medium of the papacy . But here is brought to view a new manifestation of satanic power .
It had been Rome ’ s policy , under a profession of reverence for the Bible , to keep it locked up in an unknown tongue and hidden away from the people . Under her rule the witnesses prophesied “ clothed in sackcloth .” But another power — the beast from the bottomless pit — was to arise to make open , avowed war upon the word of God .
“ The great city ” in whose streets the witnesses are slain , and where their dead bodies lie , is “ spiritually ” Egypt . Of all nations presented in Bible history , Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands . No monarch ever ventured upon more open and highhanded rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt . When the message was brought him by Moses , in the name of the Lord , Pharaoh proudly answered : “ Who is Jehovah , that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go ? I know not Jehovah , and moreover I will not let Israel go .” Exodus 5:2 , A . R . V . This is atheism , and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance . “ The great city ” is also compared , “ spiritually ,” to Sodom . The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness . And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture .
According to the words of the prophet , then , a little before the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and character would rise to make war upon the Bible . And in the land where the testimony of God ’ s two witnesses should thus be silenced , there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom .
This prophecy has received a most exact and striking fulfillment in the history of France . During the Revolution , in 1793 , “ the world for the first time heard an assembly of men ,
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