dream. Nevertheless it
is imperative that we should all look at it, and understand it. God
has evidently set it out for us to learn and know just how things will
eventually turn out.[1]

"John, 'in the Spirit,' finds himself stationed on the sands of the
sea--the same great sea upon which Daniel beheld the winds striving in
their fury. He beholds a monstrous Beast rising out of the troubled
elements. He sees horns emerging, and the number of them is ten, and
on each horn a diadem. He sees the heads which bear the horns, and
these heads are seven, and on the heads are names of blasphemy.
Presently the whole figure of the monster is before him. Its
appearance is like a leopard or panther, but its feet are the feet of a
bear, and its mouth as the mouth of a lion. He saw also that the Beast
had a throne, and power, and great authority. One of his heads showed
marks of having been fatally wounded and slain, but the death-stroke
was healed.

"He saw also the whole earth wondering after the Beast, amazed at his
majesty and power, exclaiming at the impossibility of withstanding it,
and celebrating its superiority to everything. He beheld, and the
Beast was speaking great and blasphemous things against God,
blaspheming His name, His tabernacle, even them that [Transcriber's
note: line missing from book here] tabernacle in the Heaven the
translated saints), assailing and overcoming the saints on the earth,
and wielding authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue and
nation. He saw also that all the dwellers on earth, whose names are
not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain, did worship this
Beast. And for forty-two months the monster holds its place and enacts
its resistless will.

"This is the picture! What are we to make of it? What does it mean?
How are we to understand it? It would seem to be a symbolic
presentation of the political sovereignty of _this world at the final
crisis_.

"The Beast has horns, and horns represent power. On these horns are
diadems, and diadems are the emblems of regal dominion. The Beast is
said to possess power, a throne, and great authority. He makes war.
He exercises dominion over all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, and
nations. He is a monstrous Beast, including in his composition the
four beasts of Daniel.

"From the interpreting angel we know that Daniel's four beasts denoted
'four kingdoms' that arose upon the earth. The identification thus
becomes