sh talent is said to have been
one hundred and fourteen pounds. Such a mass of ice descending from
heaven would beat down everything in its resistless, desolating fury.
There is no intimation, however, of men being killed under this or the
accompanying symbols; therefore as individuals they survive, while the
storm of wrath falls upon the civil and ecclesiastical institutions of
society, resulting in their utter annihilation. This is the "great day
of his wrath" described under the sixth seal, to the symbols of which
this description bears a striking resemblance, as any one can see at a
glance. Well may the oppressors of earth say to the mountains and hills,
"Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath
is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Chap. 6:16, 17.

CHAPTER XVII.

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven
vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will
show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon
many waters:

2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,
and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication.

3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and
I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and
decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden
cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication:

5. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I
wondered with great admiration.

Here again the narrative returns to take up another series of the
history. A number of times we have been taken over the same ground. It
is this feature of the Apocalypse more than any other that has misled
and perplexed commentators. Attempting to explain it as one continuous
narrative from beginning to end, they have been compelled to consider
numerous passages as "digressions," "parentheses," or "episodes," etc.
As already observed, however, the prophecy is not arrang