Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/153

 of their contemplations."—(Imitation of Christ, b. i. 18.)

What a picture is here given us of the first fruits of Christ's grace in converting the barren desert of this earth into a garden of spiritual delights!

But here below these bright intervals of Divine sunshine are few and transient: and so the Prophet at once prepares us for Satan's vengeance, the natural issue of his diabolical envy and wrath; hence he adds: "And the dragon was angry against the woman; and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And he stood upon the sand of the sea."—(Apocalypse xii. 17, 18.)

We believe that these verses introduce us to the history of Mahometanism, that is, of the little horn of Daniel, and "the Antichrist" of the New Testament.

Satan, enraged at the failure of all his efforts to destroy the Church by the furious persecutions of the Roman emperors, still further infuriated by seeing that river absorbed by the earth in the conversion of those very emperors, and the manifold fruits of sanctity all over the earth, meditates a fresh war upon the seed of the woman, that is, the Church's children;