out of her; so has this great spiritual Babylon held under its tyrannical rule and galling yokes the true people of God for centuries past. But a voice from heaven proclaims her fall. An angel having great power is heard crying "mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babyloǹ the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.... For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Rev. 18:1-5).

It is very evident that the fall referred to is a moral one. In the younger days of many of the sects they were of better character than in after-years. When they came out of Rome, their mother, they started with reform; but soon they degenerated and became dead and formal. There were times in the past when certain sects of Babylon contained many true people of God. God worked through these people, great revivals were held, and thousands were saved. In those days some of the ministers were real humble, self-sacrificing men, and God wonderfully used them. But oh, how changed! If some such men as Luther, Wesley, Fletcher, Dow, Peter

Cartwright, John Knox, and others of like experience were to break into the dead, cold assemblies of modern sectism, they would be expelled as fanatics and fined for disturbing the peace of the worshipers. The whole city is morally fallen. It is cursed with a hireling ministry; an honor-seeking clergy; a proud, lazy, worthless, sensual lot of preachers who have a form of godliness, but deny God's mighty power to save and sanctify, keep and heal; a lot of truth-fighters, who despise God's pure saints and oppose Bible unity. True, there are exceptions, but these are few. And as are the leaders, so are the followers. The following additional evidence is from "The Revelation Explained," by F. G. Smith:

"That this application of the term, 'Babylon' is correct, and also that the fallen condition ascribed to her is in accordance with the facts, I will prove by the following testimonies of Protestants themselves. The first is from Vision of the Ages; or, Lectures on the Apocalypse, by B. W. Johnson, member of the Christian sect.

"It is needful to inquire what the term "Babylon" means. It occurs several times in the

New Testament. Here [in the Apocalypse] it is spoken of as "that great city," and her fall is doomed "because she hath made all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication." In Rev. 17:5, a scarlet harlot is seen sitting upon the seven-headed and ten-horned monster, and upon her forehead is written, "Mystery, Babylon the Great." With this woman the kings of the earth are said to have committed fornication. In chapter 18 the fall of the great city, Babylon is detailed at length, and it is again said that all the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The harlot with Babylon stamped on her brow, and the great city of fornication styled Babylon, in chapters 14 and 18 are one and the same existence.

"There is an ancient city of Babylon often mentioned in the Old Testament, but ages before John wrote, it had ceased to be inhabited; the only dwellers among its lonely ruins were howling beasts and hissing serpents. It has never been rebuilt to this day and has passed away forever. John refers therefore not to old Babylon, but to some power yet unseen (when he was upon earth), that should be revealed in due time, and of which old Babylon was a symbol.

Let us notice some of the features of ancient

Babylon.

"1. On that site took place the confusion of tongues which divided those who before had been of one speech and one family, into various tribes and schisms at variance with each other and of various tongues. The word "Babylon, a memorial of this event, means confusion, and is derived from Babel.

"2. Old Babylon persecuted the people of God and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. "3. It carried the people of God into captivity.

"'4. It was a mighty, resistless universal empire.

"The antitype, the spiritual Babylon, must correspond. There is a power that exhibits all these characteristics. By apostasy from the truth it originated the schism which has divided the family of God into different sects and parties which speak a different spiritual language. It has carried the church into a long captivity by binding upon it the thraldom of superstition. It has been a constant persecutor of the saints, and has enjoyed an almost universal dominion. That power is the woman that sits upon the

seven-headed beast... the false woman, symbolical of a false church, the great apostate spiritual dominion of Rome. And we may add, out of which have come-directly or indirectly-all the religious sects of the present day.'

"Dr. Barnes says: "The word "Babylon" became the emblem of all that was haughty and oppressive, and especially of all that persecuted the church of God. The word here [Rev. 18:4] must be used to denote some power that resembled the ancient and literal Babylon in these characteristics. The literal Babylon was no more; but the name might be used properly to denote a similar power.'

"Wm. Kinkade, in Bible Doctrine, page 249, says, 'I think Christ has a true church on earth, but its members are scattered among the various denominations, and are more or less under the influence of mystery Babylon and her daughters.'

"Alexander Campbell says: 'A reformation of popery was attempted in Europe full three centuries ago. It ended in a Protestant hierarchy, and swarms of dissenters. Protestantism has been reformed into Presbyterianism, that into Congregationalism, and that into Baptist