18.  And cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city?

19.  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas! that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea, by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

Vs. 9-19.—­At the fall of Babylon some of the kings who had been her supporters, will lament for her while utterly unable to protect her, and afraid of partaking of her plagues.  It may be proper to remark, that the word translated “alas,” and repeated in this chapter, is the same in the Greek text as that which is rendered, “woe” in ch. viii. 13; from which fact we are to infer that the fall of mystical Babylon described in this chapter comes under the last three, or probably the seventh trumpet.  That the Turkish empire is to be overthrown by the sixth trumpet or second woe, and gradually exhausted by the sixth vial, hardly admits of a doubt:  but it does not necessarily follow, that said trumpet and vial are to terminate when that judgment ends.  Each trumpet and vial may continue its effects for some time after the following one commences.—­Kings, merchants and shipmasters are mentioned as chief mourners, while they are helpless spectators of this judgment.  In all this narrative there is plain allusion to the language of Old Testament prophets who predicted the destruction of the enemies of God’s people; as Babylon, Tyre, Egypt.  All these powerful kingdoms have been made desolate for their idolatry and cruelty; and thus history comes in aid of prophecy to confirm the faith of the saints.  The moral government of the Most High is uniform, and he will execute vengeance upon his and Zion’s impenitent enemies.  The merchandise and lamentations are borrowed from Ezek. xxvii.  In ver. 13 there is mention made of “the persons of men” as part of the wares in the markets of Tyre, and we find “slaves (bodies) and souls of men,” among the commodities for sale in modern Babylon.  How can we, in view of historic facts, exempt the United States of North America from complicity in the crimes of mystic Babylon as one of her dependencies?  While earthly politicians, sustained by eminent divines, proclaimed to the world in gushing oratory that “America was an asylum for the oppressed of all nations,”—­“the land of the free, and the home of the brave;” perhaps there never was a more effectual refutation of this popular sentiment, accompanied with a more biting sarcasm, than that which was uttered in derisive song by the sable, coffled chain-gang in the streets of the national capital,—­“Hail!  Columbia, happy land!”—­All who are acquainted with the internal and political history of the United States, know that the adherents of the “Man of Sin” always gave their suffrages for the support and continuance of that cursed traffic.