Thus clearly is the exact time indicated in the prophecy when we are to look far the rise of the two-horned beast; for John, as soon as he beholds the captivity of the first or leopard beast, says:  “And I beheld another beast coming up.”  And his use of the present participle, “coming” up, clearly connects this view with the preceding verse, and shows it to be an event transpiring simultaneously with the going into captivity of the previous beast.  If he had said, “And I had seen another beast coming up,” it would prove that when he saw it, it was coming up, but that the time when he beheld it was indefinitely in the past.  If he had said, “And I beheld another beast which had come up,” it would prove that although his attention was called to it at the time when the first beast went into captivity, yet its rise was still indefinitely in the past.  But when he says, “I beheld another beast coming up” it proves that when he turned his eyes from the captivity of the first beast, he saw another power right then in the process of rapid development among the nations of the earth.  So, then, about the year 1798, the star of that power which is symbolized by the two-horned beast must be seen rising to the zenith of its glory.  In view of these considerations, it is useless to speak of this power as having arisen ages in the past.  To attempt such an application is to show one’s self utterly reckless in regard to the plainest statements of inspiration.

Again, the work of the two-horned beast is plainly located, by verse 12, this side the captivity of the first beast.  It is there stated, in direct terms, that the two-horned beast causes “the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”  But worship could not be rendered to a beast whose deadly wound was healed, till after that healing was accomplished.  This brings the worship unmistakably within the present century.

Says Eld.  J. Litch (Restitution, p. 131):—­

     “The two-horned beast is represented as a power existing and
     performing his part after the death and revival of the first
     beast.”

Mr. Wesley, in his notes on Rev. 14, says of the two-horned beast:—­

     “He has 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.”

We find three additional declarations in the book of Revelation which prove, in a general sense, that the two-horned beast performs his work with that generation of men who are to behold the closing up of all earthly scenes, and the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and these will complete the argument on this point.