witnesses at the close of the Papal supremacy in the vision before us
was effected.

It would seem, by the similarity of statement that the beast "ascendeth
out of the bottomless pit," that the slaughter of the witnesses was
effected by the Papal beast (chap. 17:7, 8); but the Mohammedan delusion
also is said to have proceeded from "the bottomless pit." Chap. 9:1, 2.
The expression _bottomless pit_ is doubtless used merely to signify the
source of certain powers in contradistinction to the heavenly source
from which others proceeded. Although the Papal beast is said to have
originated in the bottomless pit, the second beast also doubtless
proceeded from the same source, for he possessed many of the
characteristics of the former, and caused the earth to worship the first
beast, as explained in chapter 13. That he was not of heavenly origin is
shown by the statement that he came up "out of the earth." Chap. 13:11.
But the direct proof that it was the Protestant beast, and not the Papal
beast--although the same expression as to its origin is used concerning
it--that slew the two witnesses, is found in the fact that the reign of
the first, or Papal, beast was limited to forty two months (chap. 13:5),
corresponding to the twelve hundred and sixty years in which the
witnesses prophesied in the vision before us; while it was after the
_close_ of this period, at the time when the second, or Protestant,
beast arose (chap. 13:11), that the witnesses were slain.

To many this may seem a hard saying; but I request that the matter be
given the most careful attention in the light of prophecy and divine
truth. It is true that the Sixteenth Century Reformation at first
brought the witnesses out of the wilderness of seclusion where they had
remained during the long night of Romanism and exhibited them to the
public view; but when thus placed upon exhibition, they were soon robbed
entirely of their position as the Vicars, or Governors, of God's church.
Since creed and sect-making first began, the Word and Spirit have not
possesed governing power and authority in Protestantism; but men have
usurped that place and prescribed authoritative rules of faith and
practise for the people. The principles of Higher Criticism have so far
pervaded the realm of sectarian theology that a vast number of the
clergy no longer regard the Bible as the inspired word of God to man,
but simply as a remarkable piece of religious literature recording the
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