as the prospective Bridegroom and becoming united with the nation of Rome. This constituted an illicit union; for as the Bride of Christ she had no right whatever to be associated with any earthly dominion; therefore in becoming associated with the Roman Emperor she lost her standing. We are to remember that this word 'harlotry' as used in Revelation is merely a symbolical term; there is nothing more than that to be understood. God speaks of some of His children as being in Babylon. Babylon is the name for the mother, the papal system, and the daughters also have the same name. It means confusion,

mixture and improper relationship. Now then some are in Babylon and not of Babylon, just the same as the children of Israel were carried captive into Babylon, but they were not Babylonians. And in due time God sent forth the Message to all Natural Israel that if those who had been carried in captivity into Babylon desired to return to the Lord their God, and to the Land of Promise, they might do so. Cyrus gave that decree, you remember, and many of them did return. "No one is called out of Babylon until he hears the Lord's voice. So you and I may have been in Babylon for years and not have had any responsibility or any impurity; we were not defiled, because we did not know any better. But He says, 'Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.' That implies that you are not yet partakers of her sins; you are My people, in her, but not yet partakers. I was not responsible for what was in my head from childhood; and God did not hold me responsible; nor you, nor anyone else; but after we come to see the great errors which are taught by Babylon's system then we are responsible. We have said things about our Heavenly Father that we would be ashamed to say about ourselves or of our earthly parents. "We have said He created our world of mankind and knew what He was doing, had full power and full wisdom, and intended from the beginning to damn nine hundred and ninty-nine out of every thousand, and to have them roast through all eternity; and that He made fireproof devils to handle them; that He created a great place called hell in which all of this diabolical work was going on. No honorable man would treat a poor rat that waypredestinate the rat before it was born, foreordain it to eternal torture. And now then after we once see that this doctrine is blasphemy against God, after we once see that it was evidently instigated by our great Adversary, the Devil-after we once see what an awful thing it is—if then we wish to uphold earthly systems and give our lives,

strength, talents and means, to upholding these diabolical teachings, then we are worse than any others there; we are the worst of them all. What right has any man to stay inside of a denomination and deny the teachings of that denomination? He is branding himself as a fraud, professing to believe what he knows he does not believe, claiming to teach what he knows he should not teach; or, on the other hand, teaching that which he knows is wrong, and professing that which he does not believe at all. The whole matter is wrong; such are defiled by the Women. "But those who come out when they see the right and wrong on the question, who take their stand for right, they are delivering their souls from Babylon. 'Flee out of Babylon, saith the Lord; deliver every man his soul.' Now no one is responsible to flee out unless he sees that it is Babylon, but the very suggestion that it is Babylon to every honest person means that he should make an investigation, and a thorough one, to know whether or not he is in Babylon. If he says, 'Well, God's voice says 'flee out of Babylon,' and I believe that the system is Babylon, but I do not wish to look into it for fear I find it true,' that means he is dishonest with himself; he is defiling himself. There is only one way of being thoroughly honest, and that is to be honest." (Pastor Russell.) "That the words can only be understood piritually seems to follow from the whole tone of Apocalyptic symbolism:see the mention of the Bridegroom and the Bride, of the Harlot and her fornications. Elsewhere we have the language of Ps. 45, of the Canticles, of the Book of Hosea, above all of 2 Cor. 11:2:-'I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.'"-Cook.

[These are they which] THOSE WHO follow The Lamb.On this side of the veil.

Whithersoever He goeth.-Those who fail to "Walk in the light as He is in the light" find sooner or later that they "walk in darkness" for the light goes on and leaves them.-John 1:6, 7; Prov. 4:18.

These were redeemed from among men.-They are a separate class, "from among" men. "The thought is that of public purchase; and all the other uses of this word agorazo, throughout the New Testament, emphatically support a most commercial signification. We call especial attention to the signification of this word, because the tendency to deny that there was a purchase of our race effected by a price given for man's release from the 'curse' is prevalent and a growing one-very subversive of the true faith, once delivered to the saints."-E443, 430.

[Being the first-fruits] FROM THE BEGINNING unto God and [to] IN the Lamb.-"Separated from the entire mass as the best absolutely.-Num. 18:12." (Cook) Deut. 26:2; Jas. 1:18.

14:5. And in their mouth.-By contrast to the lies of the False Prophet.

Was found no [guile] FALSEHOOD.-They fully and thoroughly believe the doctrines they teach.-Psa. 15:1, 2.

For they are without fault [before the Throne of God]."Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."-Jude 24; Eph. 5:27; Psa. 15:1-5.

14:6. And I saw [another] AN angel.-The Divine Plan of the Ages, Volume I of the Scripture Studies.

Fly in the midst of heaven.-"From one end of heaven to the other" amongst Christian people of all denominations.-Matt. 24:31.

Having the everlasting Gospel.-The same Gospel preached by our Heavenly Father (Gal. 3:8), the Lord Jesus Christ (John 10:16), the holy Apostles (Acts 15:1318), the holy Prophets (Acts 3:19-24) and the holy Angels (Luke 2:10, 13, 14); but entirely overlooked by the clergy. To preach unto them that dwell on the earth,-To independent Christians.-Rev. 13:13, 14.

And [to] UNTO every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. All mankind, living and dead.-1 Tim. 2:4-7. 14:7. [Saying] with a loud voice. By millions of copies circulated earth-wide.

Fear God, and give glory to Him.-Rather than to creeds, sects and clergy.

For the hour of His judgment is come.-The MILLENNIAL DAWN, the dawn of the thousand-year Judgment Day of Christ, is at hand.-Rev. 15:4; 11:18.

And worship Him that made Heaven, and earth, and the sea.-God, our Heavenly Father, the Creator of all things. -Neh. 9:6; Psa. 33:6, 124:8; Acts 14:15; 17:24.

And the fountains of waters.-His Heaven-sent Word. 14:8. And there followed another [angel] A SECOND.-— Volume II of Scripture Studies.

Saying, [Babylon is fallen,] is fallen, [that] BABYLON, THE great [city].-Chapters 7 and 9 of Volume II are particularly devoted to this theme. "The name Babylon originally signified God's gate-way; but afterward, in derision, it came to mean mixture or confusion. In the book of Revelation this name is applied specifically to the church nominal, which, from being the gate-way to glory, became a gate-way to error and confusion, a miserable mixture composed chiefly of tares, hypocrites,—a confused mass of worldly profession in which the Lord's jewels are

buried, and their true beauty and luster hidden." (C153.) "The name Babylon was applied, not only to the capital city of the Babylonian empire, but also to the empire itself. Babylon, the capital, was the most magnificent, and probably the largest, city of the ancient world. It was built in the 'form of a square on both sides of the Euphrates river; and, for protection against invaders, it was surrounded by a deep moat filled with water and inclosed within a vast system of double walls, from thirty-two to eighty-five feet thick, and from seventy-five to three hundred feet high. On the summit were low towers, said to have been two hundred and fifty in number, placed along the outer and inner edges of the wall, tower facing tower; and in these walls were a hundred brazen gates, twentyfive on each side, corresponding to the number of streets which intersected each other at right angles. The city was adorned with splendid palaces and temples and the spoils of conquest."" (D23; Jer. 51:8; Rev. 18:2.) "This use of the aorist-in the sense of the 'prophetic preterite -expresses the certainty of the fall: see chapters 10:7; 11:18; 18:2; and see on chapter 15:1. The language is taken from Isa. 21:9, the verb denoting the violent fall and overthrow of kingdoms-see Ezek. 30:6; and see on chapter 17:10. With the fall of Babylon, the capital of the ungodly world-kingdom, the Old Testament connects the redemption of the people of God.-Isa. 13: 19; 47:1; Jer. 51:1-10."-Cook.

Because [she made all nations drink of] ALL NATIONS HAVE FALLEN THROUGH the wine of the wrath of her fornication.-"The ruin of all the nations of earth is here at tributed directly to the fact that 'Babylon made all the peoples drunk with the wine [spirit, influence] of her fornication'-worldly affiliation."-C164, 104; Jer. 51:7; Rev. 2:20; 17:2, 5; 18:3; 19:2.

14:9. And [the] ANOTHER, A third angel followed them-Volume III of the Scripture Studies followed I and II. Saying with a loud voice.-Proclaiming clearly, in chapters 2, 4 and 6.

If any man worship the beast.-The Papacy.

And his image.-The Evangelical-Alliance-Spiritism combination.-Rev. 13:11, 13, 14, 15; 14:11; 15:2; 16:2, 13; 19:20; 20:10; Matt. 24:24.

And receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand.See Rev. 13:16, 17.

14:10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.-The Message of Present Truth.

Which is poured out without mixture.-Different from Babylon's mixed wine.-Isa. 5:20-22.

Into the cup of His indignation.-"The Lord our God hath put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord."-Jer. 8:14; Isa. 51:17-20; Jer. 25:26-28; Rev. 18:6; 16:19; Psa. 60:3; 75:8.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.Whoever worships, reverences, human institutions and doctrines more than the Word of the Lord has experienced the torment here specified. Doctrines of hell fire and brimstone have been his portion.-Rev. 9:17-19.

In the presence of the holy angels.-The Harvest workers on this side of the veil.-Matt. 13:39.

And in the presence of the Lamb.-"In the days of the Son of Man;" after the Second Advent has taken place.

14:11. And the smoke of their torment.-"A noun, unlike a verb (or 'time-word,' as the Germans call it), does not indicate time. So 'the smoke of their torment' may mean that of pain endured once for all, and then at an end. There is nothing in this verse that necessarily implies an eternity of suffering. In a similar way the word 'punishment' or 'correction' in Matt. 25:46 gives in itself no indication of time. Cp. Gen. 19:28; Jude 7." (Weym.) "About endless torment:

"(a) The doctrine is found nowhere in the Old Testament, nor any hint of it. The expression, in the end of Isaiah, about the fire unquenched and the worms not dying, is plainly of the corpses of men upon the physical earth. "(b) The doctrine of endless torment was, as a historical fact, brought back from Babylon by the Rabbis.

"(c) St. Paul accepts nothing of it as far as we can tell, never making the least allusion to the doctrine.

"(d) The Apocalypse asserts that not only death, but hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire.

"(e) The Christian Church has never really held it exclusively till now.

"(f) Since the Reformation it has been an open question in the English Church.

"(g) The Church of England, by the deliberate expunging of the 42nd Article, which affirmed endless punishment, has declared it, authoritatively, to be open.

"(h) It is so, in fact. Neither I nor any others who have denied it can be dispossessed or proceeded against legally, in any way whatsoever.-Rev. Chas. Kingsley, May 9, 1857."-Z.'11-363.

Ascendeth up for ever and ever.-"The remembrance of the destruction of these systems of deception and error will be lasting, the lesson will never be forgotten-as smoke, which continues to ascend after a destructive fire,