In our last we gave some reasons for believing that the nominal churches of the present day are the Babylon of Rev. xiv, 8; xviii, 2, and that her fall is a moral change, and not her final destruction. We now design to point out that fall, and show that Rev. xiv, 8 and xviii, 1—4, do not represent one and the same message, but that Chap. xiv, 8 applies in the past, and that the message of Chap. xviii, 1—4 is yet to be given.
The second angel of Rev. xiv, merely announces the fall of Babylon, while the angel of Chap. xviii, "having great power," not only declares her fall, but also the fact of her becoming "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird," after her fall.—The fact that she is thus filled with corruption, after her fall, is sufficient proof that her fall is merely a moral change for the worse, and not her final destruction.
We have only to compare the present condition of the churches with their state of spirituality ten years since, to see that a change has come over them. This no candid person will deny who has had any connection with, or knowledge of them.
Look back but ten years, and there you will see many powerful revivalists traveling from city to city and from town to town, laboring with their might for the conversion of sinners, laying the gospel axe at the root of the tree, according to what light they had, and God blessing their labors with the conversion of thousands. Where are those revivalists now? Answer: They are, perhaps, settled pastors of churches, and preach year after year without seeing one real conversion.—Or, it may be that they have entered business for a livelihood or wealth. This we do know, that an entire change has taken place relative to them.
Just take a view of the efforts put forth by the different sects, ten years since, for the conversion of perishing sinners. Protracted meetings were held by them for days and weeks in succession. The most spiritual ministers were obtained to preach, even if they were not educated and popular. A minister filled with the Holy Ghost, one that would arouse the people, was what was wanted then. The traveler, journeying the distance of fifty miles, at the season of the year when such meetings were most common, might pass five or six places of worship crowded by hundreds anxiously seeking the Lord.—Prayer-meetings held in almost every neighborhood, and in many places, almost or quite every evening in the week.—Not only ministers, but many of the most active members of the churches, visited from place to place, and from house to house, doing what they could to save souls. The voice of prayer was heard almost everywhere. It was heard not only from the house of worship and the family circle, but shops, barns and groves resounded with earnest petitions from those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness.
Ministers preached with simplicity and power, old saints wept and poured forth the fullness of their souls like young converts, while those who had just tasted the love of Jesus sweetly spoke forth his praise.
Now compare these facts with the present state of things.—Protracted meetings are seldom held, and when they are held, no one reports that much, (if anything,) is accomplished.—And whatever excitement is raised, it generally dies away so very soon that it proves itself to be human excitement, and not the work of Holy Ghost. Many that were the most successful reformation preachers have given up preaching.—Prayer-meetings seldom held, and then but very few to attend them. Family altars broken down, and the voice of prayer seldom heard only by the minister at church. In fact, religion has become a mere form with the churches of the day, destitute of vital godliness. It has ceased to be an every-day matter, being confined almost entirely to Sunday. And if the soul-damning sin of pride can be found on the face of the earth, it may be seen in the display of Sunday worship.
Those who will look at these facts in their true light will agree with us that the churches have fallen. Most of their own members will acknowledge this, though they know not the cause. This is all we contend for, relative to the fall of Babylon, that it is a fall from a measure of spirituality, to a state of lifeless formality. Having a form of godliness, but destitute of the Holy Spirit.
Mark this: We do not take the ground that the churches became Babylon by falling, but, while divided by their different creeds, holding such a confusion of doctrines, having separate interests, and united with the world, they were always worthy of the name Babylon. God has had people there, and has ever blest the labors of the spiritual and humble though in Babylon. This fact does not prove that the "mixture or confusion" of the churches is according to the gospel, or that they are not Babylon.
The correct view of the events represented by the angels of Rev. xiv, will help to an understanding of the cause of this change in the churches. The angel with the everlasting gospel, proclaiming the hour [period] of the judgment come, delivers his message to these churches, but they reject it. The message being from heaven, the rejection of it grieves away from them the Holy Spirit, and they are left in their present fallen condition.
Here let it be understood that the whole Advent body once applied this angel as we now do; but to get rid of other truths which naturally follow from this position, some carry the angels of Rev. xiv back hundreds of years, while others carry them forward into the age to come, after the Lord comes.—But the proclamation of the Advent in our day being a perfect fulfillment of this angel's message in all its parts, we are satisfied to still believe, on this point, as the whole body once believed.
"We would have healed Babylon," says the Prophet, "but she would not be healed." Jer. li, 9. Read the whole chapter. The medicine designed for her cure was the first angel's message of Rev. xiv. But as she refused this, the only thing that could lead her of her confusion of sectarianism, and love of the world, she has fallen. As proof that the Advent message was just calculated to heal Babylon, see its effects upon those who received it. Ministers and people, from all the different denominations, who embraced the Advent faith, laid aside their different tenets, and united perfectly on the great, important truth of the Advent, and thus they formed the Philadelphia church, the church of Brotherly Love.
God's people, who joyfully received this message from heaven, were many of them in the churches. Their testimony on the Advent was not received, and while thus bound, longing and struggling for freedom, the second angel, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," was heard by them. They then saw the condition of these churches, that they were Babylon, and that they had fallen, and thousands burst the cords that bound them to the sects, and they were free to rejoice in the blessed hope. About this time fasts were proclaimed in many of the churches for the return of the Holy Spirit, but we have never heard, neither have we reason to believe, that it ever returned.
We give the following which we copy from the Voice of Truth of September, 1844, which gives some idea of the alarm some felt on account of the sudden departure of the Holy Spirit, from which they have since recovered, and have fallen into a perpetual sleep.
"A late number of the Congregational Journal remarks as follows:
'CHURCH OF THE REV. ALBERT BARNES.—At a recent meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Rev. Mr. Barnes, pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, whose notes are so extensively read in our families and Sabbath schools, stated, that he had been in the ministry, for twenty years, and never, till the last communion had he administered the ordinance without receiving more or less to the church. But now there are no awakenings, no conversions, not much apparent growth in grace in professors, and none come to his study to converse about the salvation of their souls. With the increase of business, and the brightening prospects of commerce and manufactures, there is an increase of worldly-mindedness.—Thus it is with all denominations.'"
"Thus it is with all denominations," and will they deny the charge? Let them speak for themselves."
'The Puritan (Orthodox) of this city, (Boston) not long since informed its readers that there had not been known such a state of coldness for some twenty years. Zion's Herald made a similar statement, and endeavored to fix the blame upon "Millerism;" and we have been told that at the recent protracted meeting held by Mr. Knapp, at the Tremont Baptist (Mr. Colver's) church, the failure was ascribed to the same cause.'—Ad. Herald.
'The Christian Palladium for May 15th speaks in the following mournful strains:
'In every direction we hear the dolorous sound, wafting upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blasts from the icebergs of the north—settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak; that lukewarmness, division, anarchy and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion. Perhaps it is so. What then? Do we well, like the howling women of ancient days, to rend our flesh—our hair, and fill the whole atmosphere with our wailings?'
'It is but a few passing months since the whole extent of our wide spread country, rang with triumphant peals of joy borne upon the wings of numerous religious periodicals, and spontaneously overflowing from every Christian heart. Not a lip but was shouting the victories of the cross, or joining in the triumphant songs of the redeemed. And is the whole scene now so changed?'"
The following is from the Circleville, Ohio, Religious Telescope, which we copy from the Voice of Truth for January, 1845.
'GREAT SPIRITUAL DEARTH.—It is a lamentable fact, from which we cannot shut our eyes, that the churches of this country are now suffering severely on account of the great83
But it is evident that God will cleanse the world by fire, before he reigns with his saints, or the meek, on earth. See Matt. iii, 12: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, (the earth,) and gather his wheat (children of the kingdom) into the garner: (New Jerusalem:) but he will burn up the chaff (the wicked) with unquenchable fire." This is evidently the same burning day that Peter describes as at the coming of Christ. 2 Peter iii, 10-12: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, (or men of the earth,) and the works therein, shall be burnt up." Not the globe; for if Peter had meant the globe, there would have been no propriety in mentioning the works in the globe, after the globe itself was burnt. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness."
The meek are not yet the inheritors of the earth; for it is the present inhabitants that are commanded to be "looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." The elements of the earth are air, fire and water; these will be so overpowered by fire, as to melt with fervent heat. As water once overpowered the earth, and destroyed all living from the face of it, except those who were prepared for it; so will fire overpower the earth, and burn up all living, that have not the "form of the fourth" with them. And after that, the heavens and earth will be new as they were after the flood. And the meek will inherit the earth forever. One more evidence I will bring, that the wicked must be cut off from the earth before the meek shall inherit it. Ps. xxxvii, 10, 11: "For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." In this passage, we are clearly taught that when the meek inherit the earth, there will be no wicked on the earth. Then this must be after Christ's coming; for Paul tells us, [2 Thess. ii, 8.] "And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."
So it will be impossible to find any time between now and the coming of Christ, but there will be wicked on the earth; and afterwards, you shall diligently search for his place on earth, and it cannot be found. Where then is the temporal millennium? Or where shall we find the unconverted Jew or wicked heathen in this reign of the meek; for thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be. Again; Ps. xxxvii, 22: "For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off."—Blessed are the meek, says the dear Saviour.—Again, verse 34: "Wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it."—What shall we see? We shall see the meek inherit the land, when the wicked are cut off. And when shall that be? Paul says, "Whom the Lord shall destroy by the brightness of his coming."—David says, [verse 38.] "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off." Christ tells us, [Matt. xiii, 30.] "Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."
How exactly all the Scriptures harmonize in this view of our subject! And take any other view, and difficulties meet us in every step. I would ask, why are men so loath to look at our subject? And why do the dear servants of Christ put off the examination of this subject until it will be forever too late? I adjure you, as you love my Master, as you love souls, as you love truth, examine these precious promises. If I am correct, you certainly must see that the doctrine of a temporal millennium, or of the Jew's return, are and will be the cause of sinking thousands to endless ruin. I know you preach immediate repentance, and I thank you; may God bless you in so doing: but you know the human heart is as prone to put off repentance, as it is death; and you are well aware that some of our neighbors and friends reject every motive you can place before them concerning duty, or death. They mean to repent before they die; they expect to die, but not now. Therefore they are not ready to repent or die. Now, say you, preach as Paul did, a judgment to come. Poh! say they; you need not try to alarm us with that stale doctrine: you say that we must have a thousand years yet, before the judgment; or the Jews must return, and build old Jerusalem again; or Christ must come and live on the earth a thousand years before he destroys the wicked.
These are so many shields to ward off present necessity, and they become to the poor, blind sinner, peace and safety, although you design it not. Yet if it should be false, think, my dear brethren, do think, what awful consequences will actually follow. It can do you no harm to examine; truth is what you want; you want no error—it will do no good.
A certain impenitent man, in a place where I was giving a course of lectures, went to the minister of the place, and enquired of him what he thought of Mr. Miller's lectures, and especially concerning the thousand years' millennium before Christ would come. The minister answered him, by saying, "Mr. Miller has taken away my millennium, root and branch." "Well, do you not suppose the Jews must return and be converted?" "I have also been shaken from that belief," said the minister. He said the poor man dropped his head, turned pale, and after a moment's reflection, observed, "then Mr. Miller may be right, and I am gone." May you, my dear reader, find as honest a minister as the one I have just mentioned; and if you are in a lost condition, may you cry to God, "I am gone," and find one to help when you shall be in deep trouble. Amen.—Second Advent Library, No. 6, 1842.