CHAPTER Nine.
An Image To The Beast.
The imposing miracles wrought before the people having riveted upon them the chains of a fatal deception, leading them to suppose they have witnessed the great power of God, and must therefore be doing him service, when they have only been dazed with a mighty display of Satanic wonders, and are led captive by the devil at his will, they are prepared to do the further bidding of the two-horned beast, which is to make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.
Once more we remind the reader of the impregnable strength of the argument already presented in previous chapters, fixing the application of this symbol to these United States.

This is an established proposition, and needs no farther support.

An exposition of the remainder of the prophecy will therefore consist chiefly of an effort to determine what acts are to be performed by this government, and a search for indications, if any exist, that they are about to be accomplished.
If we shall find evidences springing up on all sides, that this government is now moving as rapidly as possible in the very direction marked out by the prophet, though these are not necessary to establish the application of the symbol to this government, they will serve to stifle the last excuse of skepticism, and become to the believer an impressive evidence of our proximity to the end; for the acts ascribed to this symbol are but few; and while yet in mid career, he is engulfed in the lake of fire of the last great day.
We may, however, notice in passing, another evidence that the government symbolized by the two-horned beast is certainly a republic.

This is proved by the language used respecting the formation of the image.

It does not read that this power, as an act of imperial or kingly authority, makes an image to the beast; but it says to them that dwell on the earth, that is, the people occupying the territory where it arises, that _they_ should make an image to the beast.