difficulty of preaching on such subjects, and I have no doubt that in your mind as well as my own there is a preference for those portions of the Word of God which bear directly on our spiritual experience; but still ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;’ and, moreover, there is a special blessing on the congregational study of this Revelation of St. John, for it is said, chap. i. 3, ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy.’  I propose, therefore, to consider three questions: (1.) Has the present state of Turkey been foretold in prophecy?  (2.) Does it teach us any lessons respecting our spiritual position?  (3.) Does it throw any light on our hope of the coming of our Lord?  I pray God that He may fulfil to us the promise attached to this wonderful book, and that both they that hear and he that readeth may alike enjoy His blessing.

With reference to the first question,—Has the present state of Turkey been foretold in prophecy?  I have not the least hesitation in expressing my own conviction that it has been foretold in a most remarkable manner, and that the present state of things is nothing more than the fulfilment of what God predicted little less than 1800 years ago.

It is impossible in a short lecture to give all the reasons for this opinion.  I can only attempt the barest outline.  But we may gain some idea of the subject if we consider what is meant by the Euphrates; what by its overflow; and what by its drying up, in the words of Scripture, as contained in Rev. xvi. 12: ‘And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the waters thereof were dried up.’

I.  The Euphrates.  By this we must not understand the literal river, for the whole book is symbolical.  The river, therefore, stands as the symbol for something else.  It is this that makes the subject so difficult, for the symbols are like hieroglyphics, and therefore, though full of meaning, peculiarly liable to be misunderstood.  The question then is, what is the power of which the Euphrates in this verse stands as a symbol, or hieroglyphic?  Of course, in the answer to such a question, we must distrust ourselves, and I dare not speak on it with the certainty with which we ought to speak of the plainly revealed facts of Scripture.  All I can do is to express my own very confident conviction that by the Euphrates is symbolized the Ottoman, or, as it is frequently called, the Turkish Empire.

For this I give two reasons:—

(1.)  It is the one great empire existing in the world that originated on the banks of the river Euphrates.  Its birthplace was at Bagdad, and it would be historically more correct to call it the Euphratian than the Turkish Empire.  For we must remember that the Turks, or Ottomans, do not belong to the soil.  The French are the natives of France, and the Italians of Italy, but the Turks are not the natives of Turkey, but invaders from Asia.  They hold the country by conquest.  The head-quarters of the empire are now in Turkey, on the shores of the Bosphorus; but its birthplace was Bagdad, on the banks of the Euphrates.

(2.)  There are two series of prophecies in the book of Revelation, the one given under the figure of seven trumpets, the other of seven vials, and they appear to be linked together by a very remarkable connexion as to the subject of the prophecies.  You will see the correspondence clearly if you compare the account of the trumpets in chapters viii. and ix. with that of the vials in chapter xvi.

When the first trumpet sounded the judgment was on the earth, viii. 7; and so the first vial was poured on the earth, xvi. 2.

When the second trumpet sounded the judgment was on the sea, chap, viii. 8.  So the second vial was poured on the sea, xvi. 3.

When the third trumpet sounded, the judgment was on the rivers and fountains of waters, viii. 10.  So the third angel poured out his vial on the rivers and fountains of waters, xvi. 4.

When the fourth trumpet sounded, the judgment was on the sun, viii. 12.  So the fourth angel poured out his vial on the sun, xvi. 8.

When the fifth trumpet sounded, the judgment was on those men who had not the seal of God on their foreheads, ix. 4.  So the fifth vial was on the seat of the beast, xvi. 10.

The correspondence is not at first sight so apparent in this as in the other vials; but if we bear in mind the prophecy that all shall worship the beast whose names are not written in the book of life, we shall see the same reality in the coincidence.

And, lastly, when the sixth trumpet sounded, there was a mighty host loosed from the Euphrates, ix. 14; and when the sixth vial was poured out, it fell on the Euphrates, and the Euphrates was dried up, xvi. 12.

Surely, then, we may come to the conclusion that this prophecy in chapter xvi. relates to the same great power as that referred to in chapter ix.; and as I believe that it has been proved that the trumpet prophecy predicts the invasion of Christendom by the Ottoman empire, so I am persuaded in my own mind that that under the vial foretells its exhaustion and decay.  The Ottoman empire I believe to be the subject of both the prophecies.

II.  The overflow.  There is no actual mention of the symbol of an overflow, but as that figure is employed in Holy Scripture to represent invasion, we may use it in this instance as descriptive of the invasion by the Ottomans, as predicted under the seventh trumpet.  If you turn to Jer. xlvi. 7, 8, you find an invasion by Egypt described by an exactly similar figure.  The invasion by Egypt is there compared to an overflow of the Nile.  ‘Egypt cometh up like a flood, and his waters are moved as the rivers.’  So in Isaiah, viii. 7, 8, the invasion of Palestine by the Assyrians is foretold under the figure of an inundation: ‘He shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow, and go over.’  And so here the invasion by the Ottoman or Euphratian horsemen appears to be represented by an overflow of the Euphrates.

Now consider the result of the recent floods in our own country.  When the Trent rose above its banks, what happened?  The waters spread far and wide on both sides the river, till, instead of fields and homesteads, you saw a vast inland lake.  As you passed by in the train you might have seen the whole country under water.  Just so it was when, according to the symbol, the Euphrates overflowed its banks; or, according to history, the Ottomans invaded Europe.  The invading waters rushed on in every direction.  On the east they reached the borders of China; on the west they soon reached Palestine, and all the heroic efforts of the Crusaders failed to check them.  They then spread out in two branches.  On the south they crossed into Africa, and spread over the whole northern portion of that vast continent.  In the north they spread rapidly over Asia Minor, crossed the Bosphorus, conquered Greece, and spread over Europe till they reached the shores of the Adriatic, and even Venice.  Thus when they had reached the height of their power, the whole of south-east Europe, the whole of north Africa, and the whole