Second advent library

LECTURE V._-;__...._REV. xiii. 18.Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the numberof the beast; for it is thc number ofa man; and his munberls six hundred lhrecscore and six.Tnxs text has caused as much speculation as anytext in the whole Bible; rivers of ink have been shedto explain its meaning, brains have been addled intrying to find some great which the wisdom ofthis world, mystery as was supposed, cou d only discover; and intryinv to be wise above what was written, men havelost their balance, and fell into absurdities too ridiculousto mention. Some have searched through all the vocabularyof Greek names, to find one whose numericalletters would make the number 666, and they,have beenwonderfully blest, forthey found a number; but hereagain there remained ailiiculty to surmount, whichrequired as much ingenuitas the former; but toremedy the evil, every Greel¥ scholar chose the one hisiixncy dictated, wrote his book on the number 666, andthen died, and his wonderiixl name died with him; forevery wise Greek had his own favorite name. Also, theLatin book-wonns, not wishinfr to be outdone by theirGreek brethren, rummaged all the old goatskin parchmentsand musty books in the cloisters of all the monksin Christendom; and behold, a much yeater harvest wasthe fruit of their labor; for now every Latinus had threeor more names to his share; and in all this wisdom, allother nations were left without any wisdom, except