170 - The Revelation of Jesus Christ state of affairs. I remember having gone into a shop one day to get some sugar. The man behind the counter said, as I put the money down, "You'll have to have something else besides money. Where's your card?" I did not have a card, for this regulation had just gone into effect; and though I had the money, I went-without the sugar. So in the day of the Antichrist, when a man goes to buy or sell, the one with whom he wishes to deal will say, "Show your right hand," or "Show your forehead"; and those who do not wear "the mark of the beast" will go out empty handed, without the necessities of life. Think what it will mean in that day for the man, with others dependent on him, yet who can not buy fuel to keep his little ones warm, or food to keep them from starving, without the "mark of the beast." It will be impossible for him to obtain bread and other things that keep body and soul together, unless he has some visible sign that the pretentions of the "man of sin" have been re ceived by him. In other wo.i;ds, the law of this world-ruler prevailing everywhere will be, "Worship me, or starve." THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST "Here Is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six"' (verse 18). What is the meaning of this number-666? To state all the views that have been advanced, would fill a volume. There is, however, significance attached to numerals as found in the Word of God. Seven is the complete number. Six is incom plete, and is man's number. Man was created on the sixth day, and six is given in the Word of God as the number of man. Three is the number of manifestation. The coming man is given this number, 666, because he presents in his life and in his attitude toward God and His Christ, the fullest manifesta tion of what is in the heart of the natural man. What a terrible portrait this isl What an unfolding of the human heart is de scribed in God's Word! What blasphemous things the human heart is capable of doing when all repressive influences have been removed! How necessary it is that a man should be "born again"! As we have an insight into the natural heart, as revealed by this man, we can understand the words of the
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