gged in a
procession through the streets of that city. Thus they rejoiced over the
supposed end of religion in France; and congratulated themselves that the
terrors of God's word, and the church would no more torment them.

"After three days and a half," would be that number of years from the
suppression of Christianity in November, 1793. On the 17th day of June,
1797, three and a half years from the abolition of the Bible and religious
worship, CAMILLE JOURDAN, in the _Council of Five Hundred_, brought up the
memorable report on the _Revision of the Laws Relative to Religious
Worship_, by which France gave permission to all citizens to buy or hire
edifices for the free exercise of it; repealing all opposing laws, and
subjecting those to a heavy fine who should in any way impede or interrupt
any religious service. The Bible and the church again stood erect, to the
dismay of all who had rejoiced over their overthrow. Those two witnesses
were again in a position to resume their testimony.

They were not only to be thus restored, but were to be elevated far above
their former position. Since that epoch, have been made all those great
efforts to evangelize the world, by means of missionary, tract, Bible, and
other benevolent societies, which have caused the _Scriptures_ to be
translated into nearly all known languages, and carried by the _living
preacher_ to the ends of the earth. The very room in which Voltaire
uttered his famous prediction--that "the time would arrive when the Bible
would be regarded only in the light of an old curiosity,"--is now used for
a Bible depository, and is "piled to the ceiling with that rare old book."
Copies of the Bible have been multiplied a million fold, and scattered
broadcast over the earth. The other witness,--the church, has since then,
also, been greatly magnified. In this age of missions and Bibles, the
number of believers has been greatly multiplied; and missionaries have
penetrated all lands. The last half-century has been distinguished for its
wonderful revivals; and the servants of the cross have "prophesied [or
testified] again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings," 10:11.

The same hour, is the time of the slaughter of the witnesses. Its epoch
was to be marked by a great political revolution, which, in the
Apocalypse, is symbolized by an earthquake. In the year in which
Christianity was suppressed by France, they beheaded their king, abolished
the monarchy,