The "Image of the Beast"

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by

SAMUEL B. SMITH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for

the Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

In the following pages, I have given what I consider to be the true import of the Apocalyptic “Image of the Beast,"-Rev. 13: 14. Sectarianism is the mirror in which this Image of the Beast is reflected. Sectarianism in itself is not the Image, inasmuch as the human mind, in the present state of the phrenological and physiological faculties and functions, is necessarily sectarian. In the following pages, therefore, wherever Sectarianism is alluded to, it is in the sense just spoken of.

I have touched very briefly on the subject of “ The Beast."-Ib. 13: 1, the limits of this book not allowing a more extended notice. That the Beast represents the corrupt Church of Rome, has been proved by the ablest theologians and scholars, in the many controversial works that have been written on the subject. Briefly however, as I have treated on that part of the subject, I think it will be made manifest, that all those striking figures in the book of Revelation which relate to the great anti-christian power, are applicable to no power on earth but to the great mystic Babylon at Rome.

If I speak plainly in regard to the Ministers of Sectarianism, and their flocks, it relates to them as a whole.

There are amongst them, as well as amongst the wor-
shipers of the Beast, men of sincerity; and who love
and serve God according to the light in which they
walk. Who can doubt of the fervent piety of such
devout souls as Fenelon, Thomas a Kempis, Lady
Guion, F. La Combe her confessor, and numbers of
others of the same church ; especially of many amongst
those who were thrust into prison, and put to death by
that sanguinary church? Can any one question the
piety of such men as John Howard, the philanthropist,
George Fox, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, and such
devoted women as Ann Judson, Harriet Newell, Eliza-
beth Fry, and numbers of others who could be named ?
Their memory is embalmed in the heart of every one
who loves the image of the Savior.

The interpretation I give of “ The Image of the
Beast” will startle the professed Christian world; but,
if I mistake not, after the first wonderment subsides,
many will settle down, firmly convinced of the truth
which is announced.

This book is not a controversial work. The main
scope of it is, comfort for the afflicted ; and an antidote
against the many evils of Sectarianism; especially
against its deleterious effects on the unconverted world.

I have also introduced dissertations on Christian
Perfection, on our Lord's Prayer, on Charity; or, the
Love of God, and of the Neighbor, on the Cross of
Christ, on Self-Deception, on the Resurrection of the
Dead, on God is Love,-1 John, 4: 8, on the Omnipo-
tence of God, and the Creation of the Earth, on the
Language of Nature, and on The Eyeless Fish in Sub-
terranean Caves, and the Infidel.