Perpetual Sleep
W.P. Jer. 51 is a picture drawn beforehand by the Lord of the destruction of the great city of Babylon because of the evil she did to Zion. It was a great city, a city of carousals and debauchery, and the mighty men ceased to fight and became like women, verse 30, and in the midst of this state of luxury and vice it was overthrown and sleeps with a perpetual sleep, i.e. a sleep from which there shall never be an awakening (verses 39 and 57), for Isaiah’s prophecy predicts of the overthrown city that “it shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation (Isa. 13:2020It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. (Isaiah 13:20)).
Secular history strikingly confirms the fulfillment not only of the event itself, but also the precise manner of its accomplishment as predicted in verses 30-44. Verse 37 is a graphic description of the present condition of the ruined city.
Saul and the Woman of En-Dor (1 Sam. 28)
The woman of En-dor was possessed of a familiar spirit-a demon. This spirit evidently personated any departed person with whom those who resorted to her desired to converse. Her exact counterpart is found in the modern spiritualistic mediums, who, poor deceived souls, are not the mouthpiece of departed human beings, but of the demons that possess them.
Saul was abandoned by God for his disobedience, and there was no true repentance in him, for instead of humbling himself before the God whose word he had disregarded he had recourse to this woman. At his word the séance commenced, but to her astonishment and horror the familiar spirit did not respond as usual: instead there was an intervention of God, and Samuel himself appeared to pronounce God’s judgment upon rebellious Saul.
As in those days, so in these, the turning to familiar spirits instead of to God is a terrible snare of Satan, and should not be touched by any who are the Lord’s.
Answers as to “The Scriptures”: “Eternal Punishment”; “Atonement”; and “The Table of the Lord” will (D.V.) be given next month.
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From Samuel Rutherford’s Letters
Let ten thousand thousand new-made worlds of angels and elect men, and double them in number ten thousand thousand thousand times; let their heart and tongue be ten thousand thousand times more agile and large than the heart and tongue of the seraphim that stand before the Lord. When they have said all for the glorifying and praising of the Lord Jesus, they have but spoken little or nothing; His love will exceed the praise of all possible creatures.
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“O if the heaven, and the heaven of heavens were paper, and the sea ink, and the multitude of mountains pens of brass, and I were able to write that paper, within and without, full of the praises of my fairest, my dearest, my loveliest, my sweetest, and my most marvelous Well-Beloved!
Woe is me, I cannot set Him out to men and angels. O there are few tongues to sing of His incomparable excellency. What can I, a poor prisoner, do to exalt Him? Or what course can I take to extol my lofty and lovely Lord Jesus? I am put to my wits and how to get His Name made great. Blessed are they who would help me in this.”