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Lu. 21. 26. look and many a failing heart, is the passage ever effected from one era to another. How much more

shall it be thus with the last of all! When the 2 Pet. 3. 7. words of God are now all fulfilled, and the heavens and the earth that are now are ready for that purifying fire from which shall survive only righteousness, which of us who are here assembled shall meet unmoved that great ordeal? Alas! who shall live when God doeth this?

Nu. 24.23.

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT,

March 23, 1862.

LECTURE XXXII.

REVELATION XVIII.

AFTER these things I saw another angel coming down I out of the heaven, having great authority; and the earth was illuminated out of his glory. And he cried in a mighty 2 voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is the great Babylon, and become a habitation of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hated bird, be- 3 cause out of the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations have drunk, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich out of the strength of her wantonness.

AND I heard another voice out of the heaven, saying, 4 Come ye forth out of her, my people, that ye partake not with her sins, and that ye receive not out of her plagues: because her sins were joined together as far as the heaven, 5 and God remembered her crimes. Give ye back to her as she 6 also herself gave back, and double ye the double according to her works: in the cup wherewith she mingled mingle for her double. In how many soever things she glorified her- 7 self and was wanton, so much torture and mourning give her. Because she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and a widow I am not, and mourning I shall not see; there 8

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fore in one day shall arrive her plagues, death and mourning and famine, and in fire shall she be burned up: because mighty is the Lord the God who judged her.

AND they shall weep and lament over her, the kings of the earth who with her committed fornication and were 10 wanton, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing afar of because of the fear of her torture, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon the mighty city! because in one hour came thy judgment.

II

AND the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over 12 her; because their cargo, no man buyeth any more, cargo of gold and silver and precious stone and pearl and fine linen and crimson and silk and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel [made] out of most precious wood and of brass and of iron and of mar13 ble, and cinnamon and balsam and incense and unguent and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and [cargo] of horses and 14 carriages and bodies, and souls of men. And the fruit of the

desire of thy soul departed from thee, and all things that are rich and that are bright perished from thee, and thou shalt 15 not find them any more. The merchants of these things, who grew rich from her, shall stand afar off because of the fear of 16 her torture weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, which was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and gilded (decked) in gold and precious stone and pearls! because in one hour all that wealth was desolated.

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AND every pilot, and every one who sails to [any] place, and sailors, and all who work the sea, stood afar off 18 and cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, say

ing, What [city is] like the great city? And they cast 19 earth upon their heads and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their vessels on the sea grew rich out of her costliness! because in one hour was she desolated.

REJOICE over her, O heaven, and [ye] the saints and the 20 apostles and the prophets; because God judged your judgment out of her.

AND one (a certain) mighty angel took up a stone as it 21 were a great millstone, and threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with a bound shall Babylon the great city be thrown, and shall not be found any more. And sound of harpers 22 and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters shall not be heard in thee any more, and every artisan of every art shall not be found in thee any more, and sound of millstone shall not be heard in thee any more, and light of lamp shall 23 not shine in thee any more, and voice of bridegroom and of bride shall not be heard in thee any more, because thy merchants were the great men of the earth, because in thy sorcery were all the nations led astray, and in her was z found the blood of prophets and saints and of all that have been slain upon the earth.

*

LECTURE XXXII.

REVELATION XVIII. 4.

Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.

ALL of us have had some experience of the crushing weight of things that are. The present is the real thing to us. For good or for evil we can scarcely be Ps. 30. 6. persuaded that it is not to be permanent. In prosperity we say that we shall never be moved; in adversity, that we shall never be relieved.

It is thus evermore in human life; and God's Word has it especially in view to minister to this necessity. It is the one object of Revelation to lift off the load of the present, and to make something else, something which is not present, more real and more urgent and more persuasive.

grace of faith.

Hence the position assigned in Scripture to the Faith is the opposite of sight. It Heb.11.27. is the seeing that which is invisible. A man who can do that is set free from the tyranny of time and sense. He is able to move in the present as if it

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