The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-02-13
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sounding of these trumpets through t(
show the reader whel. the sounding of the
fifth trumpet was, we will merely state
that it was when Justiman, Emperor al
Constantinople, issued the edict to unite
all men in the Roman Catholic faith, an(
which was enforced with such terrific
fury, aud as proof | take many of the
eminent commentators.
Now we will look at some of the SYM
bols that j ohm saw and see how very ap-
propriate they were to teach us what Goo
intended they should. AS God was the
author of these symbols we should look tc
Him for a correct application of the same.
We find He has not neglected to give us
key to every symbol found in the Bible,
whereby we may interpret it correctly.
Somewhere in the Bible We find an illus
tration of each symbol, SO we may know
the proper application of that symbol.
Surely, the Bible is its own interpreter.
Now we will take the word key as found
in the first verse; we know it is a symbol
to denote something, but what? If we
turn back to the first chapter, the 18th
verse. we find the word key used emble-
matte of power.
We find a star signifies messenger, and
they are also called angels, and if one falls
they become fallen stars or messengers.
The bottomless pit is most appropriate
symbol of the system of doctrines held
by the church of Rome. They having no
foundation in truth are bottomless. Now
l think we can properly apply the symbols
that John saw in the first and second
verses. He introduces period of time
which he deSignates as sounding the fifth
trumpet, and which history would term
the Ozark Ages" This period of night
and sorrow to the followers of Christ was
caused by him that held the key of the
bottomless pit or the one who had pow
Ell to force the false or bottomless doc
trnes OF the Roman church upon the
world with great fury, so much so that in
consequence the ''sun'' Qight of the Cos
peD, ''was darkened or nearly hid by it. -
How perfectly these symbols represent the
dark and awful days of the persecution Of
the eastern or Greek empire.
The Revelator says that out of this
smoke mot out OF the pitt that the locusts
came. AS the Turk, whose religion is
Mohammedan, came upon the field OF
action out of the smoke of the conflict of
persecution then the locusts must sym
bolize the Turk, and how appropriate the
destructive onward march of the locusts
to represent the course of the Turk at
that time
We may see by the fourth verse that
these locuStS We're to represent something
that was to consume men, and not grass
and vegetation, and the 18th verse would
give us TO understand that these locusts
''iooked like horses prepared unto battle,
aud on their heads were as it were crowns
like gold, - and SO it goes on, giving per
feet symbolic description of the Turkish
cavalry as it would be seen coming from
the east to establish the Turkish power
in Europe.
If we could place ourselves back where
John was when he saw those strange
sights we might describe many of them in
| about the same language that he did. We
would see a vast body of cavalry coming
toward us, the men would have on their
heads the Turkish turbans and would also
have long hair and beard, and they had
fighting weapons hitherto unknown.
| (gunpowderl. We would see the flashing
of the powder over the horses head Well
could he say that the horses seemed to
emit ''fire and birthstone from their
mouths,'' and that their riders wore
golden crowns, and that their faces were
as the faces of men, but they had hair as
the hair of women
| This is such perfect picture of the
Turk W hen he came from the east and es-
tablished himself in Europe that nearly
every expositor from Luther time has had
the same mind and applied this prophecy
to the Turk l think we have fully iden-
titled the Turk with this prophecy, and
now we will consider the most important
part of it, viz, the length of the Turk S
reign.
srnr