walls may have been destroyed by Cyrus, and Darius I may have effected further demolition, but at any rate they eventually came to the condition as uncovered by archaeologists that shows they fell into complete ruin.—Jer. 51:58.

FALL OF MODERN-DAY BABYLON ILLUSTRATED

During the reign of King Zedekiah the prophecy of Jeremiah here under study was used in a way that well illustrated Babylon’s fall to come seventy-five years in the future. Jeremiah’s prophecy, from Jer 50:2—51:58 chapter fifty, verse two, to chapter fifty-one, verse fifty-eight, was written down by him and the command was given by Jeremiah to Seraiah, the king’s quartermaster and apparently the fleshly brother of Jeremiah’s secretary Baruch, to take this writing to Babylon and to read all the words aloud. Then he was to take the book and tie a stone to it and pitch it into the Euphrates, saying: “This is how Babylon will sink down and never rise up because of the calamity that I am bringing in upon her; and they will certainly tire themselves out.” (Jer. 51:61-64) After reading aloud this inspired scroll, Seraiah was to address himself to Jehovah as the speaker of the words written down on the scroll. Hence it appears that Seraiah read the scroll aloud alongside the Euphrates River with no one hearing the reading but Jehovah God himself. Of course, it would have been dangerous to read it in the hearing of Babylonian ears. Nevertheless, Seraiah would remember much of what he had read, and could comfort the Israelites there in captivity by telling them of the hopes given them by this prophecy of Jeremiah.

So Jehovah’s woman won her case and her Husband, the Supreme Universal Judge, acted with full justice in the decision and the judgment he carried out. This carries a fine illustration and pattern for all those who love righteousness today and who would like to see justice carried out against the great empire of false religion because of her responsibility for so much of the bloodshed in the earth and particularly for her enmity against God and his Kingdom proclaimers. Revelation 18:20, 21 shows us that this was a pattern: “ ‘Be glad over her, O heaven, also you holy ones and you apostles and you prophets, because God has judicially exacted punishment for you from her!’ And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: ‘Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again.’”

It is easy to see that this prophecy could not have application to the literal city of Babylon in Mesopotamia, for it had fallen from world power six hundred years previously and, by the time that Revelation’s prophecy of things yet future has complete fulfillment, literal Babylon will have lain in absolute ruin for years. We need to expect a much greater fulfillment. Therefore it is beneficial to us to continue examining Bible prophecies on Babylon, for it helps us to see the meaning of important world events taking place before our eyes in this twentieth century.

‘Beautiful Services’ but They Need God’s Word

A letter to the magazine Church and Home, published by the Evangelical United Brethren Church, was printed in its issue of July 1, 1964. The letter said: “Many of our leaders and some of our people seem to feel that the answer to our decline in numbers is a simple merger with the Methodist Church. Combining two dead churches will help neither of us but only require a larger grave for burial. We don’t need more programs, committees, suppers, . . . All of us need to study God’s Word more. . . . Many of our services are beautiful but so are funerals.”