The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 386

life. Although her kingdom ii" "not of this world," her demand is that the world should biw t.o her, In yielding to worldly influence ahe lost her pristine purity and primitive power; she got corrupted, and became more and more the servant of rulers and the instrument of atatea. Thia she has been from before the days of Constantine ·down to this hour. What is conventional Christianity, not only throughout England but throughout Christendom,. to-day? Verily, she is rather a -J than a aownign. Worldly rulers empley her. to consecrate their coronations and to give the aspect of ·sanctity to their· tawdry pageantries, their sensual indulgences, their unrighteous ·exactions, and their bloody wars. Truly, the purest virgin from heaven bas become ·• harlot, the roore creature of wol'ldly power. I am wearied of the cant of making this •harlot the symbQl of papal or J>B,gRn Rome; she is as truly a symbol of Protestant 'Christendom as of papal Rome. The Reformation, in which Wickliffe, '.Melancthon, ·and Luther ao heartily eiigaged, is, for many reasons, more urgently required now. in ·the realm of conventional Christianity. And the reiterated cry of Voltaire against popery in bis day, "Crush the monster I crush the mrnster I" all thoughtful men ·should raise now in relation f.o conventional <Jh,istianUy. Until conventional ·Christianiiy is banished from .the land,and the Christianity of the sermon on the mount iii restored, the moral condition of the human race will sink lower and lower into devildom and corruption. ·' II. WORLDLY PROCLIVITY. "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious atones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand" (ver. 4). Here is worldliness, worldly vanity, and worldly greed. Genuine 'Christianity is essentially unworldly. Its Founder was born in a stable and cradled in ·a manger; he had nowhere to lay bis head. At night the gre,en sod was his pillo'\lv, and the sable heavens bis covering. His disciples be despatched on their mission without "rurse or scrip," and none of his apostles preached the gospel as G meatu of liwlikood. ". have coveted no man's silver, or gohl, or apparel," says Paul, "Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities." But what of convent.ional l'hrutianity, It is an instrument for worldly gain and aggmndizement. Everywhere men trade in the gospel, and the trade is carried on with all the pas,-ionate avarice, foul fallacies, and flatulent pnffings that characterize the market. Pulpits are regarded ns means of livelihood, chapels and churches are become shops, ecclesiastics are the grandees of the world, robed in costly attire and rolling in chariots of opulente. Institutions abound and multiply-, baptized with the name of Christian, where men of feeble talent but crawling craftiness creep into ofllcea of salary and show. I protest that conventional Christianity is not the Christianity of Christ-a Divine entity that "seeketb not her own." The Christ exhibited in the creeds aud inatitutiooa ill as unlike the Christ of the Gospels, as the mechanical force of the manufacturing machine, throwing off commodities for trade, is unlike that vital energy in nature that clothes the landscape with verdure and fills the earth and the water with countless tribes of life. III. RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE. • And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of 'the saint!!, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (ver. 6). "The phraseology," 11ays Moses Stuart, '' is derived from the barbarous custom, stm extant among many pagan nations, of drinking the blood of enemies slain in the way of revenge. Here, then, the fury of the persecutors is depicted in a most graphic manner." Ge11uine <Jhriiltianity 'is essentially tolerant. "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; oharity vannteth not itself, is not puffed up; charity believeth all things," eto. But Christianity corrupted bas always been cruelly intolerant, and this, whether it is called Protestani or papal I True, it does not shed blood as much u of yore, but if it does not t.ake away life it may inflict life annoyancea and disabilities in many respeota more painful than bloodshedding. '!'his ''harlot is a "mother;" her progeny is nuwerous and ev~r multiplying. ·" The mother of harlots." The religious sects which crowd, Christendom are all her daughters, and each seot has the intolerant spirit of its mother, each Accord- ing to its measure is a persecutor, and, as a rule, the smaller the more virulent t:be spirit. Curs snarl and bark more as a rule than mastiffs. Large and affluent congrega- tions can: afford to overlook denominational circumstances, that irritate the smaller and lhe poorer to wrath and rage. · · CoN0Lu210N. Such is corrupt Christianity, which is, alas I the ournnt Chl'istianit:,-. <fZlf '1'HE REVEL.A!l'ION OF ST. JOHN TIIE DIVINE. [CB. xvn.1-18.