Revelation 8:7

THE FIRST TRUMPET.

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 8:7.

The angel sounds and the trumpet blast of battle is blown. Then the apostle sees hail and fire mingled with blood cast upon the earth, and they destroy one-third part of the trees and the green grass of the earth. It is not hard to discover the meaning. The trumpet must refer to the rush of armies. Hail is. destroying agency sent of old by God upon Egypt in the days of its sin. This would imply that God was sending elements of destruction of some kind. Fire and blood point directly to war.

Look upon. scene of war. See the running blood of the slain, the burning towns and cities, the trees leveled with the earth, the blackened, scathed, and desolated lands. Look upon the desolation in the lands torn and rent by contending hosts, and then see how appropriately these figures describe the ravages of war.

Have we corresponding facts of history? About A. D. 400, the "four winds" could be held no longer. The Goths gathered out of the mysterious lands of the unexplored North, and, like. mighty torrent throw themselves,. mighty, dauntless, savage host, upon Rome. Barbarous as the Indians of the desert, they left behind their march, scarred, scorched, blackened, bloody and desolated lands. Countries blooming like gardens were turned into treeless deserts. In A. D. 409, under Alaric, their king, they descended on Italy. It had not seen the face of. foreign enemy for eight hundred years. At last the hosts gathered around the Imperial City. After. long siege, in the dead hour of night, the gates were opened by the hands of traitors and the barbarians rushed in. For three days the sack went on before they were glutted with blood and spoil.

Rome was taken, but this did not end the Roman power. Eight days after the fall of the great city, Alaric was dead, and the Goths, bereft of their king, left without. leader, hurried from the country and buried themselves from sight in the regions of the North. Rome was dreadfully weakened, but still survived.

The iron hail of war, the fire of burning towns and cities mingled with the blood of the slain defenders, the scorched and blackened lands denuded of their fruit trees, and the grass trodden under foot by the march of armies, all correspond surprisingly with the language of the Scripture. It is strange, also, how the infidel Gibbon has chosen the very language of inspiration to describe some of the events of this period.. will quote. few phrases found in his thirty-first chapter and descriptive of the great invasion of Alaric and the Goths. "The tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet " stirred the hosts to invasion. "At the first sound of the trumpet the Goths left their farms" to rush on in invasion. "The Gothic conflagration " consumed the empire. "Blood and conflagration and the burning of trees and herbage marked their path."

THE THIRD PART.

There is one expression that. have not yet noticed, which occurs several times in the book of Revelation, and about which there has been considerable discussion. Under the first of the trumpet angels " one third part of the trees was burned up, and all green grass." As we have already found that the "earth" meant by John, is the Roman Empire this would imply that one-third of that empire was particularly scourged. When the second angel sounds (verses. and 9) the third part of the sea became blood,. third part of the creatures in the sea died, and. third part of the ships were destroyed. When the third angel (verses 10 and 11) sounded,. burning star fell upon. thirdpart of the rivers, and. third part of the waters became wormwood. When the fourth angel sounded (verse 12). third part of the sun, and or the moon and stars was smitten. If the reader will observe the reading closely he will see that these four "third parts" described may all refer to the same third of the Roman world. The first third refers to the scourging of one third of the land; the second, to one third of the sea; the third, to one third of the rivers, and the fourth, to one third of the heavens above. All combined, land, sea, rivers, and sky, would imply the scourging of one third part of the world. Let it be noted particularly that these need not be in different quarters of the earth, but all together, and that the first four of the trumpet angels may unitedly scourge the land, sea, rivers and heavens of one third of the earth which was present to the mind of the prophet, or one third of the Roman Empire.

In the ninth chapter we have. description of the work of devastation wrought by the fifth and sixth trumpet angels, called also the woe angels. It is stated of the sixth angel that, by the agencies loosed when his trumpet is blown, one third part of men were killed. This angel, therefore, scourges. second third of the world inhabited by civilized men. As the first four have together scourged one third, these, united with the sixth angel, scourge two thirds of the earth. There remains one third, and there also remains the fifth angel, whose work is described in chap. 9:1-11. It is not expressly stated that he scourges the remaining third, but is apparently implied, and the implication is confirmed by the facts.

I now inquire if the earth of John, or the Roman Empire, was divided into three distinct parts at the period when these prophecies were fulfilled.. quote from Gibbon, Chap. LIII:

From the age of Charlemagne to that of the Crusades, the world (for. overlook the remote monarchy of China) was occupied and disputed by the three great empires, or nations of the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks.

The common appellation of Franks was applied by the Greeks and Arabians to the nations of the West, who stretched beyond their knowledge to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

The three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks, encountered each other on the plains of Italy. Chap. LVI.

After the restoration of the Western Empire by Charlemagne and the Othos, the names of Franks and Latins acquired an equal signification and extent-- Ibid.

We may still farther quote Harris (Philological Inquiries. Part III. Chap. I.), who, in discussing the literature of the Middle Ages, speaks of the division of the world into three parts, from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries. It will be seen that he makes the same divisions that are noted by Gibbon:

A cursory disquisition illustrated by. few select instances, will constitute the subject of the present essay; and these instances we shall bring from three classes of men, who each had. large share in the transactions of those times; from the Byzantine Greeks, the Saracens or Arabians, and from the inhabitants of Western Europe, at that time called Latins.. *. Three classes of men during that interval are conspicuous, the Saracens or Arabians, the Latins or Franks, inhabitants of Western Europe, and the Byzantine Greeks.

It is thus apparent that during the long period of. thousand years,. period embraced in the fulfillment of the visions of John, the civilized world was divided into three distinct parts, and that these were clearly marked in history. According to this view the first four of the trumpet angels combine to scourge one part, the sixth angel scourges. second part, and the fifth scourges the remaining third. As we trace, the fulfillment of prophecy this will be found to be in harmony with the facts. The first four angels desolate Western Europe, the Latin portion of the earth, and the Mediterranean sea, and together put an end to the western Roman Empire. The fifth angel lets loose the Saracen invasion which scourges and conquers the Saracen third of the world. With the blast of the sixth angel the Euphratean horsemen are loosed to pour their myriads, on the Greek third of the world, to overthrow it and to establish the Turkish Empire upon its ruins.

I have been thus particular in explaining the term third part, because it occurs. number of times in Revelation, and may be explained once for all.