their infirmity. The
1260 years are not yet expired, nor the testimony finished. "When the
enemy shall come in _like a flood_, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up
a standard against him." (Isa. lix. 19.) The mystic woman is yet in the
wilderness, and there she is nourished with the hidden manna "a time,
times and half a time," "forty and two months, or twelve hundred and
sixty days,"--that is, years; for, as formerly noticed, all these
expressions mean the same period of time; the period during which the
witnesses prophesy, on the one side, and the gentiles tread the outer
court, on the other. The profanation of the holy city,--the church
nominal, and the testimony of the witnesses against that conduct, is the
same contest which in this chapter is represented under other symbols.
The waters of the symbolic flood have spread over all the nations of
Christendom, corrupting the very fountains of natural and moral science,
literature, politics and religion; so that hardly any principle is
accepted by the human mind as settled, but all is thrown into debate.
Man's intellect, craving substantial nourishment, and thirsting for
refreshment which nothing but the water of life can supply, vibrates
between ritualism and skepticism in our day. The flood from the dragon's
mouth, consisting of truth and error, a combination of Christianity,
refined idolatry and speculative atheism, fails to satisfy the necessary
cravings of the immortal soul. "There be many that say, Who will show us
any good?" (Ps. iv. 6.)

In this state of the popular mind, there is a general sentiment which
discountenances penalties inflicted for mere opinion. The cry of
toleration,--"freedom of speech and of the press," resounds in the
public ear among most communities since the dragon was cast down from
the mystic heaven. This popular sentiment is not an expression of the
law of charity, actuating hearts influenced by divine grace; but rather
originates from indifference alike to the claims of Messiah and the
destinies of mankind. Thus "the earth helps the woman." Indeed, the
nations of Christendom, contrary to their former policy, are now much
more tolerant of ecclesiastical than of _political_ heresies. With few
exceptions, the policy of the nations at the present time is to
discriminate, not among _churches_, but among _religions_. The popular
voice is obviously in favor of dissevering that alliance between church
and state, from which mankind have suffered