In this prophecy we see that the beast finally succeeded in slaying the two prophets that he had been fighting for 1,260 years. The first part of this prophecy we have already considered in the reign of popery. After the 1,260 years of papacy, they lay dead three days and a half. This was fulfilled when those children of God who had been standing out clear against popery in the papal age united with Protestantism. Protestantism, as well as Romanism, accepts human vicars. Protestants bitterly oppose the government of the church by the Word and Spirit of God, and set up human vicars, who are their lawmakers and governors. Whether the vicar be one individual or a legislative body, it is a human vicar just the same; and when all God's people throughout the world accepted human vicars, the two prophets-the Word and Spirit of God-were virtually slain.

The three days and a half during which they were to lie dead signify three and one-half centuries, or three hundred and fifty years. The term "day" when applied to the papal age signifies a year, and when applied to the Protestant age it signifies a century. There is reason for this. The events of each century of the

Protestant age are naturally divided into separate periods. The divisions of the centuries of of the Protestant age are so marked that historians have adopted them. The following quotation from D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, book II, chap. 9, is a fair sample of the use historians have made of this figure: "It has been said that the three last centuries, the sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth, may be conceived as an immense battle of three days' duration. We willingly adopt this comparison. The first day was the battle of God; the second, the battle of the priest; the third, the battle of reason. What will be the fourth? In our opinion the confused strife and deadly contest of all these powers together is to end in the victory of Him to whom triumph belongs." It is because the centuries of the Protestant age are thus divided into separate periods that God makes use of a day to signify a century. Counting, therefore, a day for a hundred years, we see that the three days and a half during which the two prophets were to lie dead signify three hundred and fifty years.

During this period the people were to make merry because the two prophets did not tor

ment them. Ah, the Protestant people have been fulfilling this to the letter in their shameful socials and revelings. Measuring this 350 years from 1530, the date when the two prophets were slain, we have the year 1880, at which time, according to the prophecy, the spirit of life from God was to enter into the two prophets. So the reader can see that we are now living in the age when the Word and the Spirit of God were to resume their places as sole governors of the church of God. The gathering together of God's people out of sects into the one body, a process which has been taking place since 1880, is due to the resurrection of the Word and Spirit of God. The kingdom of God again triumphs upon earth.

The Church of God and Sects Contrasted.

In this chapter I will briefly contrast the church of God and sects. Many of the points that I shall consider have already been touched, but I wish to present them here in such a manner as to draw a clear line of distinction and contrast between the true church of God and all sect institutions.

First. The church of God was built by Christ, whereas all sects have been founded by man. "And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18. Three things stand out prominent in this text. First, Christ is the builder, founder, and organizer of his church. "I will build" shows that the church of God is not man-made, but is of divine origin. It was prophesied by Daniel as a kingdom set up by the God of heaven. "It is the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Heb. 8:2. All sects have been organized by men. The church of God is divine; all sects are human. The former was built by Christ; the latter, by men. Christ built but one church. Since sects are