THE MOSLEM EMPIRE.
The Euphrates is the name of the river indicated as the eastern boundary of the land promised to Abraham and his seed, i.e., to the Christ and all, individually and nationally, constitutionally “one in him.” It is termed by eminence “The River,” being the most conspicuous, politically, of all the Bible rivers, not excepting the Jordan. It was the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire, and for a considerable period before the fate of its Greek Dynasty, the dividing line between it and the Turks. During this time the Catholics, subject to Constantinople and Rome, were in an excessively corrupt state, “worshipping demons, and idols of gold and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.” This is the language of Scripture as descriptive of the Catholic adoration of saints and images west of the Euphrates. The Turks despised it, and rightly designated the Greeks and Italians as “idolaters.” The Turks were ferocious, but more rational in their creed, adopting the one article of the unity of God, and the divine mission of Mahomet. There can be no doubt that both they and their predecessors, the Saracens, were the sword of God upon the idolaters of the eastern Roman empire. The Saracens “tormented” its citizens; while the Turks extinguished their independence and abolished their sovereignty, or, in Scripture style, “slew the third part of men.” Beyond the limits of this third part they were never able permanently to establish their dominion. They made inroads upon their Popish neighbours, even to the gates of Vienna, and inflicted upon them terrible vengeance; but, saith the Scripture, “They repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” The Papists still continued to murder the saints, slaying, with indiscriminate massacre, men and women, and their unoffending offspring. The incantations, adultery, and thievery of the priests were unmitigated. The judgment of God made no salutary impression upon them, so that what they were at the fall of Constantinople they continue at this day. “They repented not of their works.”
The Turks were a much more honest, dignified, and spiritual people than the Catholics, Greek or Latin; for it is more, far more, spiritual to believe in only one God, than to adore thousands of dead men and women, and to receive with implicit faith the absurd fables of the Romish priesthood. The Turks were ignorant and barbarous; but the Catholics were ignorant and excessively vicious: hence God appointed the barbarous to chastise the criminal. The Turks were, therefore, his messengers, or “angels”—apocalyptically; whom he sent against the Greco-Roman empire to extinguish it in a third of its extent. There were “four” sultanies of them, whose people for an appointed time were limited to the east bank of the Euphrates. This is expressed by the words, “the four angels confined by the great river Euphrates”—Revelation 9: 14. It was the western confine of the Moslem empire, whose capital was at Baghdad, where Togrul Beg was inaugurated its secular chief Dzoulcad 10th, A. H., 448, corresponding to January 18, 1057. The forces of the empire, which were chiefly cavalry, continued within their bounds till April 29, 1063, when Alp Arslan, “the Valiant Lion,” with a great army crossed the Euphrates, and invaded the Roman empire. This was the commencement of the sounding of the sixth trumpet, or that of the Second Woe; and is signalised in the prophecy by the command, “Loose the Four Angels which are confined by the great river Euphrates.”
Prophetic arithmetic is corrected by time and its peculiar events. The loosing of the Turks against the object of their vengeance, has generally been fixed at the taking of Constantinople, May 29, 1453: and their preparation consequently as expiring with the recovery of that city out of their hands, “an hour, a day, a month, and a year” afterwards. Upon this hypothesis, Constantinople ought to have fallen on June 29, 1844. But it did not: therefore the preparation cannot have referred to the interval between May 29, 1453 and June 29, 1844; consequently the loosing must have belonged to a former epoch. It is remarkable, however, that Moslem religious despotism was enthroned in Constantinople May 29, 1453, and in 391 years and 30 days after, or June 29, 1844, religious liberty was restored there, at the instance of England, France, and Russia. This was a shadow of coming events; but not the loosing of the text.
On reference to the original, I perceive that the loosing, and not the preparation, was for 391 years and 30 days. The words are—elutheesan hoi tessares angeloi hoi eetoimasmenoi eis teen hooran, &c. —that is, “the four prepared angels were loosed for an hour,” &c. The preparation of the “angels” preceded their loosing; and consisted in the organization of the Moslem empire under Togrul Beg. Six years afterwards the loosing was decreed by a successor, Alp Arslan, the renowned. The binding of the Turks or Moslems being the restriction of their empire to the Euphrates; the loosing of them for a period consisted in their advancing their dominion westward until the time indicated should expire, when they would be confined, bound, or restricted, to a new western frontier. They may, therefore, be said to be bound at this time by the Danube and the Save, beyond which their dominion does not extend; but not by the Euphrates, because it stretches beyond.
The period of their advance into the Roman empire was “for an hour, a day, a month, and a time.” At the end of this the extinction of the third part of that dominion would be effected. This implied the capture of Constantinople, because until that was accomplished the third part was not slain; for that city is the throne of the third part. I see no reason to question the accuracy of the conclusion arrived at respecting the above symbol being equal to 391 years and 30 days. An eniautos is that which returns upon itself; enos is a year. I have rendered the former eniautos, by “a time,” or revolution. A month of this revolution of time would be a twelfth part; a day, a three hundred and sixtieth part; and an hour, the twelfth part of this. Now, the career of the Moslems shows that the revolution, or “time,” could not have been less than 360 years, because their empire continued to advance. This being the greatest whole number, the month, day, and hour, are fractions of it; so that the statement will stand thus:
A Time, 360 years.
A Month, or twelfth of a Time, 30 years.
A Day, or a three hundred and sixtieth of a Time, 1 year.
An Hour, or a twelfth of a day 0 30 days.
391 years 30 days.
History confirms the accuracy of this computation. Alp Arslan, as I have said, invaded the Catholic empire A.D.1063. He and his successors continued their encroachments during 391 years and 30 days, which includes the capture of Constantinople, by Mahmoud II. With the fall of the Greek empire the progress of the Moslems was stayed and their loosing accomplished they were a river overflowing its banks, and sweeping everything before it, until it attained its highest level. What name, then, could more fitly designate this Moslem inundation than “Euphrates,” the former boundary of their empire, and arising in the territory they now possess? None. Their power and dominion are therefore styled “the great river Euphrates,” whose subsidence within its banks is the result of the outpouring of the sixth vial.
The second woe-trumpet period ended with the ascription of “glory to the God of heaven,” by the French nation, which abolished the Catholic superstition, November 10, 1793; proclaimed justice and integrity the order of the day, March 22, 1794; acknowledged the existence of the Supreme Being, May 7; and celebrated a festival to his honour and glory, June 8th, of the same year: so that the conquest of the Eastern empire by the monotheist Moslems, and their wars upon “The Holy Roman Empire” of the West, together with the terrible, but righteous, severity of the Robespierrians upon the king, nobles, and priests of France, the murderers of God’s saints by thousands, were judgments upon the paganised Catholics, of the Beast and Dragon territories, that extorted glory to the God of heaven in the very temples of the guardian demons themselves. The churches, dedicated to dead men’s ghosts, were converted into Mosques, and a rational recognition of the one God; for the Moslems and Republicans of France were, in fact, brethren in respect of the unity of God, and a hatred of the Catholic idolatry of Rome.
The Holy Roman or Papal Empire was then between two destroyers, or swords of God; the Moslems on the southeast, and the French Republicans on the north and west. Belgium, Catholic Germany, Italy, and the Spanish peninsula, “repented not of their deeds.” Vengeance, therefore, having been duly executed on the incorrigible in France, the lower orders, or mob, in fact, being raised to power, became the messengers or apocalyptic “angels” of the first, third, fourth, and fifth vials, to slay multitudes of the blasphemous of the Beast’s kingdom. Napoleon, a man of the people, a mere upstart, or parvenu, without any sovereign or aristocratic alliances, became the military chief of the republicans—a tyrant, indeed, but necessarily so, considering the work of death it was his mission to execute. He gave the slayers of God’s saints and prophets “blood to drink;” he scorched them with fire; and filled their kingdom with darkness. Still “they blasphemed the name of God which had power over the plagues; and repented not to give him glory.” This was the moral condition in which the cessation of war left the Beast territory in 1815. France had returned to its old idolatry, whose Catholicism seemed to be more firmly established than ever, the sword of Russia being thrown into the scale on the side of the devils and the idols—Revelation 9: 20.
But “judgment” is to be “given to the Saints;” who shall not only “punish the goats,” but make all nations repent of their deeds, and give glory to the God of heaven. To bring about this crisis, which involves the annihilation of Greek and Italian Catholic idolatry, it is necessary to “dry up the water of the great river Euphrates”—that is, to abolish the Moslem empire. So long as this continues to occupy the throne and territory of the Dragon, the Gentiles cannot assemble themselves, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to encounter Jehovah’s Mighty Ones, that these may plead with them there for His people; and his heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted His land—Joel 3: 11-12, 2. So long as the Moslem rules in Constantinople, and his rights of conquest over Palestine are respected by powers stronger than he, “the hour of judgment” cannot be struck. It is the end, therefore, of the sixth vial, to open the way for the nations of the sea and land Beast dominions, to go up to Jerusalem, to encounter—they know not what—a terrible overthrow by the King of Israel entering upon the possession of his Holy City.
But there must be something in connection with that city to allure them on against her. This something is at this very time in its formative state. The absurd superstition of the Greeks and Latins in respect to the Holy Places at Jerusalem, is the embryo being developed by France and Russia into the giant Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. France championises the Latin idolatry of the West; and Russia, the Greek idolatry of the East. In this question, France appears to supplant Austria, the confidential and intimate ally of Rome. But Austria is too near a neighbour, and too dependent upon Russia, to antagonise Russia on “the Eastern question.” Providence has, therefore, raised up a horn in Paris, whose policy shall accomplish that which the neutralising influence of Russia prevents Austria from undertaking in favour of its own idolatry. Austria can leave the championship of Papal interests in Jerusalem to Napoleon III without jealousy, being promised important acquisitions of Moslem territory, and being pretty sure that when the time comes, the combined forces of Russia, Austria, and the kingdoms of the West, will be able and willing to destroy the French empire, and to reduce France to the state of a Bourbon monarchy.
The policy of France—the Frog-Power—has created the embarrassment about the Holy Places in Jerusalem. It has obtained a decree for the Latin idolatry, which gives great offence to Nicholas of Russia, the Head of the Greek superstition; and has caused him to send a very threatening and imposing embassy to Constantinople, in behalf of the interests of his Church. The poor Sultan is thus placed in the utmost perplexity. If he yield to the imperiousness of Russia, he will offend France; and if he remain firm to the Latin interests, he will offend Russia, and Austria, its ally, between whom all rivalry is abandoned. But as these two powers are known to covet possession of Turkey itself, this may determine the Sultan to throw himself upon the protection of France and England, and so bring on war, unless it can be staved off for the present by these powers abandoning Turkey to its fate, and agreeing with Russia and Austria to divide the spoil; England taking Egypt, Syria and Palestine; France, Morocco; Russia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, Thrace, Constantinople, and Asia Minor; and Austria, Bosnia, Servia, Albania, and Macedonia. This arrangement would open the way for a more active settlement of Palestine by Jews under British protection, with some provisional arrangement respecting the Holy Places; for whatever is done can only be provisional. The Eastern Question cannot be settled by the powers of the world. None can solve it but “the Man at Jehovah’s right hand, whom he hath made strong for himself.” It will, therefore, always be a cause of embarrassment, and, at length, of ruin, to the powers that burden themselves with it. But, it is hardly probable that this provisional arrangement can be effected without war. The Moslem will scarcely surrender his throne and territory without a struggle; and in that event, France and England will certainly not be inactive spectators of the drying up of the dominion of the Ottoman over the territories I have named.
The mission of the sixth angel to the accomplishment of these events is thus expressed: “And he poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates: and the water thereof was dried up, to the end that the way of the kings of the risings of the sun might be prepared.” The agency in the preparation of this way, now manifestly at work, is then described in the next verse in the following words: “And I saw three unclean spirits, resembling frogs, issuing from the mouth of the Dragon, and from the mouth of the Beast, and from the mouth of the False Prophet: for they are the spirits of demons, manifesting signs, which go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole habitable to assemble them to the war of that great day of God the almighty.” It is easily discerned by those who observe the course of events, that the present situation of affairs is referable to French policy at Constantinople. It has involved the Moslem government in a dilemma from which it does not know how to deliver itself. The Moslem policy is therefore the creation of the French power, and hence resembling, or bearing the impression of, the frog-spirit. As I have often said before, the mission of the Frog-power is to create an imbroglio, which shall necessitate the unsheathing of the sword by way of preparation for the end. That end is declared in the reason assigned for the drying up of the Euphratean dominion—that the way of the kings of the risings of the sun may be prepared; that is, that the crisis may be formed in which Christ and his saints shall appear as unexpectedly as a thief in the night: for in the next verse he says, “Behold I come as a thief;” that is, to take part with my associate kings in the war of that great day of God the almighty. The signs being manifested by the Frog-generated policy of Austria, Turkey, and the Pope, in its bearing upon Russia, England, Prussia, &c., are the signs of the times manifesting for the benefit of those who understand and believe the word of the kingdom. “The wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall.” Let the faithful then “watch;” for when the war against the Moslem breaks forth to the complete evaporation of his dominion, it comes as a storm from the north, sounding in the expectant’s ear, “Behold, I come as a thief! Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments.” Russia’s mission is to subvert the Ottoman dominion; and to lead the Catholic idolaters of the East and West, who repent not of their deeds, against Jerusalem; that they may there receive an overthrow from “the kings of the east,” which shall inaugurate that judgment which shall sit when the books shall be opened, and the time comes for the saints to possess themselves of the kingdom under the whole heaven. For “the king of the north shall come against him (the Moslem) like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow, and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land (Palestine), and many countries shall be overthrown; and the land of Egypt shall not escape”—Daniel 11: 40-42. Such is the crisis the Frogs are creating for the world; and such is the beginning of the solution of the vexed question of the East.
This, then being our views of things, we are not surprised at the announcement contained in an article which has recently appeared in an English weekly journal. We have been long anxiously desiring the partition of Turkey, as a sure indication of the appearance of the Lord in Zion soon. It is evidently approaching, as the following leading article from the aforesaid paper goes to show.
