Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/179

 prone to cultivate narrowness of mind, and to imagine that the sphere of good is confined to themselves and to the circle in which they move. They seem to imagine that those who do not follow them, and see eye to eye with them, are useless, and perhaps wicked. When the disciples came to the Lord Jesus, and said, "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not us," the Lord mildly rebuked his disciples, by saying, "Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us." Our Lord's instruction had the happy tendency to bend this narrowness and uncharitableness of mind, and to introduce love to God, and universal goodwill toward each other: these things, we may depend on it, are the sure and certain marks of true holiness, and the proper characteristics of the enlightened Christian.

Y an attentive perusal of the chapter, it will be seen that it is Babylon which is here called a "destroying mountain." The question then is, what is signified by Babylon, and what by its destructive and pernicious effects? The word Babel, in the original language, signifies confusion and mixture; a kind of unholy mingling together of evil and good, truth and falsehood, whence comes spiritual confusion, scattering, and dispersion! The word itself is used