"I was wroth with My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: Thou didst show them no mercy; . . .
"And thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever: So that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, Neither didst remember the latter end of it.
"Therefore hear now this, Thou that art given to pleasures That dwellest carelessly, That sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, Neither shall I know the loss of children: . . .
"These two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, The loss of children, and widowhood: They shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: Thou hast said, None seeth me.
"Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; And thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: And mischief shall fall upon thee; Thou shalt not be able to put it off: And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
"Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth; If so be thou shalt be able to profit, If so be thou mayest prevail.
"Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, Stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; . . . They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: . . . None shall save thee." Isaiah 47:1-15.
Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has been permitted to occupy its place on the earth, that the fact might be determined whether it would fulfill the purposes of the Watcher and the Holy One. Prophecy has traced the rise and progress of the world's great empires--Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each of these, as with the nations of less power, history has repeated itself. Each has had its period of test; each has failed, its glory faded, its power departed.
