Rev. xvii. "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

"With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

"So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet- coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

"And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

"And the angel said unto me, Wherefore dost thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

"The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth;

"And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition."

Babylon the great is the city of confusion wherein dwelleth all evil and unrighteousness. It is represented in the text by a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast having seven heads and ten horns.

The seven heads or mountains upon which the woman sits are the seven subdivisions of the times during which the Adversary seeks the perpetual establishment of his kingdom.

The seven kings are the evil elements of these seven epochs, and when John was carried in the spirit into the wilderness by the angel, it was to the sixth epoch, or to the time when the abomination which maketh desolate was set up: for the text states of the kings, "five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come:" therefore the stand-point must be in the sixth epoch. This evidently points to a relation between the beast that shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and the abomination which was set up during the second epoch of the Gihonic era, which is further confirmed by the text where it says, "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven." Thus the eight grand subdivisions of the times are clearly indicated by the evil elements; and they, the times, contain the great city Babylon as well as the great city Jerusalem: they have their evil elements as well as their good elements. In Babylon is centred all the evil, but it shall be destroyed; whilst Jerusalem shall be rebuilt. In Babylon was found the blood of the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth; her destruction shall be complete: in one hour shall she be made desolate.