The sum of the argument, then, on this matter of chronology, is this:
That the two-horned beast does not come into the field of this vision
previous to the year 1798; that it performs its work while the last
generation of men is living on the earth; and that it comes up to the
battle of the great day a living power in the full vigor of its
strength.

As it was shown in the argument on the location of the two-horned beast
that we were limited in our application to this western continent, so we
are limited still further by its chronology; for it must not only be
some power which arises this side of the Atlantic, but one which is seen
coming up here at a _particular time_. Taking our stand, then, in the
year 1798, the time indicated in the prophecy, we invite the careful
attention of the reader to this question: What independent power in
either North or South America was at that time "coming up" in a manner
to answer to the conditions of the prophecy? All that part of North
America lying to the north of us was under the dominion of Russia and
Great Britain. Mexico, to the south-west, was a Spanish colony. Passing
to South America, Brazil belonged to Portugal, and most of the other
South American States were under Spanish control. In short, there was
not then a single civilized, independent government in the New World,
except our own United States. No other nation, therefore, can be the one
represented in the prophecy; but this one so far answers to it most
accurately. It has always taken the lead of all European settlements in
this hemisphere. It was "coming up" at the exact time indicated in the
prophecy. Like a lofty monument in a field all its own, stand the United
States on this continent, grand, unique, unexplainable. So far as God's
providence works among the nations for the accomplishment of his
purposes, it is visible in the development of this country as an agent