“After three days and a half,” would be that number of years from the suppression of Christianity in November, 1793. On the 17th [pg 131] day of June, 1797, three and a half years from the abolition of the Bible and religious worship, Camille Jourdan, in the Council of Five Hundred, brought up the memorable report on the Revision of the Laws Relative to Religious Worship, by which France gave permission to all citizens to buy or hire edifices for the free exercise of it; repealing all opposing laws, and subjecting those to a heavy fine who should in any way impede or interrupt any religious service. The Bible and the church again stood erect, to the dismay of all who had rejoiced over their overthrow. Those two witnesses were again in a position to resume their testimony.
They were not only to be thus restored, but were to be elevated far above their former position. Since that epoch, have been made all those great efforts to evangelize the world, by means of missionary, tract, Bible, and other benevolent societies, which have caused the Scriptures to be translated into nearly all known languages, and carried by the living preacher to the ends of the earth. The very room in which Voltaire uttered his famous prediction—that “the time would arrive when the Bible would be regarded only in the light of an old curiosity,”—is now used for a Bible depository, and is “piled to the ceiling with that rare old book.” Copies of the Bible have been multiplied a million fold, and scattered broadcast over the earth. The [pg 132] other witness,—the church, has since then, also, been greatly magnified. In this age of missions and Bibles, the number of believers has been greatly multiplied; and missionaries have penetrated all lands. The last half-century has been distinguished for its wonderful revivals; and the servants of the cross have “prophesied [or testified] again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings,” 10:11.
The same hour, is the time of the slaughter of the witnesses. Its epoch was to be marked by a great political revolution, which, in the Apocalypse, is symbolized by an earthquake. In the year in which Christianity was suppressed by France, they beheaded their king, abolished the monarchy, and entirely revolutionized the government. In the reign of terror following, the best blood of the nation was shed like water, and no man of influence could consider his life secure. Men, women and children were dragged before the revolutionary tribunals, had their accusations read to them, and were immediately condemned, and hurried off in crowds without a trial, to be shot, drowned or beheaded. At Lyons thirty-one thousand persons were thus slain; at Nantes thirty-two thousand,—and throughout France in proportion. The number thus slain, has been estimated at over one million,—a number hardly credible, and which might well be symbolized by seven thousand—a [pg 133] perfect number. Well might the remnant be affrighted, and hasten to give glory to the God of heaven, by the restoration of that book, the setting aside of which had involved them in such dire calamities.
The tenth of the city which fell, must be the tenth of the Roman hierarchy, which is symbolized by the city. With the suppression of religion, the Catholic church was prohibited, with all others. France was one of the ten kingdoms, and the overthrow of the church in France, would be the fall of one-tenth of that city.
Thus passed the second woe—the prelude to the third woe, which cometh quickly.
The Seventh Trumpet.
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world hath become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Anointed; and he will reign for ever and ever. And the twenty-four elders, who sat before God on their thrones, fell on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We thank thee, O Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, because thou hast taken to thyself thy great power, and reigned. And the nations were enraged, and thy wrath is come, and the season of the dead, when they should be judged, and a reward should be given to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear thy name, small and great; and when thou shouldest destroy those, who destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of his covenant in his temple appeared, and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail.”—Rev. 11:15-19.
The seventh, like the preceding trumpets, marks an epoch from which an era dates. “The days of the voice of the seventh angel” (10:7), are indicative of a period of time to follow its sounding, in which will be fulfilled the events predicted of that era.
The voices in heaven, which immediately follow its sounding, are prophetic utterances of events then to transpire; and are distinct from the response of the elders. When Christ “shall be revealed from heaven,” he will be accompanied “with his mighty angels,” 2 Thess. 1:7. He will descend “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” (1 Thess. 4:16); and the shout is evidently that of the attending angels, symbolized by those voices, which will announce the revolution which is to be made in the empire of the earth, and of the substitution of the kingdom of God in the place of human governments.
The kingdom here established, is the long promised consummation, foretold by prophets, and anticipated by saints of every age. It is that predicted by Daniel, when he says: “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Dan. 2:44. He also “saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the [pg 135] Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.... And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” Ib. 7:13, 14, 27. It is that referred to in the simple petition, “Thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10), which was to be the great object of our prayer till the final consummation; which the disciples thought was to appear immediately, when they journeyed towards, and were nigh to, Jerusalem, and which misapprehension the Saviour corrected by the parable of a nobleman going into a far country to receive for himself kingly authority, and to return, Luke 20:12. It is that respecting which they inquired, as the Saviour was about to be taken from them, if he would at that time restore it to Israel, (Acts 1:6); and to which the apostle refers, when he declares to Timothy that the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and kingdom, 2 Tim. 4:1.