Part 9 (2/2)
This period, then, of ”five months,” or one hundred and fifty days, would represent symbolically one hundred and fifty years. As before stated, it was in the year A.D. 612 that Mohammed began to expound his doctrines publicly and to gather adherents around his standard, from which point the locusts commenced, although the smoke had been let out of the pit a little previously. For a period of one hundred and fifty years from this date, they continued their ravages, until A.D. 762. Then they ”built Bagdad, which became their settled seat of empire; and henceforth they became a settled nation, making no further conquests.”
From that date their power began to decline. But during this one hundred and fifty years they spread over the country like swarms of devouring locusts. According to the well-known facts of history, ”they overran Arabia, Palestine, Persia, Egypt, and the northern sh.o.r.es of Africa, from which they pa.s.sed to the conquest of Portugal and Spain.” These were the countries that had been the most oppressed by a priest-ridden church and where especially were to be found those ”men which have not the seal of G.o.d in their foreheads.” Europe was trembling and filled with apprehension at what her fate might be at the hands of these fanatic warriors who fought with savage fury, under the promise of their prophet that, if slain in battle, they should be immediately transported to Paradise. At the zenith of their power, and confident of success, they pa.s.sed from Spain into France four hundred thousand strong. But here they exceeded their mission. The southern provinces of France contained many Christians who had the ”seal of G.o.d” upon them, and this country became the seat of the Waldenses and Albigenses, of which interesting people we shall learn more hereafter. The invading host was met at Tours by Charles, grandfather of Charlemagne, who dealt them such a crus.h.i.+ng blow that he was ever afterward designated by the surname Martel--the Hammer. This battle was one of the fiercest recorded in history. The Saracens who had scarcely ever experienced defeat fought with the fury of despair, until, according to the accounts of that age, three hundred and seventy-five thousand of their number lay upon the field of battle with their general. This decisive victory saved Europe from her threatened subjection to the Mohammedan faith.
The next point in the vision to claim our attention is the particular description of these locusts. Some of the points mentioned might find a literal fulfilment in the personal appearance of the Saracens--such as the crowns signifying the turbans they wore, etc., but we must adhere strictly to the symbolic mode of interpretation and look for their fulfilment in Saracen character. Their being like war-horses denotes their warlike disposition. The crowns on their heads signify their great success and triumphs. Their faces of men and hair like women doubtless signify their boldness on the one hand and their effeminateness on the other. Their teeth as the teeth of lions show their ferocity of character. Their breastplates of iron indicate their invincibility or else their insensibility to injuries inflicted upon them. The sound of their wings like horses and chariots running to battle denotes the mult.i.tude and rapidity of their conquests. Their tails like scorpions, containing stings with which to ”hurt men”--operating in the religious world--symbolize their position as propagators of a false faith. Thus they are set forth in their two-fold character--as invincible warriors and as the zealous professors of a delusion, whose sting was like that of a scorpion when he strikes a man.
”And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.” The following fact of history will explain this: ”The Saracens had their Caliphs, the successors of Mohammed, who united in themselves the supreme civil, military and ecclesiastical powers. They were the high-priests of their religion, the commanders of their armies, and the emperors of the nation.” This king over them signifies a succession of rulers, and they are well described as ”the angel of the bottomless pit,” for that is the very place where the delusion is said to have originated. Mahomet, as a fallen star, opened the pit and let out the smoke, and his successors, who grasped his power and authority, are fitly characterized as angels from the same place, bearing the name Abaddon or Apollyon, which terms both signify Destroyer.
Is not this a wonderful combination of symbols which can be carried out with surprising accuracy? What human ingenuity could have ever contrived such a marvelous series of events, and described them under such appropriate symbols? Finally, let me ask, Where in the whole compa.s.s of universal history can be found another series of events so perfectly meeting every requirement of the symbols? In this we must acknowledge the hand of G.o.d.
12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
This announcement, that one woe is past, meaning that the period of one hundred and fifty years during which the Saracens were to continue their conquests has ended, serves an important purpose in enabling us to fix the chronology of the events described. It proves that they succeed each other.
13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before G.o.d,
14. Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16. And the number of the army of the hors.e.m.e.n were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not wors.h.i.+p devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and bra.s.s, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
At the sounding of the sixth trumpet, or the second woe trumpet, a voice is heard from the four horns (all the horns) of the golden altar. This probably denotes that the very same altar where incense was offered up to G.o.d with the prayers of all saints was now crying out to him for vengeance upon an apostate church. That church had reached the summit of apostasy and iniquity, the virgin Mary, the saints, and thousands of idols in the form of miserable relics being wors.h.i.+ped more than G.o.d.
Because of these abominable idolatries, a voice is heard crying from the golden altar for the avenging judgments of Heaven, which were the loosing of the four angels bound in the river Euphrates. The symbols of this vision are also of peculiar character and drawn from different departments. We have four angels bound in the Euphrates, an immense army of hors.e.m.e.n, then a large number of horses with heads as of lions, and fire, smoke, and brimstone issuing from their mouths. The horses thus particularly described are evidently intended to have a definite symbolical signification, and being objects of nature, they would indicate a political or military power. The hors.e.m.e.n, being objects from human life, would point us to some religious body; while the angels signify the leaders that have control of these agencies. Their being commissioned ”to slay the third part of men” show that they will overthrow some of the established inst.i.tutions of society. We are to look, therefore, for some politico-religious power that should invade and overthrow the empire. We are, of course, directed to the Eastern empire; for the Western division was subverted under the symbols of the first four trumpets. With these specifications before us, we shall have no difficulty in identifying the power intended--_the Turkish, or Ottoman, empire_. Its agreement with the symbolic representations of the vision will be manifest from a statement of the facts of history.
”The Turks were of Tartar or Scythian origin, from the northern regions of Asia, whence also the Huns hived upon Europe during the fourth and fifth centuries. The latter pa.s.sed to the north of the Black sea from Russia, and swept the regions of the Danube and the Rhine. The Turks, pa.s.sing to the east of the same, fell upon the empire from that quarter.
They took possession of Armenia Major in the ninth century, where they increased, and in the s.p.a.ce of two hundred years became a formidable power, being at the end of this period combined into four Sultanies, the heads of which were at Bagdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and Iconium. The first of these was erected A.D. 1055; the two next A.D. 1079, and the last A.D. 1080--all of them within twenty-five years, and the three last within two.”
These four Sultanies are doubtless signified by ”the four angels” that were bound in the river Euphrates. The Euphrates here is employed as a symbol, not of the Turks themselves--for the hors.e.m.e.n are their symbol, as we shall see--but of the binding of the angels. The use of this word as a symbol is derived from a fact of history, being the object, according to Herodotus, that kept Cyrus back from entering the city of Babylon. While the Persian monarch surrounded the walls of that ancient metropolis of the Babylonian empire, with his army, he was held in restraint by the river Euphrates; and it was not until he had diverted its waters into an artificial channel that he gained an entrance. So, also, these Sultanies, or leaders of the Turks, were held under restraint as if bound by the river Euphrates, until the time appointed for them to go forth on their mission of conquest. Different causes held them back. For a long time they were involved in fierce and almost continuous wars with the neighboring Tartar tribes on the east and the north, and at the same time the Crusaders of Europe were carrying on a determined war with the Saracens for the possession of the Holy Land.
For two centuries the armies of Christendom poured into Syria and Palestine to recover from the hands of the ”infidels,” as they were called, the holy sepulchre and the country that gave birth to Christianity; but when Europe finally abandoned the project, then went forth the command to loose the four angels, ”which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of man.” To kill men symbolically, I have already shown, signifies the destruction either of an empire as a political body or of the church (that is, the so-called church) as a religious body. The locusts under the fifth trumpet were to do neither; but the symbolic characters of this vision are ”to slay the third part of men,” by which is set forth the fall and subjugation of the Eastern empire and church; just as, under the fifth trumpet, the fall of the Western empire was described by the darkening of a third part of the sun, moon, and stars.
Before considering the time-prophecy in this vision, we will pa.s.s on to notice a few particulars respecting the horses and their riders. The hors.e.m.e.n possessed breastplates of fire, jacinth, and brimstone; while out of the mouths of the horses proceeded fire, smoke, and brimstone.
There is evidently a special design in distinguis.h.i.+ng between the horses and their riders. These symbols, being drawn from different sources--the former from the natural world and the latter from human life--point out the two characteristics of the Turks as a politico-religious power. The symbolic description of the two is almost identical. The hors.e.m.e.n had breastplates of fire, jacinth (purplish or reddish blue), and brimstone.
This describes the character of the Turks as a religious system. Out of the horses' mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and brimstone, which represents the Moslems as a political power. The only difference is that the smoke is subst.i.tuted for the jacinth, but they very nearly agree in color. We are thus brought to the conclusion that the political and the religious power of the Turks is in harmony and agreement with each other--united in the closest manner possible, like a horse and its rider, and both animated by the same spirit. That spirit is perhaps their fierce, fanatical, aggressive, intolerant character.
The tails of the horses were like serpents with heads, their power being in their mouth and in their tails--the one a lion, the other a serpent.
It was by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone that came from their lion-heads that the third part of men was killed, or their conquests were made; then with their serpent-like tails would they torment or ”hurt” all those who would not adopt the Moslem faith, being in this respect like the scorpion locusts. Their lion-heads would denote their invincible strength and courage; and their serpent-tails, the tormenting sting inflicted upon those whom they subdued but who would not accept their religion. It is not said that the riders were the direct agents of destruction--not the Moslem faith as a religion--but it was the horses that accomplished the deadly work--the Ottomans as a political body.
This was the power that extended conquests and established their empire, although it was accompanied by the religious system, working in perfect harmony.
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