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/173

 tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell upon the earth adored him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, which was slain from the beginning of the world." This portion of St. John's prophecy, agreeing as it does in the most remarkable manner, and even in its very phraseology with Daniel's prediction of the little horn, foretells what portion of mankind would be the chief objects of Mahometan aggression, and of Mahometan subjugation. He was to make war upon the saints, as his principal object, that is, upon the Christians, for in Scripture, and especially in the Apostolic Epistles, the term "saints" is frequently applied to the Christians, that is, to the members of God's true Church, and with reason, for all the members of the Church are made saints or holy in baptism; and though, unhappily, too many fall from their baptismal innocency, yet they all possess, in the sacrament of penance, and the other means of grace, the means of recovering their sanctity, so that they may well be termed by the Apostle "saints," not only from the sanctification that has been bestowed upon them through the grace of the sacraments, but also because they are indeed "saints" in comparison and in relation to the world without; that world, of which Scripture tells us "that it