There were, therefore, besides the hanging gardens, other structures, such for example, as the Mujelibé, Al Hheimar, and above all, the Birs Nimroud, which had not less the appearance of mountains, as may be seen by the aspect which the ruins still present. It is not wonderful, therefore, that in the Prophets the name and idea of "mountain" should be connected with Babylon, and that although situate in a plain she should be addressed as a city that had elevated herself on high. "Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come upon her, saith the Lord." (Jer. li. 53.) "Behold I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth, and will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and make thee a burnt mountain." (Jer. li. 25.) In these passages, of which no one doubts the application to the Chaldean city, Babylon is not only addressed as a mountain, but there are rocks, or elevated strongholds also, supposed to be connected with her position.*

* The following quotation from Jerome shows how strongly he connected the thought of mountains with Babylon.

"But that Babylon and all the Chaldean region are called dark or shady mountains, we read in the beginning of the vision of Isaiah against Babylon, where it is written, 'Upon the dark mountain elevate the standard.'" Quod autem Babylon et omnis regio Chaldæorum montes caliginosi sive tenebrosi appellentur in principio visionis Isaiæ contra Baby

It is not improbable, therefore, that Babylon, when revived from her present desolation, should again have high and mountain-like structures connected with her. The associations or bodies commercial, ecclesiastical, educational, legislative, military, and the like, by which instrumentally the Roman world. will be governed, will find in the city of Babylon their centre, and in the system of Babylon their sovereign mistress. It is not unlikely that these incorporated bodies or associations should have magnificent structures connected with them indicative of their greatness, and that they should be elevated so as again to deserve, and probably to receive, as of old, the name of " mountains." It is a fitting name to indicate the relation in which governmentally they will stand to the earth.

All this may be probable, but it is not necessary, to meet the expression used in the Revelation. It makes no difference whatever as to the interpretation in result, whether that which is spoken of be presented by symbolic language to the mind, or be presented to the eye by a symbol seen. If an Indian were to say, "I will bury my arrows beneath the olive tree," his symbolic language would

lonem legimus ubi scriptum est; super montem caliginosum elevate signum." (Jerome, vol. iv. 933. Veronæ.)

I do not quote this passage as assenting to Jerome's exposition of Isaiah xiii. 2, but merely to show that the thought of mountains, in connection with Babylon, was familiar to some minds then.

convey to my mind all that would be presented to my eye, if I saw him dig the grave and bury the arrows. In either case I should understand him to signify his desire for peace.. His performing the action, after he had spoken the words, would add nothing to the meaning, although it might give a vividness to the impression, So also in the case we are considering. God has been pleased to teach us that the system established in Babylon shall, for a season, be the mistress of all the influential systems of the earth. The medium of this instruction is a symbolic vision, in which His angel had given explanations, where explanation was needed. But the lesson which had thus been taught in vision may, if it please God so to appoint, be by and by further illustrated by fact. He has already taught us in vision to conceive of a sovereign system occupying every high place of influence. If by and by, not in vision, but in fact, we should see such a system exalting on mountain-like eminences the structures which form the home of its various governmental agencies, we should learn nothing more than we had been already taught in the vision by the symbolic word "mountain." The sight might give vividness to the impression, but it would not add either to the certainty or the clearness of the instruction.*

* The elevation of the highest hill in Rome, viz., the Pincian, is 206 feet above the sea, the average height of the hills being only 152 feet above the sea; whereas the ruin of the

Mujelibé is still 141 feet above the plain, and that of the Birs Nimroud, taking in the erection on its summit, is 235 feet. The height of the hanging gardens (probably the Kasr) is estimated by Quintus Curtius at 160 feet. I have taken this measurement of the Roman hills from Whiteside's Italy in the nineteenth century. Clarius, as quoted in the Critici Sacri, on Jeremiah li. 25 says, "Jeremiah calls Babylon a mountain on account of the vast size of the structures, 'I will roll thee down,' &c. : this is said concerning its strongholds of high elevated towers " (de præsidiis turrium. eminentium).

Munster, commenting on the same passage, uses very nearly the same words. Grotius says, 66 Babylon is called a mountain on account of the high elevation of the royal palace (ob regiam sublimem) and which was, as Berosus says, very like to mountains."

ON THE WOUNDED HEAD OF

THE BEAST.

THE predictions of prophecy are sometimes wide and general, only in outline delineating the events foretold; in other cases, they are minute and specific in detail. The great events thus presented in outline are necessarily the most important, and involve the principles which are intended practically to determine our steps. Of them, therefore, the Scripture enables us to speak with certainty and precision. But the same certainty must not be expected in every point of detail. There are some questions on which we can affirm nothing certainly, although we may venture an opinion. But we must beware of discrediting that which we do know, because there may be minute connected circumstances which we cannot with equal certainty explain. We need not doubt whether the Ephah is ever to be established in the land of Shinar, because we cannot positively determine what agencies are represented by the women who bear it to its place; nor are we to question the whole history of the Antichrist who is to come, because