pated doom of the mystic Babylon. But alas! may we not adopt
and apply now (1870,) the language of the weeping prophet?--"How is she
become a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among
the provinces!"

As declension among those who had protested against the corruptions of
Antichrist, under the ministry of the first angel of reform, together
with the continued impenitence of the multitude who still wondered after
the beast, called for the appearance of the second angel of revival, so
the moral condition of the world called for the work of his successor.
In the mean time, living as we now are, within the period allotted in
prophecy and in history to the ministry of the second angel of revival
and reform, it is but too evident that there is a great and increasing
decline among the best reformed churches. Many of the Protestant
ministry, especially of the prelatic order, are posting back to Rome;
and the growing ritualism, with its gaudy and splendid "attire of a
harlot," which characterizes others, plainly indicates their tendency in
the same direction. And even those other denominations, which are not
yet prepared to adopt that "blasphemous hierarchy," are visibly
departing from the soundness in doctrine and purity of gospel worship
which constituted the chief glory of the Second Reformation. These are
the baleful effects of the dragon's influence "on the earth," (ch. xii.
13, 15.) Besides, nearly all ecclesiastical bodies are yet in cordial
alliance with the beast of the sea; and this alliance is the Antichrist.
The Pope is now nearly divested of his former civil supremacy, and in
this respect become less the express image of the imperial beast of the
sea, (ch. xiii. 14;) yet the leaven of the Romish religion pervades all
the Christian community, so far as allegiance to the beast or his horns
is either enjoined or tolerated. This usurpation of the royal
prerogatives of Christ over the churches and nations in the eastern
hemisphere by the kings of the earth, and a similar usurpation in the
western hemisphere, whether by individual despots or by the body
politic, is the _great crime_ which fills the measure of the cup of
wrath, to be poured out of the "seven vials." While such is the moral
condition of society in all lands favored with a revelation of the will
of God,--visited with judgments, continuing impenitent and guilt
augmenting, what is to be expected but heavier judgments to follow?

9. And