“And they heard a great voice out of the heaven saying to them, ‘Ascend hither!’ And they ascended into the heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them. ”
By heaven in this place, we are to understand the political heaven which ruled over the plateia of the Great City upon which the corpses of the witnesses were extended: — the political heaven of “the tenth of the Great City.” It was the power of this heaven embodied in the government of the “Grand Monarque, ” Louis XIV, that conquered and put
LOUIS XIV (1638-1715) was the most powerful monarch in Europe, presiding over a France at the height of its intellectual, economic and military powers. He exercised dictatorial powers, claiming that he ruled for God. Like Constantine, he claimed the title of the Sun King, representing himself as such in the emblem (left) designed for his glory (see Rev. 12:1). As a Catholic he set about
in the emblem (left) designed for his glory (see Rev. 12:1). As a Catholic he set about
repressing all religious opposition with great cruelty. On 18th October 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes that had granted concessions to Protestants. The consequences of this decision were disastrous, for this outrageously intolerant act provoked a mass exodus, with half a million citizens settling in n Protestant States. It led to the
c e Camisards, and the War of the
League of Augsburg that lasted nine years; and to the weakening of Louis’ power. History thus witnesses to the warfare between Catholics and Protestants symbolised in Rev. 11. — Publishers.
“Contending For
The Faith” — Jude 3
Against his will, John Thomas was projected into the study of the Scriptures by the action of Alexander Campbell calling upon him to deliver a public address without prior notice. Recognising his deficiency to do so, he determined to make a close study of the Bible, and this led him to publishing his findings in print. Four different periodicals were commenced by him, the first, The Investigator continuing only for a few months. In The Apostolic Advocate he commenced his exposition of The Apocalypse; this was followed by Herald Of The Future Age, the number pictured above depicting the article in which he outlined the system of Truth which today forms the basis of the Christadelphian Movement. Herald Of The Kingdom And Age To Come was commenced after a lecturing tour of Great Britain and the subsequent publication of Elpis Israel
them to death; and it was the power of the same heaven that blindly legislated them into an erect position, so that they were able to “stand upon their feet.”
The forces operating this result are very clearly exhibited in “Thiers’ Hist, of the French Revolution.” It would occupy too much space for details. The period was stormy and perplexing; and none were able to direct or allay the excitement, that agitated all classes of the people. The Court, the noblesse, the clergy, and the people, were all in antagonism; nor were these orders in the state agreed among themselves; added to which, the army was disaffected, the taxes intolerable to the masses, atheistic philosophy prevalent, depravity excessive, extravagance boundless, and the public treasury empty. Alison writing upon this crisis says: “The American war was the great change which blew into a flame the embers of innovation. Such was the universal enthusiasm which seized upon France at its commencement that nobles of the highest rank, princes, dukes, and marquises, solicited with impatient zeal commissions in the regiments destined to aid the insurgents. The passion for republican institutions increased with the successes of the American war, and at length arose to such a height as to infect even the courtiers of the palace. The philosophers of France used every method of flattery to bring over the young nobles to their side; and the profession of liberal opinions became as indispensable a passport to the saloons of fashion as to the favor of the people.”
This combination of influences at length came to a head, and set, in a strong current, against the court. In order, therefore, to divert into another channel what might become an overwhelming flood, Louis XVI was now anxious for the convocation of the States General, the opening of which he fixed by “a great voice, ” or edict, “out of the heaven, ” saying, “Ascend hither!” on May 5, 1789. The Court ordained that the total number of the deputies should be at least a thousand; and that the Tiers- Etat, or Third Estate, should be equal to the other two orders united. The clergy, the nobles and the deputies of the people, were the three orders of the States General. The third estate comprehended nearly the whole nation; all the useful, industrious, and enlightened classes; for this reason, its deputies by the casting vote of Monsieur, who afterwards reigned as Louis XVIII[1], were doubled, or exceeded the other two orders united by sixty-seven, the whole number being 1254. This number constituted what, in the prophecy, is termed “the Cloud.”
In nature, by the electrical force exhalations are elevated from the earth to the dew point of the aerial, where they are condensed into visible masses, termed clouds. So, analogously in the generation of symbolic clouds. The sovereign power of a state by its edict elevates from among the people their representatives, who when they reach the place to which they are convoked, become a visible and recognized body in the state, or political aerial, on the verification of the powers of the members. This verification is the condensation of them into “a Cloud.”
The public mind, agitated by events, full of the confused idea of a speedy revolution, was in a continual ferment. In the heat of this the elections took place. “Tradesmen, lawyers, literary men, astonished to find themselves assembled together for the first time, raised themselves up by degrees to liberty.” It was an extraordinary resurrection.
The moment of the convocation at length arrived. The King alone, who had not enjoyed a moment’s repose since the commencement of his reign, regarded the States General as the termination of his embarrassments! It was therefore with joy that he made preparations for this grand assembly; which was opened with great national, military, and religious pomp, by which all hearts were deeply moved.
The first business was the verification of the powers of the members. It became a question whether this should take place in common, or by separate orders. The Democracy insisted upon the verification in common. The nobility and clergy were for each order verifying its own members. The Democracy were determined not to give way. All compromise became impossible. The inertia of the inexorable Third Estate, who would do nothing till the nobility and clergy were merged with itself into one homogeneous assembly, exhausted the patience and prudence of their enemies; who, forgetting the animosities between the Court and the higher orders, sought reconciliation between them, that they might be enabled to repress the audacity of the tiers-etat[2], “whose power was rising with such rapidity.” The nobles and titled clergy threw themselves at the feet of the King, and implored him to support their rights, which were attacked equally with his own. They strove to procure a dissolution of the States General, which would have been a dispersion of “the Cloud;” and a frustration of the providential purpose of its manifestation. But the commons would not allow their enemies to dispose of them after this fashion. They proclaimed themselves, after a stormy sitting, The National Assembly on June 17,1789; whose mission it was to regenerate and restore the nation.
But, we are not to suppose that this heterogeneous cloud of deputies were the witnesses. The National Assembly contained many enemies to liberty and human rights and interests—many who were devoted friends of the Roman Deity and arbitrary power everywhere. Speaking of the witnesses against these, the prophecy says: “They ascended into the heaven en te nephele, in the cloud. ” They were in the States General, and of it; but they were not themselves the States General, nor National Assembly. The following extract will show how the prophecy harmonized with facts:
“In the National Assembly,” says Ferrieres testifying concerning the deputies of his own party, “there were not more than about three hundred really upright men, exempt from party spirit, not belonging to any club, wishing what was right, wishing it for its own sake, independent of the interest of orders or of bodies, always ready to embrace the most just and the most beneficial proposal, no matter from what quarter it came, or by whom it was supported. These were the men worthy of the honorable function to which they had been called, who made the few good laws that proceeded from the Constituent Assembly; it was they who prevented all the mischief that was not done by it. Invariably adopting what was good, as invariably opposing what was bad, they have frequently produced a majority in favor of resolutions, which, but for them, would have been rejected from a spirit of faction; and they have often defeated motions, which, but for them, would have been adopted from a spirit of interest.”
This class of deputies was unquestionably “the Earth” — the ascended political witnesses of Jesus. Of “their enemies,” Ferrieres writes as follows: “While on this subject,” says he, “I cannot abstain from remarking on the impolitic conduct of the nobles and the bishops. As they aimed only to dissolve the Assembly, to throw discredit upon its operations, instead of opposing mischievous measures, they manifested an indifference upon this point which is inconceivable. When the president stated the question they quitted the Hall, inviting the deputies of their party to follow them; or, if they stayed, they called out to them to take no part in the deliberation. The Clubbists,[3] forming through this dereliction of duty a majority of the Assembly, carried every resolution they pleased. The bishops and the nobles, firmly believing that the new order of things would not last, hastened with a sort of impatience, as if determined to accelerate the downfall, both the ruin of the monarchy and their own ruin. With this senseless conduct they combined an insulting disdain both of the assembly and of the people who attended the sittings. Instead of listening, they laughed and talked aloud, thus confirming the people in their unfavorable opinion which it had conceived of them; and instead of striving to recover its confidence and esteem, they strove only to gain its hatred and contempt. All these follies arose solely from the mistaken notions of the bishops and nobles, who could not persuade themselves that the Revolution had long been effected in the opinion and in the heart of every Frenchman. They hoped by means of these dykes, to set bounds to a torrent that was daily swelling. All they did served only to produce a greater accumulation of its waters, to occasion greater ravages; obstinately clinging to the old system, the basis of all their actions, of all their opposition, but which was repudiated by all. By this impolitic obstinacy they forced the Revolutionists to extend the Revolution beyond the goal they had set up for themselves. The nobles and the bishops then exclaimed against injustice and tyranny. They talked of the antiquity and the legitimacy of their rights to men who had sapped the foundations of all rights.”
The “Great Voice” from the French throne, in commanding this Cloud of Deputies to ascend into the region of power, or “heaven,” did not intend to convoke witnesses against itself, and against the nobles, the bishops, and their dependents, the natural pillars of every abomination in church and state. The electoral body of the nation, however, had different views and purposes. In response to the “great voice out of the heaven, saying, Ascend hither!” the electors sent up some whom they knew not—men of political integrity, lovers of justice, haters of oppression, detesters of hypocrisy and state craft, enemies of corruption, and friends of the people. These “ascended into the heaven in the cloud; and their enemies,” the Court, the bishops, and the nobles, “beheld them.” We have seen from Ferrieres, how they “beheld them”; and how they treated them. They beheld them with hatred; and would gladly, if they had been able, have scattered, and rolled them into the dust of “the earth,” whence they had so astoundingly ascended to the sovereignty of the nation. But this was not to be. The day of vengeance for the national crimes of 1572 and 1685, had arrived; and they were the divinely appointed executioners of judgment upon the court, aristocracy and clergy; so that no device contrived against them was allowed to prosper.
When their enemies beheld them, their hatred was the result of fear. History and prophecy both testify this. “Great fear,” says John, “fell upon those who beheld them.” Having resolved themselves into the National Assembly without regard to the court, aristocracy, and clergy, they performed an act of power, in legalizing the levy of the taxes, though imposed without the national consent; but that they should cease to be levied from the day of their being broken up: and placed the creditors of the State under the safeguard of French integrity: they then proceeded to examine into the causes of the dearth and of the public distress. “These measures,” says Thiers, “produced a deep impression. The court and higher orders were alarmed at such courage and energy.” The danger was equal for them all. The junction of the clergy with the Assembly was a revolution as prejudicial to the king as to the two higher orders themselves, whom the commons declared that they could dispense with. By the imprudent counsel of the aristocracy, the king endeavored to prevent the meeting of the Assembly, but failed. On June 23, he held a royal sitting, in which, as the mouth of the nobles and clergy, he launched reproaches and issued his commands, which, if not obeyed, he would establish by his sole authority as the representative of the nation. He ordered the Assembly to separate immediately. The nobility obeyed with part of the clergy: but the Commons had bound themselves with an oath, that they would not separate until they had given a constitution to the kingdom, established and founded on a solid basis; and this oath, they declared that nothing but the power of bayonets should prevent them from keeping. The populace applauded the Commons; and the joy of the court and aristocracy was instantly turned into alarm, and the greatest agitation. A minority of the nobles joined the Assembly; but terror seized those who directed the majority. They were exhorted by the court to give way to save the king. Their consent was at length extorted amidst uproar; and the majority, accompanied with the minority of the clergy, took their seats in the National Assembly on the 27th of June. “The family,” said President Bailly,[4] “is complete. We can now attend without intermission and without distraction to the regeneration of the kingdom and of the public weal.” Thus great fear fell on their enemies when they beheld them.
[1] Louis XVIII (1775-1824) was a younger brother of Louis XVI who ruled during the Revolution, and was ultimately executed by beheading. Louis XVIII fled France (1791) during the Revolution, and after more than 20 years of exile returned in 1814 after the defeat of Napoleon. When Napoleon escaped from exile in March 1815 Louis was again forced to take refuge abroad, finally returning after Napoleon’s overthrow at Waterloo in June. He favoured a moderate policy but from 1820 the ultra-royalists gained the ascendancy under the leadership of the count of Artois, brother of the king, who succeeded him as Charles X. During the early years of the Revolution, he took part in the States General and signed as “Monsieur” the equivalent of “Sir”; a form of address given to the second son or youngest brother of the king of France. — Publishers.
[2] The tiers-etat was the name given to the common people, the French bourgeoisie, then being politically organised as an integral and dominant part of the States General, or Revolutionary Parliament. As British rule was divided into three sections: lords spiritual, lords temporal, and commons, so also was France at that time — to the dismay of the first two.—Publishers.
[3] The “Clubbists” were the various groups among the common people in the States General. The two main “clubs” were the Jacobins and tne Girondins, much the same as there exists extreme and moderate groups within the various political parties today. Hence whilst they may combine against a common enemy, they also press their individual policies within the party of which they are members. So it was during the French Revolution. The deputies of the common people opposed the aristocrats, but were themselves divided in their policies. — Publishers.
[4] Bailly was a plain citizen, known only by his virtues and his talents, on the union of the orders in the Assembly, was seen presiding over all the grandees of the kingdom and the church.