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Holy Spirit ever present. It is to observe with a serious stedfastness the signs of the times; to compare the features of our generation with the marks given in Scripture of the latter days, of the times of the end. It is to rejoice with a sincere and a thankful joy in every victory won for Christ in I Cor.7.31. the world or in a soul. It is to use this world as not abusing it; to use it as a trust, not as a posCol. 3. 2. session. It is to have the affections set on things Phil. 3. 20. above, not on things on the earth; to have our conversation, our citizenship, already in heaven; to have Col. 3. 3,4. our very life, the life that is most dear and most real and most precious to us, hidden even now with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.

Eph. 5. 14.

Awake then thou that sleepest! Be not found of Him, when He cometh, drowsy and stupified, Lu. 8. 14. overcharged with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, the lamp of grace expiring, or the gar

ment of holiness laid aside.

Vainly shall we call

Mat. 25. 8. then to those who have to give us of their oil; vainly Rev. 6. 16. to the mountains and rocks to fall on us and hide us.

How shall we then bewail our procrastination, our indifference, our hardness of heart; our omitted prayers, our neglected Bible, our profaned or wasted Sundays! God grant that this night may witness in some of us that first awakening, or that resolute

return, which shall change us by His grace from

listless sleepers into earnest, vigilant, diligent watch

ers! So, when He appears, may we be found of 2 Pet.3.14. Him in peace: when He cometh and knocketh, may Lu. 12. 36. we open to Him immediately.

QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY,
March 2, 1862.

LECTURE XXXI.

REVELATION XVII.

I AND there came one of the angels who had the seven bowls, and talked with me, saying, Hither: I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that is seated upon 2 the many waters; with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they who inhabit the earth were 3 made drunken out of the wine of her fornication. And he bore me away into a desert in spirit; and I saw a woman seated upon a wild beast of scarlet colour, teeming with the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. AND the woman was clad in crimson and scarlet; gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls; having a golden cup in her hand teeming with abominations and with the 5 unclean things of the fornication of the earth; and upon her forehead a name written, A SECRET: Babylon the GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMI

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NATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6 AND I saw the woman drunken out of the blood of the saints, and out of the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and 7 I wondered, when I saw her, a great wonder. And the angel said to me, Why didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the secret of the woman, and of the wild beast which carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. THE wild beast which thou sawest was and is not: and

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he is about to ascend out of the abyss, and he goes his way into destruction. And they that dwell upon the earth shall be astonished, whose name has not been written on the roll of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the wild beast, how that he was, and is not, and shall appear. Here is the understanding that hath wisdom. The 9 seven heads are seven mountains, where the woman is seated upon them. And they are seven kings: the five fell; the 10 one is; the other came not yet; and when he hath come, he must continue for a short time. And the wild beast II which was and is not, even he himself is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes his way into destruction. And 12 the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who received not a kingdom as yet: but they receive an authority as kings [during] one hour with the wild beast. These have one 13 mind, and they give their power and authority to the wild beast. These shall make war with the Lamb; and the Lamb 14 shall conquer them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they who are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. And he saith to me, The waters which thou 15 sawest where the harlot sitteth, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which thou 16 sawest, and the wild beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and herself they shall burn up in fire. For God gave into 17 their hearts to do His mind, and to make one mind, and to give their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of

God shall be accomplished. And the woman whom thou 18 sawest is the great city which hath a kingdom over the kings of the earth.

LECTURE XXXI.

REVELATION XVII. 17.

Until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

Rev. 16.19. TOWARDS the close of the 16th chapter we read in general terms that great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. The section upon which we now enter fills up that faint outline showing us with some precision what is meant by Babylon; where that power stands in the world's history; what shall be the accompaniments and what the consequences of its fall: again bringing us, at the close of the 19th chapter, to the end of all things, and leaving but one section more after it to complete the whole history, and to bring the Heb. 4. 9. Church of God into the rest which remaineth in heaven for His people.

Verse 1.

And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, and talked with me, saying, Hither: I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot

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