The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 397

,1g1&e 111Aal BabylOR tl1(J8. Be like Babylon, and you are Babylon. Her doom ill yours, aud her final fate yours also. For the law of God is, "Wheresoever the carcase is, tt1<1re will the vultures," et.c. (Matt. uiv. 28). For this is- IL Tn LA w THAT THEY EXBHPLIFY. Our Lord had been telling of Divine judgments coming, and his disciplea had wanted to know to whom he referred, and when. and where. And our Lord's answer is the declaration of thie law. And, like IO many of our Lord's sayings, it is vividly symbolic in form. It appeals to the imagination and ll8e8 it that the mind may be more impressed. Often had hie hearen 11een such incident a.a that told of in this law. " Fot 1n the lauds of the E&11t, when a wild beast falls in the desert, or a beast of burden on the highway, there is for a time no stir in the heavens. But far above human ken the vulture is floating, poised on his wingu and looking downward. Hie eye soon detects the motionless thing, for he hunts by an eyesight unequalled in power among all living tbings. and like a stone he dro[l8 through miles of air. (Jthera floating in the same upper region see their brother's descent, and know its meaning. One dark speck after another grows swiftly upon the horizon, ai,d in a few moments fifty vultures are around the carrion. Now, thie illustrates, and with astonishing point and sharpness, the suddenness, the usefulness, and the necessity, of judgment. There is no delay if utter corruption has set in. Inevitable, swift, unerring, as the vultures' descent on the carcase, is the jud~ment- coming of the Son of man to corrupt communities and to corrupt men" (S. Brooke). Given the body, the bird will not be far off. The city told of here was such a carcase, and the vulture-swoop is what the chapter describeR. And there have been, are, and will 'be, manyfuifiJ,menta of tliia law. Sodom and Gomorrah; the Canaanites; the first fall of Jerusalem; Babylon; Persia; Jerll8Slem's second and last fall; Home by the Gotha; papal Rome at the Reformation; the French Revolution; etc. ;-all these and many others reveal the working of the same law. But no doubt Rome was m011t of all in St. John's wiud, and of her fall his thoughts were full. "'Rome shall perish-write that word In the blood that she hath spilt• Perish, hopeless and abhorred, Deep in ruin aa m guilt." And U la as ww <If individuals as of communitiea. See that blear-eyed, ragged, shivering, and every way disreputable-looking wretch, that is reeling out of the ginHhop, and as he staggers along poisouing the air with his foul breath and yet fouler words- what a wreck the man.is! Health gone and character; home, and friends, and Iivdihood, and all that made life worth having; and life itself going likewise. The vultures of judgment have plucked him well-nigh hare, and they a.re at their deadly work atilL Go into the wards of hospitals, the cells of prisons, the asylums for lunatics, in convict.- yards, or mou11ting the steps of the scaffold on which they are to die,-in all such placea you may see wretched men and women in whom is fulfilled the law, of the operation of which this chapter tells. Note, therefore-- . Ill. 'l'HE NATURE AND NECESSITY OP TBB "COMING OUT" BEBE COMMANDED. And: 1. .As to the first of tliese: how may we come out, etc.? (1) Sometim,·e we mus, literally do this. As Lot from Sodom; as the Christians from Jerll8Slem; ll8 Paul did from the synagogues. But very often we cannot leave where we are. 'l'hen we must obey this word by seeing to it (2) "that we be not partakera of her sine." Come ou, protessedly and avowedly in confession of Chrillt. Come out from the oompany, tu pleasures, the habits, of the ungodly place in which your lot may be cast. And especially (3) come out unto Christ (cf. Heb. xiii. 13, "Let us go forth therefore -lo him"). Consecration to him will be a real obedience to this word. 2• ..-Ind tkw la needful. How little we fear the judgments of God on i;iu I We do not see the vultures, and therefore think the carcase will be let alone. If it be some present, seen, peril tha, threatens the lives of men, how eager then are we to warn and save I A s!Lort while ago the Marjelen See, that is formed by the melting of one part of the great Aletech Glacier, suddenly burst through its icy barriers. The whole volume of waters began pouring down beneath the glacier, along the rapid descent of its sloping :fluor, towards the ed;!e of the gorge over which they would plunge in leap after leap down to the Rhone valley far beneath. A village liea at the foot. of the gorge where the glacier '*llftUI p!>l\l'B itiielf into. ~be Rhone. That village was now i.~ a~ful peril. The people ~b.o liv~ 1111Ar the See \elegraphed in,sta.ntl,r-for the h, ,tel hard by had a tt-le:.:raph station-to the village the tidings of what had occurred, that. they might, if po$1!ible, e..,cape. Hap_pily tlu~ Rhone was very low and shallow at the tima, and so the immelll36 r~h o! waters that suddenly. pawed in was able to get away without much ~IIl.l'ge accrui~ to the people OA its bauks. That peril was ~\eved in, and endeavour i:,:i,ade to .save those exposed to it. But the judgment o( God against sinf\11 011,\ions and :is~who walizes or fully believes that? Who ~ from the wrath to come? yet, if there be one atom of truth in God'.i W or,,, ap.d in, all history, that wrath will oome on every i;inful soul. God give us to really b~lfon thial-S. O. Ver. 21.-" No more." Six times over does thi~ word recur, ai;i.d always oonoerni:ng the same f&et. That fact, therefore, must be notable, and i11 intended to be noticed by us. Of what, then, is it thus repeatedly said, it is "no J:11.0re"? A glance at ~ chapter Bhowa that "the great oity Babylon" is .spoken of, apd that accursed city meant heathen Rome to the mind of St. John. But full well we know that even when lame pagan gave way to Rome papal, evil and sin, bloody persecution and cruel wrong, did not disappear. Therefore we take Babylon to mean far more than any Rome, or any city that is or has been on the face of the earth; we take it as, telling of tk- whole kfflgdvm, of ml,-that mighty empire, that hoary sinner agaillllt God and man. Thongh St. John meant Rome, his words tell of far more th&J1,Rome. And \fe, coming so far further down in the world's history, are able and gla,d to ~ i,n them. this fuller meaning which we believe to have been in the Diviae minq, though not in that of his setvant. Let Babylon stand, then, for the city where Sab¥i's seat is-the whole kingdom. and dominion of the devil, and let 118 listen to the six. times repeated stroke of the word "110 more," which in our text and two following ~eri,es. may be beard. 'fhe city is to be" no more:' and her mus;iq "1,10 more," and her trade "no more," ancl her food.- supplies "no more," and her lamp-lit feasts "no more," and her marriage festivals "no more." Thus, by the utter desolation of a great city, such as that wl,kh came on Babylon, is set forth the foot of the f;lnal and complete overthrow of that kingdom of evil of which.Babylon was the ancient type, and Rome, in St. John's day, the embodi- ment. Snch utter overthrow is- l,. S:wNIFIED BY SYMBOL. Sei;i the mighty angel lifting aloft the huire,ai;,.d pqnderoua lJlP.Jstone and then hurling it, with all his force, into the depths of the sea.. 'fher:e, hucied out of eight, sunk: down inl.Q ~he bed of ocean, it shall never more b~ seen. ~µeh is the symbol. Onl) that seemed little likely of fulfilment when it was given, l\nd even now, oftentimes, seerna as if it never would be fulfilled. II. VERIFLED BY FACT. Babylon:had fallen, in spite of a!l its greatness, and heathen Rvme was hastening to her fall. And other such Babylons have riS('n, n.nd wrought their evil, ~d rioted in their sin, and, like her, have fallen. 'l'heref"re Wt< may be. 111111wed that the last and greatest of t,hem all will also one day be"" no more. n IIL LONGED FOR BY THE OPPRESSED. 0 How long, 0 Lord, how long, dost thou n9t avenge? "--such has been tha cry of the oppressed for weary ages. "Thy kingdom come," is the cry w11 put up day; by day. lV. PRo.MIBED IN THE GOSPEL. "'l'he Spirit of the Lord i• upon me," 1aaid Jesus, •, bt•cau11e he hati). l\llointed me to. preach glad tidings to the poor," etc. (Luke iv.).· And shis is the gospel, th!).t the kingdom of evil shall be "no more." It is present ltith llS now, we know, in all its forms. But it is not always so to be. Ere the glad tidiQgs were proclaimed, good men, &Qre perplex.et! and troubled, pondered mu.eh and 8'lily over the mystery of evil. They COi.lid. npt understand how God ronld let it be, l!{oi;do we fully understand even now. But this muoh we know, that it is but for a tjme. And faith is able to grasp the pro!llise of the gospel, and to "rest in the Lord, 11nil. w,ait patiently for him." V. 'R.EJ<>ICED IN BY 8,1.INTS. The jQf of IJ,U heaven l!eca,use of this overthrow of evil iii told of in the next chnpter. Their Allelui1¥1~end wi~easingly, for that _God hath jw.l~ed the accursed city and establ~ped_ hi~ own reign. VI. CREDIBLE TO REASON. The qviclonce for the Divine ex.i~tence and the Divine character-as holy, jnsr, wise, and ~ood-becomes more convincing the more it is oonsid~ JlQtwitbstanding ~ e,x,isteQce of a kingdom of eviL Doubtl81111 that.  a :nm. 1.....2t.J TRE. BE.VBLATION 01!' S'l\. JOJJN Tai mvum. 4-U