heavens and the new earth, which will emerge when a.U tha.t must be shaken and over- thrown is put awa.y. This work is essentially a.nd exclusively constructive. 2. There is another kind of agency-the providential-which is largely tk.~tructive, which clan.re the ground for a new advance. It is this overturning force which we have yet to see in action. The Jewish temple a.nd nation hail to be overthrown to preps.re the way for a new step in advance. Struggle and bloodshed in Italy preps.red the way for the downfall of the pope's temporal power. The war in America proved the destruction of slavery. Thus, a.s we look back on them, we see how destructive action hastens the progress of the wocld. So it has been. So it will be. VL IT IS DISCLOSED TO US IN THL'I BOOK THAT MANY OF THE MOST P'IERCEL~ DESTRUCTIVE EVENTS BY WHICH TIIE ILL. 18 TO BE OVERTHROWN, a.re the Divine method of answering his 1ieople's prayers. It is in response to prayer that the angel euta ire on the earth. Prayers sent up in calm a.re answered in storm. " When we stand. with Christ on high, Looking o'er life'.ll history," then-then shaU we see more clearly than it is possible to do now, that the most "terrible things" have but prepared the way of the Lord. Difficulty: A difficulty may here suggest itself to some. The question may be asked-But are we to under- stand that God's saints are expected to pray for, or even tba.t it is right for them to pray for, terrible judgments? ~e reply-Not so do we understand the lll8.tter; but thus: believers pray," Arise, 0 God, plead thine own cause;" and then they leave it m the bands of God to answer the prayer in the way which seems best to him. Note: Do not let us be alarmed if, when God rises up, some tremendous shaking occurs. ,Such she.kings must come. Empires, monarchies, kings, tyrannies, piiestboods, visible ·Churches, hierarchies, creeds, must be shaken. But why P "That those things·which cannot be shaken may remain." Let Christians hold fast, watch, pray, we.it, in perfect calm. Finally, let all preachers and hearers summon each other out frnm the prayer- less crowd, and gather in among the praying ones. History gives us many an instructive parable. 'l'here was once a liLtle . company in an upper room-not more than· a hundred and twenty-praying. At that very time there sat on his royal seat a Rolll8.n emperor, surrounded with all the pomp and power of the world. In the little company in the upper room there was a seed of life and progress tha.t has been fruitful ever since, and is more so now than ever. In the court of Rome there was a worm of corruption silently and surely gnawiug all the splendour, and bringing it to utter ruin. If we oourt the world's smiles and wealth and applause, we may make a show; but only for a time. If ours is the breath of prayer, we shall reign when the -pomp of earth has -vanished for ever away l
Ver. 7-eh. ix. 21.-The fir•I airr; trumpets. The eighth and ninth chapters are confessedly the moet intricate pa.rt of the book. Yet they are full of Divine teachin~ which we could ill afford to lose-teaching thrown into a form altogether petmliar ~ this Apocalyptic book, which will amply repay the closest attention which we can give to it. Here we have the sounding of the first six trumpets under the seventh seal. Accoiding to historical inJ;erpreters of the two main schools, their fulfilment was accom- plished, at least in part, in the events indicated in the following table : -
TrumpelL Follilment accomlng Ml Archdeacon Fnlfilment according Mi ReY .JLB.Klllo&t.• Farrar.1.
Fint trumpet- Hail and fire mingled Years or burning drought, The invasion of the Rom11.n with blood. are cast upon rains of blood. disastrous con- empire by Alario, King of the the earth, and one-third :flagrations and earthquake, as Gotha (A.D. 395 t.o A.II. 410). pan of ea.rib and trees those in Lyons, Rome, Jeru- ir.nd all greeJl grass is salem, Naples, eto. (&.D. 63 to burnt up. A..D. 68). .
1 • Early Days of Christianity,' vol. ii. 261-270. For a careful discussion of the main question here involved, see also :Ur. P. W. Grant's' Exposition,' pp. 217-11:28. 1 • Hor111 Apocalj plicre,' 5th edit., vol. i. 3¼6, et '6ll· 240 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN .THE DIVINE. [cu. vm. t-..;...t&
Fulfllmeni according to .Archdea.c:on IFnllllmenhccording to Rev. E. B. Elliott. Farrill'.
Seoond trumpet- A great mountain is Great calamities connected The invasion of the Roma.n oost into the sea : one- with the sea and ships. such empire by Genseric, King of third part of the sea, of ae those of which the time of the Vandala (A.D. 423 to .LD, the creatures therein, Nero furnished abundant in- 468). and of the ahip,i, is stanoes. Bmitten. Third trumpet- .A star falls f1'0m The overthrow of Nero, the The invasion of the Roman hPaven : one-third part ominous failure of the Julian empire by .Attila, King of the of the rivers and foun- line, and the bitterness oo- Huns (A."D. 433 to A.D. 453). tains is smitten, and the easioned thereby, waters are made bitter. Fourth lrump,,t- .A tbird pa.rt of the Ruler after ruler, cl'lieftain Final conquest of Rome and Slltl, moon, and stnrs is after chieftain, of the Roman the Western empire by Odoacer, awitten. empire, and of the Jewish King of the Heruli (A.D. 476 to nation, died by murder or A.D. 490). suicide. Fifth 'trumpet- .A slM falls from The star = Nero. The host The star=8atan. The locusta heavun: a great swarm = of locusts demons. Stier · fa = the sudden rise of Mohanr of locw;ts from the abyeii. quoted as saying, "In the medanism. The five mouths = period between the Resurrec- a hundred and fifty years. in tion and the fall of Jerusalem, 612 Mahomet commenced hia the Jewish nation acted as if prophetic mission. Iu 762 possessed by _seven thousand Christendom Wllll d~li vered from demons." the tPrror and persecution of the Saracens. 8izth trumpet- 'l'he arwy ofthehorse- "The swarms of ·Orientals The Turks from the Euphm- men is seen, numbering who gathered to the destruc- tean frontier, subverting the two hundred millions·, tion of Jerusalem in the train empire of Eastern Christendom, with lire - breathing of Titus, and the overwhelming and taking Constjlntinople. hor.ses. Parthiau host. which was ex- The ensign of one, two, "or pected to avenge the r$ of three horse-tails marks ,!istinc- Nero." tively the dignity and power of the Turkish pacha. • From the loosing the four angels to the slo.ying the third part of men was an hou!, a day, a month, and a year; i.e. 396 years US days, whieh is jusi the time from the"loosing of the united Turco-Moslem power from the Euphrates to the fall of Constantinople (January 181 1057, to May 29. 1453).