Part 4

(1.) The position of the prophecy in the general structure of the Book. The prophecies of this wonderful book are arranged on a divinely ordered plan. There are some chapters to which it is difficult to assign their place; but it is easy to see what may be termed the backbone running through the whole. To use a very homely illustration, there is the main line of rail conspicuously running through the whole, and you may trace that clearly, though you cannot always trace the branches. Now in this outline there are three great series of prophetic periods—the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials; and these three series appear in a remarkable manner to follow each other. First there are the seals, as in chap. vi.; and when the sixth seal is opened, and the seventh about to follow, there appears a general expectation of the coming of the Lord. But when the seventh seal is actually opened, instead of our coming to the end, as apparently was expected, we find a second series developed. The seven trumpets were wrapped as it were in the seventh seal (viii. 1, 2), so that when it was opened they appeared, and a fresh series commenced, and the trumpet-angels one after another blew their blast. At length the seventh trumpet is sounded, and again it appears as though you had reached the end. But like the seventh seal, it, too, is found to contain within itself a third series. The seven vials are wrapped within it, and when that last trumpet is blown they are poured forth in awful succession on a wicked world. Thus the seventh seal contains all the trumpets, and the seventh trumpet all the vials. Now if this be the case it is clear that the sixth vial must come very near the end. The trumpets are none sounded till the six seals are passed and the seventh seal is opened. The vials do not begin till the six trumpets have completed their blast and the seventh has sounded; and of the vials six must have been poured out already, so that there can be nothing remaining but the seventh, or the last.

To take the very homely illustration of a railway. Suppose a series of stations on a line, the seventh being a junction; suppose that on the branch from that junction there was another series of stations, the seventh again being a junction; and from that second junction there was another line of seven stations, the last being your home. What would you think of your position when you had travelled the whole length of the main line, and the whole of the first branch, and when you had gone so far along the second branch that you had actually reached the sixth station on that last line? You would say, surely, that you were near the end of your journey, close to home. Now whenever the Church of God reaches the sixth vial that will be its position. All the seals will have been opened, all the trumpets blown, and six of the seven vials poured out.

But that I believe to be our position now, and that we are at this present time living under the sixth vial. I believe that the great public, political event of the sixth vial, is the drying up of the Ottoman Empire, and that we can all see to be in progress. There can be no doubt about the great, public, political fact. It is confirmed by every newspaper, and is forced on the attention of England by the sore distress brought on many families through the Turkish bankruptcy. But if this be the fact predicted by the symbol of the drying up of the Euphrates, then it follows that we are living under the sixth vial, and that the seventh vial is all that remains of the great prophetic series.

(2.) But consider next the contents of the seventh vial. The seventh seal contained the series of seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet the series of seven vials. May there not be some similar series wrapped up in the seventh vial?

Such a question would be perfectly reasonable, but the only answer that we can give is that we do not find any such series described in the prophecy. On the other hand, everything in it looks like the end. When the seventh angel poured out his vial there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ It certainly did not look like the commencement of another series, but taught us rather to look out for the great winding up of the whole and the final close of the great prophetic plan. So in the account of the seventh vial you may see four things plainly revealed—the fall of Babylon, which I believe to be the fall of Rome, chap. xvi. 17, to the end of xviii.; the marriage supper of the Lamb, chap. xix. 1–9; the triumphant victory of the Son of God, chap. xix. 11, 12; and, last of all, the millennial reign, chap. xx. Surely, then, this vial brings us to the end. Surely when it is poured forth we shall have done with the politics of the world, and shall cease to look for the gradual development of history. All thoughts will then be occupied by the unspeakable blessedness of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

It seems clear, then, that the seventh vial is the close of the series, and that under it we are to expect the final victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The conclusion, therefore, is plain, that if the exhaustion of the Ottoman Empire is the event symbolized by the drying up of the Euphrates, it is high time that we awake out of sleep: for the sixth vial is already begun, and we must soon expect to behold Christ Himself, with all the joys of His kingdom and all the terrors of a crushing victory. I say ‘soon,’ not ‘immediately,’ for it does not appear that this passage teaches us to expect it any day or hour, for it describes certain great political events which have not yet taken place. The Euphrates is drying, but not yet dry. The kings have not yet passed over from the East, and the battle of Almighty God, whatever it may symbolize, has not yet been fought. All, therefore, that we can say is, that we appear to have reached what Daniel terms ‘the time of the end’; that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for we already begin to see the first streaks of morning dawn. We have already witnessed some of the great events that must very shortly precede the Advent, and we may begin to look out full of hope for the actual return of the Lord Himself.

(3.) This conclusion is confirmed by the words of our Lord Himself. I need not stop to prove that He is the speaker in this passage, but we must carefully observe His words. What does He say when the sixth vial is poured out, and the Euphrates is drying up, and when the three evil spirits are gone forth through Christendom? What is the warning voice which He Himself then gives out with reference to His coming? What lesson would He have us learn from these great events? Of what are they His signal? Does He not teach us to be looking out for His coming? Does He not say, ‘Behold, I come as a thief?’ {79} Does He not call us to a double watchfulness, and teach us not merely to watch against the seductive influence of these foul spirits, but to watch also for His own appearing, and for the bright hope of joyfully meeting Him? But if this be the case, and if the prophecy of the sixth vial is really being now fulfilled, as we believe it to be, by the drying up of the Turkish power; then every fresh symptom of decay in that power, every loss of territory by the Turks, every fresh insurrection, and every proof that the empire is reduced to hopeless bankruptcy, is like a clarion blast of the trumpet of God ringing through the ears of Christendom; and proclaiming, with a distinctness which cannot be mistaken, ‘Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh!’

II. But if this be the case, it behoves us carefully to examine our second question. If such a warning is so clearly given, how can He be said to come as a thief? He Himself teaches us perfectly clearly that the meaning of the illustration is that, as the thief comes without giving notice, so He will return without previously giving any such notice of His approach as will arouse the sleepers. The thief does not tell you when he is coming; and when he comes, he neither knocks at the door nor rings the bell. But he comes quietly. He does nothing to disturb those that are asleep, and his object is to enter unobserved. So our Lord teaches us, that when He comes He will do nothing to startle the world. There will be nothing to prevent men eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, right up to the very end. The men of the world will find Him in the house before they have the least idea of His approach. That this is the meaning of the words is perfectly clear from what He said (Matt. xxiv. 42–44): ‘Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.’

But, you may say, how far is this consistent with what has been said of the probability of His return following quickly on the exhaustion of the Ottoman Empire? If there be a prophetic series in the book of Revelation, and we have already reached the last station on the last branch of the line, how is it that He can be said to come upon us without notice as a thief does? Has He not given us notice in this prophecy?

In answer to that question we must observe the clearly marked distinction between His own believing people and the unbelieving world. To His own people He will not come as a thief, for we read in 1 Thess. v. 4, 5, ‘But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake _you_ as a thief.’ _You_ are in the light, _i.e._, for you can see Him coming; so _you_ will not be found asleep. So He Himself taught us distinctly in the very passage in which He uses the illustration; for He there shows that His own disciples are to expect His coming when they see the predicted signs, just as they expect the summer when they see the budding of the trees in spring (Matt. xxiv. 32, 33). Nor are they to wait in their expectation till they see these signs fully developed; not to wait, _i.e._, till the young branch is fully grown; but they are to watch beginnings, and learn from them. They are to draw their conclusion when the branch is yet tender, without waiting till it is fully ripened; as He Himself taught us in Luke, xxi. 28: ‘When these things _begin_ to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’ If, therefore, you be amongst the people of God, you need never be taken by surprise. We do not know the exact time, but we may study the predicted signs, and, having them before us, may look out for the second advent just as Simeon and Anna looked out for the first. We may be like the servant of Elijah, going up again and again to the hill-top to watch for the coming rain; or like the loving servant watching for the footsteps of the master whom he loves, and perfectly ready, whenever he returns, to open the door, and welcome him to his home. The Lord came suddenly to His temple, but He did not come suddenly to Simeon; and the Lord will come as a thief to the world, but if you hold fast to His own word He will never be as a thief to you.

As I have already said, it is the _world_ that will be found asleep, and to whom He will really come as a thief. But some man may say, ‘If there be these signs beforehand, will they not arouse the world as well as believers? Will they not awaken society? Will they not compel men to prepare?’ I answer that by another question, Do they? There are certain signs already given; do they wake up society? Have they produced such an impression as to arouse the great mass of worldly men? There are the Jews preserved as a separate people, in fulfilment of a prophecy given more than three thousand years ago; what effect has such a fulfilment of God’s word had in the City? There are all the politicians of Europe at their wits’ end because of the decay of Turkey; how many even of yourselves have been led thereby to look out for the near approach of our blessed Saviour? There is Rome stripped of its temporal power in fulfilment of great prophecies given, some of them, more than two thousand years ago; how many are there that have been led by that fulfilment to look out even for the fall of Babylon? The simple fact is, that these great fulfilments, though conspicuous to the eye of those who study them, completely fail to produce the least impression on the deep sleep of the unconverted world. The prophecies are not read; the facts are not compared with them; the lessons are not learned; and the soul is not aroused to preparation. How many are there even in this very town on whom the fulfilment of God’s prophetic word has never produced the slightest effect? They are living just as they would have lived, or rather sleeping as they would have slept, if there had been no prophecy to give the warning, and no history to confirm its truth. Can you wonder, then, that the Lord Jesus should come upon such persons as a thief?

But I trust, dear brethren, that He may not come as a thief to you, but that you may be found in the light and awake, not in darkness and asleep; or, to use the illustration of this text, that you may not wake up naked to your everlasting shame. I am sure you desire when He comes to be found awake, looking out, ready to welcome Him. You wish to be found clothed. Oh, think what it would be to be found naked, when all the saints of God are standing around you in their resurrection robe! We have lately read of poor people startled in the night by shipwreck, and rushing as they were to the deck, utterly unprotected against the bitter blast of the winter’s snow-storm. Think what it would be to be suddenly aroused from your own deep sleep, to see all that you have in the world wrecked around you, and to find your poor soul quite naked, while the terrible storm of God’s most just judgment beats upon you, and breaks down every hope of escape! Oh, dear brethren, may it never be so with you! May you be amongst those who can peacefully look for His appearing, because you are clothed in His righteousness! May you be kept walking in the light, and cleansed from all sin through His most precious blood! Then you will have nothing to fear, but everything to hope for, in the thought of His coming. Then He will never come as a thief to you, for you will be ready at any time to open the door and welcome Him. As the bride delights in the bridegroom, so will you delight in Him. Your trial will consist, not in the dread of His coming, but in the difficulty of patiently waiting for His return, and when He comes you will find no language to bless and praise His holy name for His boundless and unmerited love in having redeemed you by His atoning blood; in having called you by His sovereign grace; in having forgiven you through His finished atonement: in having sanctified you by the Holy Ghost; and in having preserved you in His own unchanging faithfulness, till He shall have finally presented you spotless and faultless before the throne of His everlasting glory.

JERUSALEM.

There is no city in the whole world which fills so important a place in the Word of God as Jerusalem. There are several others which are more prominent in the world’s politics, but in the great economy of God, as revealed in Sacred Scripture, Jerusalem stands out pre-eminent above them all. We Englishmen think of London, with its vast population and enormous wealth, as the leading city of the world; but except in so far as it is the capital of one of the isles of the sea, it has no place in prophecy. The French look upon Paris as the most beautiful city of Europe, and the centre of European influence; but, unless it is the predicted seat of the Beast, which some persons are disposed to consider it, it is literally nowhere in the Word of God. And Rome, which all regard with something of awe and veneration, as being associated with the most thrilling histories of the past, is described in the Prophetic Word as the seven-hilled city on which is seated the mystic Babylon, the great whore of the Apocalypse. But the whole of Sacred Scripture abounds in allusions to Jerusalem. History, poetry, and prophecy are all full of it. It is described as ‘beautiful for situation,’ and ‘the joy of the whole earth.’ The people of God are taught to pray for it, and the promise is given that those who love it shall prosper. The sacred feet of the Son of God trod the pavement of its Temple, and we are assured that it will never disappear from God’s great dealings with mankind, until the New Jerusalem shall descend from heaven from our God, and there shall be new heavens and a new earth at the coming of the Lord of Glory.

It was the sight of this beautiful city, with its magnificent Temple crowning the heights of Mount Moriah, that drew from our blessed Saviour the remarkable prophecy contained in the 24th of St. Matthew and the 21st of St. Luke. The disciples had pointed out to Him the buildings of the Temple; and afterwards, as they sat together on the Mount of Olives, on the opposite side of the valley, He taught them the vanity of all earthly strength. He told them that of the beautiful Temple not one stone should be left upon another. And He also taught them that there would be a lengthened period of desolation and humiliation; for that Jerusalem should be ‘trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.’ Jerusalem was to be not merely beaten down, but kept down, until a certain predicted period should expire. But while the words distinctly predict a long period of desolation, they no less clearly imply the assurance of an ultimate restoration. They teach that Jerusalem is not to be trodden down for ever, but only till the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled; implying, as clearly as words can, that when those times are expired, the Holy City shall rise again in its beauty. The words predict a desolation for a limited period, and at the close of that period, restoration.

I have not time to discuss what is meant by ‘the times of the Gentiles.’ Suffice it to say that I believe it to be this present Gentile dispensation; this time of Gentile power and Gentile opportunity; this time during which God is gathering out His elect people from the Gentile world, and is employing a Gentile Church in the sacred ministry of the Gospel of His grace. It seems to be the time of the ingathering of the Gentile Church, for it is to last, according to St. Paul, ‘until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in’; and it is clearly the time of the exercise of Gentile power, for they are Gentiles by whom Jerusalem is to be trodden under foot.

But I do not wish to occupy time in any discussion of this period, but rather to invite your special attention to those Gentile powers which have trodden Jerusalem under foot. Which are they? and how do they now stand?

What, then, are the Gentile powers which have trodden down Jerusalem? In the course of the eighteen hundred years of her humiliation there have been times during which there have been short interruptions in the sway of the ruling powers. But, looking at the period as one great whole, and fixing our attention on the conspicuous outlines of history, we find that there are two powers which stand out conspicuous above all the rest as the great oppressors of the Holy City. These are Rome and the successive forms of that Mahommedan power of which the present head is Turkey. Rome trod her down at the siege of Jerusalem, and Turkey holds her down now. Rome cast her to the ground, and when she was down Turkey set its foot on her neck. Rome hurled her to the dust, and Turkey now tramples her in the mire. Rome destroyed God’s Temple, and actually ploughed up the sacred ground on which it stood. Turkey maintains on the sacred site the mosque of Omar; and on that holy hill where Abraham offered Isaac, where David offered the oxen of Araunah, where Solomon built his Temple, and where the Lord Jesus, the Son of David, cast out all that was unholy; there, by Turkish authority, now stands a Mahommedan mosque; and there no Jew is permitted to set his foot, the only privilege allowed him being to kneel in the Street of Wailing outside the enclosure, and there weep for the desolation of Jerusalem.

There is something very remarkable in this fact, because these are the two powers especially connected with the two great predicted apostasies, Popery and Mahommedanism; Rome being the seat of the Popedom, and the Sultan of Turkey the recognised head of the Mahommedan apostasy.

But I have no time now to examine that connexion, nor is it my present object to do so. The one fact I desire to leave perfectly clear on your mind is this, that Rome and the Mussulman power of which Turkey is now the head, are the two Gentile powers which for the last eighteen hundred years must be charged with having trodden down Jerusalem.

And now what is the present position of these two powers? And how do they stand in Europe? What is the condition, and what the prospect, of these two great oppressors of Jerusalem?

As for Rome, as a political power it has ceased to exist, for I need not say that the modern kingdom of Italy has nothing to do with it. It is not built on the old lines, but is altogether a new creation, an extension of the kingdom of Sardinia. Now there can be no doubt whatever that the vast, iron-footed, undivided Roman Empire, of which Titus was emperor at the time he trod down Jerusalem, has long since passed away. Different historians may assign different dates to its dissolution, but no one doubts for one moment that it is dissolved. The power that trampled down Jerusalem is broken up into ten kingdoms, and the Imperial head is no more. There is no successor to the throne of Titus, and the throne itself is in fragments.

It is very remarkable also that the Papal head which succeeded the Imperial has within the past few years come also to an end as a political power. After the division of the undivided empire the ten kingdoms were to a great extent held together by the Papal head which succeeded the Imperial. The Pope claimed to be the sole authority from which the kings derived their power, and before the Reformation, all Europe acknowledged his claims. He was supposed to hold all the crowns of Europe in his hand. But that is all over now. The kings have taken away his dominion. As a political power the Papal head has followed the Imperial. According to Sir G. Bowyer, in the _Times_ of Nov. 10, 1874, ‘The Pope has been dethroned, and all his dominions and property have been reduced to a palace, a church, and a garden,’ it does not seem, therefore, very probable that Rome in either shape will ever again tread down Jerusalem. We may safely say that the first of the two oppressors is no more.

But what shall we say of the second? of that Turkey which is the only power now treading down Jerusalem? I would meet this by another question. Is there any politician in Europe who has the least expectation of Turkey remaining in its present position for another ten years? Whatever little political power it retains is dying out as fast as it can die. Its exchequer is bankrupt. Its credit is gone. Its character for good faith is at an end. Its armies are unpaid. Its subject populations are rising against the intolerable burdens of its injustice and oppression; and the Turks themselves have lost heart in the melancholy conviction that their days are numbered.