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upon fleshly Israel, is doubly so in its fuller application to nominal spiritual Israel-Christendom.

"A noise shali come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations: he will plead with all flesh: he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord." "Hear ye now what the Lord saith, Hear ye, O mountains [kingdoms], the Lord's controversy, and ye [hitherto] strong foundations of the earth [society]; for the Lord hath a controversy with his [professed] people." "He will give those that are wicked to the sword."-Jer. 25:31; Micah 6: 1, 2.

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Hear again the Prophet Isaiah concerning this controversy:-"Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein: the world, and all things that come forth of it [all the selfish and evil things that come of the spirit of the world]; for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath [taking the future standpoint] utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter; and their land shall be soaked with

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For it is the

blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion."-Isa. 34:1, 2, 7, 8.

Thus the Lord will smite the nations and cause them to know his power, and he will deliver his faithful people who go not with the multitudes in the way of evil, but who wholly follow the Lord their God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And even this terrible judgment upon the world, as nations, thus dashing them to pieces as a potter's vessel, will prove a valuable lesson to them when they come forth to an individual judgment under the Millennial reign of Christ. Thus, in his wrath, the Lord will remember mercy.

STUDY II.

*THE DOOM OF BABYLON"-"CHRISTENDOM."

"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN."

BABYLON.-CHRISTENDOM.-THE CITY.-THE EMPIRE. THE MOTHER.-THE DAUGHTERS.-BABYLON'S DOOM.-ITS DREAD SIGNIFICANCE.

"THE DOOM of Babylon which Isaiah

"THE

...

saw. Lift ye up a

standard upon the high mountain, raise high your voice unto them, motion with the hand that they may enter into the gates of the princes.

"I have commanded my sanctified, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger; even them that rejoice in my highness.

"They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

"There is a noise of tumult on the mountains, like as of a great peo ple; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

"Wail ye; for the Day of Jehovah is at hand: it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands shall become weak, and every mortal's heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall have throes, as a woman that travaileth: they shall wonder every man at his neighbor; red like flames shall their faces glow.

"Behold, the Day of Jehovah cometh, direful with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

"For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not shed abroad her light.

"And I will visit on the world its evil, and on the wicked their

iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and the haughtiness of tyrants will I humble. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, in the day of his fierce anger."-Isa. 13:1-13. Compare Rev. 16:14; Heb. 12:26-29.

"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place."-Isa. 28: 17.

The various prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and the Apocalypse concerning Babylon are all in full accord, and manifestly refer to the same great city. And since these prophecies had but a very limited fulfilment upon the ancient, literal city, and those of the Apocalypse were written centuries after the literal Babylon was laid in ruins, it is clear that the special reference of all the prophets is to something of which the ancient literal Babylon was an illustration. It is clear also that, in so far as the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah concerning its downfall were accomplished upon the literal city, it became in its downfall, as well as in its character, an illustration of the great city to which the Revelator points in the symbolic language of the Apocalypse (Chapters 17 and 18), and. to which chiefly the other prophets refer.

As already intimated, what to-day is known as Christendom is the antitype of ancient Babylon; and therefore the solemn warnings and predictions of the prophets against Babylon-Christendom-are matters of deepest concern to the present generation. Would that men were wise enough to consider them! Though various other symbolic names, such as Edom, Ephraim, Ariel, etc., are in the Scriptures applied to Christendom, this term, "Babylon," is the one most frequently used, and its significance, confusion, is remarkably appropriate. The Apostle Paul also points out a nominal, spiritual Israel in contradistinc

tion to nominal fleshly Israel (See 1 Cor. 10:18; Gal. 6: 16; Rom. 9:8); and likewise there is a nominal spiritual Zion, and a nominal fleshly Zion. (See Isa. 33:14; Amos 6:1.) But let us examine some of the wonderful correspondencies of Christendom to Babylon, its type, including the direct testimony of the Word of God on the subject. Then we will note the present attitude of Christendom, and the present indications of her foretold doom.

The Revelator intimated that it would not be difficult to discover this great mystical city, because her name is in her forehead; that is, she is prominently marked, so that we cannot fail to see her unless we shut our eyes and refuse to look-"And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth." (Rev. 17:5.) But before looking for this Mystical Babylon, let us first observe the typical Babylon, and then, with its prominent features in mind, look for the antitype.

The name Babylon was applied, not only to the capital city of the Babylonian empire, but also to the empire itself. Babylon, the capital, was the most magnificent, and probably the largest, city of the ancient world. It was built in the form of a square on both sides of the Euphrates river; and, for protection against invaders, it was surrounded by a deep moat filled with water and inclosed within a vast system of double walls, from thirtytwo to eighty-five feet thick, and from seventy-five to three hundred feet high. On the summit were low towers, said to have been two hundred and fifty in number, placed along the outer and inner edges of the wall, tower facing tower; and in these walls were a hundred brazen gates, twenty-five on each side, corresponding to the number of streets which intersected each other at right angles. The city was adorned with splendid palaces and temples and the spoils of conquest.

Nebuchadnezzar was the great monarch of the Babylonian empire, whose long reign covered nearly half the period of its existence, and to him its grandeur and military glory were chiefly due. The city was noted for its wealth and magnificence, which brought a corresponding moral degradation, the sure precursor of its decline and fall. It was wholly given to idolatry, and was full of iniquity. The people were worshippers of Baal, to whom they offered human sacrifices. The deep degradation of their idolatry may be understood from God's reproof of the Israelites when they became corrupted by contact with them.-See Jer. 7:9; 19:5.

The name originated with the frustrating of the plan for the great tower, called Babel (confusion), because there God confounded human speech; but the native etymology made the name Babil, which, instead of being reproachful, and a reminder of the Lord's displeasure, signified to them,"the gate of God."

The city of Babylon attained a position of prominence and affluence as capital of the great Babylonian empire, and was called "the golden city," "the glory of kingdoms, and the beauty of Chaldee's excellency."-Isa. 13:19; 14:4.

Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded in the dominion by his grandson Belshazzar, under whose reign came the collapse which pride, fulness of bread and abundance of idleness always insure and hasten. While the people, all unconscious of impending danger, following the example of their king, were abandoning themselves to demoralizing excesses, the Persian army, under Cyrus, stealthily crept in through the channel of the Euphrates (from which they had turned aside the water), massacred the revelers, and captured the city. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of that strange handwriting on the wall-"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"— which Daniel had interpreted only a few hours before to mean,-"God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

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