majority wish to secure, any religious obligation; and would it be anything strange for the sentence to be given, Let these few factionists be made to conform, by persuasion if possible, by force, if necessary.  Thus the blow may fall on conscientious commandment-keepers, before the outside masses are involved in the issue at all.  And should events take this not improbable turn, it would be sufficient to meet the prophecy, and leave no ground for the objection proposed.

To receive the mark of the beast in the forehead, is, we understand, to give the assent of the mind and judgment to his authority in the adoption of that institution which constitutes the mark.  By parity of reasoning, to receive it in the hand would be to signify allegiance by some outward act.

The number, over which the saints are also to get the victory, is the number of the papal beast, called also the number of his name, and the number of a man, and said to be six hundred threescore and six.  The pope wears upon his pontifical crown in jeweled letters, this title:  “Vicarius Filii Dei,” “Vicegerent of the Son of God;” the numerical value of which title is just six hundred and sixty-six.  The most plausible supposition we have ever seen on this point is that here we find the number in question.  It is the number of the beast, the papacy; it is the number of his name; for he adopts it as his distinctive title; it is the number of a man; for he who bears it is the “man of sin.”  We get the victory over it by refusing those institutions and practices which he sets forth as evidence of his power to sit supreme in the temple of God, and by adopting which we should acknowledge the validity of his title, by conceding his right to act for the church in behalf of the Son of God.

And now, reader, we leave with you this subject.  We confidently submit the argument as one which is invulnerable in all its points.  We ask you to review it carefully.  Take in, if thought can comprehend it, the wonderful phenomenon of our own nation.  Consider its location, the time of its rise, the manner of its rise, its character, Satan’s masterpiece of lying wonders which he has here sprung upon the world, and the elements which are everywhere working to fulfill in just as accurate a manner every other specification of the prophecy.  Can you doubt the application.  We know not how.  Then the last agents to appear in this world’s history are on the stage of action, the close of this dispensation is at hand, and the Lord cometh speedily to judge the world.  Then an issue of appalling magnitude is before us.  It is no less than this:  To yield to unrighteous human enactments soon to be made, and thus expose ourselves to the unmingled wrath of an insulted Creator, or to remain loyal to our God and brave the utmost wrath of the dragon and his infuriated hosts.