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“BABYLON THE GREAT”

D. W. McLaughlin in “Free Methodist” says: “The Babylonish church has the outward body, or form of religion, but not the inward spirit of vital piety; consequently the Babylonish church is spiritually dead.

All fallen sects, from which the inward spirit of vital religion has departed (or is departing), bear upon their foreheads the likeness or semblance of the “mother of harlots,” and of all abominations. It is admitted that the Papal church is the first in the transgression, consequently the designation, “mother of harlots,” applies only to her. Hence, the symbolic description of the great harlot will apply to every apostate sect that bears her likeness, or semblance. Let us note carefully the marks of apostasy in the Babylonish church. She is proud, haughty, high-minded, seeks worldly power and greatness; says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. She is artificially and gaudily attired, arrayed in gold and pearls. She is rich, lives deliciously, and makes rich the merchants because of her costliness. She despises and persecutes the true saints of God. She seeks the friendship of the world, and is guilty of spiritual fornication. She fellowships the world, provides carnal entertainments for them, invites them to God’s holy temple to engage in festivals, lotteries, fairs, and carnal devices, thus making of God’s house a den of thieves. These are the marks of apostasy, and wherever they bear away and predominate, be it in Roman or Protestant countries, there is the mark of the “beast,” and the spirit of mystic Babylon; and the command of God is, “Come out of her my people, &c.” Rev. 18:4.

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— December, 1880 —