The Angel and the Mountain

(Rev 21:9)

It is not without reason that the Spirit of God has specially recorded that it was one of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, who was deputed to show John the glory of the Bride the Lamb's wife under the symbol of a city. Turning back to Revelation 17: 1 we learn that it was also one of these seven angels who showed John the judgment of the great whore under the symbol of Babylon. Thus God calls our attention to the contrast between Babylon the great and Jerusalem the holy. In one city there is everything of man and nothing of Christ; in the other everything speaks of Christ. It is a solemn consideration that everybody in Christendom is either working for great Babylon — the city that is going to be judged by Christ — or for the holy Jerusalem — the City that will display the glory of Christ.

Nor is it difficult to discover for which city we are working. Is Christ or man our object? If man is our object, whether self or others — if we are seeking to improve, elevate, please and exalt man — we are helping to build great Babylon. If Christ is our object we are working in the interests of the New Jerusalem. Alas! the great mass of Christendom are definitely and avowedly working only for the improvement and elevation of man, to make, as they say, "a better and brighter world," and thus are erecting a vast system without God or Christ, which God calls Babylon. We do well, however, to remember how subtle is the flesh, that though by grace we may be citizens of the New Jerusalem, we may in practice be lured into helping on the interests of Babylon by adopting the methods and aims of the religious world.

Further, the different viewpoints of the two cities are instructive. The fact that Babylon is seen from a wilderness in contrast to the great and high mountain from which the Holy City is viewed, would indicate that for the detection of evil no great moral elevation is required. The man of the world, though he falls far short of God's estimate of evil, can go far, as history has shown, in recognizing and condemning the corruptions of Christendom. To enter, however, into the blessedness of the Holy City is utterly beyond the capacity of the natural mind.

Even in the saint of God it calls for the moral elevation of soul and separation from this world, symbolized by the great and high mountain. It may be we make slow progress in entering into deep things of God because we are not prepared for the separation and elevation of the great and high mountain. To reach the height with its vast view and heavenly atmosphere entails more labour than our easy-going Christianity can put forth. Hence we at times find it more congenial to live at a lower level, in more contracted surroundings, breathing the atmosphere of earth. But if, like John, our affections are set on things above, the Holy Spirit is ready to carry us away to the great and high mountain to have unrolled before our vision the vast counsels of God for Christ and the Church.

The Characteristics of the City

(Rev 21:9-10)