Babylon is stripped of her pomp and power, and thrown down with violence. Modern Christendom must be winnowed on the threshing floor of Him whose fan is in His hand. But then, He has always been purging His floor, not only by His judgments, but by raising up true and tried servants who testify to the evils that have gained lodgment in the church, and who seek to purify her from within, If the church rejects them they may be called to go out to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. But no one has a right to thus go out until he has first faithfully tried to do his duty within, and only when convinced that he can better serve his brethren by such separation. For we are sent not to condemn, but to save; and if forced to condemn, it should be in order to save.

The mistake, then, which underlies our correspondent's conception of "Babylon," lies in the fact that he does not discriminate between the great Christianized society which has grown up in the world, and the churches that exist in the midst of it, some of which, it is true, are closely identified with it. The great world-system must be shaken to pieces before the coming of the perfect order; but the churches, only so far as they are identified with it. All who belong to these churches are called to aid in separating them from the evils that defile them.

No subject can be more important than the one so often referred to in these pages, and with no other are the minds of Christians in our day more occupied.

There is a general dissatisfaction with the old statements. Many are ready to accept the relief which the modern loose views of inspiration afford. It is safe to say that no explanation will ever be accepted by the church which either disparages the words of Scripture, or violates the intuitive convictions of spiritually enlightened men.

We are satisfied that the final solution of this dark problem will be greatly hastened when we come to understand,

I. That both Nature and Scripture certify that there is a definite and an immediate damnation from which men need to be saved.

2. That no future probation can enable them to escape it. The opportunity for escape is in this life.

3. The words of Jesus about hell and the eternal fire refer to this impending peril.

4. The judgment of the "Son of the Man" began with His exaltation as the Christ, and men are all the time being consigned to the "eternal fire."

5. This term refers to that abyss of destruction to which the devouring energy of Nature, as a form of the wrath of God, consigns this corrupt form of humanity, now cursed with sin.

6. This penalty, which is more than mere bodily death, executes the law of God against sin, fulfills the sinner's death-sentence, satisfies the divine justice, and so clears way for the God of all grace to take up the case of

the

lost man.

7. This He has provided for, through the ransom which secures to all a resurrection from the dead.

8. This resurrection, except in the case of a priestly class, whom God has called to fellowship with His Son in His death unto sin, and in His resurrection life and glory, is not unto eternal life but one " of judgment." 9. This "judgment" is not an aggravated repetition of a sentence before passed and executed, but an award to such lower grade of life as is required by the great harvest law, “To every seed his own body," and the necessary trial and corrective discipline pertaining to it.

10. Some may fail in this trial and suffer a second death, out of which there is no promise of a second resurrection.

PAPACY IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCH.

The Protestant Church repudiates the Pope. It has much to say of the right of private judgment. And yet while it dismisses the Pope at the front door, it admits the Papal principle at the back door. Not content with framing its creeds out of the facts of Christianity, which no true Christian will dispute, the Reformed churches constructed systems of theology into creeds, and substituted for the rule of the Spirit, which is the only true substitute for that of the Pope, the domination of the system. Hence, in them all, there is more or less of this papacy of creed. If any one discovers some new truth out of harmony with its statements, or error inwrought at some point, he must either be silent, or run the risk of loss of standing and preferment, and, perhaps, of excision. It is amazing, when one reflects upon it, how the Protestant Church has thus abandoned the

principles of private judgment, and the liberty of the Spirit, upon which it was based. One need not go far to find churches where honest thought and high aspiration are repressed, where the gates of free inquiry are closed, and new light from the Word of God, and from other sources in Nature and Providence, is barred out. A fatal domination of creed or confession, or the intellectual domination of recognized leaders, keeps the body within the strict lines of its traditions, and puts its ban upon any who dare transcend them; unless, indeed, it be done in some such covert way as not to excite suspicion that the integrity of the system is to be endangered.

To illustrate what we mean. A member of a prominent Presbyterian church in this city remarked to as that his pastor, in conversing with him upon these themes, told him that he believed a great many things which gave him comfort which, as a Presbyterian minister, he could not preach. The admission has more than once been made to us by brethren of the highest standing, that they found relief in the belief that God's ways in redemption were not exhausted in this world, and that sinners who proved irreclaimable under them must finally suffer extinction of being. And yet none of these men would dare give public utterance to such convictions. They regard themselves as under a sort of bond not to do so. And certainly their standing in the church would be jeopardized if they did. This is what we mean by Protestant Papacy. How, we would ask, can there be honest progress in the knowledge of the truth, if honest convictions must thus be concealed? If one should have even a revelation from the Spirit upon these

mysteries, such a system would bind him not to utter it. Protestant churches, therefore, need to reform their systems in this regard. We do not object to systematic statements of belief. But, enforced creeds should have respect mainly to the great facts and verities of the faith. Matters de fide should be carefully distinguished from matters de opinione. And, inasmuch as the church has not yet arrived at the unity of the faith, room should be made for all the light that God may shed upon her from time to time from any source. Especially should the church guard against the crime of quenching the Spirit in despising prophesyings. Whatever God may have to say to her through any of her spiritually enlightened servants she should be ready to hear, proving all things, and holding fast to that which is good. Above all, she should avoid forcing her ministers within such narrow lines of thought and testimony that intellectual honesty must be sacrificed, or dishonest evasions resorted to, in giving utterance to their highest and best thoughts of God and of His wondrous ways toward men.

THE NAME OF THE LORD.

The doctrine of the forgiveness of sins stated in our last number is strikingly confirmed by that impressive revelation of the Name of the Lord given in Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. Moses had gone a second time to the top of Sinai, after the rebellion of the people in the matter of the golden calf, and his consequent agony of soul. He needed, himself, to know more of God. Out of the darkness of the great trial through which he was passing,