Revelation 13:1,2

John stood on the sand of the sea and saw a wild beast rise up out of the sea; but though it rose out of the sea its description shows it to be a land beast, and not a sea monster; for it was like a leopard with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion.

It had seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads names of blasphemy, significant of its evil nature. This description indicates a civil power; and the visions of Daniel have made us familiar with such imagery representing great world powers.

What power is represented by this beast? We are not left in doubt about this. We have in chapter seventeen an inspired explanation of the symbols used in these visions. When God gives us the key to the meaning we need look no farther, nor invent meanings different from those supplied by our divine guide. There it is made very clear that the beast is the Roman empire. The seven heads are said to represent both the seven hills of Rome and the seven emperors that ruled; which seven emperors they were we shall soon discover.

Here in the second verse we are told that the dragon, the red dragon of the last chapter who was the Devil and Satan, gave the beast his power, and his seat, and his authority. The Devil had gone to make war, or to persecute the seed of the woman which keep the commandments of God. Accordingly he does it through this great world power, the empire of Rome. Rome becomes the Devil's agent. History tells us of the persecutions of Rome; how Paul was beheaded, and Peter crucified head downwards; how the Christians were thrown to the lions, exposed to the cold, drowned in rivers, thrown into cauldrons of boiling oil, daubed with pitch and burned for torchlights; how every conceivable torture was inflicted on them; how all the might and power of the Roman empire were exerted to extirpate them, till the church at length conquered its persecutor. The story of Justin Martyr, the story of Polycarp, the story of Origen and a thousand others, the history of the catacombs, and the history of the Roman dungeons will all tell, how the dragon, the Devil, gave his power to the Roman empire to do his persecuting work against God's people.