France has thrown off the yoke of the church of Rome. How intensely interesting and solemn this is to all whose hearts are centered upon Him who is the Man of God's delight, and who is so soon to appear in glory and triumph in this scene of His past abasement and sufferings !

All who are acquainted with and believe the word of God know that great events cluster around the return of our Lord-events which, while they come to their crises only at that time, have signs of preparation beforehand. The Church, which is His body (Eph. i:22, 23), which the Holy Spirit is now forming through the preaching of the gospel, must first of all be carried up to heaven (i Thess. 4:14-17). None of the events we speak of can come to a crisis till that is done. She belongs to heaven, not to earth. She has no connection, therefore, with earthly events, and the Lord has promised to take her out of earthly scenes before those events break out. in all their violence (Rev. 3 :10). The true battlefield of the Church of God through all her earthly journey is described in Eph. 6 :10-20. All battling for earthly things, earthly place and glory and power, has been carried on by the counterfeit church-" the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie."

We have already noticed, in one of our former issues, the freedom given to the Jews lately to return to their land, and the way they are flocking into it since. As their national restoration takes place near the return of our Lord (Ezek. 37), the signs of this are before all our eyes. The event cannot be far away.

So with the present action of France. The event of which it is a sign is plainly told in Rev. 17 and 18. When the Roman emperor Constantine professed Christianity, he elevated (as men say) the Church to a place of earthly honor and power. He placed her thus, as Rev. 2 :13 calls it, "where Satan's seat is." She was allured from her heavenly calling and character, and from the path of her Saviour's reproach and suffering. She fell. The Roman empire, called " the beast that was, and is not, and shall yet be," was soon after broken up. But the Church, with sufficient power now to attract the ambitious and covetous men of the world, assumed rule over the nations which composed the Roman empire. Instead of the heavenly witness, she became the earthly tyrant. She sat on the throne of " the beast," and assumed empire. By flattering and gratifying the passions of kings under her rule, she used them as tools to her own ends, shrinking from nothing, however cruel, abominable, and Satanic.

John, in prophetic vision, thus speaks of her:" Come hither; I will show 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-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, 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, 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 didst 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."
At the return of the Lord, the Roman empire will be restored under some mighty man for its head-its seventh head. It will be composed of ten kingdoms, easily discernible now in the territory covering what was once that Roman empire. These ten kingdoms are called the ten horns of the beast.

Now see what these kings do when the time has come :" And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire" (ver. 16).

What Italy did some years ago, what France has just done, what Spain is laboring now to do, these are the signs of the event just quoted above.

But is it faithfulness to God, is it allegiance to Christ whose holy name has been so dragged in filth by this brazen-faced prostitute, that moves this "beast" with its "ten horns" to make such avenge upon her? Alas, no; those who truly love that dear Name would still rather let her shed their blood as of old than lay their hands upon her. They can look forward to that scene when all the powers of evil will crawl and cringe under the gaze of Him whose inoffensive sheep they have bruised and crushed. They pity them rather, for they know what terror will then possess them, when they hear the awful sentence, " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

The mind which animates the enemies of this "Mystery, Babylon the Great," is seen in ver. 14:"These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them :for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings."

They are haters of God and of Christ. They cannot bear the claims of One who has power over man, and demands submission from man. They are described in Psa. 2 :2, 3 :"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." So they set themselves to destroying the very name and thought of God and of Christ from the face of the earth. To them man is God, and they want no other. When they have stamped out of their midst the name of the God of heaven, then they will be ready for "the man of sin, . . . who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2 :3, 4).

Brethren, is it hard to read the present signs of the nearing destruction of the false church? Is it hard to see the rapid rise of the mind which destroys her? And if her destruction is near, our translation is nearer. One thing is to be laid to heart:she is not only called " the great whore," but also "the mother of harlots." Not all that has come out of Rome has walked apart from the world. All state churches have in part followed in her ways. Others, which are not linked with the state, have also put their hand into that of the world, and said to it, We will walk with you, adopt your principles, enjoy your pleasures, and accept your patronage.

Concerning all this unholy mixture, the voice of Him who " loved the Church, and gave Himself for it," is, " Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be for a Father unto you, and ye shall be to Me for sons and for daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6 :17, 18).

The Lord grant us to keep ourselves free from everything which His presence will condemn.