The  only  question  therefore  now  remaining  which
must  be  answered  before  we  can  with  reasonable
certainty  and  even  with  some  definiteness,  announce
the  time  of  the  Lord's  coming,  is  the  date  of  the
destruction  of  the  papacy,  or  how  much  time  must
yet  elapse  before  Romanism  comes  to  an  end.  Un-
fortunately here  for  our  problem,  no  one  can  give
us  a  definite  and  satisfactory  reply.  Some  who  have
examined  the  matter,  tell  us  that  the  power  of  Rome
was  first  broken  by  the  Reformation  in  the  six-
teenth century;  that  moreover  it  received  a  deadly
wound,  at  least  as  to  its  rule  over  the  Latin  nations,
and  so,  in  a  measure  over  the  world,  in  1793-1798,
when  the  French  cast  off  the  pope's  authority,  and
the  pope  himself  was  made  a  prisoner  and  carried
into  captivity  by  Napoleon's  soldiers;  also,  that  in
1870,  when  Victor  Emmanuel  took  possession  of
Rome  and  deprived  the  papacy  of  its  temporal  do-
minion, then  also  it  received  a  very  serious  wound,
and  ever  since  has  been  in  a  dying  condition.  All
this,  of  course,  would  argue  that  the  coming  of  the
Saviour  is  near;  or  at  least,  that  the  papacy  is  con-
suming away — an  experience  which,  according  to


I08  THAT    BLESSED    HOPE

Daniel  (7:26),  is  the  method  in  which  the
power  we  are  considering  seems  likely  to  expire.  At
any  rate,  the  commencement  of  its  decline  may  be
in  that  way,  and  its  complete  extinction  be  brought
about  more  suddenly,  by  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  as
declared  in  the  prophecy.
