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law. And after the Assyrians carried away the ten tribes, Judah remained until the days of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who carried Judah captive out of their own land because of their idolatry and wickedness. In this captivity they continued for a period of seventy years until the reign of Darius the Mede, and Cyrus the Persian. Then by God's command Cyrus issued a decree restoring Judah again to their land with means and directions to rebuild the city and temple which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed and burned with fire. Judah then continued till Shiloh came, and then this city and temple were again destroyed by the fourth kingdom, spoken of in the visions recorded in the book of Daniel, and by that power Judah was dispersed and driven out of their own land, that is, driven out of God's sight. That dispersion continues till the present day and will continue till the time of the second exodus in the latter days.

These great kingdoms of the past, therefore, flourished contemporaneously with the existence of the people of Israel until Judah ceased to be a people and nation; and now we must mark and take special notice of this important fact that after Judah ceased to be a nation, there is no more notice taken of them and their doings by the prophets; and the time that lapses between the dispersion of Judah and the second exodus of the whole house of Israel is a blank, a time that God winks at and passes by as unworthy of notice by his servants the prophets.

And here is another important fact that is overlooked by modern interpreters or attempted interpreters, of the historical prophecies, and which is fatal to their attempts to unfold the meaning of these great revelations, which is this; when God's people dropped out of sight, the line of great empires, terminating with the Roman, which spoiled Judah, dropped out of sight also, and their acts and doings since that time are no more chronicled upon the sacred page than are the acts of the people of Israel, who are not a people, while they remain out of God's sight. The prophets are silent concerning the rise and fall of the nations of the earth during the last eighteen hundred years, and not till the times of the second exodus will either the nations or the people of Israel come again into sight, so that you may see in their movements and doings those things which are a fulfillment of prophecy.

What has already been manifested among the mighty empires and kingdoms of the past is but a pictorial representation of what is again to appear in the latter days on a much larger and grander scale, and chiefly upon the same territories and in the same countries. The same also will be true of Israel. Their past doings and history form a picture of what they will do and manifest again in the future, under the second part of the law, insomuch that what the prophets have said of Israel and the nations that has not been fulfilled in the past, will be completely fulfilled to the last jot and tittle in the future.

What we mean is this, that the fourth, or Roman, kingdom represented by the legs of iron in the image, was not ground to powder in the first end of the Mosaic world, nor was the body of the fourth beast, as it appears in Daniel's vision (which is the same thing as the legs of iron), given to the burning flame at the time when the temple, Jerusalem and Judah were destroyed, nor did Christ come, nor were the dead raised in the first end of the Mosaic world which was destroyed by the hand of the Romans. But what did not transpire

in the first end of Israel's world will be fully fulfilled in the second, or last end. And what was not fulfilled of all that is testified of the end of the great nations in the past, will be fully accomplished in the latter days. Therefore, when the Lord brings Israel out from among the nations and plants them again in their own land, then again will he revive those ancient empires and kingdoms in the east and north, and bring them into his land, to grind his own rebellious people to powder, after which he will reduce them to powder as was shown in the visions of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel.

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CHAPTER V

THE VISIONS OF JOHN

INTERPRETED BY THE AID OF OTHER SCRIPTURES

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Jerusalem shown as a woman, called Babylon the great Beast upon which the woman sits-Its ten horns· Judgment of Harlot Jerusalem, according to prophecy Aholah and Aholibah - Their union-Proof of futurity Two horned beast, and false prophet - Dragon becomes a mouth to beast War upon saints Works of the two horned beast — Image of beast The Father's name, and name and number of the beast His deadly wound A woman clothed with sun Great red dragon - Falling away and manifestation of man of sin.

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The great central figure brought to view in John's visions, is the woman that he saw, and who the angel said, "is that great whore, that sitteth upon many waters." Again, he says that she sits upon a scarlet colored beast, and again, upon seven mountains. Her name is written upon her forehead which is, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth."

"BABYLON THE GREAT" (REV. 17)

This woman, called Babylon the great, was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And it must be remembered that among those martyrs and saints are included the apostles and prophets; for when this drunken woman, Babylon the great, is destroyed, it is said, “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her." The blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus and of the apostles and prophets was shed by her and at her hand will that blood be required, for God avenges the blood of these righteous people upon her that shed it, for it is said, "In her was found the blood of saints, and of prophets, and of all that were slain upon the earth" (Rev. 18:24).

Now to divest this subject of mystery and to speak plainly and not in parables, we ask at whose door, and upon whom is laid the crime of shedding the blood of all these righteous people? Our modern, and especially our Protestant interpreters, say that this harlot is an Italian harlot, that it is papal Rome, consisting of the Popes and their people, the Roman Catholic church, and that therefore the blood of all these righteous people will be required at their hands, and that they will be avenged on papal Rome.

Now the fallacy, not to say the absurdity, of such a contention any one may see who will exercise his reason, for from the first Pope that flourished in papal Rome to the one who sits there to-day, not one of them or one of their adherents ever saw an apostle, or prophet in their lives, and are therefore not

the ones who murdered them. Nor are they the people that the apostles and prophets, and all that were slain upon the earth, will be avenged upon. Therefore we inquire at the hands of another, even of the Lord Jesus, as to who the people are that shed the blood of prophets and apostles, and all that were slain upon the earth, and of whom all this righteous blood will be required. Hear him, and let his answer be final. Speaking of the scribes and Pharisees and rulers of Israel who sat in Moses' seat, he says, among other things, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous and say, 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 ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

"Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killeth the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23: 29-39).

This statement of the Son of God requires no comment and proves beyond any contradiction that the harlot brought to view in the testimony of Jesus is none other than Jerusalem and her people, and that the blood of all the prophets and apostles, and all that were slain upon the earth, will be required at her hands, and not at the hands of Rome, pagan, or papal.

Paul also says of the Jews (I Thess. 2: 15), "Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us (the apostles), and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.'

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Now as Jerusalem and her people, in the Revelation, are spiritually called Babylon, it follows that all that is there said of Babylon is really said of Jerusalem, and thus when it is said (17: 18), "The woman which thou sawest, is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth," it is Jerusalem. which reigns over the kings of the earth, or as it is said of her in the Lamentation (1:1), "She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces." So when it is said, "Babylon the great," it means, "Jerusalem the great," and when it is said under the pouring out of the seventh vial (Rev. 16: 19), “And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath," this is the fierceness of his wrath upon his own rebellious city, which has become idolatrous like unto Babylon of old.

And for whom, we ask, is the fierceness of God's wrath reserved? Is it not for the city that he has honored and glorified above all the cities of the earth? Did he not record his name and place his throne there? and was not his holy Temple built therein, a house of prayer for all nations? and did they not in the past blaspheme his name and defile his holy courts with their idols and abominations? and have we not already proved how they will in the latter days exceed the iniquities of their ancestors? Now just in the ratio that God has blessed and prospered Israel above all other nations of the earth, so will her punishment be. Because her rebellion and treachery against the Lord exceed that of other nations so that the fierceness of his wrath is reserved for them, even as the Lord says by the hand of Amos (3:2), "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities." For it is said again (Rev. 18:5), Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities," and therefore he commands, saying, "Reward her, even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to all her works. In the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double." This by figure is here said of Babylon, but Isaiah speaks of it plainly as of Jerusalem, after she has passed through the days of her punishment, saying (40:2), "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

The only means whereby we are able to arrive at the meaning of symbolical language is by comparison, that is, by putting the plain with figurative, then the one explains the other. Therefore to illustrate the subject which we are treating, we will quote the following. In the prophecies of Jeremiah we read in mystical language, as follows: "Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance; they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon" (Jer. 50: 41-42).

This is the figurative; now we will place in comparison the same thing in plain language, as follows: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion" (Jer. 6: 22-23). Conse quently, the daughter of Babylon and the daughter of Zion are one and the same people in these prophecies. Therefore the prophecies of Jeremiah in the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters have a double signification; namely, they have first, partial application to ancient Babylon and her people, and second, a full and complete application and fulfillment in mystical Babylon of the latter days, Jerusalem and her people, when they become idolators like the ancient Babylonians, and when her kings become proud, haughty, and blasphemous, like the proud kings of Babylon whom the Lord rebuked long ago. Therefore when the prophecies of Jeremiah concerning Babylon are read with this view, they possess an interest to the careful reader that they would not otherwise have.

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