AN EXPOSITION

The Seven Trumpets

By Elder James White REVELATION VIII k IX.

CTIjirti esition, SrbisrS anfi (Enlarge*.

STEAM PKEB.S OF HUE SEVENTH-DAT ADVKNTIST FUBLlStllNG ASSOCIATION", BATTLE CHEEK, MICH.: AN EXPOSITION

The Seven Trumpets

REVELATION VIII t IX.

CljirU Csition, ErbisrS ant Ciilargrtt.

STEAM PKEKS OF TUB SEVJiM'H-D.Vy ADVKNTIST PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION", BATTLE CKEEK, MICIi.: THE SEYEN TRUMPETS.

INTBODUCTOBY.

The great leading features of Daniel's visions were the four great governments of antiquity, be- ginning with the Babylonian, and ending with the Roman, in its papal form. Not so, however, with John ; he lived when three of those govern- ments had passed away, and the fourth and last was in being, and in the hight of its glory as a universal monarchy. Under that government John was in banishment on the isle of Patmos, " for the word of God, and the testimony of Je- sus Christ." Accordingly, instead of predicting the rise and triumph of either of those four great governments, it was his part to give the pro- phetic history of the fall of the last of the four, and give us the various means by which that great persecuting system should come to ruin. The first decisive step in the downfall of Rome, was the removal of the- seat of empire from the West to the East. This transfer of the capital from Rome to Constantinople was accomplished by Constantine in A. D. 330. Until then, its unity had been very faithfully preserved. After that, division and subdivision became the order of the day, until the final ruin of the empire. The sounding of the first four trumpets comes in as a complement to the prophecy of Dan. 2 and 7. It describes the fall of the Roman Em- ;: — —

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. INTRODUCTORY.

the three sons above noticed pire, and the manner of breaking it up into ten died in A. D. 354, and in A. D. parts as represented by the ten toes of the image, 350 the , a tribe of barba- rians, or the ten horns of the beast. had increased to such a power that the Ro- man armies dare not assail We see in Num. 10:9, and Zeph. 1 :16, that them. We find them on both sides .of the Ural the trumpet is a symbol of war. Hence, we say chain of mountains, " " inhabiting from the regions of perpetual snow in the words of another : The trumpets denote to the Caspian great political commotions to take place among Sea, and ravaging at will on the one side and Asia the nations in this age." The events, as set forth on the other." Shep- pard's Fall Rome. in our subject, must belong to the Christian dis- of An idea of the territory pensation from authority of the angel's words which they occupied may be had from the treaty " Write the things which thou hast seen, and the which was made be- tween them and the Romans. parties things which are, and the things which shall be The met on hereafter." the banks of the at a place called Margus. Said the king of the to the In A. D. 337, we find the di- Huns Ro- " man envoys : Break off all vided into three parts by Constantine the Great, connection with the Ultra-Danubian tribes Increase your and a part given to each of his three sons. It is tribute from 300 to on the ground of this division that we under- 700 pounds of gold. Do this, or war." Sheppard's Fall stand, in Rev. S, where it speaks of the " third of Rome. The Roman embassadors terms. part of men," it alludes to the part of the empire accepted the We have, then, under the scourge. Constantius possessed the one of the toes of the metallic image, or one East, and fixed his residence at Constantinople, of the horns of the terrible beast, represented the new metropolis of the empire. Constantine by the Huns. The were a tribe the Second held Britain, Gaul, and Spain. Con- who at this time oc- cupied Central Europe, but in a. r>. stans held Illyrica, Africa, and Italy. (See " Sa- 377, 378, divided themselves into two nationalities, and are bine's Eccl. Hist.," p. 155.) Of this well-known known in history as Ostrogoths, historical fact, Mr. Barnes, the commentator, in who occupied " the East (Mysia), and the Visigoths, who occu- his notes on Rev. 12:4, says : Twice, at least, pied the West (Pannonia). before the Roman Empire became divided into After their estab- lishment the two parts, the Eastern and the Western, as kingdoms, we may find them assist- ing, but not subservient to, there was a tripartite division of the empire. the Roman power. We now have the Roman Empire, which The first- occurred A. D. 311, when it was divided had ruled over the most of the between Constantine, Licinius, and Maximin habitable part of the world from the days of Augustus the other, A. D. 337, on the death of Constantino, Caesar, dismem- bered. Three large parcels of its when it was divided between his three sons, territory are occupied by barbarians, Constantine, Constans, and Constantius." who neither pay tribute nor yield allegiance to its authority. According to chronology, wc find the last of — —

t> THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIRST TRUMPET. 7

We can readily see, then, that here are brought " None could elucidate the texts more clearly, to view three of the toes of the image, or three or expound them more fully, than the task has of the horns of the terrible beast. been performed by Gibbon. The chapters of the As to the nature of these trumpets we differ skeptical philosopher that treat directly of the from some expositors. They are, in our opinion, matter, need but a text to be prefixed, and a few essentially different from the seven seals. While unholy words to be blotted out, to form a series the seals give an inspired ecclesiastical history of of expository lectures on the eighth and ninth the church, the trumpets are a symbolical proph- chapters of Revelation." "Little or nothing is ecy of the uprooting of certain civil poivers, as left for the professed interpreter to do but to connected with the church. point to the pages of Gibbon."

In giving an outline of this subject, we shall, The first sore and heavy judgment which fell " for the most part, follow Keith, in his Signs of on Western Rome in its downward course, was the Times," on the first four trumpets. We should the war with the "Visigoths under Alaric. After be glad to give his remarks and historical quota- the death of Theodosius, the Roman Emperor, in tions entire, would our limits admit it. January, 395, before the end of the winter the The subject properly begins with the second Visigoths, under Alaric, were in arms against the verse of the eighth chapter ; and the first verse empire. The Huns, whose territoryrlay east of should have been annexed to the seventh chap- the Ostrogoths, occupied mostly the country now ter, it being the conclusion of the opening of the known as Russia. In A. d. 395, they made war seals. upon the Ostrogoths, and forced them into the In verses 2-5, of chap. 8, we have the pref- territory of the Visigoths. The Ostrogoths sub- atory remarks, preparatory to the sounding of mitted to the Huns for awhile, but we afterward the trumpets. Then follows the sounding of the find them independent. first angel. The Visigoths, under Alaric, turned their forces to the Eastern tripartite division of the Roman Empire and overran Greece. It was in such a dry season of the year that the army could easily THE FIRST TRUMPET. ford the streams. Vegetation was so dried up that the forest trees burned when ignited. They Verses 6, 7. " And the seven angels which had the devastated seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The the plains of northern Greece and first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire min- slaughtered the inhabitants. gled with blood, and they cast were upon the earth ; and "Hail and fire, mingled with blood." The the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass terrible effects of this Gothic invasion are thus was burnt up." described by Gibbon, vol. iii. pp.* 190-194 : Mr. Keith has very justly remarked on the * The edition we quote from is the new edition of Phillips, subject of this prophecy : Sampson A Co., Boston, ISSi, ;

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIRST TRUMPET. 9

"The barbarian auxiliaries erected their inde- out attempting to disturb the secure and rapid pendent standard, and boldly passage avowed hostile de- of Alaric ; and the fertile fields of Phocis signs, which they had long cherished in their and B

back of the indignant river.' The unhappy na- the Goths ; and the most fortunate of the inhab- tions of the provinces to the south of the Dan- itants were saved, by death from beholding the ube submitted to the calamities, which, in the slavery of their families, and the conflagration of course of twenty years, were almost grown famil- their cities."

iar to their imagination ; and the various troops It was thus that "hail," from the fact of the of barbarians, who gloried in the Gothic name, northern origin of the invaders ; "fire," from the were irregularly spread from the woody shores destruction by flame of both city and country of Dalmatia to the walls of Constantinople. " blood," from the terrible slaughter of the citi- The Goths were directed by the bold and artful zens of the empire by the bold and intrepid war- genius of Alaric. In the midst of a divided riors, " were cast upon the earth." The phrase, court and a discontented people, the emperor, " cast upon the earth," may refer to a gen- Arcadius, was terrified by the aspect of the eral devastation, fulfilled not simply by the Gothic arms. Alaric disdained to trample any Visigoths under Alaric and his brother up to A. longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of D. 414, when their kingdom became transferred Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a and established in the western tripartite division plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province of the empire ; but, also, by other northern bar- which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war. barians who were overrunning the middle and "Alaric traversed, without resistance, the western divisions during the same period. See plains of Macedonia and Thessaly. The troops " Sheppard's Fall of Rome," p. 190. which had been posted to defend the straits of Thermopylae retired, as they were directed, witb- —

10 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIRST TRUMPET. 11

The historian, Gibbon, thus graphically de- broad and impetuous torrents. But the season scribes the prowess and success of Alaric : happened to be remarkably dry, and the Goths could traverse, without impediment, the " The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past ex- wide and stony beds, whose center was faintly marked ploits, and the confidence in his future designs", by the course of a shallow stream. insensibly united the body of the nation under The bridge and passage of the Addua were secured by a strong his victorious standard ; and, with the unani- detachment of the Gothic army ; and as Alaric mous consent of the barbarian chieftains, the approached the walls, or rather the suburbs of master-general of Illyricum was elevated, accord- , he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of seeing ing to ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly the emperor of the Romans fly before him. proclaimed [A. r>. 403,] king of the Visigoths and , accompanied by a feeble train of all the tribes of kindred name. Armed with states- men and eunuchs, hastily retreated towards the this double power, seated on the verge of the Alps, with the design of securing his person in two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful the city of Aries, which had often, been the royal promises to the courts of Arcadius and Honorius residence of his predecessors. But Honorius had [of Constantinople and Rome], till he declared scarcely passed the Po before he was overtaken and executed his resolution of invading the do- by the speed of the Gothic cavalry; since the minions of the West [of Rome]. The provinces urgency of the danger compelled him to seek a of Europe which belonged to the Eastern emperor temporary shelter within the fortification of Asta, were already exhausted, those of Asia were in- a town of Liguria, or Piedmont, situate on the accessible, and the strength of Constantinople banks of the Tanarus. The siege of an obscure had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by place, which contained so rich a prize, and seemed the fame, the beauty, and the wealth of Italy, incapable of a long resistance, was instantly which he had twice visited ; and he secretly as- formed, and indefatigably pressed by the king of pired-to plant the Gothic standard on the walls the Goths."—Gibbon's Hist, vol. iii. 198-204. of Rome, and to enrich his army with the ac- pp. cumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs. But although Alaric thus put to flight the em- peror of the West, deliverance soon" came, and " When seemed to abandon his sover- Rome was saved from his hands. Alaric was eign in the unguarded palace of Milan, he had first conquered in 403, by Stilicho, that distin- probably calculated the term of his absence, the guished commander of the Roman forces, at the distance of the enemy, and the that obstacles battle ground of Pollentia. might retard their march. He principally de- That part of the first trumpet which says that pended upon the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the " all green grass was burnt up" seems to refer Minico, the Oglio, and the Addua ; which, in the to a remarkably total devastation of the vegeta- winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the tion, which followed in the train of the Visigoths, melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into in the eastern tripartite division, and also that of —

12 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIRST TRUMPET. 13 tbe other two bodies of the northern barbarians their independence for a short time. The Romans who were at the same time attacking the empire almost annihilated them A. D. 418, and the rem- in its middle and western divisions. nant of the nation incorporated themselves with While we leave Alaric arranging the . " his plans for (See Sheppard's Fall of Rome," p. another attack upon the Romans, we will con- 537.) The took what is now Swit- sider the operations of the other two bodies of zerland and a portion of France and . barbarians before referred to, who were fleeing We" see, then, that up to A. D. 407, seven power- before the aggressive Huns to the west and south ful clans of barbarians, who were once subject to of Europe. the Roman power, had established themselves as One of these divisions, under , independent nationalities (kingdoms), and were crossed the Alps with a force of 200,000, at- engaged in attacking the empire on every hand. tacked , and was defeated. The other, Gibbon says that this last invasion was what composed of Burgundians, Vandals, , and " sealed the fate of Roman civilization." Suevi, ''burst over the ," overcame the He describes it thus : Franks in their onward march (devastating, says " About four years after the victorious Toulan Gibbon, seventeen provinces of Gaul), and con- had assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, tinued their course into what is now called Spain another barbarian, the haughty Rhodogast, or —making a prey of the largest part of the west- Radagaisus, marched from the northern extrem- ern tripartite division of the Roman Empire. ity of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and " Gibbon says, in speaking of this invasion : The left the remains of his army to achieve the de- pastures of Gaul, in which flocks and herds grazed, struction of the West. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the banks of the Rhine, which were covered and the Burgundians, formed the strength of this with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, mighty host; but the Alans, who had found a . . . . were suddenly changed into a desert, hospitable reception in their new seats, added distinguished from the solitude of nature only by their active cavalry to the heavy infantry of the smoking ruins." Germans ; and the Gothic adventurers crowded This was in A. r>. 407. This vast army divided so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that, by the country which they subdued among their re- some historians, he has been styled the king of spective tribes, leaving the Franks in possession the Goths. Twelve thousand warriors, distin- of what is now northern France. The Vandals" guished above the vulgar by their noble birth or settled in a part of what is now Spain. (Their their valiant deeds, glittered in the van ; and the kingdom, says Jernandes, the Gothic historian, whole multitude, which was not less than two was afterward transferred to Africa in about A. d. hundred thousand fighting men, might be in- 428.) The Alans and Suevi settled in what is creased by the accession of women, of children, now Portugal, and the north-western part of and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred what is now Spain. The Alans only maintained thousand persons. ; —

14 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIRST TRUMPET. 15

pression of the " The correspondence of nations was in that German yoke ; and the consuming age so imperfect and precarious that the revolu- flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine tions of the North might escape the knowledge over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. of the court of , till the dark cloud, which That rich and extensive country, as far as was collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was de- in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. livered to the barbarians, who drove before them, Many cities of Italy were pillaged or destroyed in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, and the siege of Florence, by Radagaisus, is one laden with the spoils of their houses of the earliest events in the history of that cele- and altars." Id., vol. iii. pp. 215-224. brated republic, whose firmness checked, or de- After this invasion of the empire by Rada- layed, the unskillful fury of the barbarians. gaisus, Alaric again returned, invaded Italy in " While the peace of Germany was secured by 408, and in 410 he beseiged, took, and sacked, the attachment of the Franks and the neutrality Rome, and died the same year. In 412 the Goths of the Alemanni, the subjects of Rome, uncon- voluntarily retired from Italy, and in A. D. 414, scious of the approaching calamities, enjoyed a under the brother of Alaric, the Visigoths re- state of quiet and prosperity which had seldom established themselves in what is now southern blessed the frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and France and a part of Spain. herds were permitted to graze in the pastures of From the foregoing extracts and data, the reader will readily see that the blast the barbarians ; their huntsmen penetrated, with- of the first out fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of trumpet has its location at the close of the fourth the Hercynian wood. The banks of the Rhine century and onward, and refers to the desolating invasions were crowned, like those of the Tiber, with ele- of the Roman Empire by the Visigoths under Alaric, gant houses and well-cultivated farms; and if and by other northern tribes. a poet descended the river, he might express We thus see that by the year A. D. 407, seven of his doubt on which side was situated the terri- the ten toes of the image, or seven of the ten tory of the Romans. This scene of peace and horns of the terrible beast, had been made ap-

parent ; namely, the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, plenty was suddenly changed into a desert ; and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone Franks, Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians. distinguish the solitude of nature from the deso- These dominant tribes retained their identities lation of man. The flourishing city of Mentz until the fall of Rome was completed. And some was surprised and destroyed; and many thou- of them, after a lapse of 1400 years, are a standing proof " sand Christians were inhumanly massacred in the of the prophecy which says : They shall not church. Worms perished, after a long and ob- cleave one to another, cveSi as iron is not stinate siege; Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tour- mixed with clay." nay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel op- Wc know not how the history of the sounding —

16 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIRST TRUMPET. 17 of the first trumpet can be more impressively con- cluded than by presenting the graphic rehearsal tions of Germany ; from the northern extremity of this history, by Mr. Keith, in his " Signs of the of which the barbarians marched almost to the Times," vol. i. pp. 221-233 :— gates of Rome. They achieved the destruction of the West. "Large extracts show how amply and well The dark cloud which was collected along the coasts of the Baltic, Gibbon has expounded his text, in the history of burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The pas- the first trumpet, the first storm that pervaded tures of Gaul, in which flocks and herds grazed, the Roman earth, and the first fall of Borne. To and the banks of the Rhine, which were covered use his- words in more direct comment, we read with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, thus the sum of the matter : The Gothic nation formed a scene of peace and plenty which was was in arms at the first sound of the trumpet, suddenly changed into a desert, distinguished and in the uncommon severity of the winter," from the solitude of nature only smoking they rolled their ponderous wagons over the broad by ruins. Many cities were cruelly oppressed or and icy back of the river. The fertile fields of destroyed. Many thousands were inhumanly Phocis and Boeotia were crowded with a deluge of massacred. And the consuming flames of war barbarians ; the males were massacred ; the fe- spread over the greatest part of the seventeen males and cattle of the 'flaming villages were provinces of Gaul. driven away. The deep and bloody traces of " Alaric again stretched his ravages over Italy. the march of the Goths could easily be discovered During four years, the Goths ravaged and reigned after several years. The whole territory of A t- over it without control. And, in the pillage and tica was blasted by the baneful presence of Alaric. fire of Rome, the streets of the city filled The most fortunate of the inhabitants of Corinth, were with dead bodies; the flames Argos, Sparta, were saved by death from behold- consumed many public and private buildings; and- the ruins of a ing the conflagration of their cities. In a season palace remained [after a century and a half], a of such extreme heat that the beds of the rivers stately monument of the Gothic were dry, Alaric invaded the dominion of the conflagration." West. A secluded 'old man* of Verona' pathetic- " The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, they cast ally lamented the fate of his cotemporary treex, and were upon the earth ; and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all which must blaze in the of conflagration the green grass was burnt up." whole country [note the words of the prophecy — The expression " all green grass teas burnt up," ' the third part of the trees was burnt lip'] ; and veiy plainly illustrates the sweeping and wither- the emperor of the Romans fled before the king ing effect which followed of the Goths. the invaders in the three parts of the empire. Mr. Keith adds : "A furious tempest was excited among the na- " The concluding sentence of the thirty-third * The poet Claudian. chapter of Gibbon's history, is, of itself, a clear Trumpets. 2 18 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SECOND TRUMPET. 19

and comprehensive commentary ; for, in winding up his own description of the brief, but most THE SECOND eventful period, he concentrates, as in a parallel TBUMPET. reading, the sum of the history and the sub- Verses 8, 9. "And the second angel sounded, and as stance of the prediction. But the words which it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into

the sea ; and the third of ' part the sea became blood ; and precede it are not without their meaning : The the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and public devotion of the age impatient to was ex- had life, died ; and the third part of the ships were de- alt the saints and martyrs of- the Catholic church stroyed." on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union The history illustrative of the sounding of this of the Roman empire was dissolved ; its genius trumpet evidently relates to the invasion and was humbled in the dust; and armies of un- conquest of Africa, and afterward of Italy, by the known barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions terrible Genseric. of the North, had established their victorious The word Vandalism has become commonplace reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and among historians. In speaking of the decline of Africa.' Rome, it is recorded that " Vandalism desolated " The last word, Africa, is the signal for the her classic fields." The hero of Vandal aggres- sounding of the second trumpet. The scene sion and destruction was. Genseric. A Latin au- changes from the shores of the Baltic to the thor " describes him as follows : He was a more southern coast of the Mediterranean, or from the frightful barbarian than any who had as yet arisen frozen regions of the North to the borders of among the foes of Rome. Lame and hideous in burning Africa. And, instead of a storm of hail aspect, of slow speech, but of iron will, inconceiv- being cast upon the earth, a burning mountain able duplicity and boundless ambition, he had was cast into the sea." never been known to listen to the voice of justice or mercy ; he had never recoiled from any act of From A. r>. 407 to A. r>. 428 these seven inde- perfidy or blood which pendent powers (kingdoms) seemed determined he believed his interests to demand. He is admitted to to weaken and subjugate the already declining have been tem- perate in his personal habits, but utterly incapa- power of Rome ; but the transferring of the Van- ble of controlling himself when aroused dal kingdom to Africa, A. D. 428, brought in a to anger. His perspicacity saw to the bottom of new feature in the plans which the warlike clans eveiything. He never missed an opportunity ; he carried out adopted in order to fulfill the prophecy concern- a project in less time than others spent in medi- ing the second trumpet of Rev. 8 : 8, 9. tating upon it." His conquests were, for the most part, NAVAL, and his triumphs were "as it were a great mountain burning with fire, cast into the sea." What figure would better, or so well, illustrate —

THE SECOND 20 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. TRUMPET. 21

outgeneraled him. burnt the collision of navies, and the general havoc of He and sunk in a day what cost Majorian three years of labor at war on maritime coasts ? In explaining this a great expense. For many years trumpet, we are to look for some events which he was the ty- rant of the sea, and imagined will have a particular bearing on the commercial that he himself was fated to be the scourge of the world.- The symbol used naturally leads us to Romans. He pillaged Rome, and carried away the look for agitation and commotion. Nothing but sacred ves- sels of the temple which Titus took from a fierce maritime warfare would fulfill the predic- Jerusa- lem. tion. If the sounding of the first trumpet refers to the ravages of the Visigoths under Alaric, and Gibbon, the historian, says of Majorian's prep- of other barbarians, in this we naturally look fcr aration : the next succeeding act of invasion which shook " The woods of the Apennines were felled ; the the Roman power and conduced to its fall. The arsenals and manufactories of Ravenna and Mis- next great invasion was that of " the terrible enum were restored ; Italy and Gaul vied with Genseric" at the head of the Vandals. This each other in liberal contributions to the public tribe, who at first settled in what is now Spain, service ; and the imperial navy of three hundred in Africa, saw brighter prospects for themselves long galleys, with an adequate proportion of A. their kingdom was consequently about D. 428 transports and smaller vessels, was collected in transferred there, making Carthage their head- the secure and capacious harbor of Carthagena quarters. Here Genseric soon gained the great- in Spain. But Genseric was saved from impend- But, as Gibbon est maritime power of his age. ing and inevitable ruin by the treachery of some black states, " The discovery and conquest of the powerful subjects, envious or apprehensive of beneath the nations [in Africa] that might dwell their ^master's success. Guided by their secret torrid rational ambition zone, could not tempt the intelligence, he surprised the unguarded fleet in of Genseric; but he cast his eyes toward the the bay of Carthagena ; many of the ships were sea resolved to create a naval power, and ; he sunk, or taken, or burnt, and the preparations his bold resolution was executed with steady and of three years were destroyed in a single day. active perseverance." From the port of Carthage " Italy continued to be long afflicted by the he repeatedly made piratical sallies, and preyed incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates. In on the Roman commerce, and waged war with the spring of each year they equipped a formid- that empire, and his attacks were mostly on the able navy in the port of Carthage, and Genseric middle division of the empire. himself, though in a very advanced age, still To cope with this sea monai'ch, Majorian, the commanded in person the most important ex- emperor of the "West, who retained only the mid- peditions. His designs were concealed with im- dle tripartite division of the empire (as it was penetrable secrecy till the moment that he hoist- divided by Constantine the Great), fitted out a ed sail. When he was asked by his pilot what fleet to operate against the Vandals, but Genseric — —

22 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SECOND TRUMPET. 23 course he should steer, ' Leave the determination tirely. For this purpose a fleet left Constanti- to the winds,' replied the barbarian, with pions nople A. d. 468, and arrived before Carthage. It arrogance, ' they will transport us to the guilty- consisted of 1113 vessels, at a cost of 5,200,000 coast whose inhabitants have provoked the di- pounds sterling, and soldiers and mariners about vine justice.' But Genseric himself deigned to 100,000. As soon as this fleet arrived, Genseric issue more precise orders ; he judged the most asked for a truce of three days. During this wealthy to be the most criminal. The Vandals time, he fitted up vessels filled with combustible repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, materials, impelled them against the unsuspect- Tuscany, Campania, Leucania, Brutium, Apulia, ing Romans at night, and thus set fire to their Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and whole fleet, and gained a complete victory.

Sicily ; they were tempted to subdue the island This naval rencounter is described by Gibbon Sardinia, advantageously placed in cen- of so the as follows : ter of the Mediterranean, and their arms spread " The whole desolation or terror from the column of Hercules expense of the African campaign amounted to the to the mouth of the Nile. As they were more sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds ambitious of spoil than of glory, they seldom at- of gold—about five million two hundred thousand tacked any fortified cities, or engaged any regu- pounds sterling. The fleet that sailed from lar troops in the open field. But the celerity of Constantinople to Carthage con- sisted of eleven their motions enabled them, almost at the same hundred and thirteen ships, and the number time, to threaten and to attack the most distant of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand men. The army of Her- objects which attracted their desires ; and as they aclius, and the fleet always embarked a sufficient number of horses, of Marcellinus, either joined or seconded they had no sooner landed than they swept the the Imperial Lieutenant. The wind became favorable dismayed countiy with a body of light cavalry. to the designs of Genseric. He manned his largest In the treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he ships of war with the bravest of the Moors sometimes consulted his avarice, and sometimes and Vandals, and they towed after them many large barks filled with combustible his cruelty ; he massacred five hundred noble cit- materials. izens of Zante, or Zacynthus, whose mangled In the obscurity of the night, these destructive vessels bodies he cast into the Ionian sea." Gibbon, vol. were impelled against the un- guarded and unsuspecting fleet of the iii. pp. 4S1-4S7. Romans, who were awakened by a sense of their instant His success at sea, and his desperate assaults clanger. Their close and crowded order assisted upon Majorian, so enraged Leo, the emperor of the progress of the fire, which was communicated eastern Rome, that he sent him word that, if he did with rapid and irresistible violence, and the not desist from his ravages, he would send a force noise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, sufficient to exterminate the Vandal power en- the dissonant cries of the soldiers and mariners, THE 24 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THIBD TRUMPET. 25

stroyed." This doubtless who could neither command nor obey, increased refers to the complete ruin of Leo's the horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they fleet. Concerning the important part which this bold labored to extricate themselves from the fire- corsair acted in the downfall of ships, and to save at least a part of the navy, Rome, Mr. Gib- " bon uses this significant language : Genseric, the galleys of Genseric assaulted them 'with tem- a name which, in the destruction perate and disciplined valor; and many of the of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal rank Romans who escaped the fury of the flames, were with the names of Alaric and Attila." destroyed or taken by the victorious Vandals. In A. D. 429, he began his attacks upon the After the failure of this- great expedition, Genser- Romans, and in A. d. 468, his crowning feat was ic again became the tyrant of the sea ; the coasts accomplished. of Italy, Greece, and Asia, were again exposed to While ^Genseric was reducing the Roman his revenge and avarice. Tripoli and Sardinia pow-, er by sea, there began to be carried on a confed- returned to his obedience; he added Sicily to erate attack of the other above-mentioned tribes the number of his provinces ; and before he died, by land, under Attila, the kiDg of the Huns, in the fullness of years and of glory, he beheld which brings us to the third trumpet. the final extinction of the empire of the west." —Gibbon, vol. iii. pp. 495-498.

This naval warfare is symbolized by a great " burning mountain cast into the sea. The third 'tiie third "rurnMr-E'r. part of the sea became blood," seems to have ref- Vekses erence to the terrible slaughter of men in this 10, 11. "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning division of the empire. Africa was included in as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and this division by Constantine the Great. upon the fountains of waters ; and the name of the star " The third part of the creatures which were in is called Wormwood, and the third part of the waters be- came wormwood ; and many men died of the waters, be- the sea, and had life, died." This may include the cause they were made bitter." mariners engaged in this warfare. But why, says one, do you here call the crea- We have now reached that point of, time in which the Huns, Ostrogoths, tures men ? Are not creatures sometimes inferior Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, animals, as fish? They are. But the great Vandals, and Suevi, are desolating the burning mountain symbolizes a great warfare. classic fields of Rome, and often visiting her armies with defeat. Now the fish had nothing to do with the war- In the interpretation fare; hence such creatures as men or horses and application of the above which are used in a battle could only supply the passage, we are brought to the third im- portant analogy in the symbol. event which resulted in the subversion of the " And the third part of the ships were de^ Roman Empire. And in finding a histori- — —;

26 THE SEVEN TK17MPETS. THE THIRD TRUMPET. 27

cal fulfillment of this third trumpet, we shall be his iron will made even the contemporary bar- indebted for a few extracts from the Notes of Mr. barians tremble at his acquisitions of dominion. Albert Barnes. In explaining this scripture, it is The tribes north of the Danube had already necessary to suppose, as this commentator says : yielded to his government. Nearly all of what " That there would be some chieftain, or war- is now Russia was obedient to his dictate, and rior, who might be compared to a blazing mete- from the steppes of Asia were hordes of plun- derers awaiting the or ; whose course would be singularly brilliant summons of the conqueror. who would appear suddenly, like a blazing star, Rome herself had consented, reluctantly, to pay and then disappear like a star whose light was him tribute. Her cup of iniquity was fast filling quenched in the waters. That the desolating up, and her punishment was certain. The proph- course of that meteor would be mainly on those ecy declared she should be divided into ten parts. portions of the world that abounded with spriDgs "It was diverse from all the beasts that were

before it ; and it had ten horns." of water and running streams. That an effect Dan. 7 : 7. would be produced as if those streams and fount- From stern virtue, sobriety, economy, and clemency, ains were made bitter; that is, that many per- Rome had degenerated to vice, intem- sons would perish, and that wild desolations perance, extravagance, and cruelty. The mon- would be caused in the vicinity of those rivers archs of mighty kingdoms were dragged at the wheels and streams, as if a baleful star should fall into of her triumphal chariots, at the caprice the waters, and death should spread over lands and pomp of her martial rulers. Once, she ex- adjacent to them and watered by them." Notes ercised mercy toward the weak, and succored on Rev. 8. the helpless, as when she leagued with the Jews,

who were oppressed by Antiochus ; but now, the It is here premised that this trumpet has allu- starving mother may devour her infant before sion to the desolating wars and furious invasions the eyes of the Roman, and he heeds it not. of Attila against the Roman power, which he That fierceness spoken of by the prophet, Deut. carried on at the head of the hordes of Huns. 28 : 50, has become developed. Her ambition, While the Vandals, under Genseric (the great aggrandizement, and supremacy, required every burning, mountain), for forty years were de- conquered foe to bow beneath the yoke of slav- stroying the Roman power by sea, there were ery. Many tribes are rallying to the standard other clans of barbarians confederating, in order of Attila, and the Romans are preparing to repel to strike a decisive blow against the same power their terrible foe. by land. Attila anticipates that his best trophies arc All Europe and a part of Asia had been beyond the Alps. At the sound of his war-cry, aroused to the great struggle for the mastery. all Europe musters to arms. Since Xerxes led Attila, the leader of the Hnns, had already de- his immense army against the Greeks, no greater vastated seventy cities of the East. fear of The body of warriors had ever assembled to act a — — — :

28 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE THIRD TRUMPET. 29

part in the fulfillment of prophecy. The en- be on 'the rivers' and on the 'fountains of wa- gagement that succeeded is recorded as one of ters.' If this has a literal application, or if, as the four decisive battles of history. was supposed in the case of the second trumpet, Rome collects her forces to meet the intruder the language was ; such as had reference to the she also invites her very foes to lend a helping portion of the empire that would be particularly hand. The Visigoths, Burgundians, and Franks, affected by the hostile invasion, then we may joined the Roman forces. They met in what is suppose that this refers to those portions of the now French territory. At Orleans, and finally empire that abounded in rivers and streams, and at Chalons, the struggle between one and a half more particularly those in which the rivers and millions of Romans and barbarians took place. streams had their origin—for the effect was per- Neither party could claim a victory. About manently in the 'fountains of the waters.' As 300,000 were left dead upon the battle-field. a matter of fact, the principal operations of After the conflict, the Roman general hastened Attila were in the regions of the Alps, and on to the imperial city, and his confederates to their the portions of the empire whence the rivers flow respective kingdoms. Attila recruited his forces, down into Italy. The invasion of Attila is de- and the next spring appeared in the north of scribed by Mr. Gibbon in this general language Italy with his anny as large as it was before it 'The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends was reduced at Chalons. Speaking of this war- above five hundred miles from the Euxine to the rior, particularly of his personal appearance, Mr. Adriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and Barnes, on Rev. 8, says : desolated, by the myriads of barbarians whom Attila led into the field.'" " In the manner of his appearance, he strongly resembled a brilliant meteor flashing in the sky. In further illustration of the sounding of the He came from the east, gathering his Huns, and third trumpet, we shall be indebted to Mr. poured them down, as we shall see, with the Keith. He speaks as follows : rapidity of a flashing meteor, suddenly on the "A third angel sounded ;—and a third name is empire. He regarded .himself also as devoted to associated with the downfall of the Roman Em- Mars, the god of war, and was accustomed to pire. The sounding of the trumpets manifestly array himself in a peculiarly brilliant manner, so denotes the order of the commencement, not the that his appearance, in the language of his flat- period of the duration, of the wars, or events terers, was such as to dazzle the eyes of the be- which they represent. When the second angel holders." sounded, there was seen, as it were, a great In speaking of the locality of the events pre- mountain burning with fire. When the third dicted by this trumpet, Mr. Barnes has this angel sounded, there fell a great « star from note : heaven, burning as it were a lamp. The sym- bol, in each instance, is expressly " It is said particularly that the effect would a similitude, . — ;

30 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE THIRD TRUMPET. 31

and the one is to the other, in comparative and • the character of some of the first of the seven individual resemblance, as a burning mountain trumpets. Mr. Keith further says : to a falling star; each of them was great. The " The connection between the events predicted former was cast into the sea, the latter was first under the first and second trumpets is marked by seen as falling, and it fell upon the fountains and the passing of the Vandals from Europe to Asia, rivers of waters. There is a discrimination in and the consequent combination of Moors and the similitude, in the description, and locality, Mauritanians in the conquest of Africa, ' the most which obviously implies a corresponding differ- important province of the West; and in the ence in the object represented. overthrow of the naval power of Rome. The " On such plain and preliminary observations sequence and connection between the events de- we may look to the intimation given in the third noted by the second and third trumpets, are, we trumpet, and to the achievements of Attila, the apprehend, equally definite. third name mentioned by Gibbon, and associated " ' The alliance of Attila (a. d. 441), maintained in equal rank -with those of Alaric and -Genseric, the Vandals in the possession of Africa. An en- in the decline and fall of the Koman Empire. terprise had been concerted between the courts "Genseric landed in Africa in the year 429, of Ravenna and Constantinople for the recovery and in the following year spread desolation along of that valuable province, and the ports of Sicily its coast, throughout the long-extended territory were already filled with the military and naval of Rome, which was then finally separated from forces of Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, the empire. Attila invaded the Eastern Empire who spread his negotiations round the world, in the year- 441. From that period, ten years prevented their designs, by exciting the kiDg of elapsed before he touched the Western Empire, the Huns (Attila) to invade the Eastern Empire and twenty-two • years intervened, from 429 to and a trifling incident soon became the motive, 451, between the invasion of Africa by Genseric, or pretence, of a destructive war. The troops and of Attila. ' Gaul by The burning mountain' which had been sent against Genseric were hastily arose first, though it blazed longer than the recalled from Sicily.' 'falling star.'" "But if symbolized or described under the And right here we may add that we under- second and third trumpet, the respective nature stand the blasts of these trumpets to be suc- of their power, or character of their warfare, cessive, though the effects might be at the same must needs be described, as well as the order time. It is as if a clarion blast was sounded marked, in which Genseric and Attila first as- upon a bugle, and, ere its shrill tones had ceased saulted the empire of Rome, and accelerated its undulating upon the air, another blast was ruin. blown, and so on. This will clearly illustrate "A great star is the symbol—of which the significancy has to be sustained; burning as it —

32 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE THIRD TRUMPET. 33

were a lamp, is the character of the warfare. The tation, his stern and absolute commands. In locality is neither the earth, in the full extent of time of peace, the dependent princes, with their the term as applicable to the Roman Empire, and national troops, attended the royal camp in regu- lar the wide scene over which the hail and fire swept succession ; but when Attila collected his mil-

• on the sounding of the first trumpet, nor yet the itary forces, he was able to bring into the field an third part of the sea, as expressive of the second, army of five, or according to another account, " by which the African coast was forever separated seven hundred thousand barbarians.' from the empire, and the ships finally destroyed, "Burning as it were a lamp." A star does but, as referring to a portion of the remains of not long give light before it sets ; a lamp does the empire of Rome—the fountains and rivers of not long emit rays unless it is replenished: so waters." was Attila's course in respect to his attack upon " There fell a great star from heaven." A star the middle tripartite division of the Roman Em- falling from heaven is a wonderful phenomenon pire. It was of. short duration. He continued only —it is not a natural occurrence. So it was not about a year in the region of the Alps and in the natural course of events that Attila should the highlands of Central Europe. Attila's ca- reer have received so sudden a check in his rapid suddenly ceased ; and after making a treaty with career for conquest and plunder. Why so ? Be- the Romans he left for his own capital on cause formerly these very allies of Rome had the Danube, where his death soon after. occurred been her bitterest enemies, and were heretofore in A. D. 453. as determined as Attila himself to destroy her " Keith says : The armies of the Eastern Em- power. The Visigoths, Franks, and Burgiindians, pire were vanquished in three successive engage- whose repeated .war-cry, and ruin by conflagra- ments ; and the progress of Attila may be traced tion and sword, had so often aroused the Roman by the fields of battle. From the Hellespont to fears, are here fighting side by side with the Thermopylae, and the suburbs of Constantinople, Roman legions, in order to subdue the man who he ravaged, without resistance and without claimed himself to be "the Scourge of God." The mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. name of Attila is to this day a memorial of his Heraclea and Hadrianople might escape this greatness, of which a brief description may dreadful irruption of the Huns ; but the words, : suffice the most expressive of total extirpation and eras- " The crowd of vulgar kings, the leaders of so ure, are applied to the calamities which they in- many martial tribes, who served under the stand- flicted on seventy cities of the Eastern Empire. " ard of Attila, were ranged in the submissive order ' Attila threatened to chastise the rash suc-

of guards and domestics, round the person of cessor of Theodosius ; but he hesitated whether their master. They watched his nod; they he should first direct his invincible arms against the trembled at his frown ; and, at the first signal of Eastern or Western Empire; while man- his will, they executed, without murmur or hesi- Trumpets. 3 " —

34 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE THIED TRUMPET. 35 kind awaited his decision with awful suspense, battle. At the head of his brave and faithful and his ministers saluted the two emperors with' Huns, Attila occupied in person the center of the the same haughty declaration, Attila, my lord line. The nations from the to the Atlan- and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace tic were assembled on the plain of Chalons. The for his immediate reception. But as the barba- number of the skin amounted to one hundred rian despised, or affected to despise, the Romans and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another of the East whom he had so often vanquished, account, three hundred thousand persons; and he soon declared his resolution of suspending the these incredible exaggerations suppose a real or easy conquest, till he had achieved a more glori- effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's ous and important enterprise. In the memora- remark that whole generations may be swept ble invasions of Gaul and Italy, the Huns were away, by the madness of kings, in the space of a naturally attracted by the wealth and fertility of single hour.' " these provinces. The star fell upon the " third part of the rivers " ' The trumpet sounded. The kings and na- —that is, the streams in the middle division of tions of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga the empire. perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike sum- "Fell upon the fountains of waters." Every mons of Attila. From the royal village in the student of geography knows that the Alps is a plains of Hungary, his standard moved toward great source, or head, of many of the rivers and the west ; and, after a march of seven or eight streams of Europe. The region where Attila halted hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the to operate in his work of devastation was, em- Rhine and the Necker. The hostile myriads phatically "the fountains of waters." Before were poured with violence into the Belgic prov- reaching the Alps, he also made a total wreck of inces. everything The consternation of Gaul was universal. in his way. Keith continues : From the Rhine and the Moselle Attila advanced - " The course of the fiery meteor was changed, into the heart of Gaul; crossed the Seine at not stayed ; and, touching Italy for the first time, Auxerre ; and, after a long and laborious march, the great star, after having burned as it were a fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. An lamp, fell upon a ' third part of the rivers/ and alliance was formed between the Romans and upon the fountains of waters. Visigoths. The hostile armies approached. I " Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the rep- myself, said Attila, will throw the first javelin, utation of Attila, were impaired by the failure of and the wretch who refuses to imitate the exam- the Gallic expedition. He passed the Alps, invad- ple of his sovereign is devoted to inevitable ed Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumera- death. The spirit of the barbarians was rekin- ble host of barbarians. The succeeding generation dled by the presence, the voice, and the example, could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. of their intrepid leader ; and Attila, yielding to After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued their impatience, immediately formed his order of his march ; and, as he passed; the cities of Al- 36 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE THIRD TRUMPET. 37 tinum, Concordia, and Padua were reduced into " Unlike to the great mountain burning with heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, fire, the great star that fell from heaven, after Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to suddenly scorching a part of Italy, rapidly dis- the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and appeared. During the same year in which Attila submitted, without resistance, to the loss first invaded the Italian territories and spread, of their wealth, and applauded the unusual clem- his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lom- ency which preserved from the flames the public bardy, which are divided by the Po, and bounded as well as private buildings, and spared the lives by the Alps and Apennines, without advancing of the captive multitude. Attila spread his rav- beyond the rivers and fountains of waters, he ages over the rich plains of modem Lombardy, concluded a treaty of peace with the Romans, which are divided by the Po, and bounded by 'at the conflux of the lake and river,' on the the Alps and Apennines. He took possession of spot where Mincius issues from lake Benaeus (L. the royal palace of Milan. It is a saying, worthy di garda). One paragraph in the History of the of the ferocious pride of Attila that the ' grass Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, describes never grew his trod.' on the spot where horse had ' " the invasion of Italy by Attila, A. D. 452/ An- ' The Western emperor, with the senate and other is entitled under the same date, 'Attila people of Rome, embraced the most salutary res- gives peace to the Romans.' The next paragraph olution of deprecating, by a solemn and suppliant ; ' describes the death of Attila, A. D. 453 ' and embassy, the wrath of Attila. The Roman am- the very next records, without any interval, the bassadors were introduced to the tent of Attila, destruction of his empire. as he lay encamped at the place where the slow- " ' There fell a great star from heaven, burning winding Mincius (Mincio) is lost in the foaming as it were a lamp, and it fell upon a third part waves of lake Benaeus, and trampled with his of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.' Scythian calvary the farms of Catullus and Virgil. Its greatness, its burning course, the place, the The barbarian monarch listened with favorable, severity, and suddenness of its fall, leave nothing and even respectful, attention ; and the deliver- more to be here explained, while its falling from ance of Italy was purchased by the immense heaven seems obviously to imply that it came ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria.' from beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, " Attila advanced not further into Italy than on part of which it fell. the plains of Lombardy, and the banks of the Po. " But another verse is added, under the third He reduced the cities, situated on that river and trumpet, which, having thus seen the significan- its tributary streams, to heaps of stones and cy of the former, we cannot pass over with any ashes. But there his ravages ceased. The great vague and general exposition, without calling on star which burned as it were a lamp, no sooner history to discharge its task in expounding the fell upon the fountains and rivers of waters and full meaning of the words, which sum up the de- turned cities into, ashes, than it was extinguished. cline, and are the immediate prelude to the fourth — ;

38 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE THIRD TRUMPET. 39 trumpet, the death-knell of the Western Empire. "'Total extirpation and erasure' are terms " which best denote the calamities he inflicted. ' And the name of the star is called Worm- " ' One of his lieutenants chastised and almost wood' [denoting the bitter consequences]. These exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine. •words—which are more intimately connected The Thuringians served in the army of Attila with the preceding verse, as even the punctua- they traversed, both in their march and in their tion in our version denotes—-recall us for a mo- return, the territories of the Franks ; and they ment to the character of Attila, to the misery of massacred their hostages as well as their captives. which he was the author, or the instrument, and Two hundred young maidens were tortured with to the terror that was inspired by his name." exquisite and unrelenting rage ; their bodies were The effect of his ravages in the north of Italy- torn asunder by wild horses, or were crushed un- lan- could not better be described in the English der the weight of rolling wagons ; and their un- guage than by the word wormwood. " And the buried limbs were abandoned on public roads, as name of the star is called wormwood." Bitter- a prey to dogs and vultures.' ness was the result of his course wherever he " It was the boast of Attila, that the grass nev- went. Bitterness was in the hearts of the people er grew on the spot which his horse had trod. of the Alpine regions as they saw their habita- ' The Scourge of God,' was a name that he appro- tions burnt, their cattle made a prey, and their priated to himself, arid inserted among his royal

' fair fields entirely laid waste. . Before he reached titles. He was the scourge of his enemies, and the Alps, he devastated the land and burnt the the terror of the world.' The Western emperor, Roman cities. Aquileia, the most important city with the senate and people of Rome, humbly and of northern Italy, after a seige of three months, fearfully deprecated the wrath of Attila. And was reduced to ashes. The plains around it were the concluding paragraph of the chapters which nothing but blackness and ashes. And writers record his history, is entitled ' Symptoms of the say that the great earthen mounds that encircled Decay and Ruin of the Roman Government.' The their encampment may yet be seen by the trav- name of the star is called Wormwood. " eler. It being in the hot season many of the ' In the space of twenty years since the death Huns died of disease. On the part of both Ro- of Valentinian' [two years subsequent to the mans and barbarians many perished in conse- death of Attila], ' nine emperors had successively " quence of the evil effects of the invasion. And disappeared ; and the son of Orestes, a youth many men died of the waters, because they were recommended only by his beauty, would be the made bitter." least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his the extinction of Attila's attack upon the middle tripartite di- reign, which was marked by the Roman Empire in the West, did not leave a vision of the empire was during A. D. 451-453. " memorable era in the history of mankind.' Mr. Keith continues : — — — ———

40 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 41

verse from all the beasts that were before it ; and it THE FOURTH TRUMPET. had ten horns." Dan. 7 : 7. " And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and Three full blasts of the trumpets have already- saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven signalized the sad fate of Rome. The echo of heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten their sounding reverberates through the earth, crowns." Rev. 13 : 1. the as death knell of her departed glory is Seven of these ten horns, or kingdoms, have hightened by another furious outbreak. Before already been described under the three former attempt to we apply the words of the prophet, trumpets, and there remain three more divisions, as expressed by the fourth angel, it will be in to bring the strong iron power of Rome-into a place to give rise, a description of the location, condition in which it may well be likened unto and some relations of other powers, which were iron, mixed with miry clay. the means of the fulfillment of this prophecy. The first oT these three powers were the Her- About the end of the fourth century, barbarous uli. They were in Attila's army at the battle tribes from the North and East commenced in- of Chalons. Odoacer afterward became their roads on the Roman Empire, and in the course of king. Under him they took Rome and executed the succeeding hundred fifty and years, over- the emperor in A. d. 476. Sheppard's Fall of threw the power. Roman Mitchell's Ancient Home, pp. 198, 268, 272. Geography, p. 143. The Heruli, after the death of Attila, returned About the last of the eighth century, the vari- westward, made repeated attacks on the Western ous little tribes which rose on the ruins of the Empire, and deposed the last emperor, Momyllus Roman Empire gradually merged into a few Augustulus. Their ruler was Odoacer, who be- great monarchies, which, in the general outline, came the first king of Italy. Mitchell's Ancient have continued till the present day. Mitchell's Geography, p. 145. Ancient Geography, p. 149. The Heruli followed Attila in his march .to About the middle of the fifteenth century Gaul, A. D. 451, and after his death, under their arose an able historian and statesman, Machia- leader Odoacer, uniting with other German vel,* of Lombard nationality, who says that tribes, were powerful enough to destroy the Rome in its fall was divided into ten parts, or Western Empire. Odoacer succumbed to the Os- kingdoms, and enumerates their rise as taking trogoths, A. D. 493. Appleton's Encyclopedia. place between A. d. 356 and A. D. 483. Another of the three above-mentioned powers "And after this I saw in the night visions, and was the Anglo-Saxon. The successful establish- behold a fourth . beast, and it was di- ment of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy cannot date earlier than A. D. 471, when Vortigern began his *MacauIay, the English historian, says : "Abundant proofs remain of the high estimation both of Machiarel's works and per- second reign in Britian. Hayden's Dictionary son, and so they were held by his cotemporaries." Misctllaneou? of Dates, Art. Britian. Writings, p. 20. — — — —

42 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 43

The last event of Roman Britian, when the sovereignty till the fifteenth century. It has people petitioned Aetius for aid to repel the since been contended for both by French Picts and the Scots, was A. d. 446, exactly thirty- and German sovereigns. In 1805, Napoleon, at years before the fall of Rome in A. D. 476. The Milan, was proclaimed king of Italy. After his intervention of thirty years witnessed the estab- abdication, in 1S15, the allied sovereigns estab- lishment of the Saxons in the island of Britian. lished it as the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. —Smith's History of the World, vol. iii. p. 735. In 1848, it revolted from this alliance, and its About the middle of the fifth century, the revolt was sustained by the king of Sardinia and Saxons arrived in Britian. They helped the the pope. Victor Immanuel II. is of Lombard Britians - repel the Picts and Scots. For this descent, and the heir to the Italian throne is favor they were allowed to invite over other Humbert, prince of Savoy in Lombardy. Hay- Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, to settle among them. den's Dictionary of Dates. Instead of longer assisting the Britians, the Sax- We have given a brief account of the last three ons and Angles made war upon them, and in the powers which were to arise according to the course of the fifth century gained the ascendancy prophecy. Historians agree in the manner and in England. Appleton's Encyclopedia. time of their rise. Profane history grants these The Lombards, the last of the ten divisions, powers monarchical dominion, and prophecy now claim our attention. This tribe, after the gives them crowns. battle of Chalons and death of Attila, A. D. 453, The Heruli in Italy, the Anglo-Saxons in En- became one of the chief powers that arose. gland, and the Lombards on the Danube, with Smith's History of the World, p. 743. the seven other powerful tribes before described, The Lombards first established themselves on furnish the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, " the , then on the Danube, whence they which says : It had ten horns." Now it is ev- invaded Italy, and founded the kingdom of Lom- ident all these powers were at some time cotem- bardy. Mitchell's Ancient Geography, p. 145. porary ; for the prophet saw a beast upon which The Lombards were among Attila's forces in there were visible at one time ten horns. This the great decisive battle of Chalons, A. D. 451. was the case with Rome from A. d. 483 to A. D. —Sheppard's Fall of Rome, p. 198. 493. In the fifth century, the Lombards appeared on The prophet saw afterward three of the horns the north bank of the Danube. They overcame "plucked up by the roots." The expression, " their former masters, the Heruli. Going south plucked up by the roots," according to • the of the Danube, they subdued the GepicUe, and plain English language, would signify a cessa- after the annihilation of their enemies, crossed tion of existence. It is said three horns fell be- into northern Italy and there founded, A. D. 568, fore (in the presence of) another power which 1— a powerful State.' Appleton's Encyclopedia. came up ; and in verse 24 of Dan. 7, the very Lombardy (North Italy) sustained its own —

THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 45 44 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS.

536, his kingdom fell into the hands of Justin- power that came up should subdue these three ian's general. Belisarius entered kings. Rome in tri- umph, a. d. 53G, after he had just completed the Between a. d. 493 and a. d. three of 538, conquest of the Vandals in Africa. these powers which held to Arianism were de- The finishing stroke against Vandal rule was stroyed. The Heruli, in A. D. 393, were ex- this : Belisarius had taken the Vandal king terminated by the Ostrogoths under Theodoric. captive at Carthage. He was taken thence to It was brought about in this way: Under the Constantinople. He was here stripped of his proposal, or what was called the " Pragmatic " * scarlet robe and asked to renounce his Arian of Zeno, who was then emperor of the East, profession. Because he was unwilling to do so, and who was orthodox in religion; the Ostro- he found no favor in the eyes of Justinian, but goths, whose dominions lay east of Italy, were en- was refused the dignities which were promised couraged to make war uponthe Heruli, who then to him at his capitulation. held Rome, and who were Arians. Theodoric as- The three powers thus fell by the policy of sembled his forces, marched to Italy and dispos- this spiritual power that was coming up. There sessed the Heruli. He now repudiated the " Prag- was nothing now in the way of its assumption matic," had himself declared king of Italy, and over the civil power which it laid hold of, A. r>. governed it for thirty-eight years. An Arian, 538, and became the noted little horn of Dan. 7. " he showed at first no violence to the opposite For fifteen years after the overthrow of the party, and established friendly relations with the Ostrogoths, Narses ruled Italy in the name of the popes." He was a great statesman and brought emperor of the East, as Exarch of Ravenna. He Italy to a state of renown. The foundation of was about to be recalled and have his authority some of the most cities his renowned was due to taken away, which summons stung him to the genius yet there was a spiritual power arising ; heart. He immediately sent word to the power- that was incompatible of with the permanency ful Lombards on the Danube that Italy lay at his kingdom because of its Arian character. the mercy of their arms. The Lombards soon Sheppard's Fall Rome, 286, 297, 300, 302. of pp. after invaded Italy, and in A. D. 468 it fell into A new emperor of the East, Justin I., arose their hands. and proscribed Arianism. Theodoric felt the The territory of Western Rome, over which proscription as an indignity. He tried to depre- her banners had waved so gloriously for more cate its severity by negotiation ; but he met with than five centuries, is now entirely occupied by little success. He then retaliated by executing barbarians, and in her state of effeminacy, it is some of the dignitaries of Rome. As he began only necessary, in order to entirely efface her mere to suppress treason and orthodoxy, he was taken nominal sovereignty, to blot her rulers from ex- away by disease. About four years after, A. d. istence, and her glory as an empire has departed forever. It remains, then, only to mention a few * Patrician by the emperor's appointment. — — — —

46 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 47 facts concerning the rulers of Rome at the last government—its emperors, consuls, and senators. stage of her existence. The sun sends forth light of itself—the decree Odoacer compelled Augustulus to -write to the of the emperor is law. The moon shines by a Roman senate that a single emperor was now borrowed light—the authority of the consul was sufficient for both Greece and Rome. The sen- dependent in some measure on the will of anoth- ate then sent the ornaments of the imperial pal- er. The stars shine when the night comes—the ace, diadems, purple mantles,. and all other in- wants of the people demanded attention, and then signia of imperial power to Zeno, emperor of the the senate acted. East, and asked him to yield to their wishes, and "The sun was smitten." Odoacer caused the allow Odoacer to be their ruler. He conceded to title of emperor to cease. But one-third part their entreaty, and appointed him Patrician and only is effected—the jurisdiction of Rome then governor of Italy in his own name, about A. D. extended over only the middle division of the 483.—Sheppard's Fall of Borne, p. 276. empire, as ceded by Constantine to his three When Theodoric overcame Odoacer, he received sons. One-third part of the moon was smitten; an appointment as Patrician from the emperor of the effect of this political calamity had the same the East, about A. D. 485. The senate of Rome extent as the former. When the consulship was was still in existence ; for, during his reign, he taken away, Rome had ceded all her territory sent an eminent senator on an embassy to the beyond the Alps. Sheppard's Fall of Rome, p. court of Burgundy. Sheppard's Fall of Rome, 276. pp. 285, 360. " And the third part of the stars " was smitten. Belisarius entered Rome in triumph, A. n. When Narses ruled Rome as Exarch, in the

536 ; but the entire subjugation of the Ostro- name of the emperor of the East, there was no goths was accomplished by Narses, about A. d. longer any need of a senate at Rome, for Justin-

552 ; and for fifteen years after, Rome was gov- ian had one of his own. erned by him under the title of Exarch of Ra- " So as the third part of them was darkened." venna. We thus see that the ruliDg of the sen- This smiting continued, until in the middle di- ate terminated about A. D. 552. Sheppard's Fall vision of the empire these rulers were merely of Rome, p. 311. nominal ; they could not act. " Verse 12. "And the fourth angel sounded, and the And the day shone not for a third part of it, third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of and the night likewise." Superior and inferior the moon, the and third part of the stars ; so as the third rulers— Emperors. Consuls, and Senators, ceased part of them was darkened, the shone not for a and day to be. third part of it, and the night likewise." In the forcible language of Keith, this sound- This trumpet illustrates the of the closing up ing of the fourth angel is illustrated : Roman government. Sun, moon, and stars, are "At the voice of the first angel, the blast evidently symbols that denote the rulers in the and —

48 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 49 of his trumpet, the whole Roman world was in ag- The remnant, or the refuse, of previous inva- itation, and 'the storms of war* passed over italJ. sions, was enough to destroy the last remaining ' The union of the empire was dissolved ;' a third parts of Roman greatness in Italy, and to abolish the office and part of it fell; and the ' Transalpine provinces were the name of the emperor of Rome. separated from the empire.' Under the second Mr. Keith says : trumpet, the provinces of Africa, another, or the " Long had that name been a terror to the na- maritime, part, was in like manner reft from tions, and identified with supreme authority in Rome, and the Roman ships in were destroyed the world. Long had the emperor of Rome the sea, and even in their harbor. The empire shone and ruled in the earth, like the sun in the of Rome, hemmed in on every side, was then firmament. His was a kingdom and dominion, limited to the kingdom of Italy. Within its great and terrible, and strong exceedingly, to bounds, and along the fountains and rivers of which all others were subjected or subordinate. waters, the third trumpet re-echoed from the His supreme or imperial authority, had, in the Alps to the Apennines. The last barrier of the decline of the empire, been greatly obscured, but empire of Rome was broken. The plains of till then it had never been extinguished. It had Lombardy were ravaged by a foreign foe ; and been darkened and disfigured by a great storm from ; thence new enemies arose to bring to an eclipsed, as it were, by a mountain that burned end the strife of the world with the imperial with fire ; and outshone, as it were, by a falling city. star, like a fiery meteor. It had survived the as- "Though the union of the empire was dis- saults of Goths and Vandals and Huns. Though solved, there was still an emperor in Rome. The clouded and obscured, it had never been smitten'; majesty of the Roman name was not obliterated, and though its" light reached but a little way, though tarnished. after And the middle of the where previously it had shone over all, it had fifth century, the Caesars had still a successor in never been extinguished. their own city. But the palace of Milan could " Neither, at last, was the whole sun smitten, not again be the temporary abode of the Roman but the third part. The throne of the Caesars court, when it was the seat and center of a hos- had for ages been the sun. of the world, while tile power. And the marshes of Ravenna ceased other kings were designated as stars. But the to be a security, after the waters were made bit- imperial power had first been transferred to Con- ter, and when hordes of Huns mingled with other stantinople by Constantine; and it was after- savages in the northern regions of Italy. The ward divided between the East and the West. time, too, had long passed for realizing the proj- And the Eastern Empire was not yet doomed to ect, which the terror of the Goths had first sug- destruction. Even the Western Empire was gested, of transferring the court of to the Rome afterwards revived ; -and a more modern dynasty shores of Africa, and transforming Carthage into arose to claim and maintain the title of emperor another Constantinople." Trumpets. 4 ;

50 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 51 of the Romans. But, for the first time, after which yet remained of the authority which had sudden, and violent, and distinctly marked and given laws to the world.' connected convulsions, the imperial power in " The power and the glory of Rome, as bearing Rome, where for so long a period it had reigned rule over any nation, became extinct. The name triumphant, was cut off forever; and the third alone remained to the queen of nations. Every part of the sun was smitten. token of royalty disappeared from the imperial "'Extinction of the Western Empire, A. d. city. She who had ruled over the nations sat in 476 or A. D. 479. Royalty was familiar to the the dust, like a second Babylon, and there was harbarians, and the submissive people of Italy no throne where the Csesars had reigned. The were prepared to obey without a murmur the last act of obedience to a Roman prince, which authority which he should condescend to exer- that once august assembly performed, was the cise as the vicegerent of the emperor of the West. acceptance of the resignation of the last emperor But Odoacer resolved to abolish that useless and of the West, and the abolition of the imperial succession in Italy. expensive office ; and such is the weight of an- The sun of Rome was-smit- tique prejudice that it required some boldness ten. But though Rome itself, as an imperial and penetration to discover the extreme facility city, ceased to exercise a sovereignty over any of the enterprise. The unfortunate Augustulus nation, yet the imperial ensigns, with the sacred was made the instrument of his own disgrace ornaments of the throne and palace, were trans- and he signified his resignation to the senate ferred to Constantinople, where Zeno reigned and that assembly, in their last act of obedience under the title of sole emperor. The military to a Roman prince, still affected the spirit of free- acclamations of the confederates of Italy saluted dom and the forms of the constitution. An Odoacer with the title of king. epistle was addressed, by their unanimous de- " A hew conqueror of Italy, Theodoric, the Os- cree, to the Emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and trogoth, speedily arose, who unscrupulously as- successor of Leo, who had lately been restored, sumed the purple, and reigned by the right of after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. conquest. ' The royalty of Theodoric was pro- They solemnly disclaim the necessity or even the claimed by the Goths (March 5, a. d. 493,), with wish of continuing any longer the imperial suc- the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the cession in Italy; since in their opinion the maj- emperor of the East.' The imperial Roman power, esty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and of which either Rome or Constantinople had been to protect, at the same time, both the East and jointly or singly the seat, whether in the West the West. In their own name, and in the name or the East, was no loDger recognized in Italy, of the people, they consent that the seat of uni- and the third part of the sun was smitten, till it versal empire shall be transferred from Rome to emitted no longer the faintest rays. The power of the Csesars was unknown in Italy, Constantinople ; and they basely renounced the and a right of choosing their master, the only vestige Gothic king reigned over Rome. 52 THE SEVEH TRUMPETS. THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 53

" But though the third part of the sun was is brought down till the two former were ' ex- smitten, and the Roman imperial power was at tinguished,' in reference to Rome and Italy, which an end in the city of the Caesars, yet the moon so long had ranked as the first of cities and of and the stars still shone, or glimmered, for a little countries; and finally, as the fourth trumpet longer in the western hemisphere, even in the closes, we see the 'extinction of that illustrious midst of Gothic darkness. The consulship and assembly,' the Roman senate, The city that had the senate [' the moon and the stars '] were not ruled the world, as if in mockery of human great- abolished by Theodoric. ' A Gothic historian ap- ness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the plauds the consulship of Theodoric as the hight successor of Belisarius. He defeated the Goths :' of all temporal power and greatness —as the (a. d. 552), achieved ' the conquest of Rome,' and moon reigns by night, after the setting of the the fate of the senate was sealed. sun. And, instead of abolishing that office, The- " The calamities of imperial Rome, in its down- odoric himself ' congratulates those annual favor- fall, were told to the very last of them, till Rome ites of fortune, who, without the cares, enjoyed was without an emperor, a consul, cr a senate. the splendor of the throne.' ' Under the Exarchs of Ravenna, Rome was de- " But in their prophetic order, the consulship graded to the second rank.' The third, part of and the senate of Rome met their fate, though the sun was smitten, and the third part of the they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. moon, and the third part of the stars. The race The next revolution in Italy was its subjection of the Caesars was not extinct with the emperors to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of of the West. Rome, before its fall, possessed but the East. He did not spare what barbarians a portion of the imperial power. Constantinople had hallowed. 'The Roman Consulship Extin- divided with it the empire of the world. And guished by Justinian, A. D. 541/ is the title of neither Goths nor Vandals lorded over that still the last paragraph of the fortieth chapter of Gib- imperial city, the emperor of which, after the bon's History of the Decline and Fall of Rome. first transferrence of the seat of empire by Con- ' The succession of consuls finally ceased in the stantine, often held the emperor of Rome as his thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic tem- nominee and vicegerent. And the fate of Con- per might be gratified by the silent extinction of stantinople was reserved till other ages, and was a title which admonished the Romans of their announced by other trumpets. Of the sun, the ancient freedom. The third part of the sun was moon, and the stars, as yet but the third part smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the was smitte,n. third part of the stars. In the political firma- " The concluding words of the fourth trumpet ment of the ancient world, while under the reign imply the future restoration of the Western Em- of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, pire. The day shone not for the third part of it, and the senate, shone like the sun, the moon, and and the night likewise. In respect to civil au- the stars. The history of their decline and fall thority, Rome became subject to Ravenna, and —

54 THE SEVEN TKUMPETS. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 55

Italy was a conquered province of the Eastern Empire. But, as more appropriately pertaining THE FIFTH TRUMPET to other prophecies, the defense of the worship of OR FIEST WOE. images first brought the spiritual and temporal powers of the pope and of the emperor into vio- For an exposition of this trumpet we shall lent collision ; and, by conferring on the pope all again extract from the writings of Mr. Keith. authority over the churches, Justinian laid his This writer truthfully says : helping hand to the promotion of the papal su- " There is scarcely so uniform an agreement premacy, which afterward assumed the power of among interpreters concerning any part of the creating monarchs. In the year of our Lord 800, Apocalypse as respecting the application of the the pope conferred on Charlemagne the title of fifth and sixth trumpets, or the first and second Emperor of the Romans. That title was again woe to the Saracens and Turks. It is so obvious transferred from the king of France to the empe- that it can scarcely be misunderstood. Instead ror of Germany. By the latter it was formally re- of a verse or two designating each, the whole of nounced, within the memory of the existing gen- the ninth chapter of the Revelation, in equal eration. In our own days the iron crown of It- portions, is occupied with a description of both. aly was on the head of another ' emperor.' And " The Roman Empire declined, as it arose, the sun, as in the sequel we will see, is afterward by spoken of in the book of Revelation." conquest ; but the Saracens and the Turks were the instruments by which a false religion became " Ver.se 13. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying the scourge of an apostate church; and hence, through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, instead of the fifth and sixth trumpets, like the Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which former, being marked by that name alone, they are yet to sound I" are called woes. It was because the laws were The last three trumpets are each attended transgressed, the ordinance changed, and the with a woe to the inhabiters of the earth. The everlasting covenant broken, that the curse came upon the earth or the land. fifth trumpet is the first woe ; the sixth trumpet " We have passed the period in the political the second woe ; the seventh and last trumpet the third woe. history of the world, when the Western Empire

was extinguished ; and the way was thereby opened for the exaltation of the papacy. The imperial power of the city of Rome was annihi- lated, and the office and the name of the empe- ror of the West was abolished for a season. The trumpets assume a new form, as they are direct- ed to a new object, and the close coincidence, or 56 THE SEVEN THUMPETS. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 57 rather express identity between the king of the time when this prediction is said to have been south, or the king of the north, as described by delivered, no prophecy could be more distant Daniel, and the first and second -woe, will be from its accomplishment (!) since the first twelve noted in the subsequent illustration of the latter. years of Heraclius announced the approaching The spiritual supremacy of the pope, it may be dissolution of the empire.' remembered, was acknowledged and maintained, " It was not, like that designative of Attila, on after fall the of Rome, by the Emperor Justinian. a single spot that the star fell, but UPON the And whether in the character of a trumpet or a EARTH. woe, the previous steps of history raise us, as on "Chosroes subjugated the Roman possessions a platform, to behold in a political view the in Asia and Africa. And ' the Roman Empire,' fell judgments that on apostate Christendom, at that period, ' was reduced to the walls of Con- and finally led to the subversion of the Eastern stantinople, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, Empire." and Africa, and some maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebisond, of the Chap. 9:1. " And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw Asiatic coast. The experi- ence of a star fall from heaven unto the earth ; and to him was six years at length persuaded the Persian given the key of the bottomless pit." monarch to renounce the conquest of Constanti- nople, and to specify " Constantinople was besieged for the first time the annual tribute, or the ransom of the after the extinction of the Western Empire, by Roman Empire : a thousand tal- ents - Chosroes, the king of Persia." of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thou sand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand "A star fell from heaven unto to the earth ; and him virgins. Heraclius subscribed to these ignomin- was given the key of the bottomless pit." ious terms. But the time and space which he " ' While the Persian monarch contemplated obtained to collect those treasures from the pov- the wonders of his art and power, he received an erty of the East, was industriously employed in epistle from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting the preparation of a bold and desperate attack.' him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of " The king of Persia despised the obscure Sar- God. He rejected the invitation, and tore the acen, and derided the message of the pretended epistle. "It is thus," exclaimed the Arabian prophet of Mecca. Even the overthrow of the prophet, " that God will tear the kingdom, and Roman Empire would not have opened a door reject the supplication of Chosroes." Placed on for Mahometanism, or for the progress of the the verge of these two empires of the East, Ma- Saracenic armed propagators of an imposture, homet observed with secret joy the progress of though the monarch of the Persians, and chagaii mutual destruction ; and in the midst of the Per- of the Avars (the successor of Attila) had divided sian triumphs he ventured to foretell that, before between them the remains of the kingdom of the many years should elapse, victory should again Cassars. Chosroes himself fell. The Persian return to the banners of the Romans.' ' At the and Roman monarchies exhausted each other's —

THE SEVEN TKUMPETF. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 59 strength. And before sword into the a was put with the life of Chosroes ; his unnatural son en- hands of the false prophet, it was smitten from joyed only eight months' fruit of his crimes ; and the hands of those who would have checked his in the space of four years the regal title was as- career, and crushed his power. sumed by nine candidates, who disputed, with "Since the days of Scipio and Hannibal, no the sword or dagger, the fragments of an ex- bolder enterprise has been attempted than that hausted monarchy. Every province and every which Heraclius achieved for the deliverance of city of Persia was the scene of independence, of the empire. He permitted the Persians to op- discord, and of blood, and the state of anarchy press, for a while, the provinces, and to insult continued about eight years longer, till the fac- with impunity the capital of the East ; while tions were silenced and united under the com- the Roman emperor explored his perilous way mon yoke of the Arabian Caliphs.' through the Black Sea and the mountains of Ar- "The Roman emperor was not strengthened menia, penetrated into the heart of Persia, and by the conquests which he achieved ; and a way recalled the armies of the great king to the de- was prepared at the same time, and by the same fense of their bleeding country. The revenge means, for the multitude of Saracens from Arabia, and ambition of Chosroes exhausted his kingdom. like locusts from the same region, who, propa- The whole city of Constantinople was invested gating in their course the dark and delusive Ma- and the inhabitants descried with terror the flam- hometan creed, speedily overspread both the Per- ing signals of the European and Asiatic shores. sian and Roman Empires. In the battle of Nineveh, which was fiercely " More complete illustration of this fact could fought from daybreak to the eleventh hour, not be desired than is supplied in the concluding twenty-eight standards, besides those which words of the chapter from Gibbon, from which might be broken or torn, were taken from the the preceding extracts are taken." " Persians; the greatest part of their army was ' Yet the deliverer of the East was indigent cut in pieces, and the victors, concealing their and feeble. Of the Persian spoils the most valu- own loss, passed the night on the field. The able portion had been expended in the war, dis- cities and palaces of Assyria were open for the tributed to the soldiers, or buried by an unlucky first time to the Romans. tempest in the waves of the Euxine. The loss " ' The Greeks and modern Persians minutely of two hundred thousand soldiers, who had fallen described how Chosroes was insulted, and fam- by the sword, was of less fatal importance than ished, and tortured by the command of an in- the decay of arts, agriculture, and population, in human son, who so far surpassed the example of this long and destructive war: and although a his father ; but at the time of his death, what victorious army had been formed under the stan- tongue could relate the story of the parricide ? dard of Heraclius, the unnatural effort seems to what eye could penetrate into the tower of dark- have exhausted rather than exercised their ness ? The glory of the house of Sassan ended strength. While the emperor triumphed at Con- —

60 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIFTH TKUMPET. 61 Mahomet, stantinople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the and their fanatic valor emerged from the desert.' confines of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, " A more succinct, yet ample, and they cut in pieces some troops who advanced commentary may be given in the words of another historian : to its relief—an ordinary and trifling occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolu- "'While Chosroes of Persia was pursuing his tion. These robbers were the apostles of Ma- dreams of recovering and enlarging the empire of homet ; their fanatic valor had emerged from the Cyrus, and Heraclius was gallantly defending the desert ; and in the last eight years of his reign, empire of the Caesars against him ; while idolatry Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces and metaphysics were diffusing their baneful in- which he had rescued from the Persians.' fluence through the church of Christ, and the " ' The spirit of fraud and enthusiasm, whose simplicity and purity of the gospel were nearly abode is not in the heavens,' was let loose on lost beneath the mythology which occupied the earth. The bottomless pit needed but a key to place of that of ancient Greece and Rome, the open it ; and that key was the fall of Chosroes. seeds of a new empire and of a new religion were He had contemptuously torn the letter of an ob- sown in the inaccessible deserts of Arabia.' scure citizen of Mecca. But when from his ' blaze "The first woe arose at a time when trans- of glory ' he sunk into ' the tower of darkness,' gressors had come to the full, when men had which no eye could penetrate, the name of Chos- changed the ordinance and broken the everlast- roes was suddenly to pass into oblivion before ing covenant, when idolatry prevailed, or when tutelar that of Mahomet ; and the crescent seemed but saints were honored—and when the to wait its rising till the falling of the star. 'mutual destruction' of the Roman and Per- Chosroes, after his entire discomfiture and loss of sian Empires prepared the way of the fanatic robbers empire, was murdered in the year 62S ; and the —or opened the bottomless pit, from year 629 is marked by ' the conquest of Arabia,' whence an imposture, which manifests its origin ' and the first war of the Mahometans against the from the ' father of lies,' spread over the greater

Roman Empire.' ' And the fifth angel sounded, part of the world. , and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the "'And there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the earth; and to him was given the key of the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.' He fell. 'unto the earth. When the strength pit.' Like the noxious and even deadly vapor of the Roman Empire was exhausted, and the which the winds, particularly from the south- great king of the East lay dead in his tower of west, diffuse in Arabia, Mahometanism spread darkness, the pillage of an obscure town on the from thence its pestilential influence—and arose borders of Syria was ' the prelude of a mighty as suddenly and spread as widely as smoke aris- revolution.' 'The robbers were the apostles of ing out of the pit, the smoke of a great furnace. Such is a suitable symbol of the religion of Ma- ; s& THE 5EYEH TRUMPETS. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 63

hornet, of itself, or as compared with the pure tenth of the nation, were overwhelmed by the light of the gospel of Jesus. It was not, like the universal defection. And even in the farthest latter, a light from heaven ; but a smoke out of extremity of continental Europe, the decline of the bottomless pit. " the French monarchy invited the attacks of these ' Mahomet alike instructed to preach and to insatiate fanatics. The smoke that arose from fight ; and the union of these opposite qualities, the cave of Hera was diffused from the Atlantic while it enhanced his merit, contributed to his to the Indian Ocean. But the prevalence of their success ; the operation of force and persuasion, of faith is best seen in the extent of their conquests."

enthusiasm and fear; continually acted on each Vekse 3. "And there came out of the smoke, locusts other, till every barrier yielded to their irresisti- upon the earth ; and unto them was given power, as the ble power.' ' The first Caliphs ascended the pul- scorpions of the earth have power." pit to persuade and edify the congregation.' "A false religion was set up, which, although " While the State was exhausted by the Persian the scourge of transgressions and idolatry, filled war, and the church was distracted by the Nesto- the world with darkness and delusion; and rian and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the . swarms of Saracens, like locusts, overspread the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, earth, and speedily extended their ravages over erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity the Roman Empire, from east to west. The hail and of Home. The genius of the Arabian proph- descended from the frozen shores of the Baltic et, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of the burning mountain fell upon the sea from his religion, involve the causes of the decline and Africa; and the locusts (the fit symbol of the fall of the Eastern Empire ; and our eyes are cu- Arabs) issued from Arabia, their native region. riously intent on one of the most memorable rev- They came as destroyers, propagating a new olutions which have impressed a new and most doctrine, and stirred up to rapine and violence lasting character on the nations of the globe. by motives of interest and religion. " Mahomet, it may be said, has heretofore di- '"In the ten years of the administration of vided the world with Jesus. He rose up against Omar, the Saracens reduced to his obedience the Prince of princes. A great sword was given thirty-six thousand cities or castles, destroyed him. His doctrine, generated by the spirit of four thousand churches or temples of the unbe- fraud and enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the lievers, and erected fourteen hundred mosques, heavens, as even an unbeliever could tell, arose for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One out of the bottomless pit, spread over the earth hundred years after his flight from Mecca, the like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun arms and the reign of his successors extended and the air were reason darkened by of the smoke from India to the Atlantic Ocean. of the pit. It spread from Arabia over a great " ' At the end of the first century of the Hegira, part of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Greeks of The the Caliphs were the most potent and absolute Egypt, whose numbers could scarcely equal a monarchs of the globe. The regal and sacerdotal —

64 THE SEVEN TBUMPETS. THE" FIFTH TRUMPET 65 characters were united in the successors of Ma- part of the trees was burnt up, and all green homet. Under the last of the Ommiades, the grass was burnt up. Arabic Empire extended two hundred days' jour- After the death of Mahomet, he was succeeded ney from east to west, from the confines of Tar- in the command by Abubeker, A. D. 632, who, as tary, and India to the shores of the- Atlantic soon as he had fairly established his authority Ocean. And if we retrench the sleeve of the robe, and government, dispatched a circular letter to as it is styled by their writers, the long and nar- the Arabian tribes, of which the following is an row province of Africa, the solid and compact extract : dominion from Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to " Surat, will spread on every side to the measure This is to acquaint you that I intend to send of four or five months of the march of a caravan. the true believers into Syria to take it out of the hands The progress of the Mahometan religion diffused of the infidels, and I would have you over this ample space a general resemblance of know that the fighting for religion is an act of obedience to God." manners and opinions ; the language and laws of " the Koran were studied with equal devotion at His messengers returned with the tidings of pious and martial ardor, which they had kindled Sarmacand and Seville ; the Moor and the Indian

in every ; embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pil- province the camp of Medina was suc- cessively ' filled with the intrepid bands of the grimage of Mecca ; and the Arabian language Saracens, was adopted as the popular idiom in all the prov- who panted for action, complained of the inces to the westward of the Tigris.' heat of the season and the scarcity of provis- ions, " A still more specific illustration may be given and accused, with impatient murmurs, the delays of the power, like unto that of scorpions, which of the caliph. As soon as their numbers were was given them. Not only was their attack complete, Abubeker ascended the hill, re- viewed the men, the horses, and the arms, speedy and vigorous, but ' the nice sensibility of and honor, which weighs the insult rather than the poured forth a fervent prayer for the success of their undertaking. injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels of His instructions to the chiefs of the Syrians the Arabs : —an indecent action, a contemptuous were inspired by the warlike fa- word, can be expiated only by the blood of the naticism which advances to seize, and affects to despise, the offender; and such is their patient inveteracy objects of earthly ambition. 'Re- member,' said that they expect whole months and years the op- the successor of the prophet, ' that " portunity of revenge/ you are always in the presence of God, on the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment, Vekse 4. "And it was commanded them that they and the hope of Paradise: avoid injustice should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green and oppression; consult with your thing, neither any tree ; but only those men which have brethren, and not the seal of God in their foreheads." study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. fight On the sounding of the first angel, the third When you the battles of the Lord Trumpets. 5 ;

66 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 6?

acquit yourselves like men, without turning your "Their constant incursions into the Roman backs ; but let not victoiy your be stained with territory, and frequent assaults on Constantino- the blood of women and children. Destroy no ple itself, were an unceasing torment throughout palm-trees, nor burn fields corn. any of Gut the empire, which yet they were not able effect- down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cat- ually to subdue, notwithstanding the long period, tle, only such as you kill to eat. you When afterward more directly alluded to, during which any make covenant or article, stand to it, and be they continued, by unremitting attacks, grievous- as good as your word. As you go on, you will ly to afflict an. idolatrous church, of which the find some religious persons who live retired in pope was the head. Their charge was to tor- monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve ment, and then to hurt, but not to kill, or utterly

that ; God way let them alone, and neither kill destroy. The marvel was that they did not. To

them nor destroy their monasteries; and you ' repeat the words of Gibbon : The calm historian will find another sort of people that belong to of the present hour must study to explain by the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns what means the church and State were saved sure be you cleave their skulls, and give them no from this impending, and, as it would seem, from quarter till they either turn Mahometans or pay this inevitable danger. In this inquiry I shall tribute.' unfold the events that rescued our ancesters of " It is not said in prophecy or in history that the Britain, and our neighbors of Gaul, from the civil more humane injunctions were as scrupulous^ and religious yoke of the Koran ; that protected obeyed as the ferocious mandate. But it was so the majesty of Rome, and delayed the servitude commanded them. And the preceding are the of Constantinople ; that invigorated the defense only instructions recorded by Gibbon, as given of the Christians, and scattered among their en- by Abubeker to the chiefs whose duty it was to emies the seeds of division and decay.' Ninety issue the commands to all the Saracen hosts. pages of illustration follow, to which we refer The commands are alike discriminating with the the readers of Gibbon." prediction ; as if the caliph himself had been act- Verse 6. " And in those days shall men seek death, ing in known as well as direct obedience to a and shall not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death higher mandate than that of mortal man—and shall flee from them." in the very act of going forth to fight against " Men were weary of life, when life was spared the religion of Jesus, and to propagate Mahome- only for a renewal of woe, and when all that tanism in its stead, he repeated the words which they.accounted sacred was violated, and all that it was foretold in the Revelation of Jesus Christ they held dear constantly endangered ; and when that he would say." the savage Saracens domineered over them, or ' "Verse 5. ' And to them it was given that they should left them only to a momentary repose, ever liable not kill them, but that they should be tormented five to be suddenly or violently interrupted, as if by months ; and their torment was as the torment of a the sting of a scorpion. scorpion when he striketh a man." They who tormented " " —a

68 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 69

and science of men were commanded not to kill them. And Arabia. And the barbed Arabs, death might thus have been sought even where swift as locusts and armed like scorpions, ready to dart in it was not found. 'Whosoever falls in battle,' away a moment, were ever prepared ( unto battle. says Mahomet, his sins are forgiven at the day " of Judgment; at the day of Judgment his wounds And on their heads were, as it were, crowns like shall be resplendent as vermilion, and odiferous gold. When Mahomet entered Medina (a. d. as musk, and the loss of his limbs shall be sup- 622), and was first received as its prince,' plied by the wings of angels and cherubim. turban was unfurled before him to supply the deficiency The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with of a standard.' The turbans of the Saracens, like unto a coronet, were their orna- enthusiasm ; the picture of the invisible world ment and their boast. The rich booty abundant- was strongly painted on their imagination ; and ly supplied the death which they -had always despised be- and frequently renewed them. To assume the turban, is proverbially came an object of hope and desire." to turn Mus- sulman. And the Arabs were anciently distin- Verse 7. "And the shapes of the locusts were like guished by the mitres which they wore. unto horses prepared unto battle." " ' And their faces were as the faces of men.' " Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the 'The gravity and firmness of the mind of the genuine and original country of the horse ; the Arab is conspicuous in his outward demeanor climate most propitious, not indeed to the size, his only gesture is that of stroking his beard, the but to the spirit and swiftness of that generous venerable symbol of manhood.' 'The honor of animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and their beard is most easily wounded.' the English breed, is derived from a mixture of Verse 8. " And they had hair as the hair of women." the Arabian blood ; and the Bedouins preserve with superstitious care the honors and the mem- "Long hair" is esteemed an ornament by ory of the purest race. These horses are edu- women. The Arabs, unlike to other men, had cated in the tents, among the children of the Ar- their hair as the hair of women, or uncut, as abs, with a tender familiarity, which trains them their practice is recorded by Pliny and others. in the habits of gentleness and attachment. But there was nothing effeminate in their charac- They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop ter; for, as denoting their ferocity and strength to ; their sensations are not blunted by the incessant devour, their teeth were as the teeth of lions. use of the spur their are re- and whip ; powers Verse 9. " And they had breastplates, as it were served for the moment of flight and pursuit ; but breastplates of iron. no sooner do they feel the touch of the hand or " The cuirass (or breastplate) was in use among the stirrup, than they dart away with the swift- the Arabs in the days of Mahomet. In the bat- ness of the wind. tle of Ohud (the second which Mahomet fought) " The Arabian horse takes the lead throughout with the Koreish of Mecca (A. D. G24), 'seven the world; and skill" in horsemanship is the art " "

THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 71 70 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. conquests were marvelous, both in rapidity and hundred of them were armed with cuirasses. extent, and their attack was instantaneous. Nor And in his next victory over the Jews, ' three was it less successful against the Romans than hundred cuirasses, five hundred pikes, a thousand the Persians. ' A religion of peace was incapa- lances, composed the most useful portion of the ble of withstanding the fanatical cry of 'Fi^ht, spoil.' After the defeat of the imperial army of fight! Paradise, paradise! that re-echoed in seventy thousand men, ' on the plain of Aiznadin the ranks of the Saracens. (A. D. 633), the spoil taken by the Saracens 'was Verse 10. " And they had tails like unto scorpions inestimable : many banners and crosses of gold ; and there were stings in their tails ; and their power was and silver, precious stones, silver and gold chains, to hurt men five months." and innumerable suits of the richest armor and " apparel. The seasonable supply of arms became The authority of the companions of Mahomet expired with their lives the instrument of new victories.' ; and the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian tribes left behind in the desert Verse 9. "And the sound of their -wings -was as the the spirit of sound of chariots of many horses running to battle." equality and independence. The legal and sacerdotal characters were united in " The charge of the Arabs was not like that the successors of Mahomet; and if the Koran of the Greeks and Romans, the efforts of a firm was the rule of their actions, they were the su- and compact infantry; their military force was preme judges and interpreters of that divine chiefly formed of cavalry and archers and the ; book. They reigned by the right of conquest engagement was often interrupted, and often re- over the nations of the East, to whom the name newed by single combats and flying skirmishes, Liberty was unknown, and who were accustomed &c. The periods of the battle of Cadesia were to applaud in their tyrants the acts of violence distinguished by their peculiar appellations. and severity that were exercised at their own The first, the from well-timed appearance of six expense." thousand of the Syrian brethren, was denominat- ed the day of succor. The day of concussion Thus far Keith has furnished us with illustra- tions might express the disorder of one, or perhaps of of the sounding of the first five trumpets. both the contending armies. The third, a noc- But here we must take leave of him, and, in ap- turnal tumult, received the whimsical name of plying the prophetic periods, pursue another the night of barking, from the discordant clam- course. ors, which were compared to the inarticulate sounds of the fiercest animals. The morning of the succeeding day determined the fate of Persia. With a touch of the hand, the Arab horses darted away with the swiftness of the wind. The sound of their wings was as the sound of chari- ots of many horses running to battle. Their : — ;

72 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 73

caliph, or high priest, uniting in his person the THE TORMENT OF THE GREEKS ONE HUNDRED AND highest spiritual dignity with the supreme secu- FIFTY YEARS. lar authority." World as it Is, p. 361. When the address of "The World's Anti-Slav- " Their power was to hurt " men five months." ery Convention was presented to Mehemet Ali, he 1. The question arises, What men were they expressed his willingness to act in the matter, but said he could to hurt five months ? Undoubtedly, the same do nothing, they "must go to the heads of religion they were afterwards to slay [see verse 15]. at Constantinople," that is, the " The third part of men," or third of the Roman sultan. 3. His name. In Empire—the Greek division of it. Hebrew, "Abaddon," the destroyer; in 2. When were they to begin their work of tor- Greek, "Apollyon," one that ex- terminates^ or destroys. ment ? The 11th verse answers the question Having two different " names in "the two languages, They had a king over them, which is the angel it is evident that the character, rather of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew than the name of the power, is intended to • tongue is Abaddon, but in -the Greek tongue be represented. If so, in both hath his name Apollyon." languages he is a destroyer. Such has always been the character 1. " They had a king over them." From the of the Ottoman government. death of Mahomet until near the close of the 13th " " Says Perkins : He" [the sultan] has unlim- century, the Mahometans were divided into vari- ited power over the lives and property of his ous factions, under several leaders, with no gen- subjects, especially of the high officers of State eral civil government extending over them all. whom he can remove, plunder, or put to death Near the close of the 13th century, Othman at pleasure. They are required submissively to founded a government, which has since been kiss the bow-string which be sends them, where- known as the Ottoman government, or empire, with they are to be strangled." extending over all the principal Mahometan All the above remarks apply tribes, consolidating them into one grand mon- to the Ottoman archy. government in a striking manner. But when did Othman make his first assault 2. The character of the king. " Which is the on the Greek Empire? According to Gibbon angel of the bottomless pit." An angel signifies a ("Decline and Fall," &c), " Othman first entered messenger, or minister, either good or had ; not the territory of Nicomedia on the 27th day of always a spiritual being. " The angel of the bot- July, 1299." tomless pit," or chief minister of the religion The calculations of some writers have gone which came from thence when it was opened. upon the supposition that the period should be- That religion is Mahometanism, and the Sultan T gin with the foundation of the Ottoman Empire is its chief minister. ' The sultan, or grand sig- but this is evidently an error ; for they not only nior, as he is indifferently called, is also supreme "

74 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 75

were to have a king over them, but were to tor- ment men five months. But the period of tor- THE SIXTH TRUMPET. ment could not begin before the first attack of the tormentors, which was as above, July" 27, THE OTTOMAN SUPREMACY IN CONSTANTINOPLE 1299. THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE YEARS AND The calculation which follows, founded on this FIFTEEN DAYS. starting-point, was made and published in Verse 12-15. " One woe is past ; and behold, there "Christ's Second Coming," &c, by the author, in come two woes more hereafter. And the sixth angel 1838. sounded, and I heard' a voice from the four horns of the golden "And their power was to hurt men five altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, months." Thus far their commission extended L'oose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four to torment, by constant depredations, but not angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and politically to kill them. "Five months;" that a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of is, one hundred and fifty years. Commencing men. July 27, 1299, the one hundred and fifty years The first woe was to continue from the rise of reach to 1449. During that whole period the Mahometanism until the end of the five months. Turks were engaged in an almost perpetual war- Then the first woe was to end, and the second fare with the Greek Empire, but yet without con- begin. And when the sixth angel sounded, it quering it. They seized upon and held several was commanded to take off the restraints which of the Greek provinces, but still Greek indepen- had been imposed on the nation, by which they dence was maintained in Constantinople. But were restricted to the work of tormenting men, in 1449, the termination of the one hundred and and their commission extended to slay the third fifty years, a change came. Before presenting part of men. This command came from the four the history of that change, however, we will look horns of the golden altar which is before God. at verses 12-15. " The four angels " are the four principal sultanies of which the Ottoman Empire is composed, locat- ed in the country of the Euphrates. These sul- tanies were situated at Aleppo, Iconium, Damas- cus, and Bagdad. Previously they had been re- strained ; but God commanded, and they were loosed. In the year 1449, John Paleologus, the Greek emperor, died, but left no children to inherit his throne, and Constantine Deacozes succeeded to it. But he would not venture to ascend the throne :

76 THE SEVEN TBUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 77 without the consent of Amurath, the Turkish April, 1453, and ended in the taking of the city sultan. He therefore sent ambassadors to ask and the death of the last of the Constantines, on .the 16th his consent, and obtained it, before he presumed day of May following. And the eastern to call himself sovereign. city of the Cassars became the seat of the Otto- man Empire. " This shameful proceeding seemed to presage The arms and mode of warfare the approaching downfall of the empire. Ducas, which were used in the siege in which Constantinople the historian, counts John Paleologus for the last was to be overthrown, and held in subjection, Greek emperor, without" doubt, because he did were dis- tinctly noticed by the revelator. not consider as such, a prince who had not dared We will notice, first, the army. to reign without the permission of the enemy." Verse 16. " And the number of the army of the horse- Let this historical fact be carefully examined men were two hundred thousand thousand ; and I heard in connection with the prediction above. This the number of them." was not a violent assault made on the Greeks, by Innumerable hordes of horses which their empire was overthrown and their in- and them that sat on them. Gibbon dependence taken away, but simply a voluntary describes the first invasion of the Koman territories surrender of that independence into the hands of by the Turks thus " The myriads of Turkish horse the Turks, by saying, " I cannot reign unless you overspread a frontier of permit." six hundred miles from Tauris to Azeroum, and the blood of The four angels were loosed for an hour, a day, 130,000 Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the a month, and a year, to slay the third part of Arabian prophet." Whether the revelator designed men. This period amounts to three hundred and to convey the idea of any definite number, the reader must ninety-one years and fifteen days ; during which judge. Some suppose 200,000 twice-told is Ottoman supremacy was to exist in Constanti- meant, and then, following nople. some historians, find that number of Turkish warriors But, although the four angels were thus loosed in the siege of Constantinople. Some think by the voluntary submission of the Greeks, yet 200,000,000 to mean all the Turkish warriors during another doom awaited the seat of empire. Amu- the three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen rath, the sultan to whom the submission of Dea- days of their triumph over the Greeks. cozes was made, and by whose permission he I confess this to me appears the most likely. But as it cannot reigned in Constantinople, soon after died, and be ascertained whether this is the fact or not, was succeeded in the empire, in 1451, by Ma- I will affirm nothing on the point. homet II., who set his heart on Constantinople, and determined to make it a prey. He accord- Verse 17. " And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them ingly made preparations for besieging and taking that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone ; and the heads the the city. The siege commenced on the 6th of of — ;

78 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 79

the same horses were as the heads of lions ; and out of their mouths general description. A new mode of issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone." warfare was at that time introduced which has changed the nature of war itself, in regard the On this text I shall again refer to Mr. Keith to , form of its instruments of destruction ; and sounds for an illustration : and sights unheard of and unknown before, were " The color of fire is red, of hyacinth or jacinth, the death-knell and doom of the Roman Empire. blue, and of brimstone, yellow, and this, as Mr. Invention outrivaled force, and a new power was

Daubuz observes, ' has a literal accomplishment introduced, that of musketry, as well as artillery, for the Othmans, from the first time of their ap- in the art of war, before which the old Macedo- pearance, have affected to wear such warlike ap- nian phalanx would not have remained unbroken, parel of scarlet, blue, and yellow. Of the Spahis, nor the Roman legions stood. That which John particularly, some have red and some have yellow saw ' in the vision,' is read in the history of the standards, and others red or yellow mixed with times." other colors. In appearance, too, the heads of Verse 18. " By these three was the third part of men the horses were as the heads of lions, to denote killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brim- their streDgth, courage, and fierceness.' Without stone, which issued out of their months." rejecting so plausible an interpretation, the sug- '"Among the implements of destruction, gestion may not be unwarrantable that a still he studied with closer and more direct exposition may be given peculiar care the recent and tre- mendous discovery of the Latins, of that which the prophet saw in the vision. In and his artillery surpassed whatever had the prophetic description of the fall of Babylon, yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon, they who rode on horses are described as holding a Dane or Hunga- rian, who had been almost starved in the the bow and the lance; but it was with other Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was liber- , arms than the arrow and the spear that the Turk- ally entertained ish warriors encompassed Constantinople; and by the Turkish sultan. Ma- homet was satisfied the the breastplates of the horsemen, in reference to with answer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist, tbe more destructive ' implements of war, might " Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throw- then, for the first time, be said to be fire, and ja- ing a ball or stone cinth, and brimstone. The musket had recently of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople ? supplied the place of the bow. Fire emanated " "I am not ignorant of their strength, but were from their breasts. Brimstone, the flame of which they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an is jacinth, was an ingredient both of the liquid engine of su- perior power ; the position and of fire and of gunpowder. Congruity seems to re- management that engine must be left to your engineers." quire this more strictly literal interpretation, as On this assurance a foundery was established conformable to the significancy of the same terms at Adri- anopie ; the metal was prepared ; the end in the immediately subsequent verse, including and at ;

80 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE. SIXTH TRUMPET. 81 of three months Urban produced a piece of brass and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible the sound, and the fire of their musketry and magnitude. A measure of twelve palms was as- cannon. Their small arms discharged at the signed to the bore, and the stone bullet weighed same time five or even ten balls of lead of the about six hundred pounds. A vacant place be- size of a walnut, and according to the closeness fore the new palace was chosen for the first ex- of the ranks, and the force of the powder, several periment: but to prevent the sudden and mis- breast-plates and bodies were transpierced by the chievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proc- same shot. But the Turkish approaches were lamation was issued that the cannon would be soon sunk in trenches, or covered with ruins. discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was Each day added to the science of the Christians, felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred furlongs but their inadequate stock of gunpowder was the ball, by the force of the gunpowder, was wasted in- the operations of each day. Their ordnance driven about a mile, and on the spot where it fell was not powerful, either in size or num- ber, it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground. and if they possessed some heavy cannon, For the conveyance of this destructive engine, a they feared to plant them on the walls, lest the frame or carriage of thirty wagons was linked aged structure should be shaken and overthrown together, and drawn along by a train of sixty by the explosion. The same destructive secret had been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it oxen ; two hundred men on both sides were sta- tioned to poise or support the rolling weight was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches, two hundred and fifty workmen marched before and despotism. The great cannon of Ma- homet has been to smooth the way and repair the bridges, and separately noticed ; an important nearly two months were employed in a laborious and visible object in the history of the times; but journey of a hundred and fifty miles. I dare not that enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of reject the positive and unanimous evidence of co- equal magnitude ; the long order of temporary writers. A Turkish cannon, more the Turkish artillery was pointed against walls enormous than that of Mahomet, still guards the the ; fourteen batteries thundered at once the entrance of the Dardanelles, and if the use be in- on most accessible places, and of one of these it is convenient, it has been found, on a late trial, that ambiguously expressed that it was mounted with one the effect is far from contemptible. A stone bul- hundred and thirty guns, or that it dis- let of eleven hundred pounds weight was once dis- charged one hundred and thirty bullets. Yet in the charged with three hundred and thirty pounds of power and activity of the sultan we may discern the infancy of the new science ; under a powder ; at the distance of six hundred yards it shivered into three rocky fragments, traversed master who counted the moments, the great can- could be the strait, and, leaving the waters in a foam, non loaded and fired no more than seven again rose and bounded against the opposite hill" times in one day. The heated metal unfortu- Trumpcts. "In the seige, 'the incessant volleys of lances Q " ;; —

82 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SIXTH TBUMPET. 83

of the nately burst ; several -workman were destroyed, Christian powers, from whom he had re- and the skill of an artist was admired who be- ceived it. thought himself of preventing the danger and the When the foregoing calculation was made by accident by pouring oil after each explosion into Eld. Litch in 1838, it was purely a matter of cal- the mouth of the cannon.' culation on the prophetic periods of Scripture. Now, however, the time is passed by, and it is This historical sketch from Gibbon, of the use proper to inquire what the result has been of gunpowder, fire-arms, and cannon, as the in- whether it has corresponded with the previous strumentality by which the city was finally over- calculation. come, is so illustrative of the text that one can I shall now pass to the question, Has the su- hardly imagine any other scene can be described. premacy departed from the Mohometans into The specified time for the continuance of Turk- Christian hands, so that the Turks now exist and ish or Mahometan supremacy over the Greeks reign by the sufferance and permission of the was an hour, day, month, and year. A prophetic Christian powers, as the Christians did for some year is three hundred and sixty days (or years) two or three years by the permission of the a month, thirty days (years) ; one day (one year) Turks? and an hour, or the twenty-fourth part of a pro- First Testimony.—The following is from Rev. phetic day, would be fifteen days. This last is Mr. Goodell, missionary of the American Board easily calculated. Three hundred and sixty, the at Constantinople, addressed to the Board, and number of days in a prophetic year, divided by by them published in the Missionary Herald, for twenty-four, the number of hours in a day, gives April, 1841, p. 160 :— us fifteen days. The whole period would be three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen "The power of Islamism is broken forever; days. and there is no concealing the fact even from themselves. Commencing when the one hundred and fifty They exist now by mere sufferance. years ended, in 1449, the period would end Au- And though there is a mighty effort made by the Christian gust 11, 1840. Judging from the manner of governments to sustain them, yet at the commencement of the Ottoman supremacy, every step they sink lower and lower with fear- which was by a voluntary acknowledgement on ful velocity. And though there is a great en- deavor the part of the Greek emperor that he only made to graft the institutions of civilized and Christian reigned by permission of the Turkish sultan, we countries upon the decayed trunk, yet the very root should naturally conclude that the fall or depart- itself is fast wasting away by the venom its ure of the Ottoman independence would be of own poison. How wonderful it is, that, when all Christendom combined together brought about in the same way ; that at the end to check the of the specified period, the sultan would volun- progress of Mahometan power, it tarily surrender his independence into the hands waxed exceedingly great in spite of every oppo- — —

84 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 85 sition ; and now, when all the mighty potentates lected and put together words more fully express- of Christian Europe, who feel fully competent to ive of the idea of the present state of the Otto- settle all the quarrels, and arrange all the affairs man Empire. It is true the Christian govern- of the whole world, are leagued together for its ments of Europe have re-organized the Turkish protection and defense, down it comes, in spite Empire, and it is their creature. From 1840 to of all their fostering care." the present time, the Ottoman government has been Mr. Goodell has been for years a missionary in under the dictation of the great powers of Europe and the Turkish dominions, and is competent to judge ; scarcely a measure of that govern- ment has of the state of government. His deliberate and been adopted and carried out without the interference and dictation unequivocal testimony is, that "the power of of the allies ; and that dictation has Islamism is broken forever." But it is said the been submitted to by them. It is in this light politicians Turks yet reign i So also says our witness have looked upon the government since " but it is by mere sufferance." They are at the 1S40, as the following item will show. mercy of the Christians. Their independence is broken. The London Morning Herald, after the capture of St. Jean Another Witness.—Rev. Mr. Balch, of Provi- d'Acre, speaking of the state of things in the Ottoman Empire, says :— dence, R. I., in an attack on Mr. Miller for say- ing that fell the Ottoman Empire in 1840, "We (the allies) have conquered St. Jean d' : says Acre. We have dissipated into thin air the " How can an honest man have the hardihood prestige that lately invested, as with a halo, the to stand up before an intelligent audience, and name of Mehemet Ali. We have, in all probabil- make such an assertion, when the most authentic ity, destroyed forever the power of that hitherto version of the change of the Ottoman Empire is successful ruler. But have we done aught to re- that it has not been on a better foundation in store strength to the Ottoman Empire? We fifty years, for it is now re-organized by the Eu- fear not. We fear that the sultan has been re- ropean kingdoms, and is honorably treated as duced to the rank of a puppet; and that the such." sources of the Turkish Empire's strength are en- tirely destroyed. But how does it happen that Christian Europe " If the supremacy of the sultan is hereafter re-organized the government ? What need of it, to be maintained in Egypt, it must be main- if it was not <2is-organized ? If Christian Europe tained, we fear, by the unceasing intervention of has done this, then it is now, to all intents and England and Russia." purposes, a Christian government, and is only ruled nominally by the sultan as their vassal. What the London Morning Herald last No- This testimony is the more valuable for having vember feared, has since been realized. The come from an opponent. We could not have se- sultan has been entirely, in all the great ques- —

86 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 87 tions which have come up, under the dictation refused to give up and return to the sultan, and of the Christian kingdoms of Europe. declared, if the powers attempted to take it from him he would burn it. In this posture affairs WHEN DID MAHOMETAN INDEPENDENCE IN CONSTAN- stood, when, in 1840, England, Russia, Austria, TINOPLE DEPART? and Prussia, interposed, and determined on a set- In order to answer this question understand- tlement of the difficulty; for it was evident, if ing^, it will be necessary to review briefly the let alone, Mehemet would soon become master of history of that power for a few years past. the sultan's throne. For several years the sultan has been em- The following extract from an official docu- broiled in war with Mehemet AH, pacha of ment, which appeared in the Moniteur Ottoman, Egypt. In 1838 there was a threatening of war August 22, 1840, will give an idea of the course between the sultan and his Egyptian vassal. of affairs at this juncture. The conference spok- Mehemet AM, pacha, in a note addressed to the en of was composed of the four powers above- foreign consuls, declared that in future he would named, and was held in London, July 15, 1840. pay no tribute to the Porte, and that he con- " Subsequent to the occurrence of the disputes sidered himself independent sovereign of Egypt, alluded to, and after the reverses experienced, as Arabia, and Syria. The sultan, naturally in- known to all the world, the ambassadors of the censed at this declaration, would have immedi- great powers at Constantinople, in a collective ately commenced hostilities had he not been re- official note, declared that their governments strained by the influence of the foreign ambassa- were unanimously agreed upon taking measures dors, and persuaded to delay. This war, how- to arrange the said differences. The Sublime ever, was finally averted by the announcement Porte, with a view of putting a stop to the effu- of Mehemet, that he was ready to pay a million sion of Mussulman blood, and to the various of dollars, arrearages of tribute which he owed evils which would arise from a renewal of hos- the Porte, and an actual payment of $750,000, tilities, accepted the intervention of the great in August of that year. powers." In 1839, hostilities again commenced, and were prosecuted, until, in a general battle between the Here was certainly a voluntary surrender of the armies of the sultan and Mehemet, the sultan's question into the hands of the great powers. army was entirely cut up and destroyed, and But this document further says : his fleet taken by Mehemet and carried into "His Excellency, Sheikh Effendi, the Bey Egypt. So completely had the sultan's fleet Likgis, was therefore dispatched as plenipoten- been reduced, that, when hostilities commenced tiary to represent the Sublime Porte at the con- in August, he had only two first-rates and three ference which took place in London, for the pur- frigates, as the sad remains of the once power- pose in question. It having been felt that all ful Turkish fleet. This fleet Mehemet positively the zealous labors of the conferences of London ; —

88 THE SEVEN TBUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 89

in the settlement of the pacha's pretensions were offer to him the terms of settlement. So that, if useless, and that the only public way was to Mehemet accepted the terms, there would still be have recourse to coercive measures to reduce him no actual intervention of the powers between the to obedience in case he persisted in not listening sultan and pacha. to pacific overtures, the powers have, together 4. That if Mehemet rejected the sultan's offer, with the Ottoman plenipotentiary, drawn up the ultimatum admitted of no change or qualifi-

and signed a treaty, whereby the sultan offers cation ; the great powers stood pledged to coerce the pacha the hereditary government of Egypt, him into submssion. So long, therefore, as the and all that part of Syria extending from the sultan held the ultimatum in his own hands, he gulf of Suez to the lake of Tiberias, together still maintained the independence of his throne.

with the province of Acre, for life ; the pacha, on But that document once submitted to Mehemet, his part, evacuating all other parts of thfe sultan's it would be forever beyond his reach to con- dominions now occupied by him, and returning trol the question. It would be for Mehemet to the Ottoman fleet. A certain space of time say whether the powers should interpose or not. has been granted him to accede to these terms 5. The sultan did dispatch Rifat Bey in a and, as the proposals of the sultan and his allies, government steamer (which left Constantinople the four powers, do not admit of any change or August 5) to Alexandria, to communicate to Me- qualification, if the pacha refuses to accede to hemet the ultimatum. them, it is evident that the evil consequences to This was a voluntary governmental act on the fall upon him will be attributable solely to his part of the sultan. own fault. The question now comes up, When was that document put officially under the control of Me- " His Excellency, Eifat Bey, Musleshar for for- hemet Ali ? eign affairs, has been dispatched in a government The following extract from a letter of a corre- steamer to Alexandria, to communicate the ulti- spondent of the London Morning Chronicle, of matum to the pacha." Sept. 18, 1840, dated, Constantinople, Aug. 27, From these extracts it appears, 1840, will answer the question : 1. That sultan, his the conscious of own weak- "By the French steamer of the 24th, we have ness, did voluntarily accept the intervention of advices from Egypt to the 16th. They show no the great Christian powers of Europe to settle alteration in the resolution of the pacha. Con- his difficulties, which he could not settle himself. fiding in the valor of his Arab army, and in the 2. That they (the great powers) were agreed strength of the fortifications which defend his on taking to settle difficulties. measures the capital, he seems determined to abide by the last 3. That tihe ultimatum of the London confer- alternative ; and as recourse to this, therefore, is ence left it with the sultan to arrange the affair now inevitable, all hope may be considered as at with Mehemet, if to he could. The sultan was an end, of a termination of the affair without —

90 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. THE. SIXTH TRUMPET. 91 bloodshed. Immediately on the arrival of the ultimatum on the 11th of August, that Ottoman Cyclops steamer with the news of the conven- supremacy died, or was dead, that day ? tion of the four powers, Mehemet Ali, it is stated, Read the following, from the same writer had quitted Alexandria, to make a short tour quoted above, dated, through Constantinople, August 12, Lower Egypt ; the object of absenting 1S40:— himself at such a moment being partly to avoid conferences with the European consuls, but prin- "I can add but little to my last letter, on the cipally subject of to endeavor, by his own presence, to arouse the plans of the four powers ; and I the fanaticism of the Bedouin tribes, and facili- believe the details I then gave you comprise tate the raising of his new levies. During the everything that is yet decided on. The portion interval of his absence, the Turkish government of the pacha, as I then stated, is not to extend steamer, which had reached Alexandria on the beyond the line of Acre, and does not include 11th, with the envoy Kifat Bey on board, had either Arabia or Candia. Egypt alone is to be been by his orders placed in quarantine, and she hereditary in his family, and the province of was not released from it till the 16th. Previous, Acre to be. considered as a pachalic, to be gov- however, to the Porte's leaving, and on the very erned by his son during his lifetime, but after- ward to_ day on which he had been admitted to pratique, depend on the will of the Porte ; and the above-named functionary had had an audi- even this latter is only to be granted him on the ence of the Pacha, and had communicated to him condition of his accepting these terms, and deliv- the command of the sultan, with respect to the ering up the Ottoman fleet within ten days. In evacuation of the Syrian provinces, appointing the event of his not doing so, this pachalic is to another audience for the next day, when, in the be cut off. Egypt is then to be offered him, with presence of the consuls of the European powers, another ten days to deliberate on it, before actual he would receive from him his definite answer, force is. employed against him. and inform him of the alternative of his refusing "The manner, however, of applying the force, to obey; giving him the ten days which had should he refuse to comply with these terms been allotted him by the convention to decide on whether a simple blockade is to be established the course he should think fit to adopt." on the coast, or whether his capital is to be bom- barded, and his armies attacked in the Syrian According to the foregoing statement, the ulti- provinces—is the point which still remains to be matum was officially put into the power of Me- learned ; nor does a note delivered yesterday by hemet Ali, and was disposed of by his orders, viz., the four ambassadors, in answer to a question sent to quarantine, on the eleventh day of put to them by the Porte, august, 1840. as to the plan to be adopted in such an event, throw the least light But have we any evidence, besides the fact of on this subject. It simply states that provision the arrival of Rifat Bey at Alexandria with the has been made, and there is no necessity for the ; ;

92 THE SEVEN TBUMPETS. THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 93

Divan alarming itself about any contingency that known Turkish standard, a symbol of office and might afterward arise." authority. The meaning of the expression would Let us now analyze this testimony. seem to be that their tails were the symbol, or 1. The letter is dated "Constantinople, Au- emblem, of their authority. gust 12." Veese 20. " And the rest of the men which were not 2." Yesterday," the 11th of August, the sultan killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of applied in his own capital to the ambassadors of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood four Christian nations, to know the measures ; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. 21. Neither which were to be taken in reference to a circum- repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor stance virtally affecting his empire ; and was only of their fornication, nor of their thefts." told that " provision had been made," but he could The worship of devils (demons, the dead deified) riot know what it was ; and that he need give and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, . and wood, himself no alarm "about any contingency that may find a fulfillment in the saint worship and might afterward arise ! " From that time, then, image worship of the Roman Catholic church they, not he, would that. manage while of murders, sorceries (pretended miracles Where was the sultan's independence that ? day through the agency of departed saints), fornica-

! had GONE Who the supremacy of the Otto- tions, and thefts, in countries where the Eoman man Empire in their hands ? The great powers. religion has prevailed, there has been no lack According to previous calculation, therefore, the The hordes of Saracens and Turks were let Ottoman supremacy did depart, on the 11th of loose as a scourge and punishment upon apostate August, into the hands of the great Christian Christendom ; but men suffered the punishment powers of Europe. Then the second woe is past, without learning the lesson. and the sixth trumpet has ceased its sounding The vow of Mahomet II., published Aug. 2, and the conclusion is now inevitable, because the 1469, in all the mosques of his empire, has an word of God affirms the fact in words, so many interesting application on this point: "I Ma- " Behold the third woe cometh quickly." homet, son of Amurath, . . . emperor of empe- Verses 19-21 are interesting scriptures when rors and prince of princes, from the rising to the viewed in the light of their actual historical ful- setting sun, promise to the only God, Creator of fillment. all things, by my vow and by my oath,' that I Vekse 19. " For their power is in their mouth, and in will not give sleep to my eyes, that I will eat no their tails ; for their tails •were like unto serpents, and delicates, that I will not seek out what is pleas- had heads, and with them they do hurt." ant, that I will not touch what is beautiful, nor In addition to the fire, smoke, and brimstone, turn my face from the west to the east, till I over- which apparently issued out of their mouths, it is throw, and trample under the feet of my horses, said that their power was also in their tails. It the gods of the nations, those gods of wood, of is a remarkable fact that the horse's tail is a well- brass, of silver, of gold, or of painting, which : . :

94 THE SEVEN TBUMPETS. THE SEVENTH ANGEL. 95

the disciples of Christ have made with their case with the other six. The events of the sev- hands."—Sismondi Hist, Italian Republics, of enth angel necessarily cover much time. Among vii. 397. Cited by Mr. Birks in his " Mystery of them we find mentioned, " The nations were Providence," p. 429. "— angry " Thy wrath is come "—" The time of the In the foregoing, Mr. Keith and Josiah Litch dead that they should be judged"—"Give re- have brought us down through the prophecy of ward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the the trumpets, and the woes, to the last. We now saints, and them that fear thy name, small and Avish to briefly notice some of the events to occur great"—"Destroy them which destroy [margin, under the sounding of the seventh angel. corrupt] the earth." 4. We think the seventh angel, or third woe- trumpet, began to sound in 1844. According to the position taken on the sixth trumpet, that ceased to sound Aug. 1840, at the THE SEVENTH .AJSTGKEX., 11, downfall of the Turkish Empire. Concerning this event, Inspiration OB, THIRD WOE. says, "The second woe is past, be- hold, the third woe cometh QUICKLY." Rev.

11 : 14. In 1844 Christ changed his position in ' 1. The seventh angel is the last of a series of the heavenly sanctuary, preparatory its symbols, and for- this, and several other reasons, to cleans-

ing, as perdicted, Dan. 8 : at is not, as many think, the same as the " trump 14, the ending of the 2300 days. When the seventh angel sounds it of God," 1 Thess. 4 : 16, and "last trump," 1 Cor. is said, " And there were great voices in Heaven, 1 5 : 52, which is to raise the just. The judgment saying, The kingdoms this world trumpet is not symbolical. of are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ." 2. The sounding of the seventh angel occupies Rev. 11:15. We think Daniel the prophet speaks a period OF DAYS. " But in the days of the voice of the same event, chap. 7 : 13, 14, "I saw in the of the seventh angel," &c. Rev. 10:7. These night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man days are doubtless prophetic, meaning years, in came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the harmony with the time of the sounding of the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near be- fifth and sixth angels. But when the trump of fore him. And there was given him dominion, God is heard, the sleeping saints come forth from and glory, and A kingdom, that all people, nations, their graves, and the living righteous are changed and languages should serve him." Doubtless to immortality " in a moment, in the twinkling the parable of the nobleman refers to the same of an eye," and are caught up to meet their de- fact. " A certain nobleman went into a far coun- scending Lord. try to receive for himself A kingdom, and to re- 3. Under the sounding of the seventh angel a turn. . . . And it came to pass when he returned, series events transpires. This also the of was having received the kingdom," &c. Luke 19 96 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS.

12, 15. The foregoing we think plainly refers to the work which takes place at the commence- ment of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when Christ changed his position in the heav- enly temple, and consequently assumed different relations to mankind at large. " And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in

Heaven," &c. Rev. 11 : 15. We think these jub- ilant tones above, at the inaugural of the Lamb of God when he receives the throne of his father David, will be felt and responded to by the hope- ful and expectant people of God on earth, who are then looking for that blessed hope, and for Him to come and commence his reign "whose right it is." While we may speak of fulfilled prophecy with positiveness, we would apply unfulfilled proph- ecy with becoming modesty. We may, however, suggest that the anger of the nations will be im- mediately followed by the wrath of God, or seven last plagues ; see Rev. 15:1; that the judgment of the dead refers not to the judgment of the righteous, for that takes place before the plagues are poured out, but to the judgment of the wicked during the 1000 years of Rev. 20 ; that the full reward of the righteous will be given when they inherit the new earth, at the close of the 1000 years ; and that at that very time God will de- stroy by the second death all who have corrupted the earth. And why may not the sounding of the seventh angel continue until the end of the 1000 years? and the third woe cover ali woe till sin and sinners cease to be, at the close of the seventh millennium ?