HAVE to-day for our consideration the pouring out of the seven vials of the seven last plagues. I wish you to notice the style used. Not the last seven, but the seven last plagues--all of them last. These vials are all of them poured out at one time, at the same time, and all in the time of the sounding of the sixth angel's trumpet. We dare not go back before that time, after the sixth trumpet has been introduced, and nations fight with fire, smoke, and brimstone. We are living in that time, and the millennial age has not yet come. Therefore we are in prison bounds between these two points, and these plagues are poureth out in the time of the sounding of the sixth trumpet.

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, anti pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poureth out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image."

The pouring out of these vials is rather explanatory, in one sense, of the sounding of the trumpets; for we have in the order precisely, of the pouring out of the vials, the order of the sounding of the trumpets. When the first angel sounded his trumpet, hail and fire, mingled with blood, burnt up or put to death, shed the blood of tile green trees, and the green grass--the men that had the seal of /226/ God in their foreheads. It was the earthly powers, the political powers of earth, that were engaged in the first persecution of Christians. They were cast upon the earth in the sounding of the first trumpet; and the first vial of God's wrath simply refers to his wrath on the power which first opposed his Word. The first vial is poured out on the earthly powers; and John says, "there fell upon men a noisome and grievous sore,"--upon the men of the world, the men who worshiped the beast and his image, or submitted to the authority of these anti-Christian powers. Upon the men that upheld them, a grievous sore falls, and in the sound of the trumpet, where he speaks of the introduction of firearms, he says men blasphemed God and repented not, though they w ere falling before the fire, smoke, and brimstone. The fire, smoke and brimstone war makes noisome and grievous sores, and it produces very great hail, and it is for the punishment of earthly powers that uphold the false doctrine. I have seen some of these noisome and grievous sores that the gunpowder war causes or produces. They are dreadful sores; a limb is sometimes taken off by some of them; an arm by some; sometimes an eye is taken out, or cheek is gone; they are not only dreadful, but they are sometimes grievous, in the sense of their being gangrenous, and taking the life of those that engage in the fight. This first vial alludes to the time of the sound of the trumpet, when fire, smoke and brimstone sends great hail upon the nations of the earth.

"And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea."

You that were present at my last lecture, will remember that at the sounding of the second trumpet, the third part of the sea became blood, by the burning mountain falling into it. The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; the third part of the ships were /227/ destroyed; the third part of the Church's life and usefulness was gone; the third part of her illustrious men had been caught in the coils of the dragon's tail, and the Church was corrupted in one-third part; and the Church became a bloody power when it became corrupt; and God pours out the second vial of his wrath upon this same sea--the Church that became corrupted and persecuted his people. First, on the earthly powers that stood in the way of his Word, and then on the corrupt Church that stood in the way in the next place. God is now pouring out the vials of his wrath on anti-Christian nations, and earthly kingdoms, and the corrupt Church, at the same time.

Maybe, though, this sea is not the Church. Well, I believe I will forestall myself a little, and will read the proof--chap. ii: 18. "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."

That was the corrupt Church. Babylon is called the mother of harlots in another place. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird." That corrupt Church, that was corrupted at first only in one-third part of it, turned to blood finally, when God's vial is poured out, and it is altogether corrupt. It becomes as the blood of a dead man, all of it--a cage of unclean and hateful birds, and the habitation of devils. And it is Babylon that is thus to become entirely ruined, entirely corrupt.

Says one, Does the Lord corrupt them? No. Does the Lord pour out his violence to make them bad? No; but he invites his people out. We have already had the invitation to come out, and the Lord's people will come out, out, and keep coming out, until they leave there a cage of devils and unclean and hateful birds--everything /228/ but the Lord's own family. The Lord's people are going to be united after a while, in the truth and on the truth, and leave Babylonish confusion the hold of devils, and as the blood of a dead man, entirely corrupt. It is because the Lord calls his people out that it is entirely corrupted. I feel like I want to be getting away from everything that is uninspired and human. Have you the matter settled in your minds that it is Babylon that becomes entirely corrupt? The Lord says it. And this sea that is as the blood of a dead man, is the same Church that was corrupted in part only at first, because it has reference to the very same thing that is spoken of in the sounding of the second trumpet. Where the second vial is poured out, it is upon the same thing--shall I say?--that was brought to light at the sound of the second trumpet. The order is observed all through.

"And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they became blood." When the third angel sounded his trumpet, John said there was a star fell upon the rivers and fountains of waters; the very thing named here; and the star was called Wormwood, and it made the rivers and fountains of waters, a third part of them, bitter; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. That is the account given at the sounding of the third trumpet. And now, in the pouring out of the third vial, the same rivers and fountains of waters are alluded to.

"And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and west, and shall 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." In my lecture on the sounding of the trumpets, I said these rivers and fountains of waters were men--were nations in the East, where kingdoms first commenced--where Mahomet, the bright, but /229/ bitter star, fell upon one-third part of the then inhabited earth, in the East. The Church was corrupted, in part, in the West, by the burning mountain falling into it. Mahomet takes his rise in the East, and gains an influence over the third part of the Eastern nations, and made them bitter, and the Lord pours out the third vial on them, or those nations that withstood the truth. And he said these rivers and fountains of waters had shed the blood of the saints and prophets, and now the Lord gives them blood to drink; and if it does not say right out in plain words that these rivers and fountains of waters are nations of men, it says it so plainly that the man that runs may read. They were men, or they never could have shed the blood of the saints and martyrs, or have drank the blood either. Here is the proof of some things I have been saying this morning. The Eastern nations, the Mahommedan nations, have been drinking blood for some time; and while the Lord pours out his plagues upon the earthly powers that uphold Babylon, or any of her images, and upon the corrupt Church, the vine of the earth, he is pouring it out upon the Mahommedan powers also.

"And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments." You are pouring out the vials of your wrath upon the powers that stood in the way of the truth.

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire." When the fourth trumpet sounded, John said the third part of the sun was smitten, the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, and the day shone not for a third part of it. And that was the sun of the moral world. They darkened the Bible. Soon after Mahomet's rise in the East, they put out the Word of the Lord; they darkened for a third part the Christian day or dispensation. And now the Lord has the fourth vial /230/ poured out upon the sun that had been darkened when the fourth angel sounded. The vials answer to the trumpets exactly.

But it looks a little hard to say that the Bible is the sun spoken of--the Sun of Righteousness that Malachi spoke of was darkened--and now to say that the vial of God's wrath is poured out on the Bible. It might seem little hard to some. But wait until you hear the Lord's explanation. The vial is poured out on the sun, it says, "and power was given unto it." It did not hurt the sun, bless you, but it gave it power to scorch men with fire; did not hurt the Bible, but made it shine the brighter. They made it dark when the fourth angel sounded, and now when the vial of God's wrath is poured out, it gives the Bible power and makes it shine with such brilliancy that men are wilted down under it.

"And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory." And, if a man will open his eyes, he will certainly see that the sun that was darkened through the dark ages--the Word of the Lord--is now shining as it never has shone since the black horse started out. There is power enough in it now, and it makes emperors and the great men of the earth wilt down. It is withering everything that stands in opposition to it. The Bible is not hurt; the sun is not injured by the pouring out of the vial, but it is scorching those that hold up their puny hands against it. Then, get to the Shade, run to the Rock, fly to the Shelter, and then you are safe. Get into Christ.

"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, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds." That vial is being /231/ poured out at this time also; they are all being poured out now. The Lord is pouring out his judgment upon the earthly powers that are opposed to his Word--upon the corrupt Church--and calling his people to come out--upon the Eastern nations, the Mohammedan powers--and making the Bible shine so brightly all over the land, that men are scorched and wilted down under its burning rays. The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and John said locusts came out of the smoke of the bottomless pit--the preachers of the dark ages, the indulgence-sellers, that professed to be the Lord's ministers, but were counterfeits; that had crowns like gold, but not of gold. When the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, our attention is called to this matter--to the seat of the beast, or the star that fell from heaven to earth and unlocked the bottomless pit. And I believe in my heart, that that awful world of despair is bottomless, because it is an eternal going down, and there is no end to eternity,--it is an eternal destruction.

But here is the proof that I was right when I said this star that fell was one of the popes of Rome--he and his successors, that claimed to have the key of the bottomless pit, and let the smoke of superstition out, from which came the swarms of greedy locusts (preachers) that hurt the men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads; that did not understand the Word of the Lord; that took from the poor their last hard-earned shilling, to have some friend taken out of torment, or to buy indulgence for some sin they were fearful they might commit. Here is the proof I was right in that. It was not the Mohammedans.

John said it was the beast that carried Mystery Babylon the Great, the spotted beast. Right here he says the fifth vial is poured out on the scat of the beast, upon the power that sent these greedy locusts out. The religious world are all agreed upon the question as to who the beast is, the spotted beast, the one that took the seat of the /232/ Roman Caesars. 'That was not Mahomet; it was the papacy that was on the seat of the Caesars, to whom the dragon, pagan Rome, gave his power and his seat. Right there this vial is poured out, upon the seat of the beast, upon the king of these locusts, and his kingdom is full of darkness. And John said they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, that this fire, smoke and brimstone war is bringing upon them.

Let us look over and see its fulfillment. While the deadly war is going on at the seat of the beast, and his kingdom is full of darkness, we can not see one ray of light for the future. Do not know what a day will bring forth; everything is tottering there to its everlasting overthrow.

"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." While the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, the four angels were let loose which had been bound in the great river Euphrates, and they were prepared for an hour, a day, a month and a year. And it was the whole human family that had been bound--the soldiery of all the earth, we proved, let loose to fight with fire, smoke and brimstone. They had been held by a river, bound in a river that held them down in its mighty grasp, and they were not permitted to do either right or wrong, only as the power that bound said. The political power of the papacy held the nations down for centuries and centuries together; and on that same river Euphrates the vial is poured--upon every political power that upheld Mystery Babylon. And they are dried up from her, they sustain her no longer. The Lord has dried them up so that they have lost their strength. John explains this in another place, and says that this river, or political power, is the ten kingdoms that were under the /233/ papal authority--his imperial power that held teem. The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall, in the future, hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire; but they were not doing this some centuries since; for he says, (loaf hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and to give their kingdom unto the beast, unto Mystery Babylon, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And then they will hate the power they have been upholding so long, and dry up all their influence from it, and make it desolate, burn it with fire--the very thing that the Euphrates did for old literal Babylon.

Do you remember, my brother, the history of the river Euphrates, that was the life of the city so long,--that it became at length the means of its everlasting overthrow? For Cyrus drained it the night he had posted his troops above and below the city--drained it into the great artificial lake, and then marched his troops up and down the dry bed, and out through the gates into the city. The Euphrates was dried up, and the beast, or Mystery Babylon's river, is now about dried up. Her political power is gone, and the armies of the Lord can march right in; and I hope, and I pray too, that they may convert the inhabitants--some of them, at least--to the Lord.

One is a parallel with the other; the type and the antitype agree precisely. That proves that it is the political powers that are called the river, for they are dried up from that beast that had kept them under so long. It is on Mystery Babylon that the Lord pours out the sixth vial-- on the seat of the beast.

And the waters thereof were dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. The waters of Mystery Babylon's river--people, supporters, kingdoms that upheld her--are dried up from her, and turned against /234/ her, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. What kings of the East are here meant?

"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." Three distinct anti-Christian powers, and the unclean spirits came out of their mouths--the doctrines of these anti-Christian powers. Now I want you to look right seriously for a moment to the fulfillment, for it is being fulfilled now, right around us, and all the time. For a thousand years, and more, no man dared preach one word of doctrine, only as it was approved by the beast that held the world under its control--Mystery Babylon. If I had lived four or five centuries ago, and had got up and preached as I do today, off would have gone this little head of mine. Men were allowed to preach only that which was by this Mystery Babylon considered as orthodox; heretics that preached any other doctrine than that approved by this mighty church-power did not fare very well--they were roasted on slow fires. Those that would preach Quakerism, Campbellism, or any other "ism" upon the face of the earth, right or wrong the doctrine, they had to suffer for it, if it was not the doctrine of the mother Church. For centuries and centuries it was so, was it not?

How did she exercise so much power over them? Simply by her political power. She set her political powers to work on them--cut their heads off with swords, starved them to death in dungeons, if they used a word in their preaching that was not according to the ipse dixit of the mother Church. Luther came nigh losing his head, but he lived a little too near our time, and the waters had begun to dry up a little.

But when this sixth vial is poured out, the political river of Mystery Babylon is dried up, and the way of the kings of the East is prepared; men can go wherever they please, /235/ and men have the right to preach what they please. They can preach infidelity, if they wish, or the doctrine of the old dragon; they can preach idolatry, Mahommedanism, Campbellism, Lutherism, Mormonism, No-Soulism, or they can preach Materialism, or they can preach the doctrine of the old Eastern world. and its magic arts; they can preach that the air is full of spirits, and that they have mediums that can rap them up, and have them muttering and jabbering all over the land. They can preach in every land the necromancy and the witchcraft of the old Eastern world. The way is prepared for men to preach just what they like. That power that forbade the investigation of the Word for 1260 years, becomes so weak, and gets its power so dried up, that men can preach the doctrine of the beast, the dragon, and all the false doctrines that they wish to.

But I thank the Lord for one thing,--they can preach the truth too. And there is a fair fight (shall I say a grand battle now?) between the dragon's doctrine, the beast's doctrine, and the false doctrines of the divided and corrupt Protestantism--all against the Bible. Do you suppose I can prove that before I have done? The Lord said so. The way is open now, and no power on earth can prevent men from preaching, or presuming to try, whatever they please. They can go right to the city of the Caesars, to the throne of the Pope, and preach anything and everything, even the Word of the Lord.

These are the three spirits that John saw when the sixth vial of wrath is poured out upon the political powers of the papacy. They are the spirits of devils--of demons which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. He said there would be a great battle, a dreadful fight, between the Almighty and the earthly powers that /236/ are opposed to his truth. There is to be one more grand gathering.

But the Lord says, for our consideration, "Behold, I come as a thief." You would not like to be in the army against him, then. "Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." Keep the Christian's raiment on; keep on the long, white robes of righteousness every day. Watch, brethren; the Lord's battle is on hand, and Jesus himself will come in judgment to reward his faithful soldiers that fight in his army. He will throw into the wine-press of his wrath, and banish from his face and the glory of his power forever, those that are against his truth.

"And he gathered them together" (gathered the followers of the dragon, the followers of the beast, and the followers of the false prophet together,) "into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon," the field of strife. They are gathering there--forming their alliances; the power that held them down so long, the papacy, is weak; but there is another alliance forming; everything that is opposed to the Word of the Lord will form one grand army, and they will fight it; they may fight each other at little intervals, but just let the Word of the Lord go into the neighborhood, and they will all unite against it. How do I know? I know that men have gone with the Bible to some of our American towns, and just as soon as they introduced the Bible alone, slap! went every meeting-house door; tap! went the lock, and the key was lost, and the man could not get in. They will unite against it; the Lord said they would. They have the doctrines of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, and their followers are united in one grand army against the Lord's cause. We are in that great battle now. It has just commenced, maybe. We are needing some soldiers, too.

"The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and /237/ there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done." When the seventh trumpet sounded, there was a great voice from heaven, saying, (the very language that is here,) "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ." When the seventh angel sounded, and the seventh vial is poured into the air, a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, says, It is done. The last plague of God is going to be poured out upon every power that is in the way of the kingdom of Jesus, and its universal triumph; upon the dragon's power, upon the papal power, or the beast, and upon the false doctrines all over the land, whether Demonology, Materialism, modern Spiritualism, or No-Soulism, or Campbellism, or Mormonism, or any other "ism" beneath the broad heavens.

God will pour out the vial of his wrath on it. They are in the way of the establishment of his kingdom all over the earth; and God pours out the vial of his wrath upon everything that stands in the way of the triumph of King Jesus.

"And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings." In this mighty struggle there were voices, many voices, too, and conflicting voices--different doctrines all over the land. Lord, save us from the mighty strife into which the world has gone! The Lord is going to thunder among the nations; the lightning is blazing in every direction, and the great earthquakes. The nations are being shaken now- as they never have been since John saw the Vision--"such as was not since men were upon earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great." If we have not felt its heaviest shock, it is sure to come. Earthly kingdoms, earthly powers, earthly governments, in the great battle of God Almighty with the doctrines of men, will be shaken as they never have been shaken before. Every government will move out of its place, and every thing /238/ that is in opposition to the Lord's kingdom will be found no more: they will go down forever. Men had better wake up to the mighty struggle which is on hand.

"And the great city was divided into three parts." The great Church became divided into three parts. I think it is in the future. We see the elements of the division. It is going off into infidelity, into Protestantism in its varied forms, and holding to this old doctrine, in part making the three.

"And the cities of the nations " (or earthly established churches) "fell: and great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away," (meaning earthly governments,) "and the mountains were not found." I proved, in one of my lectures, that mountains and islands, used in a figurative sense, mean earthly governments. They will go down, they will not be found in their present form. Earthly kingdoms will be no more; there will be no crowned monarchs on earth, no mitred heads beneath the sun. There will be no kings claiming to rule by divine right, as they now do. Their crowns will crumble, and sceptres will fall. Kingdoms will all change hands and be the Lord's kingdoms, and the shout will go up, "The kingdoms of the earth are become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign." I feel like getting on my knees and praying for it, but I had better stand on my feet and fight, and beg, and work for it, than to be praying, without doing anything.

"And there fell upon men" (in the tearing down of these kingdoms,) "a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great."

How large are these hail-stones that John describes as falling on men? About the weight of a talent. What is /239/ the weight of a talent? Do you remember? They are of various weights; some heavier and same lighter. From sixty to one hundred pounds, owing to the metal or kind of talent spoken of. But these stones were very heavy. Hail-stones weighing sixty pounds would be dreadful. John said men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail. It was a great plague. I was in a hail-storm once, where the hail-stones were not larger than hens' eggs, not as large as my fist. They fell to the depth of five or six inches. Some persons in the house where I was, were praying, thinking that the last day had come. No one blasphemed; and if hail-stones were to fall from the clouds weighing from sixty to one hundred pounds weight, men would not feel like blaspheming. There is not that sinner in the land that would raise his tongue in blasphemy in such a case. It was not literal ice falling from the clouds. It is the hail that is to overturn the earthly governments just spoken of, that is to fall on men. This did make sores on them, and grievously tormented them. John as certainly not only saw the fire, smoke and brimstone--ignited gunpowder--doing its work, but he saw the hail sent, and gives us the weight of some of our large cannon balls, and they fall on men and make the noisome and grievous sores he had been speaking of. Men blaspheme God while this iron and leaden hail is falling on them, and they repent not of the work of their hands. Do you know that men, in the time of fighting, while the fire, smoke and brimstone send heavy cannon-balls into the ranks, are blaspheming the God of heaven on account of their pain, and the deadly wounds they receive? They die with the words of blasphemy on their lips. They do not all do it, but some of them do. John did not say all. He is describing the very hail, and that which sends it, that pulls down the nations and kingdoms of earth--the great batt e of God Almighty. This is the wine-press of his wrath /240/ which he throws the nations into. He throws them into the deadly fight, not their future state; but nations, as nations on earth, are feeling his mighty power, and the hail will keep on falling The cannon-balls will still fall until four hundred years have passed away, from the time the nations were let loose to fight. When that was, this deponent saith not. They have been let loose gradually from the days of Luther, until recently, when they are all loose. Whether it dates from the commencement of being let loose from the power that held them so long, or from the is not for me to say; but my opinion is, that the fight will go out gradually; as nations were let loose gradually, nations will go down beneath the mighty hail, which the fire, smoke and brimstone sends. Men know how the hail is made, how it is sent, and how it comes. And mea's hearts are hardened, and they blaspheme God in the midst of the fire, smoke and brimstone and great hail war.

I have just finished noticing the things contained in the sixteenth chapter. The seventeenth is only showing us God's judgment upon that great Mystery Babylon, that corrupt Church that led the balance of the world into error. God has said he would have a controversy with these anti-Christian powers; and hence he introduces, and tells us of the one that stands at the head of all the rest.