01.34. The Sixth Trumpet
The Sixth Trumpet.
"And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice out of the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel having the trumpet, Loose the four messengers bound near the great river Euphrates. And the four messengers were loosed, prepared for an hour, and day, and month, and year, to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: I heard the number of them. And thus I saw on the horses in the vision, and those, who sat on them, having red, blue and yellow breast-plates: and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and fire, and smoke, and brimstone issued from their mouths. By these three plagues the third part of men was killed; by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued from their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails having heads were like serpents, and they injure with them. And the rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk; nor did they repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."-- Revelation 9:13-21. The great river, the Euphrates,--waters being a symbol of people, (Revelation 17:15)--must symbolize those who sustain a relation to the Roman hierarchy, as its defenders and supporters; analogous to that sustained by the river Euphrates to the city of Babylon; which was situated on, and drew its wealth and support from it. The angels bound near the Euphrates, must then be those powers, which, approaching and attacking the Roman Empire, were restrained from effecting its conquest and enforcing the profession of Mohammedanism. Their being loosed, signifies the removal of those restraints. Mr. Lord suggests that they symbolize leaders of the four armies of the Tartars, which successively overran the surrounding provinces. He says:
"The first horde were the Seljukians, who invaded the Eastern empire about the middle of the eleventh century, under Togrul Beg. He suddenly overran, with myriads of cavalry, the frontier, from Taurus to Arzeroum, and spread it with blood and devastation. Alp Arslan, his successor, soon renewed the invasion, conquered Armenia and Georgia, penetrated into Cappadocia and Phrygia, and scattered detachments over the whole of lesser Asia. His troops being subsequently driven back, he renewed the war, and recovered those provinces. His descendants, and others of the race, soon after extended their conquests, and established the kingdoms in the east of Persia and Syria, and Roum, in lesser Asia, which they maintained through many generations, and made their sway a scorpion scourge to the idolatrous inhabitants. The Christians were allowed the exercise of their religion on the conditions of tribute and servitude, but were compelled to endure the scorn of the victors, to submit to the abuse of their priests and bishops, and to witness the apostasy of their brethren, the compulsory circumcision of many thousands of their children, and the subjection of many thousands to a debasing and hopeless slavery.
"The second army was that of the Moguls, who, in the thirteenth century, after the conquest of Persia, passed the Euphrates, plundered and devastated Syria, subdued Armenia, Iconium, and Anatolia, and extinguished the Seljukian dynasty. Another army advancing to the west, devastated the country on both sides of the Danube, Thrace, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Hungary, Austria, and spread them with the ruins of their cities and churches, and the bones of their inhabitants. This horde had been prepared for this invasion by vast conquests in the East.
"The third were the Ottomans, who in the beginning of the fourteenth century conquered Bithynia, Lydia, Ionia, Thrace, Bulgaria, Servia, and in the following century Constantinople itself, and have maintained their empire to the present time. They were released from restraint on the one hand by the decay of the Mogul Khans, to whom they had been subject, and on the other by the dissensions and weakness of the Greeks.
"The last was that of the Moguls under Tamerlane, who in the beginning of the fifteenth century overran Georgia, Syria, and Anatolia, and spread them with slaughter and desolation. He also had been prepared for this incursion by his previous victories and conquests."--Ex. Apoc., pp. 225, 226.
These armies, the number of which is literally "myriads of myriads," were not all subsequent to the time when they had power to subject the Eastern Roman empire; but may be the four, from the fact that the Mohammedan power was extended by these armies, which till this time had been restrained from accomplishing the subjugation of Constantinople. The restraints being removed, they were now to have power to kill, by compelling the third part of men to embrace the doctrines of Mohammed,--evident reference being had to the men of the eastern empire; the conquest of which was now to be effected, the dial of heaven having indicated the arrival of the predicted epoch. In 1449 Constantine Deacoses, being entitled to the throne of Constantinople by the death of John Paleologus, did not venture to take possession till he had sent ambassadors and gained the consent of Amurath, the Turkish Sultan. From this fact, Ducas, the historian, counts Paleologus as the last Greek emperor--for he did not consider as such, a prince who did not dare to reign without permission of his enemy. Amurath died and was succeeded in the empire, in 1451, by MAHOMET II., who set his heart on Constantinople, and made preparations for besieging the city. The siege commenced on the 6th of April, 1453, and ended in the taking of the city, and death of the last of the Constantines, on the 16th of May following, when the eastern city of the CÊsars became the seat of the Ottoman empire; and its "religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors." Thus the two-horned beast (Revelation 13:11), became merged in, and identified with the false prophet, Revelation 16:13, and Revelation 19:20. The description of the horses, and those who sat on them (Revelation 19:17), is strikingly emblematic of the Turkish warriors who subjugated Constantinople. Says Dr. Keith: "The breast-plates of the horsemen, in reference to the more destructive implements of war, might then, for the first time, be said to be fire, and jacinth, and brimstone. The musket had recently supplied the place of the bow. Fire emanated from their breasts. Brimstone, the flame of which is jacinth, was an ingredient both of the liquid fire and of gunpowder.... A new mode of warfare was at that time introduced, which has changed the nature of war itself, in regard to the form of its instrument of destruction; and sounds and sights unheard of and unknown before, were the death-knell and doom of the Roman empire. Invention outrivalled force, and a new power was introduced, that of musketry as well as of artillery, in the art of war, before which the old Macedonian phalanx would not have remained unbroken, nor the Roman legions stood. That which JOHN saw ’in the vision,’ is read in the history of the times." By these three, the fire, smoke, and brimstone, were the third part of men killed (Revelation 19:18), and by these was the conquest of Constantinople effected. Says Gibbon: "At the request of Mahomet II., Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude. A measure of twelve palms was assigned to the bore, and the stone bullet weighed about six hundred pounds. A vacant place before the new palace was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was issued that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred furlongs; the ball, by the force of the gunpowder, was driven about a mile, and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground. For the conveyance of this destructive engine, a frame or carriage of thirty wagons was linked together, and drawn along by a train of sixty oxen; two hundred men, on both sides, were stationed to poise or support the rolling weight; two hundred and fifty workmen marched before to smooth the way and repair the bridges, and near two months were employed in a laborious journey of a hundred and fifty miles.
"In the siege, the incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of their musketry and cannon. Their small arms discharged at the same time five or even ten balls of lead of the size of a walnut, and according to the closeness of the ranks, and the force of the powder, several breast-plates and bodies were transpierced by the same shot. But the Turkish approaches were soon sunk into trenches, or covered with ruins. Each day added to the science of the Christians, but their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operation of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size or number, and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant them on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by the explosion. The same destructive secret had been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great cannon of MAHOMET was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude: the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls: fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most accessible places, and of one of these it is ambiguously expressed that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, or that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets." The conquest of Constantinople being accomplished, they were to have power to kill men during an hour, day, month, and year of prophetic time--i.e. three hundred and ninety-one years, fifteen days. If reckoned from the conquest of the city, this would extend to June 1844. Whether any particular act has transpired to mark the precise point of its termination, may not be important; but it is interesting to consider that within a few years the Mohammedan government has formally granted permission for the full enjoyment of the Protestant religion; and has renounced the right of punishing by death, apostates from Islamism. In August 1843, an Armenian, who had become a Mussulman and subsequently returned to the religion of his fathers, was beheaded at Constantinople. The Christian powers of Europe immediately remonstrated, and it was hoped that the law against apostates from Mohammedanism would be permitted to become a dead letter. In a few months, however, a firman issued from the government ordering the decapitation of a young man near Brooza, who was put to death for having promised in a passion, but had afterwards refused, to become a Mohammedan. Lord Aberdeen, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, then demanded of the Turkish Sultan that the Porte should not insult and trample on Christianity, "by treating as a criminal any person who embraces it;" but should "renounce, absolutely and without equivocation, the barbarous practice which has called forth the remonstrance now addressed to it." To this communication the following answer was made early in 1844: "The Sublime Porte engages to take effectual measures to prevent, henceforward, the execution and putting to death of the Christian who is an apostate." On the 15th of November, 1847, for the first time, a firman was issued recognizing Protestant Christians as a distinct community, forbidding any molestation or interference "in their temporal or spiritual concerns," and permitting them "to exercise the profession of their creed in security." This coming from the Vizier, did not necessarily survive a change of ministry; but in November, 1850, a firman was issued from the Sultan himself, establishing the policy of the empire in respect to Protestants, and confirming them in all needed civil and religious privileges. Thus has the Mohammedan government formally and forever renounced the power it had so long wielded, of causing spiritual death by compelling men to apostatize from Christianity. The rest of the men not killed, must be those in portions of the Roman territory not included in the eastern third. The Roman Catholics in the western parts, were not reformed by the judgments inflicted on the east. They continued to worship the canonized dead, and to bow down to images of the saints. Under this trumpet, a mighty movement was to be there effected, which was symbolized by the descent of: