Oh! may the servants of God who have been driven into the "wilderness," like the Rev. Peter Teulou Beamish, and the Rev. Francis T. C. Russel, receive the answer to their prayers, which the Prophet received,* and which another servant † of God has thus beautifully paraphrased.

66

'My day of vengeance is at hand; the year
Of my redeemed quickly draweth near;

Yet, hath a remnant been preserved by me,
Seven thousand souls who never bowed the knee,
To Baal's image, nor have kissed his shrine;
These are my Jewels, and they shall be mine,
When to the world my righteousness is shown,
And root and branch, idolatry o'erthrown."

So be it, God of truth! yet why delay?
With thee a thousand years are as a day;
Oh! crown thy people's hopes, dispel their fears;
And be to day with thee a thousand years!
Cut short thy evil, bring the blessed time;
Avenge thine own elect from clime to clime;
Let not an idol in thy path be spared,

All share the fate which Baal long hath shared !
Nor yet seven thousand only worship thee,
Make every tongue confess, bow every knee;
Now o'er the promised kingdoms reign thy son,
One Lord through all the earth, his name be one!
Hast thou not spoken? shall it not be done?

1st Kings, xix. 15, 16, 17, 18. J. Montgomery.

MODERN BABYLON.

"Tis not in mockery of man that earth

Is strewed with splendid fragments-temple, tower;
That realms, where glory sprang full-arm'd to birth
Are desolate, the snake and tiger's bower!
They lie the monuments of misused power,

Not freaks of fate, but warnings against crime:

And ancient Babylon might at this hour,

Had she been guiltless, stand as in her prime,

Nay stand in growing pomp, till God had finished time.

CROLY.

WHEN the prophet Daniel was in captivity in ancient Babylon, he was called on to interpret the dream of Nebuchadnezzar the king; in which his majesty had seen an image with a head of gold, arms of silver, body of brass, legs of iron, feet part of iron and part of clay; which was smitten by a stone cut out without hands ; which stone afterwards became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. The prophet's interpretation is as follows: "Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, strength and glory. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and a third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; so shall it break in pieces and bruise. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for

ever."*

* Daniel ii. 37-44.

From Rollin's Ancient History, we learn how this prophecy has been fulfilled. Ancient Babylon, the first kingdom in the world, was conquered by the Medes and Persians, in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar. The Medes and Persians were conquered by the Greeks. Ancient Rome then became "Mistress of the world," and as the seat of her empire extended over a great part of Asia and Africa, as well as Europe, the whole of the old continent is probably included in Babylon the Great, whose destruction is thus prophesied by St. John, and which is to take place after the Lord's people have obeyed the command to leave it.

"Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord who judgeth her."*

Many commentators say that the Babylon which St.John thus dooms to destruction, is the city of Rome; but as Rome is not a commercial city, its destruction alone could not have the effect of causing that lamentation amongst merchants and kings, which the following texts lead us to expect will one day occur―

"And the kings of the earth, who have lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning: standing a far off for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more."+

European ships are now employed in taking European merchandise all over the world, and when the prophecy is fulfilled, and the old world burned with fire,

many of its kings will probably be on the sea, taking refuge in some part of the new world, from the famine and pestilence which is to precede the fire, some of them perhaps tired of royalty like Charles the Fifth when he went into a monastery.

One of the most remarkable features in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, was religious intolerance. He set up a golden image and commanded that all who would not worship it should be burned in a fiery furnace; and wherever religious persecution exists, the spirit of tyranny which influenced Nebuchadnezzar is influencing those who thus abuse power. Too much of this Babylonish spirit is still visible in all the kingdoms into which Ancient Rome was divided; and also that tendency to pollute the vessels of the temple which was shown by Belshazzar at his impious feast.

One of the consequences of the union of Church and State, is, that kings and prime ministers frequently appoint Bishops to rule over the Church of Christ, who are unworthy of the sacred office, and that thus the care of Christ's flock, is, through them, entrusted to unworthy pastors. But as the inhabitants of the world, before the flood, were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, when the flood came and destroyed them all; and as Belshazzar was feasting and polluting the vessels of the temple, when his kingdom, Ancient Babylon, was destroyed,--so will the kings, queens, princes, bishops and nobles who have not made a right use of wealth and power, be made to feel the justice of their punishment, as well as Belshazzar was made to understand the hand-writing on the wall. The palaces, cathedrals, colleges, manufactories, barracks and prisons of Modern Babylon are all doomed to destruction. Had the precepts of the Saviour of mankind and his apostles

been attended to, many of those buildings would not have been erected. They are all sacrifices to pride; and as meekness should be one of the characteristics of a child of God, they have evidently been erected by persons who were more influenced by the spirit which has been handed down from generation to the successors of the proud monarchs and priests of Ancient Babylon, than the spirit of Him who said, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." When the proud cities of Modern Babylon have been destroyed by earthquakes and fire, the "meek" who have taken refuge in time in the "holy mountain," will again go out and possess it; and the knowledge and experience of the last four thousand years, which the art of printing has put them in possession of, will give them advantages very superior to these which Noah and his family possessed on leaving the ark. The Lord himself has promised to be their teacher, and their occupations are to be such as will make his reign one of righteousness and peace, for a thousand years.

Thus will the prophecy be fulfilled of the stone becoming "a great mountain and filling the whole earth."

We must observe in studying this prophecy that the stone bare no resemblance to the image, and that thus the inhabitants of the kingdom of God, are to be entirely divested of that Babylonish spirit, which still clings to a great number of the inhabitants of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided.

Let us now turn to the history of old Jerusalem, and inquire what was the transgression for which Saul, the first king of the Jews was dethroned; was it not for disobedience in keeping the cattle of the Lord's enemies, to sacrifice to the Lord, when he had been commanded to destroy them? "Samuel also said unto Saul, the