om, refuse to receive the truth, shut their
eyes, close their ears, and steel their hearts against it, and find their
pleasure in unrighteousness, in going in just the opposite direction;--what
can God do for them? We leave the skeptic himself to answer. For more
years than Spiritualism, in its present phase, has been before the world,
several religious bodies have made a specialty of the great Bible truth
concerning the state of the dead, and life only in Christ, which
effectually shields all those who receive it against the rapping delusion.

7. Rev. 18:2: "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon
the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils,
and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful
bird."

Among the many predictions given in the word of God touching the last
days, is one which foretokens a wide-spread and lamentable declension in
the religious world. The phrase which embodies it, is the one just quoted,
"Babylon is fallen." The term "Babylon" is not intended nor used as a term
of reproach, but rather as a descriptive word setting forth the very
undesirable condition of "mixture" and "confusion" in the religious world.
It is certainly not the Lord's will, who prayed that all his people should
be one, that scores or hundreds of divisions and sects should exist within
his church. That is owing, exclaims the Catholic, to the Protestant rule
of private judgment. It is not. It is owing to that Pandora's box of
mystical interpretation placed in the church by old Origen, that prince of
mischief-makers. By this method, which has no method and no standard, the
interpretations of God's word will ever be as various and numerous as the
whims and fancies that may find a place in the minds of men.

But all this confusion must be remedied in that church which will be ready
for the second advent; for no people will be prepared for translation but
such as worship the Lord in both _spirit_ and _truth_. To bring the church
to this point, a call has been sent to Christendom in the special truths
for this time. Most turn away, but some are taking the stand to which
these circumstances summon them. The process is simple. It is but to read
and obey God's word in the light of what is called the literal rule of
interpretation. No other rule would ever have been thought of, if the
Devil had let the minds of men alone. By this rule the true Sabbath would
always have