ALONE WITH GOD     

  All this was typical The literal city of Babylon was a type of the apostate church, a type of sectism as it exists in this dispensation. As we have seen in Rev. 17:11-18 the Roman Catholic sect is denominated "Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of tile Earth." She is also termed "the great whore." She is a "mother." She has a large family of daughters. They also are "harlots." These harlot daughters are none other than the sects which came out of her; and these have produced many children and grandchildren yes, and great grandchildren. All these harlot institutions—called churches—are of one blood and constitute one great family. All are traceable to Rome, their mother. With the most tender love to all honest souls still held captive in these cages of deception, we declare that, in the light of truth, Satan is the father of sectism, Rome its mother. It forms no part of the pure bride of Christ. As the mother's name is Babylon, we conclude that this is the family name. The multiplicity of human sects, from the mother down to the very latest daughter born into the family, are Mystery, Babylon, "that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Rev. 17:5, 18).

  Just as literal Babylon held the Israelities captive until God proclaimed his desolating judgments upon her, and warned Israel to flee 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 heaven proclaims her fall. An angel having great power is heard crying "mighty with a strong voice, saying, Babylon 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 I 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 se God's pure saints and oppose Bible unity. True, there are exceptions, i 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. " I n Rev. 17: 5, a scarlet harlot is seen sitting upon the seven headed and ten horned monster, and d 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 tile 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 seine 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 hats 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 Baptistism, etc., etc. Methodism has attempted to reform all, but has reformed itself into many forms of Wesleyanism. All of them retain in their bosom in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrines, and observances—various relics of popery. They are at best a reformation of popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and traditions of men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands.'—On Baptism, p. 15.

  "Again, he says: 'The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother off harlots, the church of Rome.' How any man could possess as much light on this subject as did Mr. Campbell, and then build a sect himself, is more than I can understand.

  " Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish church: 'If she be the mother, who are the daughters? It must be the corrupt, national, established churches that came out of her.'—Dow's Life, p. 542.

"In the Religious Encyclopedia, Article Antichrist, we read: 'The writer of the book of Revelation tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues." If such persons are to be found in the "mother of harlots," with much less hesitation may it be inferred that they are connected with her unchaste daughters, those national churches which are founded upon what are called Protestant principles.'

  "In the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge we read: 'An important question, however, says Mr. Jones, still remains for inquiry: Is Antichrist confined to the church of Rome? The answer is readily returned in the affirmative by Protestants in general; and happy had it been for the world had that been the case. But although we are fully warranted to consider that church as "the mother of harlots," the truth is that by whatsoever arguments we succeed in fixing that odious charge upon her, we shall, by parity of reasoning, be obliged to allow other national churches to be her unchaste daughters, and for this plain reason, among others, because in their very constitution and tendency they are hostile to the nature of the kingdom of Christ.'

  " One of Martin Luther's guests remarked that the world might continue fifty years, and he replied: 'Pray God that it may not exists so long; matters would be even worse than they have been. There would rise up infinite sects and schisms, which are at present hidden in men's hearts and nature. No; may the Lord come at once, for there is no amendment to be expected.'

  "Mr. Hartly, a learned churchman, has remarked as follows: 'There are many prophecies which declare the fall of the ecclesiastical powers of the Christian world, and though each church seems to flatter itself with the hope of being exempted, yet it is very plain that the prophetical characters belong to all. They all have left the true, pure, simple religion, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men.'

  " Says Mr. Simpson, in Plea for Religion: 'We Protestants, too, read the declaration of the third angel against the worshipers of the beast and his image and make ourselves easy under the awful denunciation by applying it exclusively to the church of Rome; never dreaming that they are equally applicable not only to the English, but to every church establishment in Christendom, which retains any of the marks of the beast. For though the Pope and the church of Rome is at the head of the grand twelve hundred and sixty years' delusion, yet all other churches, of whatever denomination, whether established or tolerated, which partake of the same spirit, or have instituted doctrines and ceremonies inimical to the pure and unadultered gospel of Christ, shall sooner or later share in the fate of that immense fabric of human ordinances.'

  "Says Mr. Hopkins: 'There is no reason to consider the antichristian spirit and practices confined to that which is now called the church of Rome. The Protestant churches have much of Antichrist in them, and are far from being wholly reformed from the corruptions and wickedness, in doctrine and practice, in it. Some churches may be more pure and may have proceeded farther in a reformation than others; but where can the church be found which is thoroughly purged from her abominations? None are wholly clear from an antichristian spirit and the fruits of it. . . And as the church of Rome will have a large share in the cup of indignation and wrath which will be poured out, so all the Christian world will have a distinguished portion of it: as the inhabitants of it are much more guilty than others. There is great reason to conclude that the world, particularly that part of it called Christian and Protestant, will yet make greater and more rapid advances in all kinds of moral corruption and open wickedness, till it will come to that state in which it will be fully ripe and prepared to be cut down by the sickle of divine justice and wrath.'

  "Mr. O. Scott (Wesleyan Methodist) says: "The church is as deeply infected with a desire for worldly gain as the world. Most of the denominations of the present day might be called churches of the world, with more propriety than churches of Christ. The churches have so far gone from primitive Christianity that they need a fresh regeneration—a new kind of religion.'

  "Said T. DeWitt Talmage: 'I simply state a fact when I say that in many places the church is surrendering, and the world is conquering. .... There is a mighty host in the Christian church, positively professing Christianity, who do not believe the Bible, out and out and in and in.... Oh I we have magnificent church machinery in this country; we have sixty thousand American ministers; we have costly music; we have great Sunday schools; and yet I give you the appalling statistics that in the last twenty five years, laying aside last year, the statistics of which I have not yet seen—within the last twenty five years the churches of God in this country have averaged less than two conversions a year each! There has been an average of four or five deaths in the churches. How soon, at that rate, will this world be brought to God? We gain two; we lose four. Eternal God! what will this come to,'

  "Bishop Roberts said: 'The popular religion of this country is not the religion of the New Testament. It has some of its features but not all. It is lacking in grand fundamental elements. It answers many good purposes—restrains, refines, elevates, and gives to society a high grade of civilization; but fails to secure the great end which Christianity is designed to accomplish—the salvation of the soul. It dazzles but to blind, it promises but to deceive; it allures by worldly considerations to a heaven of purity, which no worldliness can enter; it gives to its votaries, who long to eat of forbidden threatened evils, and leads them on by siren strains from the paradise of purity into the broad road which ends at last in the blackness of the darkness of an eternal night of despair!'

  " Says the Golden Rule: 'The Protestants are outdoing the popes in splendid, extravagant folly in church building. Thousands on thousands are expended in gay and costly ornaments to gratify pride and a wicked ambition, that might and should go to redeem the perishing millions ! Does the evil, the folly, and the madness of these proud, formal, fashionable worshipers stop here? These splendid monuments of popish pride, upon which millions are squandered in our cities, virtually exclude the poor for whom Christ died, and for whom he came especially to preach.'

  "The report of the Michigan Yearly Conference, even as long ago as 1851, published in the True Wesleyan of November 15, says: 'The world, commercial, political, and ecclesiastical, are alike. and are together going in the broad way that leads to death. Politics. commerce, and nominal religion, all connive at sin. reciprocally aid each other, and unite to crush the poor. Falsehood is unblushingly uttered in the forum and in the pulpit; and sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of the heathen, go unrebuked in all the great denominations of our land. These churches are like the Jewish church when the Savior exclaimed, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." '

  " Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, says: 'The truly righteous are diminished from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart. The professors of religion of the present day, in every church, are lovers of the world, conformers to the world. Lovers of creature comfort, and aspirers after respectability. They are called to suffer with Christ, but they shrink even from reproach. Apostasy, apostasy, APOSTASY, is engraver on the very front of every church; and did they know it, and did they feel it, there might be hope; but alas ! they cry, "We are rich, and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing. " '

  "I have by no means exhausted the supply of similar testimonies of Protestants now before me, but for lack of space I must conclude. In the face of these amazing facts can any one deny that Protestantism is a part of great Babylon and is in a fallen condition?

  " 'The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.'certain writer on this text has said: 'Who take the lead in all the extravagancies of the age, Church members. Who load their tables with the richest and choicest viands? Church members. Who are foremost in extravagance in dress, and all costly attire? Church members. Who are the very personification of pride and arrogance Church members. Where shall we look for the very highest exhibition of the luxury, even show, and pride of life, resulting from the vanity and sin of the race, Answer, To a modern church assembly on a pleasant Sunday.' Though this writer interpreted the text literally, yet he spoke a vast amount of truth, as every one knows.

  "Consider, too, the wickedness carried on everywhere in sect Babylon unrebuked, with the preachers ofttimes in the lead. Shows, festivals, frolics, grab bag parties, cakewalk lotteries, kissing bees, etc. If the apostle [John] were here today and we should inform him of a modern church entertainment where a bared female foot, projecting from beneath a curtain, was sold to the highest gentleman bidder, who had the privilege of kissing its owner and taking her to supper, he would probably answer, 'Have I not told you, " Babylon is fallen"?' If his attention were called to the fact that the members of a prominent church, in a novel entertainment, displayed the likeness of a donkey, minus the tail, while the members one by one were blindfolded, and, amid the uproarious laughter of the crowd assembled, were given the detached part to see who could place it the nearest where it belonged, he would say with double emphasis, 'Have I not told you, "BABYLON THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN, AND IS BECOME THE HABITATION OF DEVILS, AND T H E HOLD OF EVERY FOUL SPIRIT, AND A CAGE OF EVERY UNCLEAN AND HATEFUL BIRD " ? ' The 'abominations' are by no means confined to the mother in the Revelation but are also to be found in abundance in connection with her harlot daughters."