THE MYSTERY OF 666.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 13 July 1916, Page 3

THE MYSTERY OF 666.

"REVELATIONS" AND THE

KAISER

By HORATIO BOTTOMLEY.

Versatile as Mr Bottomley's pen has proved to be, nothing more fascinating, says the Editor of the " Sunday Pictorial," has yet been written by that truly remarkable man than this week's article, It will undoubtedly be the one theme of discnssion in all the Churches to-day, and will set our most erudible Biblical scholars thinking. In Germany, too, and the countries of our Allies, the article will be read with deep interest —if with wide-.

ly different appreciation,

Snowed up in the Midlands, and cut off from telephone and post, on Wednesday and Thursday last, I fell in with a most interesting acquaintance, at the hotel —a man well known in both Financial (capital F, please, Mr Printer) and political (small p this time) circles —one of keen intellect and brilliant parts —as the stately old writers used to put it —and of bold originality of thought. We soon found ourselves boxing the compass of contemporary events ; and naturally up came the Kaiser. "Do you know," said my friend, "I really believe he is the Beast of Revelation," and then he proceeded to bombard me with all kinds of quotations from that wonderful book of the wonderful old Bible.

Now the last time I considered the identity of the fearful monster revealed to St. John the Divine was during the period of Lloyd George the Demagogue —Destroyer of Dukes—Grabber of Ground Rents- Purveyor of Fresh Fruit for the Parched Lips of the People. In those days many a correspondent indicted the Little Man from y^ales —most lovable and harmless of men —as the veritable incarnation of Mr "666." But the chain of evidence was hopelessly faulty, and my verdict was Not Guilty. This time, however, the idea fascinated me, and, startling the waiter with a request for a New Testament, I shut myself up to have a good think about it all.

And now I am going to indulge in all kinds of fantastic speculation about one of those " things which must shortly come to pass," as seen by St. John on the Island of Patmos. You will find it in Chapter XIII —ominous omen for the Kaiser if my view is correct! And this is what the good Saint saw : " I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of Blasphemy." That will do to start with. No, we must go a bit further —because at the end of the vision, there are these remarkable and cryptic words: " 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." Now we will get on.

You will observe that theproper words in the description of the vision are —-Beast, Seven Heads, Ten Horns, Ten Crowns, and Blasphemy. Bear these words in mind, and now skip to Chapter XVII —where you will find that the Beast is the " Eighth King," and assuming ;the Kaiser to be the man, we naturally take his dynasty — Hohenzoilern, And now for the key : Take the alphabet, and give each letter in each of those words its number. Thus

—"Beast" ; B is the second letter ; c, the fifth ; a. the first; s, the nineteenth ; t, the twentieth. Add those'figures together—■ 2, 5, 1, 19, 20—and you get ... 47 i'Sea," treated same way gives you... 25 " Seven heads — ten horns — ten crowns," similarly treated, gives 341 "Blasphemy" ... ... ~. 152 " Hohenzollern" ~, ... ... 152 And thus you get the " number of the man" ~, ~. ... 666 And take the word Kaiser by itself. It consists of six letters ; and the figure 6 to the alphabetical number of each of the letters, and you get this result: X is number 11; ais No. 1 ; iis No. 9; s is No. 19 ; c is No. 5 ; r is No. 18. And so you get this little sum : 11.6 ; 18.6.; 5.6 ; 18.6, equals 666. Funny, isn't it? It is becoming interesting. Let us have another look. -''Seven heads, ten horns, and ten orowns" make twenty-seven emblems of the distinguishing features —AND GERMANY CONSISTS OF TWENTYSEVEN STATES ! The Blasphemy of the Kaiser requires no elaboration. He is bathed in Blasphemy. And here is another interesting little table; Take the wurds — Wilhelm ; Germany •' Hohenzollern ;■ Seven Heads—Ten Horns -^Ten Crowns ; give them alphabetical numbers, and you get 82, 83, 152, 341 equals 658 ; add 8, for the " eighth king," and again you get 666. It is becoming uncanny you say ? Well, come with me a, little further.

(To be Continued.)