In the secret places he slayeth the innocent ;

His eyes are privily fixed upon the helpless.

9. He lieth in wait in his secret places, like a lion in his lair; He lieth in wait to catch the afflicted;

He catcheth the afflicted by drawing him into his net. 10. And crushed he (the afflicted) sinks down and falls, The helpless among his strong ones."

That this Psalm refers to the persecution shortly to be carried on by the second beast seems certain from its concluding verse, in which the oppressor is described as "the man from the earth." It opens with the cry of the persecuted, which ascends to God like that of the Lord Jesus in the extremity of His agony: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!' Then their terrible condition is graphically depicted. They are feverish with fear; life is not secure for a moment; at any time they may be discovered, dragged before the image of the beast, and there forced either to worship or to die. From morning till night snares are incessantly being laid to entrap them into an avowal of their faith: nor do they dare to enter any of the markets or shops; for not even the smallest necessary can be bought unless the purchaser first uncover his forehead or hand, and show that he is stamped with the sign of the beast.

The third verse intimates that all the desires of the false prophet will be towards the wicked one who is set over him that he will bless him and give thanks to him, cruel spoiler though he be, while at the same time he will despise Jehovah.

Indeed, from the following clauses we may infer that his chief characteristic will be an utter ignoring

of God, a development of the infidelity which is even now daily increasing in popularity. And whatever may be his professions of truth, he will be crafty and altogether unscrupulous.

The eighth verse returns to the energetic cruelty of his persecutions. Neither village nor secret place will be safe from his agents: with untiring activity they will search every remote corner, and hunt down all those who will not bow before the image, whether they be believers in Christ, or conscientious Jews.

But possibly the secret places may be establishments like the Inquisition, with its subterranean dungeons and hidden chambers of torture and death. And with this interpretation the next clause seems to agree, alluding, as it probably does, to some frightful system of espionage.

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT.

We have now to consider a mysterious and deeply interesting subject, and in order to understand it must carefully examine the seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse. In that famous passage we shall find a vision which closely affects ourselves: for, among other things, it foreshadows a mighty convulsion, the premonitory rumblings of which seem to be even now forcing themselves upon our ears, and threatening the present generation with the terrific violence of its shock. Of the particulars which are revealed we wish, in the first place, to call attention to the following:

That for a time the Roman empire would cease to

exist as a united and secular power; but that, in the meanwhile, its parts would be held together and dominated by an ecclesiastical system which would rule from its ancient seat of government, the city of Rome. That this system would grievously persecute and destroy the saints of God.

That, in the end, secular factions would gather strength, and, after a fearful struggle, overthrow the ecclesiastical power amid scenes of the greatest violence and cruelty.

And that, at the same time, the Roman empire, arranged in ten kingdoms, would be openly re-united under a great emperor, a re-incarnated spirit, under whose sway it had already once bowed before the time of the vision.

In the beginning of the chapter, John is bidden to come into the wilderness that he may see the judgment of the great whore, or Babylonian false Church, and to his amazement she appears mounted upon the beast! We can easily enter into his feelings; for up to that time there had been only war between the Church and the world, and the Master had declared that so it should be until the end. Well, therefore, might he be bewildered when he saw her who pretended to be a Church, not merely suffering herself to be upheld by the Christ-hating worldpower, but actually rejoicing to sit as a queen and direct its course, though it was still as ever in its fallen and bestial condition. The apostle was gazing upon the depths of Satan, learning something of those wondrous counterfeits and phantoms by

means of which the god of this age deludes our feeble intellects and diseased spirits, and allures into the dismal swamp of Death all those who are willing to abandon the King's highway.

On looking at the beast John observed that neither its heads nor its horns were crowned; it was, therefore, exhibited to him at a time when its ruling powers would neither be any of the seven heads, nor the eighth emperor with his confederate kings, but the ecclesiastical system symbolized by the woman. And it needs but little study of the Bible to teach us that the figure of a whore would scarcely be used of a system avowedly hostile to Christ; but rather of one which gives itself out to be the Church, though its doctrines and practices are altogether opposed to its claim, and it may not even care to disguise its hatred of true believers.

The name, Mystery, Babylon the Great, intimates that in some enigmatical sense the woman is Babylon, although we are afterwards told in plain terms that she is Rome. But with our present knowledge the riddle is quickly solved, and we find that each of the two great cities was in its turn the seat of her power, so that she was identified with one of them in earlier times, and with the other in a later age. For we have here exhibited to us that great organiza tion, that instrument of Satan for deceiving and enslaving the hearts of men, of which, in Old Testament days, it was said, "The nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad:"* while * Jer. li. 7.

in the New Testament the same power is depicted as a woman who is called "the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

Of her long concealed history, which has been at last brought to the light by the discoveries at Nineveh and Babylon, our limits will permit no more than a slight sketch. It appears that a secret organization of unbelievers was formed soon after the death of Nimrod, at a time when open apostasy was dangerous, and that its members established their headquarters at Babylon. From that centre they laboured with ceaseless activity to confuse and destroy the knowledge of Jehovah in the world, and to bring men under the yoke of demon-gods. They soon became a powerful and influential body, but found their original method of procedure so effective that, even when they had altogether forgotten the fear which suggested their precautions, and were, indeed, likely soon to be supreme in every land, they, nevertheless, did not change the character of their corporation, but continued to be a secret society. Those who wished to share their power and privileges could only do so by passing through the ordeal of initiation, which included a baptism, after which the initiate was termed twice-born, or regenerate (diovýs).

Their worship was originally offered to a Trinity consisting of father, mother, and son. But the first person was very commonly confused with the third, and at last almost entirely forgotten; so that the prominent deities were the mother and son. Of these, * Rev. xvii. 5.