Now although this is the last vial of the seven which fills up the wrath of God, yet no repentance is manifest among the transgressors upon whom these plagues are poured out. The reason of this is that this is the stumbling block of Israel's iniquity, and the time has come when God will pass by them no more, but will pass through them. Therefore their hearts are hardened even as the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and the Egyptians that they might go on and perish.

Even when a third part of the children of wickedness are killed by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of the mouths of the commanders of the horses, as set forth under the sixth trumpet, it is added, "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear nor walk; neither repented they of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts" (Rev. 9:20-21).

99
"IT IS DONE (REV. 16: 17)

When the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, it is said, “And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven (that is out of the body of Christ, those which constitute the true Temple not made with hands) from the throne." The throne of the Lord was in the Tabernacle, and after in the Temple. Answering to this as a type, the throne of the Father himself will be in the Temple made without hands that is in the body of Christ made perfect, in which the Father himself dwells as in a tent, and it is from the throne in this Temple where the Father sits that the great voice comes forth saying, "It is done."

When the seven angels pour out the seven vials which contain the seven last plagues in which is filled up the wrath of God, and when the judgments which these plagues set forth are finished, the rebellious house will be no more; their lands will be again and for the last time desolate, their cities will be broken down and left without an inhabitant; Jerusalem will be a desolation, and the Temple burned up with fire, and it is there and then where these ominous words apply, "It is done."

CHAPTER IX

JOHN SHOWN THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT

HARLOT
(Rev. 17-18)

Who the harlot is The wilderness

Sitting upon many waters"

Her daughters The beast that was, and was not - His career Seven

heads Seven kings- The eighth king - Ten horns - Their work-That great city - Fall of Babylon Her wickedness" Come out of her, my people" · Retribution visited upon her - Lamentations for her - Is this destruction final? —" Much people in heaven" rejoice.

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication."

We learn from the Holy Scriptures that this harlot is neither a Gentile city nor a Gentile people at all, but on the contrary is Jerusalem and the people of Israel when they have again corrupted themselves in the future and done worse than their fathers in the past, even as they are addressed by the Prophet Ezekiel in the words of the Lord saying, "Wherefore, O harlot, hear the words of the Lord." This name the Lord, in this verse, gives to Jerusalem and her children after describing how he found her, and what he did for her, and decked her with ornaments, and put bracelets upon her hands, and a chain upon her neck, and a jewel upon her forehead, and earrings in her ears, and a beautiful crown upon her head, and the Lord continues saying, "Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk and broidered work." And as to her food, he says, Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful and didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee."

From this high and exalted position which Jerusalem will attain to in the latter days, she will degenerate into a harlot and her evil works in departing from the Lord and going after her lovers and seeking to other gods. are most graphically and forcibly described in this same sixteenth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, after which the Lord adds in the same place, verse 30, saying, "How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious, whorish woman."

Now one of the seven angels which had the seven vials carried John away in the spirit into the wilderness to see the condition and position of this same imperious whorish woman and the judgment that should immediately overtake her, just as it is described from verse thirty-five to forty-one of this ' same chapter in Ezekiel's prophecy that we have been considering. John saw her in the wilderness of the people, a moral wilderness of men who knew not God, in Jerusalem; and he saw her there as he says, first, "sitting upon many waters" (verse 1); second, "sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast, . . . having seven heads and ten horns" (verse 3); third, John adds, “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth (verse 9).

Now insomuch as the woman does not sit upon three different things but upon one thing, therefore if we can find a true interpretation of one of the things upon which she sitteth, that would furnish us with an interpretation of the whole, even as John was informed by the angel, as it is written in verse 15, saying, "The waters which thou sawest, where the whore (the imperious whorish woman) sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." This is Gog and all his multitude, or as the angel said to John, "a scarlet coloured beast with seven heads and ten horns," and her sitting and riding upon this beast is spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah as "staying upon the Assyrian." The meaning of this saying is apparent by what follows it, namely, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more stay upon him (the Assyrian) that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth" (Isa. 10:20).

Now to stay upon the Lord," is to put their trust in him and rely upon the Lord for help in time of trouble. Even so, to stay upon the Assyrian is to put their trust in him for help and protection. Staying upon the Assyrian is symbolized in the Revelation by the woman sitting upon many waters, and upon a scarlet coloured beast with seven heads and ten horns, and sitting upon seven mountains. She stays upon them for their aid and assistance.

"6 MYSTERY " (REV. 17:5)

And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." It might be well to remark here before we go further that Protestant writers and teachers from Luther down to the present time maintain that the harlot of Revelation is the Pope of Rome and his people, the Roman Catholic Church, sometimes called the "mother church." But these Protestant teachers are very short-sighted people, for by so doing they stultify and condemn themselves, even like the scribes and Pharisees who said, "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." Wherefore," Jesus said unto them, "ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets." Even so with the writers and teachers of the Protestant churches. They say that the Roman Catholic Church is the harlot spoken of in the Book of the Revelation, but they do not appear to see where this lands them, for this harlot is a mother, and has daughters, and her daughters are harlots

like herself, for she is called the mother of harlots. Therefore if the Catholic church is the harlot, then the Protestant churches, which came originally out of her, must be the daughters. They call themselves Protestants, that is protesters against the errors of the "mother church" and they trace their origin back to the Reformation and call themselves reformers. But what are they reformers of? Why, the errors in the mother church. But while Protestants protest against many things in the Roman Catholic Church which they hold to be wrong, nevertheless in nearly all the leading features of their faith and works they are agreed. For instance, the ministry in all of these great religious bodies is tugging away and pulling on the same rope, all trying to save what they call men's immortal souls. Now as men have no such things as immortal souls to save, it follows that the combined effort and labors of Protestant and Catholic priests, as well as the priests in the great religious systems of the world, go for nothing, and all the money that is spent in these religious bodies to that end, is thrown away. And the religious teachers who hold these errors have no power to either understand or to interpret the Scriptures.

But laying aside this spurious interpretation of this oracle of God, by which Protestant ministers attempt to foist upon the Catholic church the odium of being the harlot spoken of in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of the Revelation and elsewhere, we may say that, notwithstanding, both the Protestant and Catholic churches and their spiritual guides of the present day are subject to the veil that is spread over all nations, yet in neither of these great religious bodies is this harlot to be found; but instead, it is a manifestation in a future age, and not then among Gentiles but in the midst of the rebellious house of Israel in their own land.

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE HARLOT

The daughters of the harlot are those nations in the latter days who mingle themselves with the house of Israel and who worship their gods, and who coöperate with God's evil family to trample his truth underfoot, to defile his holy house, the Temple, and to slay the righteous and shed the innocent blood. These nations, therefore, drink of the golden cup which she holds in her hand, which is full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication, or as Jeremiah testifies, "The nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad (51:7). These nations therefore are themselves called women by the Prophet Ezekiel, who says of idolatrous Israel, She became famous among women (23:10); again, "They shall execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women (Ezek. 16:41): and again, "That all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness (Ezek. 23:48). These nations coquette with faithless Israel, they drink of her wine, for which reason, after God has given to his own people the cup of his fury to drink thereof all the dregs of the same, the nations will be compelled to wring out the wine thereof, and drink it.

John says (verses 6-7), "I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw, I wondered with great astonishment." That is, when he saw this gorgeous spectacle, he wondered with great admiration, mingled with astonishment; accord

ingly the angel said unto him, "Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will show thee the mystery of the woman and the beast which carrieth her, which hath seven heads and ten horns."

THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMAN AND THE BEAST (REV. 17:8–14)

These mysteries, or riddles, of the woman and the beast can only be solved by the aid of the prophets. Therefore we read what the angel said to Daniel concerning the doings and movements of the beast at the time of the end, under the name of the king of the north, saying, “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south (the king of Egypt) push at him (at the king of Israel); and the king of the north (the Assyrian) shall come against him (that is against the king of Israel also) like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships; and he (the Assyrian) shall enter into the countries and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land (the land of Palestine) and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape, but he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" (Dan. 11:40-45).

This prophecy constitutes the basis and furnishes the materials out of which comes the mystery of the woman and the mystery of the beast, as the angel stated it to John, saying in verse 8, "The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition."

"" THE BEAST THAT WAS "

That is, he was king over Israel when he came up out of the sea and overflowed the land of Israel, and when the dragon king of Israel as a military necessity surrendered to him his power, and his seat (his throne) and great authority; then the Assyrian was their king. This is the time that "he was."

After the king of the north, the beast, has been established in Jerusalem as king, there will yet be the refractory Ethiopian head to be slain to death and conquered and brought into line, and Egypt also, which has been a strong antagonist of the king of the north, must be conquered, robbed, and spoiled (Dan. 11:42-43). Immediately after the beast leaves Jerusalem to go down into the bottomless pit of nations to chastise Ethiopia and to destroy Egypt, the king of Israel revolts and plucks up three of the horns of the beast by the roots, Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and subjects them to his own power (Dan. 11:41-44; Isa. 11:14). While this condition of things continues, the beast is not," that is to say, he is not at this time king over