19.) Our Lord refers to it in Matt. 24:21.

"At this juncture, the Scriptures show, Divine Power will step forward, and God will gather the marshaled hosts to Armageddon to the Mount of Destruction. (Rev. 16:16.) The very thing which they sought to avert by their union, federation, etc., will be the very thing that they will hasten. Other Scriptures tell us that God will be represented by Messiah, and that He will be on the side of the masses. 'At that time shall Michael [the Godlike One-Messiah] stand up.' (Dan. 12:1.) He will assume authority. He will take possession of His Kingdom in a manner little looked for by many of those who erroneously have been claiming to be His Kingdom, and authorized by Him to reign in His name and in His stead.

"Our Lord Jesus declared, 'His servants ye are unto whom ye render service.' Some may be rendering service to Satan and to error, who claim to be rendering service to God and to righteousness; and some may serve ignorantly, as did Saul of Tarsus, who 'verily thought that he did God service,' in persecuting the Church. The same principle holds true reversely. As an earthly king does not hold himself responsible for the moral character of each soldier who fights his battles, so the Lord does not vouch for the moral character of all who enlist and fight on His side of any question. His servants they are to whom they render service, whatever the motive prompting them. "The same principle will apply in the coming Battle of Armageddon. God's side of that battle will be the people's

side; and that very nondescript host, the people, will be pitted at the beginning of the battle. Anarchists, Socialists, and hot-headed radicals of every school of reason and unreason, will be in the forefront of that battle. He who has any knowledge of army life knows that a great army is composed of all classes.

"The masses will be restless under their restraints, but will be conscious of their weakness as compared with the kings and princes, financial, social, religious and political, who will then hold sway. The masses have no sympathy with anarchy. They realize truly that the worst form of government is better than none. The masses will seek relief through the ballot and the peaceful readjustment of earth's affairs for the elimination of evil, for the placing of monopolies and utilities and the supplies of nature in the hands of people for the public good. The crisis will be reached when the hitherto upholders of the law shall become violators of the law and resisters of the will of the majority as expressed by the ballot. Fear for the future will goad the well-meaning masses to desperation, and anarchy will result when Socialism fails.

"The Lord's saints are not to be in this battle at all. God's consecrated people, longing at heart for Messiah's Kingdom and the glorious Year of Jubilee and Restitution. which it will inaugurate, will patiently abide the Lord's time, and wait unmurmuringly for it. Their lamps trimmed and burning, they will not be in darkness respecting the momentous events of the impending battle; but they will be of good courage, knowing the outcome portrayed in the 'more sure word of prophecy,' to which they have done well to 'take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the Day dawn.'-2 Pet. 1:19.

"The question now arises, Why did not God send His Kingdom sooner? Why is Armageddon necessary? We answer that God has His own times and seasons, and that He has appointed the Great Seventh Thousand-Year Day for the reign of Christ. Divine Wisdom has withheld until our day the great knowledge and skill which is breeding at the same time millionaires and discontents. Had God lifted the veil of ignorance a thousand years sooner, the world would have lined up for Armageddon a thousand years sooner. God did not bring these things before the present time because His Plan has various parts, all of which are converging at the same time. In kindness God veiled the eyes of mankind until the gathering to Armageddon would immediately precede Messiah's taking to Himself His great power and beginning His reign, (Rev. 11:17, 18.)-D v-xvi.