Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/180

 in Scripture to denote corrupt worship—an external appearance of sanctity, destitute of any inward spirituality and life. It is a worship springing not from the love of God, and the love of man, but from that fruitful source of all confusion and desolation, the love of self and the world. This destructive principle of selfishness and worldly-mindedness would make little or perhaps no way in the world, were it to assume its own undisguised character; for in this case desolation and misery would go first, and shew the demon in its own colours, It therefore assumes the outward garb of sanctity and religion, the more effectually to secure its ends.

The true spiritual signification of Babylon may be drawn from the circumstances attending its building, as also from the materials used in the work. Of those who built Babylon, it is said (Gen. xi.), that as "they journeyed from the east, they came to the land of Shinar;" there they determined to build a city, and a tower whose top should reach to heaven; and in building it, we are informed they had brick for stone, and slime for mortar. Here the fact of these men journeying from the east, is a most important part of the history, and shews to every spiritual Christian that nothing but confusion and dispersion could follow. The east being the quarter in which the sun rises, is mentioned in Scripture to signify the Lord himself, who, as the everlasting Sun of Righteousness, rises upon all the families of mankind, and sends forth his divine rays of heat and light—his love and wisdom, to cheer and guide them to his kingdom. To journey from the east, is to recede from the Lord—to turn away the mind from all that is pure, wise, and heavenly—