r _daughters_ must
be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and
follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in
order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The message of
Revelation 14, announcing the _fall_ of Babylon, must apply to religious
bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message
follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days;
therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church has
been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore, in the
eighteenth chapter of the Revelation, the people of God are called upon to
come out of Babylon. According to this scripture, many of God's people
must still be in Babylon. And in what religious bodies are the greater
part of the followers of Christ now to be found? Without doubt, in the
various churches professing the Protestant faith. At the time of their
rise, these churches took a noble stand for God and the truth, and His
blessing was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained to
acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the
principles of the gospel. In the words of the prophet to Israel, "Thy
renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect
through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord
God."(629) But they fell by the same desire which was the curse and ruin
of Israel,--the desire of imitating the practices and courting the
friendship of the ungodly. "Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and
playedst the harlot because of thy renown."(630)

Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome's example of iniquitous
connection with "the kings of the earth"--the state churches, by their
relation to secular governments; and other denominations, by seeking the
favor of the world. And the term "Babylon"--confusion--may be appropriately
applied to these bodies, all professing to derive their doctrines from the
Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects, with widely conflicting
creeds and theories.

Besides a sinful union with the world, the churches that separated from
Rome present other of her characteristics. A Roman Catholic work argues
that "if the Church of Rome were ever guilty of idolatry in relation to
the saints, her daughter, the Church of England, stands guilty of the
same, which has ten churches dedicated to Mary for one dedicated to
Christ."(631)

And D