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and downtrodden throughout Christendom have turned to this land
with interest and hope. Millions have sought its shores, and the United
States has risen to a place among the most powerful nations of the
earth.
But the beast with lamblike horns “spake as a dragon. And he
exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the
earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose
deadly wound was healed; ... saying to them that dwell on the earth,
that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by
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a sword, and did live.”
Revelation 13:11-14
.
The lamblike horns and dragon voice of the symbol point to a
striking contradiction between the professions and the practice of the
nation thus represented. The “speaking” of the nation is the action of
its legislative and judicial authorities. By such action it will give the
lie to those liberal and peaceful principles which it has put forth as the
foundation of its policy. The prediction that it will speak “as a dragon”
and exercise “all the power of the first beast” plainly foretells a devel-
opment of the spirit of intolerance and persecution that was manifested
by the nations represented by the dragon and the leopardlike beast.
And the statement that the beast with two horns “causeth the earth and
them which dwell therein to worship the first beast” indicates that the
authority of this nation is to be exercised in enforcing some observance
which shall be an act of homage to the papacy.
Such action would be directly contrary to the principles of this gov-
ernment, to the genius of its free institutions, to the direct and solemn
avowals of the Declaration of Independence, and to the Constitution.
The founders of the nation wisely sought to guard against the employ-
ment of secular power on the part of the church, with its inevitable
result—intolerance and persecution. The Constitution provides that
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and that “no religious test
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust
under the United States.” Only in flagrant violation of these safeguards
to the nation’s liberty, can any religious observance be enforced by
civil authority. But the inconsistency of such action is no greater than
is represented in the symbol. It is the beast with lamblike horns—in
profession pure, gentle, and harmless—that speaks as a dragon.
“Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an
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