"IS NOT THIS GREAT BABYLON THAT I HAVE BUILT?"
By Editor
THESE were the words of the proud emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, as he looked from his gorgeous palace over the city, which wealth and power had clothed in barbaric splendor. "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" Dan. 4:30. But even "while the word was in the king's mouth," a voice from heaven said, "The kingdom is departed from thee," and Nebuchadnezzar was driven out among the beasts of the field. To us there is a striking parallel to this in the last days of the World's Fair and the death of Mayor Harrison. We indulge in no vituperation of the dead mayor. He was doubtless like the majority of public men and politicians, and a good type of the character of the city over which he was mayor, and of this present selfish, over-boastful age. Sabbath day, October 28, he had welcomed the mayors of fifty other cities, and made a very brilliant speech. He said that he expected to live "more than half a century," and at that time London would be trembling for fear that Chicago would surpass her, while New York would say, "Let us go to the metropolis of America." In his closing remarks he said:— "In the name of Chicago I welcome you all here to see this dying effort of Chicago—Chicago that never could conceive what it would not attempt, and yet has found nothing that it could not conceive." Almost while the words were in his mouth—that very evening—he was shot. He died almost with the Great Babylon of the World's Fair. It is well for men now to remember that the "Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." But to remember this does not mean, as some of our National Reformers seem to think, for the government or governors to assume God's authority, or to rule as his agents in things religious. The spirit of the world is, as of yore, the spirit of boastful self-exaltation. And this is the spirit of "Christian" America and "Christian" Chicago, but it is not the Spirit of Christ.