The Dragon, The Beast, and the False Prophet
1. On Patmos’ lonely island the loved disciple saw
Three notable oppressors with saints proclaiming war;
The first, the great red dragon, with features fierce and rare,
The Pagan superstition erecting everywhere.
2. But after some few ages the dragon’s power grew weak,
His votaries forsook him, the living God to seek;
So feigned he too conversion, and lo, the beast uprose,
With all his Papal terror, truth’s progress to oppose.
3. The ancient Pagan images, its doctrines and its laws,
Were now entitled Christian, to help his hellish cause;
‘Twas thus the wily serpent pursued his artful plan,
And ages upon ages the blood of martyrs ran.
4. But two and forty months was all the time allowed the beast,
And ere the period ended so had his strength decreased,
His days of rule were shortened, his power to call for blood,
The earth had ope’d her mouth for saints and swallowed up the flood.
5. And yet there is another to act upon the stage,
Through whom the same old serpent will manifest his rage;
A beast which though he outwardly was lamb-like, fair and mild,
Spake like the Pagan dragon, ferocious, loud and wild.
6. Though all men are made equal, so holds he in his creed,
The slaves from out their bondage must nevermore be freed;
And though in things religious all men are to be free,
It means, when laws divine with human laws agree.
7. Once empires, thrones and kingdoms with Papacy made bold,
To slay the host of martyrs with cruelties untold;
But now a fair republic, a Protestant so mild,
Usurps the dangerous power, and with the same runs wild.
8. The old red Pagan dragon turned Papist on the day
He saw that Christian doctrines were like to bear the sway;
He seizes on the Scriptures and keeps them all unseen,
And offers for a stipend to tell what they must mean.
9. At length from out its prison the Bible has been freed,
And loudly now is heralded as Protestants’ sole creed;
The cry is now The Bible, the Bible, that alone—
Come drink from the pure fountain that flows from out the throne.
10. High hope is widely cherished, the Bible has been freed!
And now ’tis thought that Satan is overcome indeed—
He sees that mere profession is but an azure gauze,
And lo, he now espouses with Protestants their cause.
11. The Bible, scattered broadcast, is laid upon the shelf,
And the man is seldom met with who reads it for himself,
And though some few, like Timothy, have read it from their youth,
Tradition still is followed instead of living truth.
12. The last great persecution is drawing on because
Some few will heed the Bible, and keep its righteous laws,
While others, the great masses professing still the same,
Hold on to Papal errors and all their groundless claim.
13. The battle soon is coming, choose now while yet ye may,
The Bible and its precepts and Jesus to obey;
Soon closes up probation—then will the dragon rage,
And battle with the remnant most cruel will he wage.
14. But short shall be the conflict, victorious the saints,
Redeemed from all oppression, and freed from all complaints,
With shouts and songs celestial, triumphant will they sing
The praises and the victories of Jesus Christ their King.
– Raymond F. Cottrell (printed in an early Advent Review magazine)
