The Revelation Explained Part 18

With our understanding of the nature of the first vial, which prepared the way for the pouring out of this one, we shall have no difficulty whatever in identifying this symbol with the terrible convulsions of the French Revolution. It followed as a necessary consequence of the first.

Voltaire and his coadjutors had insulted and trampled in the dust everything held sacred in human eyes, and this fully prepared the way for the scenes of terror that followed.

In studying these vials the reader should bear in mind constantly the reason _why_ they were sent as judgments upon the nations of Europe--because of their former oppression of G.o.d's people. From the days when the Popes received their first temporal authority at the hands of the Carlovingian king, Pepin and Charlemagne, France[11] const.i.tuted the real backbone of the Papacy, the very center of her power and authority, as all history will show. In the fourteenth century the Papal seat was removed from Rome to Avignon, in France, where it remained for about seventy years. During this period all the Popes were French, and "all their policies were shaped and controlled by the French kings." To write a history of the Papacy during the Dark Ages is to outline the history of France, so closely are their affairs interwoven. Hence it is only natural that she should be symbolized as the "sea" in this part of the Apocalypse, with the other nations as tributaries. Ver. 4-6. That the French Revolution was in its effects a terrible blow to the thrones of despotism throughout Europe is shown by the following quotation from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "We are coming to the verge of the French Revolution, which _surpa.s.ses all other revolutions the world has seen_ in its completeness, the largeness of its theatre, the long preparation for it ... its _influence on the modern history of Europe_." Art.

France.

[Footnote 11: Pepin and Charlemagne were, properly speaking, simply German princes reigning in Gaul. The kingdom of France is usually dated from the accession of the first of the Capetian kings, late in the tenth century, 987. However, the Frankish nation, of whom the Carlovingian kings were leaders, laid the foundation of the French kingdom and gave a new name to Gaul--France.]

This revolution commenced on the fifth of May, 1789, in the Convocation of the States General, for the redress of grievances and the extrication of the government and nation from the difficulties under which they were laboring. A conflict had been going on between despotism and popular rights, the throne and n.o.bility contending for absolute power, and the people, for freedom. But when in this encounter the popular party triumphed, there was no fear of G.o.d before the eyes of those who seized the reins of government. The infidelity of Voltaire and his a.s.sociates had removed the last restraint upon human pa.s.sion, and the scenes of terror that followed are without a parallel in history. The king was condemned to death and executed. The barbarous execution of the queen, Marie Antoinette, followed in about six months, and this was immediately succeeded by the decree of the National Convention, of the most infamous character, that of the violation of the tombs of St. Dennis and the profanation of the sepulchres of the kings of France. I will quote from Sir A. Alison's noted History of Europe:

"By a decree of the Convention, these venerable asylums of departed greatness were ordered to be destroyed.... A furious mult.i.tude precipitated itself out of Paris; the tombs of Henry IV., of Francis I., and of Louis XII., were ransacked, and their bones scattered in the air.

Even the glorious name of Turenne could not protect his grave from spoilation. His remains were almost undecayed, as when he received the fatal wound on the banks of the Lech. The bones of Charles V., the savior of his country, were dispersed. At his feet was found the coffin of the faithful Du Gueselin, and the French hands profaned the skeleton before which English invasion had rolled back. Most of these tombs were found to be strongly secured. Much time, and no small exertion of skill and labor, were required to burst their barriers. They would have resisted forever the decay of time or the violence of enemies; they yielded to the fury of domestic dissension. This was followed immediately by a general attack upon the monuments and remains of antiquity throughout all France. The sepulchres of the great of past ages, of the barons and generals of the feudal ages, of the paladins, and of the crusaders, were involved in one undistinguished ruin. It seemed as if the glories of antiquity were forgotten, or sought to be buried in oblivion. The tomb of Du Gueselin shared the same fate as that of Louis XIV. The skulls of monarchs and heroes were tossed about like foot b.a.l.l.s by the profane mult.i.tude; like the grave-diggers in Hamlet, they made a jest of the lips before which the nations had trembled."

Having begun by waging this profane warfare upon their own glorious dead, another scene of the fatal drama immediately succeeded. The same author continues: "Having ma.s.sacred the great of the present and insulted the ill.u.s.trious of former ages, nothing remained to the revolutionists but to direct their vengeance against heaven itself.

Pache, Hebert, and Chaumette, the leaders of the munic.i.p.ality publicly expressed their determination 'to dethrone the G.o.d of heaven, as well as the monarchs of earth.' To accomplish this design, they prevailed on Gobet, the apostate const.i.tutional bishop of Paris, to appear at the bar of the a.s.sembly, accompanied by some of the clergy of his diocese, and there abjure the Christian faith. He declared 'that no other national religion was now required but that of Liberty, equality, and morality.'

Many of the const.i.tutional bishops and clergy in the Convention joined in the proposition. Crowds of drunken artisans and shameless prost.i.tutes crowded to the bar, and trampled under their feet the sacred vases, consecrated for ages to the holiest purposes of religion. The churches were stripped of all their ornaments; their plate and valuable contents brought in heaps to the munic.i.p.ality and the Convention, from whence they were sent to the mint to be melted down. Trampling under foot the images of our Savior and the Virgin, they elevated, amid shouts of applause, the busts of Marat and Lepelletier, and danced around them, singing parodies on the Halleluiah, and dancing the Carmagnole.

"Shortly after a still more indecent exhibition took place before the a.s.sembly.... Hebert and Chaumette, and their a.s.sociates, appeared at the bar and declared 'that G.o.d did not exist, and that the worship of Reason was to be subst.i.tuted in his stead.' A veiled female, arrayed in blue drapery, was brought into the a.s.sembly; and Chaumette, taking her by the hand, 'Mortals,' said he, 'cease to tremble before the powerless thunders of a G.o.d whom your fears have created. Henceforth acknowledge no divinity but Reason. I offer you its n.o.blest and purest image; if you must have idols, sacrifice only to this.' When, letting fall the veil, he exclaimed, 'Fall before the august Senate of Freedom, O Veil of Reason!' At the same time, the G.o.ddess appeared personified by a celebrated beauty, the wife of Momoro, a printer, known in more than one character to most of the Convention. The G.o.ddess after being embraced by the president, was mounted on a magnificent car, and conducted, amid an immense crowd, to the cathedral of Notre Dame, to take the place of the Deity. There she was elevated on a high altar, and received the adoration of all present, while the young women, her attendants, whose alluring looks already sufficiently indicated their profession, retired into the chapels around the choir, where every species of licentiousness and obscenity was indulged in without control, with hardly any veil from the public gaze. To such a length was this carried, that Robespierre afterward declared that Chaumette deserved death for the abominations he had permitted on that occasion. Thenceforward that ancient edifice was called the _Temple of Reason_."

Such horrible events are sickening to relate; but as I started out to describe the condition of this "sea" when it became as the blood of a dead man, I must be faithful to the task. G.o.d was now dethroned; the services of religion abandoned; every tenth day set apart for the h.e.l.lish orgies of atheism and Reason; Marat was deified; the instrument of death sanctified by the name "the holy Guillotine"; on the public cemeteries was inscribed, "Death is an Eternal Sleep"; marriage was a civil contract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. Mademoiselle Arnout, a celebrated comedian, expressed the public feeling when she said, "_Marriage the sacrament of adultery_."

What an awful harvest would be expected of such seed! Alison continues:

"A Revolutionary Tribunal was formed at Nantes, under the direction of Carrier, and it soon outstripped even the rapid march of Danton and Robespierre. Their principle was that it was necessary to destroy _en ma.s.se_, all the prisoners. At their command was formed a corps, called the Legion of Marat, composed of the most determined and bloodthirsty of the revolutionists, the members of which were ent.i.tled, on their own authority, to incarcerate any person whom they chose. The number of their prisoners was soon between three and four thousand, and they divided among themselves all their property. Whenever a further supply of captives was wanted, the alarm was spread of a counter-revolution, the _generale_ beat, the cannon planted; and this was followed immediately by innumerable arrests. Nor were they long in disposing of their captives. The miserable wretches were either slain with poinards in prison, or carried out in a vessel and drowned by wholesale in the Loire. On one occasion a hundred 'fanatical priests,' as they were termed, were taken out together, striped of their clothes, and precipitated into the waters.... Women big with child, infants eight, nine, and ten years of age, were thrown together into the stream, on the sides of which men, armed with sabres, were placed to cut off their heads if the waves should throw them undrowned on the sh.o.r.e.

"On one occasion, by orders of Carrier, twenty-three of the revolutionists, on another twenty-four, were guillotined without any trial. The executioner remonstrated, but in vain. Among them were many children of seven or eight years of age, and seven women; the executioner died two or three days after, with horror at what he himself had done. So great was the mult.i.tude of captives who were brought in on all sides, that the executioners, as well as the company of Marat, declared themselves exhausted with fatigue; and a new method of disposing of them was adopted, borrowed from Nero, but improved on the plan of that tyrant. A hundred or a hundred and fifty victims, for the most part women and children, were crowded together in a boat, with a concealed trap-door in the bottom, which was conducted into the middle of the Loire; at a signal given, the crew leaped into another boast, the bolts were withdrawn, and the shrieking victims precipitated into the waters, amid the laughter of the company of Marat, who stood on the banks to cut down any who approached the sh.o.r.e. This was what Carrier called his _Republican Baptisms_. The _Republican Marriages_ were, if possible, a still greater refinement of cruelty. Two persons of different s.e.xes, bereft of every species of dress, were bound together, and after being left in torture in that situation for half an hour, thrown into the river. Such was the quant.i.ty of corpses acc.u.mulated in the Loire, that the water of that river was affected, so as to render a public ordinance necessary, forbidding the use of it to the inhabitants; and the mariners, when they heaved their anchors, frequently brought up boats charged with corpses. Birds of prey flocked to the sh.o.r.es and fed on human flesh; while the very fish became so poisonous, as to induce an order of the munic.i.p.ality of Nantes, prohibiting them to be taken by the fishermen.

"The scenes in the prisons which preceded these horrible executions exceeded all that romance had figured of the terrible. Many women died of terror the moment a man entered their cells, conceiving that they were about to be led out to the noyades; the floors were covered with the bodies of their infants, numbers of whom were yet quivering in the agonies of death. On one occasion, the inspector entered the prison to seek for a child, where, the evening before, he had left above three hundred infants; they were all gone in the morning, having been drowned the preceding night. Fifteen thousand persons perished either under the hands of the executioner, or of disease in prison, in one month: the total victims of the Reign of Terror at that place exceeded thirty thousand."

After narrating scenes of terror in Paris, Alison says again: "Such acc.u.mulated horrors annihilated all the charities and intercourse of life. Before daybreak the shops of the provision merchants were besieged by crowds of women and children, clamoring for the food which the law of the _maximum_ in general prevented them from obtaining. The farmers trembled to bring their fruits to the market, the shop-keepers to expose them to sale. The richest quarters of the town were deserted; no equipages of crowds of pa.s.sengers were to be seen on the streets; the sinister words, _Propriete Nationale_, imprinted in large characters on the walls, everywhere showed how far the work of confiscation had proceeded. Pa.s.sengers hesitated to address their most intimate friends on meeting; the extent of calamity had rendered men suspicious even of those they loved most. Every one a.s.sumed the coa.r.s.est dress, and the most squalid appearance; an elegant exterior would have been the certain forerunner of destruction. At one hour only were any symptoms of animation seen: it was when the victims were conveyed to execution; the humane fled with horror from the sight, the infuriated rushed in crowds to satiate their eyes with the sight of human agony.

"Night came, but with it no diminution of the anxiety of the people.

Every family early a.s.sembled its members; with trembling looks they gazed around the room, fearful that the very walls might harbor traitors. The sound of a foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the streets, froze all hearts with horror. If a knock was heard at the door, every one, in agonized suspense, expected his fate. Unable to endure such protracted misery, numbers committed suicide. 'Had the reign of Robespierre,' said Freron, 'continued longer, mult.i.tudes would have thrown themselves under the guillotine; the first of social affections, the love of life, was already extinguished in almost every heart.'"

With one more quotation from this historian I will dismiss this horrible theme: "The combination of wicked men who thereafter governed France, is without parallel in the history of the world. Their power, based on the organized weight of the mult.i.tude, and the ardent co-operation of the munic.i.p.alities, everywhere installed by them in the position of power, was irresistible. All bowed the neck before this gigantic a.s.semblage of wickedness. The revolutionary excesses daily increased, in consequence of the union which the constant dread of retribution produced among their perpetrators. There was no medium between taking part in these atrocities, and falling a victim to them. Virtue seemed powerless; energy appeared only in the extremity of resignation; religion in the heroism of which death was endured. There was not a hope left for France, had it not been for the dissentions which, as the natural result of their wickedness, sprung up among the authors of the public calamities.

"It is impossible not to be struck, in looking back on the fate of these different parties, with the singular and providential manner in which their crimes brought about their own punishment. No foreign interposition was necessary, no avenging angel was required to vindicate the justice of divine administration. They fell the victims of their own atrocity, of the pa.s.sions which they themselves had let loose, of the injustice of which they had given the first example to others The Const.i.tutionalists overthrew the ancient monarchy, and formed a limited government; but their imprudence in raising popular ambition paved the way for the tenth of August, and speedily brought themselves to the scaffold; the Girondists established their favored dream of a republic, and were the first victims of the fury which it excited; the Dantonists roused the populace against the Gironde, and soon fell under the axe which they had prepared for their rivals; the anarchists defied the power of 'heaven itself,' but scarce were their blasphemies uttered, when they were swept off by the partners of their b.l.o.o.d.y triumphs. One only power remained, alone, terrible, irresistible. This was the power of Death, wielded by a faction steeled against every feeling of humanity, dead to every principle of justice. In their iron hands, order resumed its sway from the influence of terror; obedience became universal, from the extinction of hope. Silent and unresisted, they led their victims to the scaffold, dreaded alike by the soldiers who crouched, the people who trembled, and the victims who suffered. The history of the world _has no parallel_ to that long night of suffering, because _it has none to the guilt which preceded it_; tyranny never a.s.sumed so hideous a form, because licentiousness never required so severe a punishment."

Prom this awful description, which might be carried to almost any extent, the reader will understand the force of the prophecy which declared that the "sea became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea."

4. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

6. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

7. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord G.o.d Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

Fountains and rivers are tributaries to the sea, and thus, they symbolize the inferior communities and nations belonging to the Apocalyptic earth. France was the great central power and the sea of revolution upon which the second vial descended. The surrounding nations were the rivers and fountains upon which the third was poured. It is not said of them that they became as the blood of a dead man, nor that every living thing in them died, but only that "they became blood." This symbol denotes the insurrections and desolating wars in which the nations of Europe were involved for a number of years, growing out of the French Revolution. I shall not here take time nor s.p.a.ce to enter into the historical details relating to this statement; the facts are well known. "The blood-thirsty Jacobinism of France waged war not only upon its own monarchy, but sought to overturn all the thrones and fabrics of despotism in Europe. The same system of infidelity and atheism had been spread through the kingdoms there, though not to so great an extent as in France, and prepared the elements for revolution in them likewise." The French republic encouraged these agitations and by a unanimous decree of the a.s.sembly, in 1792, set itself in open hostility with all the established governments of Europe. It was in these words: "The National Convention declares in the name of the French nation, that it will grant fraternity and a.s.sistance to all people who wish to recover their liberty; and it charges the executive power to send the necessary orders to the generals, to give succor to such people, and to defend those citizens who have suffered, or may suffer in the cause of liberty." "The Revolution, having accomplished its work in France, having there destroyed royal despotism, ... now set itself about fulfilling its early promise of giving liberty to all peoples. In a word, the revolutionists became propagandists. France now exhibits what her historians call her social, her communicative genius." Napoleon was right when he said that a revolution in France was sure to be followed by a revolution throughout Europe. "France conceived the idea that she had a Divine mission, as the great apostle of liberty, to propagate republicanism through all the kingdoms of Europe. In her madness of intoxication she undertook the work, threw down the gauntlet, and the fierce tocsin of war sounded from nation to nation, until the continent was converted into one vast battle-field."

The "angel of the waters" signifies the angel that had charge of the vial of wrath poured out upon the rivers and fountains of waters. In full view of the awful plagues sent upon the inhabitants of earth, one grand thought seemed to occupy his mind--the righteousness of these judgments. It is not such a thought as humanity would have in mind when reading the history of these fearful convulsions of society, one scene of terror only preparing the way for another more horrible, until they would feel like closing the book and asking, "When will this awful night of horror be over? When will these avenging judgments cease?" These, however, were not the thoughts of this angel clothed in spotless garments; for, draining his vial to the dregs and forcing the nations to drink it, he said: "Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them _blood to drink_; for they are worthy." Truly, in this the Word of G.o.d is fulfilled, which says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." Isa.

55:8. That cla.s.s of people who represent G.o.d as a kind, loving Father only, one who will not take vengeance upon the objects of his own creation--let them visit in the pages of history these nations of Europe, scathed and blasted with the hot thunderbolts of divine wrath, until their minds sicken with horror at the sight of human agony and blood. In full view of these horrifying scenes let them hear the angel of the waters saying, "Thou art righteous, O Lord ... because thou hast judged thus; for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy"; while another voice from heaven, even from the altar, replies, "Even so, Lord G.o.d Almighty, _true and righteous_ are thy judgments"--and their theology must here break down.

The thoughts just expressed confirm with certainty our interpretation of the "sea" and "rivers and fountains of waters" as signifying those nations which had been the persecutors of the saints, and show, also, the character of the divine judgments as being the shedding of their blood. They had shed the blood of saints and prophets, and now the same cup of wrath was placed to their lips, and they were forced to drink it to the dregs. G.o.d remembered the sighs and groans of his faithful followers; the cry of the martyrs for the avenging of their blood on "them that dwell on the earth" reached his ear; and now the time of retribution began.

8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

9. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of G.o.d, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

The sun is the great central luminary of the earth, under whose genial light and warmth everything rejoices and develops in forms of beauty.

When, however, a scorching power is given to his rays, the earth becomes as a furnace in which every green thing is burnt up. What the sun is to this world, such are the ruling powers to a kingdom; and power being given them to scorch as with fire denotes that the government would be administered, not for the good of the people, but for the purpose of oppression. A scorching sun, therefore, is a proper symbol of tyrant rulers.

Still keeping in view the object of G.o.d in sending these first plagues--the punishment of the nations embraced within the territory of the ten former kingdoms of Europe--we are directed with certainty to the next great scourge that followed as a result of those already developed--the almost universal military empire of Napoleon. The success of three of the four greatest military leaders the world has ever seen--Alexander, Caesar, and Charlemagne--has been so clearly predicted by inspiration that no believer in the truth of Revelation attempts to deny it; therefore it is not surprising that the fourth--Napoleon-- should also be a.s.signed a place in Apocalyptic vision: not so much because of his all-powerful military genius merely, but because of his mighty influence and effects upon the very nations that were especially made the subject of prophecy, as they stand connected with the history of G.o.d's people for centuries. At the close of the Revolution the French nation had not virtue nor religion necessary to remedy the evils under which they had long been suffering from the oppression of their monarchs; for when they undertook the work and demolished the throne, they let loose all the wildest elements of wrath to rage without restraint. The nation rejected G.o.d, and G.o.d rejected the nation. He gave them up to their own madness, to the fury of the most atrocious wickedness that was ever developed under heaven. "From the wild excesses and intolerable calamities of blood-red republicanism, the people were rejoiced at length to find a refuge in a gigantic military despotism, which became the terror and scourge of Europe." But the hand of G.o.d was in this thing, also. When the sun scorches the earth with burning heat, it is G.o.d that gives it its power. So Napoleon with his iron will and towering genius was only an instrument in G.o.d's hand for scourging the guilty nations. In the ordinary sense of the term Napoleon was not a tyrant to his own nation. Still, his government was a despotism to France; while to the Apocalyptic earth, or the ten kingdoms, he was a scorching sun, for his empire extended over the whole. It finally became a saying that "if Napoleon's c.o.c.ked hat and gray coat should be raised on the cliffs of Boulogne, all Europe would run to arms." This agrees with the statement of the historian Judson, concerning the monarchs of Europe, that "the mere name of Napoleon was a dread to them." None of them could stand before his terrible onset. "Europe was shaken from end to end by such armies as the world had not seen since the days of Xerxes. Napoleon, whose hands were upheld by a score of distinguished marshals, performed the miracles of genius. His brilliant achievements still dazzle, while they amaze, the world." The crowns and scepters of Europe he held as play-things in his hand, to dispose of at pleasure.

Says Wickes: "Never in the history of Christendom were ancient dynasties overthrown, and new ones created, kings made and unmade, within so short a period, as during the unparallelled career of this great conqueror. He had the crowns and kingdoms of all Europe in his gift, to settle as he pleased, or bestow as presents upon his relatives and friends. To his brother Jerome he gave the crown of Westphalia; to his brother Louis, the crown of Holland; to his brother Joseph, the kingdom of Spain; to his brother-in-law and general Murat, the kingdom of Naples; and others he conferred upon his favorite marshals."

When he invaded Russia, a territory outside of the Apocalyptic earth, he exceeded his mission, and there met with the most terrible overthrow.

Although he entered that kingdom with the most magnificent army that he had ever gathered together, yet for suffering and disaster that famous retreat from burning Moscow stands without a parallel in history. It was not the Russian armies that prevailed against him; it was G.o.d that fought against him with the blasts of his north wind. These speedily silenced those tremendous parks of artillery that had thundered upon the fields of Jena, Friedland, Wagram, Marengo and Austerlitz, and scattered those invincible battalions that had marched triumphant over Europe.

Ney, at the head of the National Guards, ever before victorious, was compelled to beat a hasty retreat, glad to escape with the smallest remnant of his host. Napoleon failed here because G.o.d had given him no mission to perform in that territory.

Concerning his ambition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica says: "With a frame of iron, Napoleon could endure any hardships; and in war, in artillery especially and engineering, he stands unrivalled in the world's history.... He could not rest, and knew not when he had achieved success.... He succeeded in alienating the peoples of Europe, in whose behalf he pretended to be acting. And when they learned by bitter experience that he had absolutely no love for liberty, and encouraged equality only so long as it was an equality of subjects under his rule, they soon began to war against what was in fact a world-destroying military despotism." He was inspired with the most unbounded ambition, which was nothing short of despotism over all Europe, if not the world.

Universal empire was his grand object, or, as it has been expressed by historians, a desire to concentrate "the world in Europe--Europe in France--France in Paris--Paris in _himself_." Says Wickes: "The empire which he actually reared in Europe was a vast, oppressive, centralized despotism.... To build it up, he desolated France through his terrible conscriptions, requiring the whole strength and flower of the nation to supply his armies. It is stated that after the wars of Napoleon there were three times the number of women in France that there were of men.

The fathers, the husbands, the sons, the brothers, had fallen upon the battle-field, and thus desolated almost every household in the kingdom.

Similar desolation also he carried by his wars into the other kingdoms."

The dread of Napoleon settled down upon all the nations of Europe. They could not cope with his mighty genius, and therefore his presence was a terror to them. When the allied powers secured his first abdication, in 1814, and sent him to the island of Elba, the desolating results of his long career were shown in the work that the Congress of Vienna was called upon to perform when it a.s.sembled in the fall of 1814. While the representatives of the powers were laboring to repair the damage that had been wrought and to adjust the territorial limitations of the various nations that had been altered or entirely demolished, the a.s.semblage was suddenly surprised the following spring by the news that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was enroute to Paris. The terror and consternation in Europe then experienced is shown by the following quotation from Sir James Mackintosh, a man of high reputation as a jurist, as a historian, and as a far-sighted and candid statesman:

"Was it in the power of language to describe the evil! Wars which had raged for more than twenty years throughout Europe, which had spread blood and desolation from Cadiz to Moscow, and from Naples to Copenhagen; which had wasted the means of human enjoyment, and destroyed the instruments of social improvement; which threatened to diffuse among the European nations the dissolute and ferocious habits of a predatory soldiery ... had been brought to a close.... Europe seemed to breathe after her sufferings. In the midst of this fair prospect and of these consolatory hopes, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba; three small vessels reached the coast of Provence; their hopes are instantly dispelled; the work of our toil and fort.i.tude is undone: the blood of Europe is spilled in vain."

The bitterest ingredients in the cup of these nations was the humiliating overthrow of their own government and their subjection to the hated _republican_ despotism of France. It was a scorching sun that they could not endure. Still, they repented not to give G.o.d glory; they continued as before. After Napoleon had accomplished the purpose for which he was intended, G.o.d permitted this stupendous genius to be subdued; but it required the combined powers of Europe to secure his downfall.

Creasy, in his Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, says concerning the battle of Waterloo, "The great battle which ended the twenty-three years' war of the first French revolution, and which quelled the man whose genius and ambition had so long _disturbed and desolated the world_, deserves to be regarded by us ... with peculiar grat.i.tude for the repose which it secured for us and for the greater part of the human race."

10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

11. And blasphemed the G.o.d of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Under this vial the symbols differ somewhat. The "beast" is evidently the one of whom the image was made, referred to in verse 2--the Papacy.

The seat that the Papacy occupied from the time the dragon resigned in favor of the beast (chap. 13:2) was his position of temporal power and authority. In the following chapter the Papacy is described as _seated_ upon a ten-horned beast, the ten horns of which symbolized the kingdoms of Europe. In this position it was able to exercise a guiding influence over the European nations. We have already seen what great power the Popes exercised in this direction during the Dark Ages. But the "beast"

of chapter 17 himself, as distinguished from his horns, symbolizes the Holy Roman Empire, which was a revival of the old empire of the Caesars.

This revived "world-empire" was closely allied to the Papacy. When Charlemagne, the Carlovingian king, restored the empire of the West, he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III., A.D. 800. "The Popes made the descendants of Charles Martel kings and emperors; the grateful Frankish princes defended the Popes against all their enemies, imperial and barbarian, and dowering them with cities and provinces, laid the basis of their temporal sovereignty, which continued for more than a thousand years." After the decline of the Carlovingian power the imperial authority was again revived by Otto the Great (962), who was crowned Emperor of the Romans by the Pope. Henceforth the empire of the West was termed the _Holy Roman Empire_. "From this time on it was the rule that the German king who was crowned at Aachen had a right to be crowned ... emperor at Rome." So the general rule was that the Popes upheld the emperors, and the emperors sustained the Popes in their position as the spiritual heads of the church and as temporal rulers over the Papal states, which were granted them originally by the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne.

In chapter 13 the civil powers of Europe and the ecclesiastical power of Rome are not shown by a double symbol--a woman and a beast--as in chapter 17, but are there represented by a combination of symbols drawn from the departments of human life and animal life, which shows that a politico-religious system is intended, as heretofore explained; hence the term _beast_, as there used, signifies either the Papacy or the civil power. Thus the term is used in the present chapter under consideration, and has reference here to the beast as an ecclesiastical power--the Papacy--and his "seat" refers to his temporal authority.

This vial, then, being poured out upon his seat, with the result that his kingdom was filled with darkness--a symbol drawn from nature--points to the downfall of the Pope as a temporal ruler. Thus he would be deprived of his "seat."

We have already seen that each plague prepares the way for a succeeding one. Under the reign of Napoleon the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved (1806). This was the beginning of the end of the Pope's temporal authority; for the two had in a great measure been for ages interdependent upon each other. Pius VII. was made a prisoner and the temporal sovereignty of the Roman See declared to be at an end; while the Pope himself was forced to disown all claim to rank as a temporal ruler. Of course, this was but a temporary overthrow; for when the period of Reaction came, the Pope recovered also temporal authority. But the vast territories of Avignon, Venaissin, Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna--representing fully _a third_ of all the Papal dominions--which had been forcibly ceded to France under Napoleon, was never restored to the Roman See. From that time the sun of the Pope's temporal kingdom rapidly approached the horizon; while the inhabitants of his dominions continued to blaspheme G.o.d through the atheistical Jacobinism that infested to so great an extent the whole ma.s.s of society--symbolized by their "sores"--and the firm supporters of Popery were filled with excessive chagrin and mortification of mind--symbolized by their "pains"--because the power of their leader, who professed temporal sovereignty over the whole earth, was being suddenly destroyed and his kingdom left in darkness. Concerning this matter the People's Cyclopaedia, after speaking of the blow the Pope's spiritual supremacy received at the Reformation, says: "But in her relations to the State the Roman church has since pa.s.sed through _a long and critical struggle_. The new theories _to which the French Revolution gave currency_ have still further modified these relations." In the second revolution of 1848 the Pope's temporal authority was about to be entirely destroyed by the attempted establishment of the republic of Italy; but at this juncture France, who, notwithstanding her plagues, had not repented of her former deeds, not willing to desert entirely the Papal cause after upholding it faithfully for centuries, interfered, and the Pope was sustained in his position by a French garrison until 1870 (except a short time in 1867), at which time the success of King Victor Emmanuel and his capture of the Eternal City established the free government of United Italy. The temporal sun of the Pope set forever; his kingdom was left in darkness.

12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.