distant period, but we may, for it will come, and the past will be but as a dream when one awaketh.

After having gone through these seven vials of time, do we now understand the prelude to them? "The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power" (xv. 7, 4).

The foreground of the scene of the Apocalypse is justice and judgment; the vials of time, and the wrath of the Lamb; but the spiritual temple rises in the background. As the Christian era is light compared with the dark ages of the past, so there will be spiritual development, and also progress, and improvement in all species, animal and vegetable, till the final restitution of all things. When Christ returns, nature will keep pace with the kingdom of grace, and the kingdom of grace with nature, till primeval perfection be restored, and all break forth into one eternal beatitude.

T

CHAPTER XVII.

THE Woman of the seventeenth chapter is the Romish Church. "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." Notice here, it is still one of the ministers of the Church of Christ who shews the judgment of this apostate woman to the prophet; and as we look back upon the prophecies of her overthrow in the ancient prophets, we understand how it should be so; God may in a moment light them up with a vividness and power that should startle even Rome herself. But we are so unaccustomed to think of ourselves as angels, that it is almost difficult to realize our missions to this world; but the designation is scriptural as applied to ourselves; perhaps it is the "new name" given to those who had overcome of the third Church of Pergamos (ii. 17). The terrestrial order of priesthood had never been called angels, but the "twelve stars" (xii. 1), signifying the twelve tribes, may have been engraven upon the breast

plate of our great High Priest, Melchisedec, angels, beings of his own order, "the Prince of the kings of the earth." And then the prophet gives the why and the wherefore of this: because "He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father" (i. 5, 6). And hence it is no assumption when I say, the seven angels coming out of the temple with the seven vials, "Clothed in pure and white linen," are simply servants of God, temples of the Eternal Spirit, whose voice only is heard. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried." (Dan. xii. 10.) "The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things." Or this angel of the 17th and 1st may be Christ himself, showing to John this apostate Church. He was One of the seven angels with the seven vials; He took the second vial from His Father, and through the medium of the Bible," I have power to lay down my life. This commandment have

I received of Father."

He was my

angels which had the seven vials."

66 one of the seven

"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." Kings of the earth still mean here the priesthood of the true Church, angels of the order of Melchisedec, but spurious ones; the whore is the apostate Rome, and

have not too many in our Church committed fornication with her? "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." I think this, transpiring as it does in the wilderness, may be taken from the Church in the vision of Balaam, as I have shown you there, the most pleasant earthly picture in Scripture, the contrast, in my mind, as they stand side by side, is painfully striking. The scarlet-coloured beast may represent the royal Roman drapery of the victorious steed, or the dragon, red with human gore. The beast is the beast of the 13th chapter, the seven heads are his seven powers in the seven dispensations, and the ten horns are ten distinct powers rising out of his kingdom. (Esther ix. 13, 14; Dan. vii. 7.) "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: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." The representation of this woman must strike every thoughtful mind as one of most foul, hideous display; it is the most unclean, hellish thing described in the Bible. The Jewish priesthood delivered Christ to the Romans

to be crucified, and she was conceived in that deed of blood. See her development in the fourth Church (ii. 22, 23), and under the fourth seal (vi. 8). Here she is seen in the meridian of her glory; a triumphal military procession is what is intended. Everybody who knows anything of Romish military display and parade of that period must see all her Romish features truly drawn; and her seductive features are as easy of recognition as her national character,-music, a splendid ritual, and a sublime gigantic architectural system; and upon herself her royal robes, instead of upon her king, and priest, her head. The whole system is human, man is its head and base. The Spirit of the living God is not in the wheel. Go into the midst of her, and she is full of blasphemy, abominations, and filthiness of her fornications. To derogate from the attributes, power, and design of God, to ascribe to the creature, and to human institutions, that which is due only to the Creator, is blasphemy, the name she bears; and this is what she is guilty of. Salvation is of the Church, instead of the ascription of the passion, tomb, and resurrection of Christ,-" Salvation is of the Lord." (Jonah ii. 9.)

"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." One would suppose this sudden ebullition of