he wrath
of God."

The issue, it is clear, involves the question of authority. Shall God be
recognized as supreme? or shall this ecclesiastical power, whose rise
and work were foretold in the prophecy, be recognized as the great
authority?

The Work of the Papal Power

Any comparison between this leopard beast of Revelation 13 and the
"little horn" of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, shows plainly that the
same power is represented in each. The same voice is heard "speaking
great things," the same persecuting spirit is shown, the same warfare
against God's truth. It is the Roman Papacy, in its exaltation of human
authority above the divine, that "lawless one" of Paul's prophecy,
setting itself forth as God in the temple of God, treading underfoot the
word and the law of the Most High, as foretold by Daniel:

"He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws." Dan.
7:25.

Against the recognition of the assumed authority of this power, the
gospel message of Revelation 14 sounds its solemn warning: "If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark."

The Image to the Papacy

What is this image? Plainly an image to the Papacy must be some
religious authority or federation not organically of the Papacy itself,
but adopting papal principles and seeking to enforce these principles by
civil power, just as the Papacy has ever done, where possible. This
development in likeness of the Papacy was shown the prophet in the
latter part of the vision of Revelation 13. He saw the image formed, and
in vision witnessed its determined efforts to enforce upon men the mark,
or sign, of the Papacy:

"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.... And he causeth all, both small and great,
rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or
in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had
the mark, or the name of the beast." Rev. 13:12-17.

The Mark, or Sign, of Papal Authority

The Roman Papacy sets forth the Sunday institution as the mark of the
authority of the church to substitute ecclesiastical tradition and
custom for the Word of God. Thus, Monsignor Segur, in "Plain Talks about
the Protestantism of Today," says:

"The observance of Sunday by Protestant