Result of Babylon's Fall
By Prof. J. A. L. Derby
THOSE who read last week's issue of this paper understand the prophetic significance of the word "Babylon." Ancient Babylon fell, not because her mighty walls crumbled in decay or because her soldiery was the less valiant. The mystic handwriting appeared on the wall, "Thou art weighed and found wanting. Thy kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians." Not because in times of peace she had failed to provide herself for war, but because her iniquity arose as a stench to heaven, and God could no longer endure her. No nation ever fell because of its physical weakness. Its first fall is a moral fall. Righteousness is the strength of a nation. "The throne is established by righteousness." Prov. 16:12. It is a sad short-sightedness of moral vision that relies on armies and navies. There seems to be a dim consciousness of this fact, or a clear consciousness with a very dim conception of its bearings, in the minds of many religious persons to-day. For, flying to the opposite extreme, they conclude that governments should directly support religion if not enforce some of its precepts. We do not impugn their sincerity or their patriotism; but the age is such as to freight this sentiment with consequences dangerous to government and destructive of true religion. Let us reflect on the situation. International Apprehension.
On the one hand we have everywhere national apprehension. There is no genuine international faith or comity. The nations are angry. Rev. 11:18. What nation, as a government, do we trust as influenced by justice instead of by selfish policy?—Not one. What nation does England, France, Germany?—Not one. Every government is suspicious of every other. Each one is straining every resource to arm and equip itself to fight. Then, added to this fear of things from without, there is everywhere apprehension concerning domestic evils. What with terrorism, labor troubles, socialism, political corruption, increase of crime, drunkenness, lynching, divorce, factional strife and the rest, thoughtful men are at their wits' end. It is times like these that have driven despairing men and women into monasteries and convents in hope of finding a calm and peaceful refuge from the troublous times. Over against this dread of impending national disaster, or, perhaps, concomitant with it, there is on all hands religious decline. Old faiths and creeds have almost ceased to hold or restrain men. A false species of science has been laboring for years to destroy the old religious concepts. And it has quite succeeded. Not that there is not much that might as well be let go forever; but along with the useless has gone the foundations of true religion. When, for instance, there is no ultimate end or basis of morals than social utility, when this life is practically the be-all and end-all of existence, we may be sure that no very strong cords will bind men's consciences. When, along with some exploded religious notions foisted on the Bible in dark ages, there goes the belief that it is only a book among books, instead of a revelation of God to men, we may as well make up our minds that lawlessness will rule society. The fact is, our very system of public education has assumed the work of leading the rising generation to reject the Bible as man's rule of faith and practise, to regard it as of no more authority than Homer's Iliad or the Vedas of India. A little over a week ago the writer received a letter from a young lady attending one of the higher institutions of public instruction in Boston. She was very much puzzled to know what to do. For months one of her teachers has been laboring as if it were his duty to bolster up the theory of evolution with supposed evidences from every possible source—embryology, morphology, paleontology, comparative anatomy, rudimentary organs, and so forth. Now this sort of thing is not the exception in our public schools; it is the rule. The result is that society is rapidly approaching the state of mind and morals where it has absolutely no religious foundation. The consequences are already manifest—"Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth." Luke 21:26. The reign of violence, crime, lawlessness, and passion is appalling. In this extremity men turn to their leaders in religion for help. What do they find?—Vagueness, speculation, higher criticism, drifting—confusion—Babylon. Long ago the Book that is being rejected as an antiquated volume of moral maxims, would have told us that all these things are signs that the course of evil has reached its climax, that to prolong the course of time would be to perpetuate iniquity to no purpose. The final warning, based on the infallible word of God, is now being given. But will Babylon heed? Will the apostate Christianity of these perilous times turn from her worldliness, her pride, her vanity, her self-sufficiency? Will she listen to the message? She has already rejected it. And what is the result? Something must be done. Everybody admits that. If the churches are powerless, what hope is there for the age? The Two Sources of Power.
We are not left in uncertainty as to how Babylon will attempt to meet the emergency. The things written aforetime for our learning, again instruct us clearly. If the churches are powerless, they must have power. There are two ways of seeking this; one is to get it from God; the other is to get it from man. The Lesson of Prophecy and History.
Now prophecy and history coincide in teaching us that just in proportion as religion has lost the power of God, it has sought the aid of civil government. And of all the abominations in God's sight, the Scripture reveals this to be one of the worst. Ages ago the prophet of the Most High made known how He regards the act of His followers looking to the civil arm for aid: "Wo to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! . . . Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever; that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord." Isa. 30:1-9. The Cause of the Apostasy.
Here the cause of this apostasy is made plain: it is the rejection of the law of God. Do we see this to-day?—We certainly do. For years the definite call has gone forth for the Lord's people to return to His law by keeping His Sabbath—the seventh day. His people have refused. Babylon is fallen. Deserted of God, she seeks worldly power to enforce a false sabbath—Sunday. Of His church, the Lord says: "Thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name." Isa. 54:5. He uses the dearest relation that mankind knows to illustrate His tender love for His people. "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you." Jer. 3:14. And when His church joins itself to another, the Scriptures call her a harlot. Read the third chapter of Jeremiah. Again, the church is likened in its purity to a chaste virgin. The purity of chaste womanhood is probably the mightiest force in society outside of the Bible. It is not the nun's religious garb or the sacred sanctions of her church that give her immunity anywhere. It is her vow of purity. When a vestal virgin despised her oath, the Romans showed their abhorrence by burying her alive. So it seems God expresses His repugnance to the illicit connection between the church and the world—both in adopting its ways and in seeking its aid—by using the strongest symbol of shameless perfidy and lewdness which language knows. Well may men stand mute with terror when their course calls forth the denunciation so awful in its plainness, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become5the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. . . . Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities." Rev. 18:2-5. Let God's people seek the power of their God, and have nothing to do with the unholy demand for State aid in enforcing religious dogmas.