follows the sealing of the 144,000. That, as I explained to you, signifies that Christianity in the hours of its prosperity suffered more than it did in the days of its depression-that the gospel was a purer and a nobler thing when crushed by the persecutions of Nero, than when it nestled beneath the shadow of the imperial throne of Constantine; and whether it was right or whether it was wrong thus to elevate the gospel, it is matter of fact that in the catacombs and caves of the earth the Church retained her garments unsullied, her communion with her Lord unbroken; but the moment the heads that were exposed to the tempests were crowned with mitres, and the catacombs exchanged for cathedrals, she laid aside her robes of beauty and of glory, put on the gorgeous dress of Cæsar, became shorn of her real strength and her attributes of grandeur, and ground, a miserable drudge, at Cæsar's mill, and at Cæsar's bidding. I am not called on in this place to pronounce whether that elevation were scripturally right or wrong, I merely comment on historic facts, the substance of which I have now stated.

But in the midst of all this I showed you, while the visible Church thus enthroned by the emperor had ceased to be scriptural, God was bringing out his true Church. The Apostacy was now gathering strength every day-the visible Church was ceasing to be the true Church, God therefore causes to emerge the 144,000 sealed ones, i. e. his own election, his own redeemed people, the true links of the true succession, the sons of God in the world, but not of the world.

Now, having shown you that the visible Church became apostate, and that the true Church was restricted only to the few or the handful, then a series of judgments was poured out upon the apostate Church, described under the symbolical figure of the seven trumpets. I may here digress to observe that God has thus dealt with nations in almost every part of their existence. You recollect that passage in Amos where God is about to judge his people for their manifold transgressions (Amos iv. 6-12). Now if I should classify

these verses under Apocalyptic symbols, you would see the complete harmony that exists in God's dealings in all dispensations of his grace. Thus in verse 6, there is the first trumpet; "I have also given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord God." Thus one trumpet sounds; but the result is no repentance. It is therefore followed by the second trumpet, if I may use the expression; "And also I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it reigned not, withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." There is the second trumpet. Then the third trumpet sounds: "I have smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." Then the fourth trumpet sounds: "I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." There is another trumpet: "I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." There is the sixth trumpet. Now what is the seventh? "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." There is the sounding of the seventh. God's judgments in the past are all in harmony with God's judgments in the future; both are his commissioners to walk the world, and do the behests of his will.

I endeavoured to open up to you the meaning of the seven trumpets in the same manner that I explained the

seven seals, by historic facts. I showed you that trumpets, in the Levitical economy, were used, first to proclaim feasts or festivals to the people, or to proclaim war against the enemy. So they are used in the Apocalypse. The first trumpet sounded after Christendom had become apostate, and the judgments of that trumpet we read fell upon the Roman empire in the shape of "hail and storm"-i. e. desolating and destructive judgments, mingled with blood or bloodshed, and they were cast upon the earth: "and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." You read that Alaric the Goth burst upon the empire at this time, swept it with his victorious sword, deluged it with blood, and it almost fell beneath the severity of the onslaught. We read that the second angel sounded, "and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures that were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed." I showed you that under this trumpet the maritime shores of the Roman empire, its ships and fleets, were the subjects of suffering: I opened history, and read, that as Alaric fell upon the land, and swept it with fire, and deluged it with blood, in order to fulfil the symbols of the second trumpet; so Geneseric, according to this trumpet, fell upon the ships and maritime power of Rome. Three times the fleets of the empire were opposed to him-three times they were almost annihilated; and, as if to show the mysterious nature of his mission, when his pilot asked Geneseric to what coast should he steer? the reply of the Goth was, "Leave that to the winds of heaven, they will waft us to the guilty coasts." He desolated every island, and smote with destruction every shore, and totally exterminated the fleets of Rome. Suddenly he drops from the stage, and all again is still.

The third trumpet sounds, "And there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters." I showed you that the rivers and fountains

of waters, wherever they are alluded to in the Apocalypse, denote the people that dwell upon the banks of the rivers the great rivers of Europe, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Po. Accordingly we read, when the third trumpet sounds, that Attila, who was called the Scourge of God, instantly descended upon the banks of the Rhine, the Danube, and the Po, and swept from them every nation that opposed him, and fell like a burning mountain from the sky, upon every section of the geographical territory so graphically described in these symbols.

The fourth trumpet sounded, " And the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise." I explained to you that the sun and moon in the Apocalypse denote always the imperial or sovereign power. Accordingly, we read in history that Odoacer, the last of the Gothic dynasty, marched upon Rome, after Alaric had fallen upon the land, and Geneseric upon the sea, and Attila upon the rivers; and swept the whole imperial territory; the sun was darkened: and accordingly we read that Odoacer marched upon Rome, the capital itself; commanded, with his drawn sword, that Augustulus, the emperor that then reigned, should abdicate his throne, resign the insignia of sovereignty, and that all the emblems of empire should be transferred to Constantinople. Here we have the sun darkened, or the imperial power withdrawn.

And when the fifth trumpet sounded, we read that "A star fell from heaven, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power," &c. (Rev. ix. 1-12.) I showed that this star falling from the firmament—a star denoting

rank in office-was Mahomet, who was the descendant of a royal but degraded house. He retired to a cave in the neighbourhood of Mecca, where he concocted that horrible scheme of delusion and blasphemy which has overspread vast portions of Asia and of Europe; which depends for success on the scimetar of its preacher, and on the sensuality of his auditory. We read that the result of it was that the whole sky was darkened by this moral smoke. The locusts, I showed you, by the strange accompaniments by which they are characterized, represent the Saracens rushing to the battle. "Their shapes," we are told, "were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men; and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months." You may remember my explanation of that. First, the star was Mahomet; secondly, the smoke was Mahometanism; thirdly, the Apocalyptic locusts are evidently symbols; because, according to natural history, the picture is most absurd; according to symbolic or hieroglyphic description, it is most expressive. The locusts were, I showed you, the Saracens, and the reason they are likened to locusts is, the locusts come never singly but in swarms, and from the east-the Saracens burst in innumerable hordes upon the length and breadth of Europe. They had crowns upon their heads-the Arab's aphorism says, that "he has his turban for his crown." They had "the faces of men." They were characterized by a peculiarity no Roman had-namely, the moustache worn upon the upper lip, which gave them an appearance of fierceness. They "had hair as the hair of women." The Arabs were distinguished by their long flowing hair. In addition to this, "the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to