on, and now deceive the people in making them
believe that they and their sect institutions are of God because God
manifested himself to their predecessors. In this verse we also learn that
an image was made unto the first beast. Upon the work of each reformer a
sect institution was organized, which was fashioned after the Roman
Catholic sect the mother of all sects.

According to the words of the fifteenth verse these images will in some
future day, which the Lord knows, find a consummation in one great image,
unto which all bow and pay homage or else suffer martyrdom. To receive the
mark of the beast as spoken of in verse sixteen is to receive the
ceremonies and customs and doctrines peculiar to each respective sect. Any
one acquainted with the customs and doctrines of the different
denominations can to-day determine to what denomination a stranger belongs
by his dress or manner of speech. The number six hundred sixty-six refers
to the number of leading religious denominations.

We will now, briefly as possible, consider the first eight verses of the
seventeenth chapter of Revelation. In verse one John speaks of seeing a
great whore sitting upon many waters. In verse two he speaks of the kings
of the earth becoming drunk on the wine of her fornication. This has all
been true in the papacy. There is in this hierarchy an enchanting,
delusive spirit that has intoxicated her subjects. This is the real secret
of her power.

In Rev. 17:5 the apostasy is termed "Mystery, Babylon the Great, The
Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." Here we see again the
apostasy in two forms or generations. The mother is the first, and is
identical with the first beast of Rev. 13:1. The harlot daughters are the
second, and are identical with the second beast of Rev. 13:11. We consider
it needful to enquire what is meant by the term

Babylon.

There is the natural world and the spiritual world. Babylon has existed
under both. There are many references made to it in both the Old and New
Testaments. In the Old Testament we find the origin and final doom of
literal Babylon. In the Apocalypse we find the origin and final doom of
spiritual Babylon, the antitype. In the days of Noah the world became very
wicked and God destroyed all save Noah and his family. For a time after
the flood the people were righteous and the whole earth was one language
and one speech. Gen. 11:1. God's people in those days all spoke the same
language