as rapidly as possible in the very direction marked out by the prophet, though these are not necessary to establish the application of the symbol to this government, they will serve to stifle the last excuse of skepticism, and become to the believer an impressive evidence of our proximity to the end; for the acts ascribed to this symbol are but few; and while yet in mid career, he is engulfed in the lake of fire of the last great day.

We may, however, notice in passing, another evidence that the government symbolized by the two-horned beast is certainly a republic.  This is proved by the language used respecting the formation of the image.  It does not read that this power, as an act of imperial or kingly authority, makes an image to the beast; but it says to them that dwell on the earth, that is, the people occupying the territory where it arises, that they should make an image to the beast.  Appeal is made to the people, showing conclusively that the power is in their hands.  But just as surely as the government symbolized is a republic, so surely is it none other than the United States of America.

We have seen that the wonder-working Satanic agencies, which are to perform the foretold miracles, and prepare the people for the next step in the prophecy, the formation of the image, are already in the field, and have even now wrought out a work of vast proportion in our country; and we now hasten forward to the very important inquiry, What will constitute the image? and what steps are necessary to its formation?

The people are to be called upon to make an image to the beast, which expression doubtless involves the idea of some deferential action toward, or concessions to, that power; and the image, when made, is an image, likeness, or representation of the beast.  Verse 15.  The beast from which the image is modeled, is the one which had a wound by a sword and did live, or the papacy.  From this point is seen the collusion of the two-horned beast with the leopard or papal beast.  He does great wonders in the sight of that beast; he causes men to worship that beast; he leads them to make an image to that beast; and he causes all to receive a mark, which is the mark of that beast.  These palpable evidences of co-operation with the papal power, led Eld.  J. Litch, about 1842, to write concerning the two-horned beast thus:—­

     “I think it is a power yet to be developed or made manifest, as an
     accomplice of the papacy in subjecting the world.”

To understand what would be an image of the papacy, we must first form a definite idea of what constitutes the papacy itself.  Papal supremacy dates from the time when the decree of Justinian, constituting the pope the head of the church and the corrector of heretics, was carried into effect, in 538.  The papacy, then, was a church clothed with civil power, an ecclesiastical body, having authority to punish all dissenters with confiscation, imprisonment, torture,