is not distant when the false state of things will be overthrown, Not only the Revelation declares it, Daniel, and Micah; indeed, I know

and give place to the true. but Ezekiel, and Isaiah, and not a prophet who does not proclaim it. The "house of Jacob called by the name of Israel," and who call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel," and who proclaim themselves to be the espoused of God, and who think as such they shall be "a lady for ever," shall shortly "be silent and get into darkness, for she shall no more be called, "the lady of kingdoms" (Isa. xlvii. and xlviii.). In the words of Ezekiel, the shepherds who have fed themselves, and fed not the flock, shall cease from feeding, "Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord God; behold I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hands, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them" (Ezek. xxxiv).

Under the figure of the "Virgin, daughter of Babylon," Isaiah prophecies the destruction of the False One, the polluted, the harlot of Scripture. She is styled the "Virgin daughter." She claims to be married, but God says in the figurative language of Scripture, "I will not meet thee as a man;" she is not married, and is, therefore, styled a "virgin daughter." The ancient Babylon furnishes imagery for much that was to come after. The term is used throughout the prophecies, and thus the mother of harlots is termed in the Revelation "Babylon the Great.” the term "Maid of Jerusalem" denotes the second or Christian dispensation and true Church,* so the term "Daughter of Babylon" denotes the second Babylon, or the antagonist of the Christian Church, as the first Babylon was the antagonist of the first or Hebrew Church.

As

Now the present antagonist, as is clearly shown by the Revelation, is Papal Rome. But Papal Rome is not the whole

*See "True Church."

embodiment; every off-shoot from Rome, or every Church based upon the principle that a temporal, national, or denominational Church is a branch of the Church, partakes of the character of the False One. In the nature of things it is impossible for a carnal, worldly, sensual, fleshly body to represent a spiritual body, and they do wickedly who claim on behalf of any such body such a position. Antichrist is not a body foreign to God's Word and denying its power, but it is a body instructed, and whose "wisdom and knowledge hath perverted" her, and she says in her “heart, I am, and none else beside me" (Isa. xlvii. 10).

Antichrist is again a body that traffics in spiritual things. She has her merchants who deal in spiritual things, and buy and sell spiritual wares (Isa. xlvii. 15.), (Rev. xiii. 17). She is not, therefore, a body foreign to Christianity, but one allied thereto. Her people bear God's name and are called His people, and God thus addresses some of them, "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

The Scriptures everywhere recognise a body in spiritual union with Christ, and called "His Church," and "the Church." This is Christ's body-His Church. Antichrist is that system based upon the falsehood, that a fleshly body represents this spiritual body. Let Let every Churchman who has hitherto upheld the false state of things, reflect deeply upon the Scripture statements, and let him pause before he again utters the faithless lie. Churches do not as a whole make up the Church. Neither does one represent the Church; nor is any one a branch of, or part of the Church. Churches are but as instruments and means, whereby God is pleased to assist in building up the Church. Not a single Church is in spiritual union with Christ; each gives out members to the Church, but not one can claim to be as a whole without evil, and God's purity is not allied to evil. Churches are none of them in intimate union as members of His body, and it bespeaks a wicked and perverted mind, and ignorance of spiritual things

in any man, who claims for a Church, of which he is a member, this high position. He is proclaiming himself a member of the polluted one, the mother of harlots, the False One of ScriptureTHE ANTICHRIST, usurping the place of the True-the Christ,* or Christian body, God's faithful people on earth.

Rome, as the centre of the false ecclesiastical system, is styled "the Holy City." Holy indeed! Ask the gloomy walls of the Inquisition if upon them is inscribed "Holiness to the Lord!" Ask the bloody inquisitors if they regulate their decisions by just and merciful laws! Ask the magnate palatial residence of Rome's bishop, the Vatican, if angels of light tread with holy steps the glittering halls! Ask the crafty priesthood who fill every avenue of the city, whether they let "the oppressed go free, and loose the heavy burdens." Rome, amid all its splendours, is filled with oppression, with crime, with pollution. For such to claim to be "the Holy City!" Rome presents indeed a melancholy sight, and one could weep tears of bitterness over the unhallowed claim of the incestuous city.

She presents not alone a melancholy sight. She provokes to ironical laughter. While bitterness and sorrow fill the heart at Rome's sinful and polluted state, her claims to holiness and to relationship with the pure and holy God excite the deepest scorn and irony. It is indeed a pitiful sight to behold the False One tricked out in all the finery of whoredom, and asking and looking for God's love. With crimson face and false charms, seated upon the seven-hilled city, and exclaiming, "I sit a queen, and am no widow" (Rev. xviii. 7), “I am, and none else beside me" (Isa. xlvii. 10), she presents so pitiful a sight, one can scarcely lift the heart out of its depression to indulge in irony. But is not the picture which Rome presents a bloated caricature of "the Holy

*

Ephes. i. 22, 23. "The Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

Ephes. v. 30. bones."

"For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His

City?" Think of the chastened character of the Faithful One, dressed in garb of purest white, with graceful mien, and eyes uplifted heavenward, with faith and peace imprinted on the brow, she walks hand in hand with the Son of man, each in confiding love. Then think of the Polluted One, dressed in scarlet robes, and with flaunting gait, and eyes of fire, and haughty pride upon her brow, and cheeks vermilion, seeking to please and attract each passer by, and offering to the kings of the earth her meretricious charms.

To such an one the God of heaven allied!!! For ever be the unworthy thought cast far away! To her dupes and to her lovers let the word of caution be addressed. Look at the picture Christ has given of "the Holy City," into which "nothing entereth that defileth;" and then cast the eye upon the counterfeit, which is "full of names of blasphemy," and in which sits “the woman arrayed in purple aud scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, and having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of her fornication: and upon her forehead a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

God, in Christ, came upon earth and established "a holy city," the Church, pure and undefiled, and impregnable—a spiritual city. In this city the denizens worship and adore God. His will is their will. Their chief desire is to do His will. They seek to be approved of Him. They submit in all things to His guidance. They desire His love. They present no service as meriting reward, but accept God's assured love as a free unconditional gift. They live alone in His love. Come good, come ill, in this chequered scene below, they ask but His love; they know that He will direct all things for their good. This is but a passing scene; and His love will make it bright and pleasing, though sorrow touch the heart. They know they have in Him eternal life; and though the heart of flesh may feel the pangs to which the human heart is subject, and

here may press the spirit down, yet will the spirit, soon freed from its earthly load, wing upward in its heavenward flight, and dwell, through countless ages, amid adoring cherubim and seraphim. In God's city is pure, unalloyed love-love to God and love to man; and this sheds around a halo that brightens every path. With this love shed abroad in the heart, it is impossible for the evil passions to hold a sway; the bright sunshine of God's holy Spirit within must drive them all away. In hearts thus moulded by, and with spirits thus attuned to God, God has established His holy city here on earth, and the city is known as "The Lord is there"* (Ezek. xlviii. 35); and on every heart is inscribed "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD "+ (Zech. xiv. 20). Not that holiness which leads to the repeating of a given number of Ave Marias or Pater Nosters, or to the wearing of sackcloth, and to the mortifying of the flesh; but that holiness begotten of a pure, unalloyed love to God—a love that gives all the affections to Him, and which casteth out fear (1 John iv. 18). Fear hath torment, but love hath peace. Fear is begotten of doubt and unbelief, and hath for its centre, self. Love is engendered of confiding trust; love seeketh not her own, but delighteth to honour, and hath for its centre, God.

* The name of the city "The Lord is there," is the declaration of Ezekiel ; and we are arrived at the appointed period foretold by the Prophet when the city should be known by that name.-See True Church, p. 483.

+ All the prophets declare a great change from a state of darkness and estrangement from God to one of light and knowledge, and a walking with God. This change occasions the overthrow of the Antichrist, and is so prophesied by Zechariah; and he concludes his predictions, employing these words in the two last verses of his book.

The words, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD, in this prophet, have reference to the now approaching period, and what is called the millennial reign of Christ. But they have also a reference to a distant future, when every Pagan land becomes Christian.

I think it right, to prevent misapprehension, to state, that I believe it a mistake to suppose, as some do, that during the millennial period, Paganism will have entirely ceased.-See True Church, millennial period.