The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 396

16, '19). 8. But Uw lament la uttwly selfish. They mourn ,not because of the wil:kednese; that doea not trouble them, Nor even for Babylon's sufferings. But becallB8 the hope of their gain is gone (ver. 19). 4'. .dnd they do nol go lo her help (Yer. 16). They stand afar o:lf for the fear of her torment. Look well at these friends, for such' a.re they that sin and sinners call friei1da. "There ill a Friend that. 1ticketh closer than a brother," but such Babylon never gets. · IV. ALL REA.VD, ANGELS AND 8Aill'l'S, BBJOICB. When we read over the subject of their joy, we find that: 1. It ia •of li«amc, in thia Babylon there waa nothing inno- cent or good. There wu much. Vere. 22, 23 tell of what was lawful and right in any community. In the worst of men there is good. None are utierly bad. But: 2; That Ou main cluwact«wtic of her life wa., wil. And, therefore, her destruction ,raa a matt.er of joy. She deceived all nations. She slew God's saints, 'l'hua: 3. Ju,ticf, wa, done. And: 4. It was completily done. See the symbol of the angel with the millstone (ver. 21). Nothing like this has ever been accomplished yet, but this proJ>hecy is a sure promise that i~ will be. "Who shall live when the Lord doeth thii ?" Amongst whom shall we be found? Let us now "eoms out of her, that we be not," etc. (vsr. 4').-S. 0. Ver. 4.-Tke fall of Babylon. "Come out of her, my people," This ia not the aole similar warning which Scripture contains. Cf. the warning to Lot to come out of Sodom; the warning to Israel to come away from the tents of Korab, Dathan, etc.; the warning to God's people (Jer. Ii. 45) to come away from Babylon, the old literal Babylon : " My people, go ye out of her I and deliver ye every man his soul." And now we have the same warning concerning the Babylon told of in this chapter. Inquire, therefore- L WHAT cm OB COMMUNITY m JOA.NT? And we reply: 1. Nol a,ncknf Baby'lorl. For we have here not history, but prophecy. Nor did the ancient Babylon answer in all respeots to the description here given. It was never a mercantile city. 2. Nor, tJ11:Cluaively, Ure Rcm.e of St. John'• day. For, again, the resemblance is lacking in many important particulars, though unquestionably present in others. And although there was a destruction of Rome, more than one such, during the awful days of Nero and the wild anarchy of his immediate successors-and, no doubt, these facts formed the groundwork of the description here given-still, what happened then does by no means fill up the language used here. And the large epaoe given to the mercantile and maritime greatness of this city has never been applicable to Rome. 8. Nor tA4 Rome destroye.d. by tM Goth,. When she fell she had long ceased to be "drunk with the blood of God's saint.s." Nor waa she then the great city of the world. Constanti• nople had taken that place. 4. Nor papal Rom6. She oftentimes in her. history prestfuts a hideous resemblance to the city told of here. This feature and that are frightfully like. But nothing but the blindest bigotry can assert that St. John would have drawn the picture he has if papal Rome had been in his mind. 5. Nor ia it London; though, if there be any city in the world that answers to the Babylon of St. John, London is, far and away, that city. For where, more than in London, will you find a city that doth more glorify itself (ver, 7); or spends more in wanton luxury; or that is more self-confident, thinking, if not saying, "I am a queen, and am no widow, aud shall eee no sorrow"? Or where ia there a city that has Wider connections with ilte whole world, so that all the merchants of the earth look to her; for she it ia who more than any other is the buyer of their goods? And what city has a nster multitude of bodies and souls (ver. 13) given up and enslaved to minister to her hu:ury, her lust, her wealth? Is she not "clothed in flue linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls,'' besauae she is possessed of '' 110 great. richea "? And see the forest of masts in her river and docks; and the throng of ahipmasters and sailors and them that trade by sea. And if " the beast" meant, aa it ,did, the ungodly world-spirit, embodied now here, now there, but which always and everywhere, though in varied form, " makea war with the Lamb," and is essentially antichristian,-if such beast sustained the Babylon of this chapter, what else sustains the metropolis of our land? But though all this may well cause much searching -0f heart to ourselves, we do not for a moment think that Babylon is London. No; that Dabylon is: 6. Ewry nation, city, community, or peraon who lhall b«.omt in God'• GIL fllJt, 1-24.] THE BBVELATION OJ' BT. JOHN THE DIVINB. 489