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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 16 

Section II Subsection 4

The First Phase of the Frog-Sign


 
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The most notable illustration of the working of the Frogs in their developing of the unclean spirit from the Mouth of the Dragon, is seen in the serneia, signs, wonders, or events, they originated and worked out, in regard to the "Holy Places of Jerusalem," as against the rival pretensions of Russia. Their policy in respect of these, brought the Autocrat into a threatening attitude against the Sultan to whom they belong; or rather, who has present possession of them; for they belong exclusively to the King of the Jews, who is coming to set aside all claimants by appropriating them himself But in advance of this decision the Frog Emperor, ignoring the secular supremacy of the Austnan Apostolic Majesty of Vienna in things pertaining to Latinism in the East as the Eldest Son of the Church claimed supremacy over the Holy Places, and to have the right, therefore of putting them in repair Against this unwarrantable pretension the Russian Tzar as the Orthodox Head of the Greek Catholic Church protested and threatened the Sultan with war, if he yielded to the claims of France As the Frogs or the Russians prevailed at Constantinople a firman was granted revoked, and granted again. endowing the Frog-Power with preferential rights in ecclesiastical affairs connected with the Holy Shrines. Having carried its point in Constantinople, the Frog-Power endeavored to maintain the advantage gained there by negotiating at St. Petersburg; but its instructions to the French minister were not of a nature to facilitate a settlement. The effect of Frog-diplomacy there is seen in the fact, that when

the Prince-Bishop Daniel returned from St. Petersburg to Montenegro, he descended, without previous notice, from his mountains upon the Turkish garrison at Zabijak, and in the night slaughtered all he found there. Thus the war that followed was a Russo~Montenegnn experiment against Turkey, remotely and unintentionally excited by the Frogs. The fire thus kindled excited the wrathfulness of Austria against the Sultan. Count Leiningen was sent from Vienna in great haste as the bearer of a threatening message, demanding the termination of hostilities against Montenegro. The Sultan obeyed orders and things were replaced as before, to the chagrin of Russia who had excited it. The Autocrat had hoped that a general war would ensue between the Turkish government and the provinces of the empire. His Bessarabian troops were ready to enter the Moldo-Wallachian provinces, and the Sevastopol fleet was equipped for Constantinople. The pacific termination, therefore, of the struggle greatly annoyed Russia, which then demanded the independence of Montenegro, which, if granted, would have been equivalent to a transfer of its mountain fastness from Turkey to Russia, as there can be no real independence for a horde.

Scarcely had the Sultan yielded obedience to Austria in the affair of Montenegro, than quite an avalanche of insolence descended from Russia upon the unfortunate Sick Man of Constantinople. Prince-Admiral Mentschikoff, Minister of Marine, Governor of Finland, and a relative of the Autocrat, arrived at Constantinople, unexpectedly to the Sultan and his Divan, but not to the Greek population of the city. He appeared there as the alter ego, or other self, of the Autocrat. He was surrounded by a brilliant escort of rear-admirals, generals, aides-de-camp, and many other distinguished persons. He was met at Topana by all the officers of the embassy on horseback, by all Russian subjects and protégées. Men in full uniform, loaded with orders, gold and diamonds, the ambassador in an open carriage, and surrounded by his staff, advanced toward the palace of the embassy, which he reached with difficulty, owing to the dense crowd of Greeks. This show of popularity was obtained by promises and money. The promises had reference to their obtaining the mosque of St. Sophia, built by Justinian, for the Greek Catholic worship, while whispers were adroitly circulated in their ears about the restoration of the Byzantine empire.

The sudden apparition of quasi Russian Majesty in the City of Constantinople excited the surprise of "the Great Powers". The object of Mentschikoff's mission was to check Turkey, and to humiliate and bind her to Russia. To effect this, demands were made directly antagonistic and subversive of the firm an granted to the Frog-Power in favor of the jurisdiction of the Papal Church, and of French influence in the Holy Land. ultimatum after ultimatum followed in quick succession; at length the Russians crossed the truth with the intention of locating in Constantinople, if nothing untoward prevented. This brought things to the crisis in the prophecy; and the "unclean spirit," in unmistakable verisimilitude to the anti-Russian policy of the Frogs, "went forth from the Mouth of the Dragon, "in a declaration of war against Russia; and an endeavor, sustained by France and England, to gather other powers into the conflict for the preservation of the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire, and the limitation of Russian ambition. Thus commenced the Crimean war(*) in 1854. Sardinia joined England, France, and Turkey, through the influence of the Frogs; but Austria and Prussia refused to depart from their position of "armed neutrality". Sevastopol and the Russian fleet were destroyed. The Tzar Nicholas suddenly died; soon after which the Frog-Power proposed a treaty of peace, which was discussed, and agreed to at Paris in 1856. Thus ended the Crimean war, which had threatened to become wide as the great city itself. The Frogs excited it by their policy in regard to Latinism and the “Holy Shrines;" and they quenched it when they found its continuance inconvenient. Turkey lost no territory, and "independence" she had none to lose.

From the foregoing illustration of the Frog-Sign in relation to the Mouth of the Dragon, it will hardly be regarded as presumption to say that the exposition I have given is the only true one that can be given. Nc other writer on the Apocalypse ever caught a glimpse of its signification. Mr. Elliott, who revised his State Church Exposition of the Apocalypse. in the time of the origination of the Frog-Sign, and therein devoted forty-one octavo pages to "the Three Frogs;" although he admits that the Frogs were the original symbol of the French power; and republishes from French, German, and English sources, the heraldic illustrations I have transferred to these pages; yet he sees nothing particular in it. He says he hopes that it may "not be England's sad fate to act the part of the chief secular power employed by the three Spirits to head their gathering of the world's powers to the last great anti-gospel war of Armageddon. Rather perhaps France, 'the eldest son of the church,' may be the country called to that bad preeminence. Signs have not been wanting ever since the peace of Paris (in 1814) of the strong unvarying tendencies of France towards such a position in its foreign policy and proceedings

Much more may such be the anticipation of reflective men, after the extraordinary expedition of the French army in 1849, under the republican regime of Louis Napoleon, and reestablishment of the Pope at Rome. There is a curious heraldic fact accordant with this view, which (considering how frequently such national emblems have been had in view in the Apocalyptic figurations) I cannot permit myself to pass over in silence, though I wish by no means to insist much on it; namely, that, as the three spirits do each and all most assuredly energize in the French nation and priesthood, so their Apocalyptic symbol, the three frogs, are the old arms of France". He regards the spirits as "three unclean, or unholy principles, characteristic of the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet, directed and speeded by spirits of hell; and resembling frogs, the well-known type of vain loquacious talkers and agitators, deluding and seducing the minds of men". The spirit from the Dragon's Mouth, he says, is "the principle of pagan-like infidelity and scepticism, with its proper accompaniment of blasphemy; and perhaps, too, of rebelliousness of spirit against rightful authority, alike human and divine, 'by which sin fell the angels'." The spirit from the Beast's Mouth he terms, "the pure direct principle of Popery, based on its fundamental anti-christian dogma of the Roman Pope being Christ's Vicegerent upon earth". The spirit from the False Prophet's Mouth, he styles "the spirit of an apostate priesthood". These three spirits he regards as the unclean spirits of daemons like frogs; and considers that the precise period marked out in the prophecy is to be regarded as the twenty years ending in 1850. Having laid these premises, he occupies about thirty-seven pages with the retrospective sketch of irrelevant matters, as foreign to the prophecy as if a frog had never passed before the mind of John.

Mr. Lord very properly rejects Mr. Elliott's speculation; but, instead of throwing light upon the subject, only substitutes another, if not equally absurd, only less so, because he has very little to say about it at all. "Unclean demon spirits", says he, "are demons or devils, which enter into human beings and excite them to lawless appetites and passions. But these spirits are clothed in forms, as appears from their being compared to FROGS,   hideous, groveling, noisy, and amphibious". This is all he sees in the Frogs  mere symbols of qualities. Mr. Lord wrote in 1847. Mr. Cunninghame regarded the frog-like spirits, as atheism, despotism, and popery. These are specimens of the ideas of what are regarded as the best writers of the day upon Apocalyptic themes. If these are the best, what must the worst be! Being "wells without water," then, it is useless to linger longer on the brink. We shall therefore take up our bucket and proceed.

 

 


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