Revelation 16

Revelation 16:1

“And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.”–16:1. Out of the temple wrapped in the thick garment of eternal power and glory, a mighty voice is heard to command the seven angels to begin their work. Before we observe them as they obey the divine decree, I wish to make an observation upon the plagues. In the time of the bondage of Israel in Egypt a series of plagues had been sent upon the oppressors. These had cursed Egypt, but proved a blessing to the people of God. Another series of plagues is now to be sent. They fall upon the oppressor of the true Israel, upon the great city which is “spiritually Sodom and Egypt,” and their design is to compass the deliverance of the saints by effecting its destruction. These plagues all refer in some way to Rome. They may be fierce and terrible curses to her, but they help the world onward and are disguised blessings. The storm that sweeps down upon a plague-stricken city is terrible, but the play of elements purifies the atmosphere and brings health to the suffering.

Revelation 16:2

THE FIRST VIAL. “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.”–16:2. In order to understand what historical event is foreshadowed, it is needful for us to keep several facts in mind.

1. As I have already shown, these vials portray a series of calamitous events that befell spiritual Babylon, or papal Rome.
2. They will begin, therefore, not in the zenith of her power, but are connected in some way with the history of her decline and fall. We would hardly expect them during the 1260 years of her power and glory when the Church is hidden from the oppressor in the wilderness. It has been elsewhere shown that 1260 years have been repeatedly assigned as the period of her greatest glory and, since this is so, the first vial would not be poured out until that period had ended. I have dated, in preceding lectures, the beginning of this period in A. D. 533 when, amid the flames and blood of persecution, the Bishop of Rome was first designated by imperial power as Lord of the whole Church. If the first vial is poured out it the end of this period we may look for it about 1793.
3. The first vial is expressly limited to those who have the mark of the beast, or the devotees of Rome. It certainly describes a calamity to the Papacy, and one of a series that culminates in its ruin. It is described as a grievous ulcer, that afflicts those who have the mark of the beast. An ulcer is not only a painful and dangerous sore, but is often malignant and foul with corruption. The term is often used to describe moral corruption, and the ulcers described may be moral or spiritual.

Can we find aught in history about the end of the 1260 years of papal domination that corresponds with the symbolism? We will look in France. It was Charlemagne, the emperor of France, who bestowed the temporal power upon the popes. The ruler of France was long styled the eldest son of the Church. It was France that had perpetrated the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the dragonnades of the Cevennes, and the banishment of the Huguenots.

The French nation had the mark of the beast to at least as great an extent as ally other nation. In 1793, exactly at the close of the period of 1260 years, there breaks out in France a fearful, moral ulcer that had long been festering. The French revolution, the uprising of enslaved masses who were maddened into fury, sent Catholic king, royal families, nobles, and priests to the guillotine by tens of thousands, impelled the nation in its madness to publicly declare itself atheistic, leavened it with skepticism, and broke the hold of Rome to such a degree that she can never more control France. The ulcer was awfully corrupt and deadly. At one time 200,000 citizens of all conditions and both sexes were in prison, and often in Paris alone, fourscore were sent to the scaffold in a day. As the result of the breaking forth of this ulcer, the mightiest Catholic nation was convulsed with civil war, every Catholic country in Europe was deluged in blood, and the papal power received a shock from which it never can recover. The first vial, the breaking forth of grievous, painful, malignant ulcers, most fitly represents the breaking out of the French revolution, points to the elevation of the foulest and most fiendish leaders of the rabble to the government of the nation, and to the scenes of madness and fury that have marked this fearful period as the Reign of Terror.

Revelation 16:3

THE SECOND VIAL. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea."–16:3. Another vial follows swiftly. Another blow is aimed in some way at the walls of the great city Babylon. The first calamity has been upon the earth; the second is upon the ocean. The second angel pours his vial upon the sea. Then the waters become red as blood and in the great mortality that follows it seems to John as if every soul in the sea was dead. Again we ask if, in this series of calamities, there is one that smites the Catholic powers from the sea? Under the second trumpet a great and burning mountain Cell into the sea. The Vandal power swept the Mediterranean, destroyed the Roman navy and then laid siege to the old imperial Rome. From the sea spiritual Rome, under the second vial, is weakened. The symbolism is fulfilled in the mightiest naval strife ever known. In 1780 France and England, upon the ocean, were nearly equally matched. Along the shores of the struggling colonies of the United States sometimes the English, sometimes the French fleets, rode in triumph. At Yorktown, the superiority of the French at sea cooped Cornwallis in until Washington compelled his surrender. With 1793 begins another contest for the mastery of the seas. It continues after Napoleon sits on the imperial throne, and did not end for twenty years. France, again a Catholic power by Napoleon’s concordat with the Pope, rallies under the imperial flag with herself, Catholic Spain, Portugal and Italy, in the struggle.

Protestant England and Catholic Europe strive together upon the ocean. From the Indian ocean to the Nile, the Atlantic, the North sea and the the waters are reddened with blood. The Catholic flag is dipped into the sea. The old Catholic powers, those which in the past have been the vile instruments of papal wrong, the nations whose kings have committed fornication with the great spiritual harlot, suffer the loss in this long and deadly struggle of six hundred ships of the Line, the largest war vessels that go to sea, besides thousands of ships of war of smaller size. At the close of the contest, the naval power of Catholic Europe had been swept from the ocean. Spain, the discoverer of America, once the first naval power of the world; Portugal; France, long the rival of England on the seas, did not have a ship left that dared to hoist its flag upon the open seas.

The destruction was the mightiest and the most complete recorded in modern annals. The earthly powers which supported Rome had been swept from the ocean.

Revelation 16:4-7

THE THIRD VIAL. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments."–16:4-7. John sees the third “vial poured upon the rivers and fountain or waters; and they become blood.” This vial will symbolize another event calamitous to Rome. The seat of the disasters is described as the rivers and we may expect some historical events, connected in some way with rivers, that result in the injury of the papacy. There are two marks given which help us to locate the seat where the plague of the third vial is poured. 1. It must be a region of rivers and fountains of water. 2. It has evidently been the scene of terrible persecutions of the people of God. When the judgment is inflicted the angel of the waters exclaimed, “Thou art righteous, O Lord, who art and wast and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.” A land of persecution is to become the scene of calamities which are justly visited upon it for its sins. If the reader will look upon the map of northern Italy he will find it crowded with rivers. The streams rush down from the Alps and haste away to the sea. This river region of Italy has been the battle ground of nations. Here Gaul and Roman contended for the mastery of Italy; here Hannibal crushed the Roman legions in a succession of battles; here Attila the Hun, the “blazing Star,” the wormwood of the rivers, laid Rome prostrate at his feet; here France and Spain wrestled for the possession of the decrepit Peninsula; here the French armies under the young General of the Directory humiliated Austria and destroyed the temporal power of Rome. We ask first, has this country been the scene of persecutions? None more terrible, more bloody or more continued, have been known in the dark history of Rome. This very region was the home of the Albigenses. Against them the Papacy had hurled its fanatical legions from generation to generation. The blood of the Protestants of the Alps had for centuries dyed the rocks and streams with crimson. One of the mightiest services that Oliver Cromwell did for the human race, was to announce to the Pope of Rome that unless he called off his wolves from preying upon the flock of God in Piedmont, the cannon of a Puritan army should teach him mercy around the castle of St. Angelo. This river region is then a theatre of persecution. We ask next whether this region of rivers, this region red with the blood and hallowed by the sufferings of martyrs, was the theatre of any great historical events in this series of steps towards the destruction of the power of Rome? Thus far there has been a connection between the plagues. The first, the French Revelation, the Reign or Terror in France, for a time destroyed and forever weakened the papal grasp upon that nation. Out of it sprang the second plague, which resulted in driving the Catholic powers from the ocean. Still springing from that same revolution there follows the descent of the French armies upon Italy, and the destruction of the spell by which Rome for more than a thousand years had held the nations. In 1796, a General, aged 27, then comparatively unknown, led an army of 35,000 Frenchmen into Italy. Bold, unscrupulous, “with no god but ambition,” he was not held back by veneration of the successor of St. Peter. On the river system of Italy, on the Rhone, the Po and its tributaries, he battled with the Austrians and their allies. It is remarkable that every one of his great conflicts were fought upon the rivers. Who has not heard of the Bridge of Lodi, the first of his great victories, fought upon the river Adda? or of the Bridge of Arcole, the scene of another triumph upon the Adige? or of Marengo, begun with the river Bromida between the armies? Listen how history records the exploits of the young Napoleon in this campaign: “The French crossed the Po at Piacenza on the 7th of May, and drove back Beaulieu upon the line or the Adda; the strongly fortified bridge of Lodi was carried after a severe struggle, and the enemy retreated, in the utmost confusion, upon the line of the river Mincio.”–Student’s France, page 581. Again: “Marching secretly from Verona, the French descended the Adige (river) as far as Ronco. There they crossed the Adige, and on Nov. 14th made it furious attack upon the village and bridge (over the Adige) of Arcole.”–Ibid. page 583. Again: “From the theater of their triumphs upon the Adige and Mincio (rivers), Bonaparte led his armies into the territories of the Pope, against whom the Directory had resolved to proceed to extremities.”–Page 584. Again: “Bonaparte took up a position with his whole force upon the great plain of Marengo, being separated by the river Bromida from the enemy’s lines.”–Page 598. Again: “A convention was signed the day after the battle by which the Austrians agreed to retire beyond the river Mincio.”–Page 598. Thus it becomes apparent that the scene of ancient persecution, the region of rivers, again becomes the theater of a mighty struggle, in which the rivers, curiously the scene of every conflict, are reddened with blood. We have yet to ask whether these events were disastrous to the Papacy. I will briefly give the results of the struggle. In 1796 Bonaparte entered Italy. The next year his armies take the city of Rome and proclaim an Italian Republic. Previously an armistice had been granted, for which the Pope paid 21,000,000 francs and gave up a hundred masterpieces or art to be carried to Paris.

In 1798 Pope Plus VI. was carried as a prisoner into to die. His successor was not elected in Rome, which was still in the hands of the spoiler, but in Venice. Other results that follow from this invasion will be given under the fourth vial. Ah! how triumphantly the long persecuted Waldenses, as they saw the Pope carried a prisoner into exile, must have joined in the voice from behind the altar: “Yes, O Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments!”

Revelation 16:8-9

THE FOURTH VIAL. “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.” “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory.” We have now reached the fourth vial of the wrath of God. It will be another of a series of calamities that befall the Papal power. We may expect it to follow closely those already described. The symbol employed to represent the fourth calamity is the sun. I have stated elsewhere in these chapters that the sun is symbolical of a ruler or king, Any one who becomes a great light and occupies a pre-eminent position, may be indicated by this symbol. The Savior is described as the Sun of Righteousness. In the dream of Joseph, his father Jacob, the patriarchal ruler, is represented by the sun. Among orientals it is the well known symbol of a king or ruler. The fourth vial is poured upon this sun, and power is given it to scorch men with fire.

Fire, the instrument of bitter pain, is a symbol of suffering. It is therefore evident that the ruler, symbolized by the sun, shall be the means of inflicting great suffering upon men. As we have found that these calamities are directed against the Papacy, it would follow that the sufferers are those who have received the mark of the beast. Though these adherents of Rome are in great anguish from the calamities that befall them, still they do not repent of their crimes. Like ancient Egypt under the plagues, Rome will still persist in her wicked deeds, still refuses to liberate the people from her spiritual slavery. We have now ascertained about what the symbolism must mean. Let us next inquire whether history confirms the interpretation by events which correspond to the prophecy. In 1801 a scorching sun had arisen in the political horizon of the old world. The victor or Lodi and Marengo, the conqueror of Italy, had become the ruler or the French nation. At first he ruled under the old Roman title of Consul. A few years later he was crowned as Emperor of the French. No such scorching sun had arisen in the political horizon for more than a thousand years, and I do not know that the world has ever seen so great a scourge of man. From 1796 to 1815 he was engaged in war without a moment’s cessation.

He converted Europe into a great camp, and every nation was blackened and torn with wars. From Spain to Moscow, from Egypt to Holland, the march of his armies left behind a track or blood. In his wars it is estimated that 2,000,000 men perished by the sword, and none can tell of the want and misery and despair that brooded over the bleeding and desolated lands that were tracked by his armies. There was hardly a home in Europe that did not suffer; hardly one that was not in mourning for slain fathers, brothers and sons, or for wives and daughters who had met a fate worse than death. This scorching sun, which parched, burnt and blackened the earth, exerted a most baleful influence on the power of the Papacy. In 1796 Bonaparte entered Italy; in 1797 his armies entered the Papal dominions, and a peace was made by which the Pope was not only shorn of half his provinces, but was compelled to buy off the invader by the payment of large sums of money. The next year the French armies entered Rome, tore the Pope from the Vatican, sent him a prisoner to France to die, and robbed Rome Of its hoarded wealth. It was despoiled of its treasures of art, which were sent to Paris as legitimate spoils of war. The historian Allison speaks as follows of this spoliation in his history of Europe. Vol. 1, page 546: “But long before the Pope had sunk under the persecution of his oppressors, Rome had experienced the bitter fruits of Republican fraternization. Immediately after the entry of the French troops commenced the regular and systematic pillage of the city. Not only the churches and the convents but the palaces of the cardinals and of the nobility were laid waste. The agents of the Directory, insatiable in the pursuit of plunder, and merciless in the means of exacting it, ransacked every quarter within its walls, seized the most valuable works of art, and stripped the Eternal City of those treasures which had survived the Gothic fire and the rapacious hands of the Spanish soldiers. The bloodshed was much less, but the spoil collected incomparably greater than at the disastrous sack which followed the death of the Constable Bourbon. Almost all the great works of art which have since that time been collected throughout Europe, were then scattered abroad.

The spoliation exceeded all that the Goths or Vandals had effected. Not only the palaces of the Vatican, and the Monte Cavallo, and the chief nobility of Rome, but those of Castel Gandolfo, on the margin of the Alban lake, of Terracina, the Villa Albani, and others in the environs of Rome, were plundered of every article of value which they possessed.

The whole sacerdotal habits of the Pope and cardinals were burned, in order to collect from the flames the gold with which they were adorned. The Vatican was stripped to its naked walls; the immortal frescoes of Raphael and Michael Angelo remained in solitary beauty amid the general desolation. A contribution of four millions in money, two millions in provisions, and three thousand horses, was imposed on a city already exhausted by the enormous exactions it had previously undergone. Under the direction of the infamous commissary Hallar, the domestic library, museum, furniture, jewels, and even the private clothes of the Pope, were sold. Nor did the palaces of the Roman nobility escape devastation. The noble galleries of the Cardinal Braschi, and the Cardinal York, the last relic of the Stuart line, underwent the same fate.

Others, as those of the Chigi, Borghese, and Doria palaces, were rescued from destruction only by enormous ransoms. Everything of value that the Tolentino had left in Rome became the prey of Republican cupidity, and the very name of freedom soon became odious, from the sordid and infamous crimes which were committed in its name. “Nor were the exactions of the French confined to the plunder of palaces and churches. Eight cardinals were arrested and sent to Civita Castellana, while enormous contributions were levied on the papal territory, and brought home the bitterness of conquest to every poor man’s door. At the same time, the ample territorial possessions of the church and the monasteries were confiscated, and declared national property; a measure which, by drying up at once the whole resources of the affluent, classes, precipitated into the extreme of misery the numerous poor who were maintained by their expenditure or fed by their bounty. All the respectable citizens and clergy were in fetters; and a base and despicable faction alone, among whom, to their disgrace be it told, were found fourteen cardinals, followed in the train of the oppressors; and at a public festival, returned thanks to God for the miseries they had brought upon their country.” The imprisoned Pope died in captivity. The next Pope was elected in 1799, not in Rome, which was held by French soldiers, but in Venice. In 1800 he was permitted to return to his desolated capital as the dependent of France. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte determined to place upon his head the old imperial crown as emperor of the Romans, and the Pope was compelled to journey by land to Paris in order to gratify his master by serving in the ceremonial. Four years later Plus VII. was dragged from his palace, as his predecessor had been, and sent a prisoner into France. His States of the Church were confiscated.

The grant made by Charlemagne near 1200 years before was resumed, and until the fall of Napoleon, the Pope was without temporal possessions. The imprisoned hierarch was not only shorn of his worldly estates, but was compelled to sign a compact by which he gave up the power of appointing bishops in the French empire to Napoleon. It was only when the power of Napoleon was broken that he was permitted to return to his pillaged city, to reascend a throne and to grasp a broken sceptre. Napoleon had broken the spell of Rome. He taught the world that the power of the Popes might be successfully dared. The terror of Papal bulls, anathemas and interdicts, was then dispelled forever. Since his day the Pope has ceased to be the most powerful factor in the history of nations. But, notwithstanding these scourgings, the Papacy has not abated its exorbitant and blasphemous pretensions. They have not repented of their sins.

Revelation 16:10-11

THE FIFTH VIAL. “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”–16:10-11. The next angel pours out his vial upon the seat or throne of the beast, and his kingdom is filled with darkness. They gnaw their tongues in pain, and revile God for their sufferings. They repent not of their wicked deeds. There can be no doubt concerning what is meant by the throne of the beast. The scene of the calamities of the fifth vial will be Italy and Rome. That has been the seat of the beast for 1300 years. In the very seat of his power the beast shall receive a blow that will fill his kingdom with darkness, and those who worship him with anguish. Something shall occur that shall cause great dismay and anguish to the Roman priesthood. It would be well for the reader to note the fact that, when the disasters came upon the Papacy through the rule of Napoleon, the people of Italy were sufferers also. That country was still loyal to the Pope. He was driven forth, not by the consent of the Italian people, but by foreign power. Rome remained a Catholic city, under the dominion of priestcraft, devoted to the Pope. But within the present generation a change has come. The Italians have shaken off the yoke that had been borne for over 1200 years. The light has penetrated the thick darkness of Rome itself. In the year 1848 the people of Rome arose in rebellion to the Papal authority and drove Pius IX. into exile. A few months later he was restored by a French army. Nor did he dare remain when restored, save under the protection of French bayonets. With a French garrison he continued to rule his circumscribed territory until 1870. In that year France was compelled to withdraw her soldiers to defend her soil from German invasion. That was the opportunity of Italy. The Papal army was scattered by the soldiers of Victor Emmanuel; the Pope shut himself in the Vatican, and Rome became the capital of new Italy. The temporal power of the Pope is gone forever. But this is not all that this vial symbolizes. The Italian government has seized upon the overgrown possessions of the church. The lands it claimed have been confiscated, monasteries and convents have been closed, and universal religious toleration declared. The days of Papal persecution have forever departed. The free church of Italy has been organized by the long persecuted Waldenses, and Protestant missionaries preach in every important city. This is what has been done. This is how the vial has been poured out on the throne of the beast, It remains to inquire how these reverses have been received by the devotees of Rome. The lately deceased Pope was declared by a Catholic General Council, sitting in Rome, to be infallible. He then shut himself up in the Vatican and styled himself a prisoner. He had previously issued a syllabus claiming a right to rule the nations of the earth. He fulminated anathemas against those who opposed him, as bitter, as hostile, as arrogant, as those of Pope Hildebrand. He and his supporters have metaphorically gnawed their tongues in anguish. When Cavour, the great Italian statesman, died, the priests were forbidden to attend the last moments of the dying patriot. If any one wishes to know the rage felt by all devout Catholics over the scenes I have depicted, let him engage in conversation with any devotee of Rome. By these events none can doubt that the power of the Papacy is much weakened. She can no longer resort to violence as a means of suppressing rebellion against her spiritual despotism. A time has come when in Italy and Rome Protestant missionaries may raise the cry to the citizens of Babylon, “Come out of her, my people,” and there is no power that will hinder their coming. This brings us to the sixth vial

Revelation 16:12

THE SIXTH VIAL. “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared."-16:12. The sixth vial is poured out upon the river Euphrates, and its waters were dried up that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. If the reader will turn back to chapter vii. he will find that the sixth angel there is also connected with the river Euphrates. When his trumpet is blown the command is given to loose the four angels that are bound by the river Euphrates. We have found that these angels and the accompanying symbolism evidently describe the Turkish invasion of the eastern Roman empire. As there were four angels, so there were four Turkish kingdoms. They were restrained (or bound) by the Euphrates, and prevented from crossing it for generations. They were an army of horsemen. They employed in their wars the smoke and fire and brimstone of gunpowder, unused before. By these and other marks the power of the Euphrates is surely identified as the Turkish empire. I have elsewhere described its capture of Constantinople.

At that time it was the mightiest empire of the world. It held under its sway all of northern Africa, all of western Asia, including Judea, and all of southeastern Europe, embracing parts of Hungary, Poland and Russia. Its armies repeatedly marched into Germany; Vienna was besieged by the Turkish host, and at one time it was feared that all Europe would be subjected to its sway. In chapter vii. it is the sixth trumpet angel that unlooses the angels bound by the river Euphrates. Here the sixth angel pours his vial upon the river Euphrates. Evidently the power affected by the sixth angel and described by the river Euphrates in both cases, is the same in chapter vii. and in the present chapter. Prophecy has described the rise of the Turkish power. It also foreshadows the fall of this mighty scourge of the nations. The cruel and sensual invader, who has desolated the Holy Land and plowed with destruction regions in which flourishing churches were founded by the apostles, is destined to fall.

A vial shall be poured out upon it and it shall be dried up. But will its fall be a calamity to Rome? We may let the Papacy determine that. Rome does not love the Turks, but she loves the followers of the prophet much better than she loves Protestant or Greek schismatics. If Turkey should fall before a Protestant power, or before Russia, the head of the Greek communion, the Papacy would regard it as greatly to be deplored. In the recent war between Russia and Turkey the Papal sympathies were all in behalf of the Crescent. I wish to ask the reader to observe the effects of pouring out the vial. The Euphrates is dried up. This symbolism does not indicate a sudden destruction but a gradual decay. Earthquakes, and falling cities and lands, or mountains swallowed up, are symbols of sudden destruction, but a drying up indicates an extinction by slow degrees. This is just what is taking place in the case of Turkey. I do not know when her end will come, whether soon, or far in the future; but her end will come, and I do know that for more than a hundred years the foundations of her power have been slowly drying up. Three hundred years ago she was the mightiest power in the world, and she has not fallen from that high position to her present weakness at a bound. We can trace the steps downward. In 1774, one hundred and seven years ago, she received her first great reverse in a war with Russia, and was shorn of her provinces north of the Black Sea. In 1816, Servia, after a long contest for liberty, wrested self-government from the Sultan and has since only given a nominal allegiance to the Turks. In 1820 Greece revolted. In 1823 the Turkish naval power was destroyed by England, France and Russia at the battle of Navarino, and in 1829 the independence of Greece was completely established. In 1849 Mehemet Ali revolted in Egypt, invaded Syria, marched on Constantinople, and was only restrained by the powers of Europe. Since that time Egypt has been practically independent. In 1849, Roumania also, then called Moldavia, demanded self-government and is now independent under the King of Roumania. Thus province after province has been lopped off, and the process still goes on. In 1876 Herzeovina revolted, and Montenegro raised its warlike standard.

In 1877 the Russians intervened, and the war that followed resulted in the loss of the greater part of the Turkish possessions in Europe, as well as Cyprus and a part of Armenia. At this date the Turkish empire seems on the very verge of dissolution. To the human eye it appears as though the very foundations of its life and vigor were “dried up.” The apostle says that the Euphrates shall be dried up, that the way of the kings of the East may be prepared. In the infancy of the Christ, the wise men of the East, also called kings in the Psalms, came to offer homage to the kingly child. The prophecy implies that when this obstacle is removed, the way of the inhabitants shall be opened. There can be no doubt but that the fall of the Turkish power would give a mighty impetus to the evangelization of the world. All western Asia is Mahometan Turkey is the head of the Mahometan faith, and its fall would be looked upon as the doom of the religion of the Prophet. It has long been death for the disciple of Mahomet to forsake his religion, but when the Euphrates is finally dried up, the nations from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, Tigris and Indus, will seek for a new religion.

The sword established the religion of the False Prophet. When it loses the dominion of the sword, its votaries will demand another faith. The next great event in prophetic history after the drying of the Euphrates, is the battle of Armageddon. We have found that the sixth and seventh vials represent events that have occurred, or are occurring, in our day. The great calamity to the papacy, symbolized by the vial poured upon the throne of the beast, has fallen upon Rome since 1870. The drying up of the Euphrates is still going on.

Revelation 16:13-16

Before the final destruction of the Mahometan power it is destined to secure powerful allies, which will aid it in its last struggle, and go down with it when that struggle is ended, in a final and utter destruction. This conflict is described as follows: “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together in a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”–16:13-16. The reader will observe that, before the seventh vial is poured out, there is an alliance of three powers described as the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. From their mouths came three unclean spirits, like frogs, who go forth to the kings of the earth, rally their forces under the banners of the three allied powers, and march them to the battle of the great day of the Almighty. And the hosts join battle in a place called in the Hebrew tongue, . I wish the reader to understand that in venturing upon this portion of Revelation, I do so as one who goes through a dim, mysterious and untraveled country. Thus far I have been writing of the past, and I have asked my reader to tread with me the solid ground of history. I have pointed him first to the sublime panorama of the future described, as an eye witness, by the prophet of Patmos. I have then turned to history and have shown the march of events corresponding to, and in precise order of the Apocalyptic symbols. But in this application we have now reached the year 1881. The symbolism next proceeds to map out what is future to us as well as what was future to John eighteen centuries ago.

The gathering of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, belongs to the future. It is unfulfilled prophecy, and of the meaning of unfulfilled prophecy we should always speak with modesty. The blunders made by so many learned men in trying to teach the world what prophecy of events yet future should mean, ought to admonish the interpreter to lay aside all dogmatism before he begins his work. Yet, in the interpretation of this passage we are furnished with solid ground where we can place our feet. The dragon and the beast are symbols that have already been identified. All Protestant commentators are agreed that the dragon is a symbol of old, persecuting, imperial Rome, and that the beast represents the no less tyrannical and persecuting power of Papal Rome. Here a difficulty arises concerning one of these powers. Papal Rome still exists, but imperial Rome, once the mistress of the world, is gone forever. How then can the dragon appear in a conflict that is yet future? It cannot appear as imperial Rome, but it may appear as some great despotic power of kindred character, representing its work and spirit. We may, perhaps, receive some assistance by comparing the passage before us with the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. These chapters are understood by President Milligan, and other judicious commentators, to describe the gathering of the hosts to the battle of Armageddon.

We quote: “Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief Prince, of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.” Ezekiel 38:2. Magog was one of the seven sons of Japhet. His sons were Gomer, Magog, Maadai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Josephus says that Magog founded the “Magogae, whom the Greeks call Scythians.” The people called Scythians anciently inhabited southern Russia. We are justified, then, in pronouncing that country the “land of Magog.” Ezekiel, in the passage quoted, not only names the land of Magog, but “the chief prince of Meshech.” Meshech we have named already is the sixth son of Japhet. There can be little doubt but that the name survives in Russia.

Muscovy is the ancient name of Russia, and the word is probably a corruption of Meshech, and the other Russian terms, Moscow, Moskwa, Mesoc and Mosc, are all variations of the same word. This resemblance is rendered still more striking by a correct translation of the Septuagint version. It there reads: “The prince of Roos and Meshech and Tubal.” We have then found that the land of Magog was Scythia or Russia; that the prince of Roos, or Russia, is named; that Meshech corresponds with Moscow and Muscovy, and the remaining name, Tubal, or Tobol, as it is in the Septuagint, is also a Russian name. The capital of Asiatic Russia is Tobolsk. Tobol is its chief river. I think that these facts clearly show that Ezekiel marks Russia as one of the powers destined to take part in the battle of Armageddon. In despotic form. of government, in extent of dominions, in ambition, in military power, it more fitly represents imperial Rome than any other modern State, and since it is definitely described by Ezekiel, we are justified in regarding it as the revived imperial despotism symbolized by the dragon. . Two of the powers that enter into the conflict can now be conjectured, viz: Russia, the great modern secular despotism, and the spiritual despotism of Rome, symbolized by the beast. These, are not at present in union, but they will unite. They each have a system of Episcopacy, worship images, invoke saints, and nourish monasticism. They have so much in common religiously that it will not be impossible to make an alliance in the future. Papal Rome in the zenith of her power would have disdained an alliance with the eastern church, but in the humiliation brought upon her by the pouring out of the vials she will stretch out her hands for help. In the reign of Justinian when the Pope first received the title of Lord of the Church, the Greek and Latin churches were united under his sceptre and will be again united at their fall. The third power described as the false prophet, remains to be identified. The reader will note two facts: 1. The sixth vial treats of the fall of the Turkish power. We have not yet passed to the seventh vial. The Sultan is the recognized “commander of the Faithful;” the head of Islam. The false prophet represents the Mahometan power; possibly not under the Sultan, but still existing. It is the religion of “The Prophet,” as his disciples term Mahomet; of the false prophet, as the rest or the world suppose. 2. By turning to Ezekiel we find that it is stated that Persia, Ethiopia and Lybia with them, are joined in the conflict. These are the very countries that are peopled by Mahometans. “The power of the Euphrates” will probably be dried up, and before this conflict, but there will be a marshaling of the followers of the false prophet from Persia, Ethiopia, Lybia and other countries. Let the reader note the significance of the historical fact that the Mahometan lands are fast passing under the dominion of Russia. Already central Asia to the borders of China acknowledges the Czar, and Turkey is suppliant at his feet. It seems, then, to be already foreshadowed that after the drying up of the Euphrates there will be a grand alliance of secular despotism led by Russia, spiritual despotism embodied in Papal Rome, and false religion as exemplified in Mahometanism. Their aim will be to check the progress of political and religious freedom and of the gospel of Christ. The final gathering of the hosts will be it Armageddon, where the last conflict in which the beast and false prophet shall ever engage, will be fought.

It will not be the world’s last battle. There remains yet another which closes the scenes and struggles of time, but the great victory of Armageddon will secure the peace of earth for a thousand years, and usher in the glories of the Millennium. I have endeavored to identify the powers which shall contend upon the one side in the battle of Armageddon. Of two of these there can be no doubt. The beast is ever a symbol of the Papal power. The connection, as well as the name indicates that the false prophet represents Mahometanism. The dragon represents, not old, imperial Rome, but the spirit of imperial Rome revived in some modern power, or powers. I have urged that Russia is that power. It may be that it is an alliance of despotic powers under the leadership of Russia. A passage to which I ask the reader’s attention suggests that this is probable. In chapter 13:16, the beast, false prophet and dragon are named. In chapter 19:19-20, there is another description of the same conflict. There John saw the beast and the false prophet as before, but instead of the dragon he names the kings of the earth. These would represent the imperial despotism of ancient Rome. The language would suggest an alliance of despotic rulers. The dragon represents the spirit of them all. What has been written renders it probable that Russia will exercise a preponderance. The sacred writer saw that, they were gathered to a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. If this is a literal conflict of arms the place where it will take place is probably indicated. Possibly the conflict will be moral and spiritual, but if not, it is of interest to know where this great final conflict will be fought. It is at a place. The place would therefore probably be found where the Hebrew tongue was spoken, and where the Jews were wont to bestow Hebrew names upon places. The fanciful Baldwin has chosen the United States as the theatre of this conflict, a supposition about as probable as many of the prophetic theories of which he is the advocate. The place named is not only Hebrew, but is a famous spot in Hebrew history.

Armageddon means simply the Hill Megiddo. Upon the hill Megiddo was fought the battle in which King Josiah was slain. It was in the midst of the battle-ground of Israel. The plain of Esdraelon, the depression between Judea and Galilee, was tracked with armies. Philistines, Midianites, Syrians, Assyrians, and Egyptians contended with each other and with Israel. Upon this plain arose the hill of Megiddo.

It may be that the last conflict before the fall of Babylon and the ushering in of the Millennium will be upon this ancient battleground. If Ezekiel 37:8-17 is understood literally it signifies that Palestine shall be the theatre of his struggle, but of all these passages I am inclined to believe that they have a spiritual signification. The Israel of Ezekiel represents the church, the true Israel. Armageddon, the battle-ground of Israel, is used metaphorically to describe the great conflict of the Israel of God. But against whom are these wicked powers arrayed? Revelation 19:11-16 describes him. Christ is the leader. The conflict is with the true church. The word of God is the instrument of offense. Christ rides upon the white horse of triumph and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. The splendid description of chapter 19th, is a fuller presentation of chapter 16:14, where the conflict is described as the battle of that great day of God Almighty. As this conflict was waged the seventh angel pours out

Revelation 16:17-21

THE SEVENTH VIAL. “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple or heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”–16:17-19. I have shown that these vials each represent calamities that befall the Papal power and follow in succession. The number seven, is the perfect number. The seventh vial which completes the perfect number must be the grand consummation of the catastrophes of Rome. It is in harmony with the fitness of things that it should bring her utter destruction. Hence it is followed by commotion and mighty upheaval of the powers of the earth, such as had never before been known. The results are presented in detail.

We learn, 1. That the great city, Babylon, fell. It was broken into fragments. Chapter 16:19. It fell with violence, as a millstone cast into the sea and disappeared forever. Chapter 17:21.

The beast, the symbol of the Romish power, was taken and cast alive into the lake of fire, from whence there is no return to trouble the nations. Chapter 19:20. 2. The false prophet which shared the alliance of the beast (chapter 16:13) also shares its fate. Chapter 19:20. The dragon, “the kings of the earth,” gathered to make war against him who sat on the horse, were also discomfited. The cities of the nations fell.

Chapter 16:19. Of three powers allied in wickedness two are utterly destroyed. They are consigned to the eternal prison-house where doors open to receive, but from whence none come forth. They disappear forever. Rome and Mahomet disappear from history. These anti-Christian powers cannot be reformed.

It is folly to think of recalling an apostate church to the purity of the gospel. It waxes worse and worse. Its end is destruction. Every false church and every false religion, incapable of reformation, must be destroyed. The third power, the dragon, is not at this period cast into the lake of fire. His time has not, yet come. He represents a spirit that assumes various forms. At one time he is imperial Rome; later he has assumed the form of the secular dominion of the Papacy; later still he represents Russia and the allied despotisms of the earth. He is ever Satan, the adversary, the old serpent, the devil, but to accomplish his work assumes Protean forms. At the end of this great conflict, his power is broken. He has not passed out of existence forever, but is bound. For a long period he ceases to exercise power upon the earth, and there is ushered in after the fall of the beast and false prophet the golden age of our race, the glorious period sung by ancient prophets, the .