of the churches," ministers of the gospel.--As the Saracenic locusts and the Euphratean horses had stings and hurtful power in their tails, (ch. ix. 10, 19;) so it is with this dragon. The destructive influence of Mahometan delusion and papal idolatry, operated as a fatal poison in the souls of men. The judgments of the past woes left many still in a state of impenitence, (ch. ix. 20, 21.) "The leaders of this people caused them to err," by inculcating submission to existing corrupt civil power. The "little horn" of Daniel, as first rendered visible in the person of the brutal Phocas, began to be addressed in language of most fulsome and degrading flattery, which seems to be copied till the present time. That we may see how mercenary and aspiring ecclesiastics paid court to civil despots from the commencement of the famous 1260 years, let the following instance serve for a sample. Addressing the monster Phocas, Pope Gregory, as the mouth of the clergy and laity,[4] uses this language: "We rejoice that the benignity of _your piety_(!) has reached the pinnacle of imperial power. Let the heavens he glad and the earth rejoice."--Now let us hear the character of Phocas from the pen of an infidel:--"Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arms, he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample privilege of lust and drunkenness.--The punishment of the victims of his tyranny was imbittered by the refinements of cruelty: their eyes were pierced, their tongues were torn from the root, their hands and feet were amputated: some expired under the lash, others in the flames, others again were transfixed with arrows: and a simple speedy death was mercy which they could rarely obtain."[5] Thus the dragon's power was in his mouth, issuing bloody edicts to "slay the innocent;" while "his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." They prostituted their ministry to sustain the policy of the beast. "The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail." (Is. ix. 15.) Thus it is that pastors, fond of show and ambitious of worldly distinction, attach themselves to the train of earthly thrones and dignities, and so constitute and perpetuate the antichristian confederacy against the "woman"--the true church. During the first six hundred years of the Christian era the woman had been "travailing" to bring forth a holy progeny. All this time the dragon's "eyes are privily set against the poor." (Ps. x. 8.) The allusion is here to the cruel edict of Pharaoh (Exod. i. 16; Acts vii. 19.) The great city where the witnesses are slain is "spiritually called Egypt." (ch. xi. 8.) By a like form of speech, Pharaoh is called "the great dragon," (Ezek. xxix. 3; Is. li. 9.) It should be noted, that the Roman empire, the beast, in all its heads and horns is actuated by the devil,--before as well as after its dismemberment, from the time of Romulus its founder, till its overthrow by the third woe. At the time