Down before the priest to fall. Priests the Monarch's throne outshine, By a dignity divine; Mean compared with these, are kings; To exalt their lordly state; See them, when the prayers they say, Then at Altars, rich and high, Forms exalted to the skies While God's Word dishonored lies; Rome is fondled as a child, Martyrs scorned, and saints reviled ; Truth is bound with priestly chain, Charity and candour slain. Pastors, who their country warn, From their grieving flocks are torn ; From the Church they loved at heart, 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. "My day of vengeance is at hand; the year Yet, hath a remnant been preserved by me, So be it, God of truth! yet why delay ? All share the fate which Baal long hath shared ! 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; 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 afar 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, * Rev. xviii. 8. + Rev. xviii, 9, 10, 11, |