ON LAST evening we closed our remarks while noticing what John saw when the fifth angel sounded. The smoke of the bottomless pit, out of which came locusts that hurt no green thing, no Christian that understood the Bible; but only those men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads. That those locusts were the greedy preachers or priests of the darkest time of the dark ages; that did devour the substance of those that knew not the scriptures, that did not understand the Truth, the Bible. They professed to be Christians, but were counterfeit, as their crowns indicated. Their crowns were like gold, but not gold; they were counterfeit;--and they were counterfeit servants of the Lord. We called attention briefly to these things on last night; we now refresh your minds a little up this point, and say a few words more about these locusts.

They had hair as the hair of women,--signifying their effeminacy, their celibacy. They had teeth as it were the teeth of lions; they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron; they were shielded by the strength of the iron Roman Empire; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. The sound of their wings was not the words of the Almighty, as in the case of those four living creatures that worshiped the Lord; but they had a military power to uphold them. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and/148/they had stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months. Five months of years doubtless, or one hundred and fifty years; that they are in the zenith of their power, if the time of the rise and decline is not counted. And these indulgence-selling preachers, that prayed people out of purgatory, did exercise an undisputed claim to these things for about one hundred and fifty years. But then they had stings in their tails--they stung and poisoned men; spiritually poisoned their minds, and left their deadly poison after they had done their work. And the poison is not entirely out of the minds of the people to the present day. We still look to men too much; to the preachers too much; or to their prayers for the pardon of sins. And they so poisoned the minds of the people in the day of their power, that they looked to them for pardon as they would have looked to the Lord.

"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit." The star that fell, opened the bottomless pit; that papal authority that professed to have the power over the unseen world in the dark time of the dark ages. As we said last evening, one-third part of the dark ages was darker than the other parts; and here John tells us that that was so; the smoke of superstition from the bottomless pit darkened the air, and out of it these locusts came.

"Their king's name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon ;" and in the English tongue, I would add, his name is the Destroyer that destroys the Lord's people.

"One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." Two woes more to the men of the world that do not understand the Bible. At a single glance we see that this fifth trumpet, this day of the locusts' power, was woe to the men that do not understand the Bible, because these preachers hurt no one physically; the Inquisition was not in their hands. They only poisoned the/149/minds and robbed tho ignorant of their substance; but they hurt no man, took no penny from a man that understood the Bible, for he would not give it to them--would not pay them for their preaching or their prayers, knowing that they were teaching error

"And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men."

We inquire for a moment who these four angels are that were bound in the great river Euphrates, that John said were to be let loose when the sixth angel sounded his trumpet. And I answer, we will prove that they are the four quarters of the world--the whole human family that had been bound for a long time, by some strong power. But the proof that these four angels are the whole human family, or the fighting portion of them, comes next.

"And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them." The four angels are two hundred millions. Two hundred thousand thousand, are just two hundred millions, and that is just about the fighting force of the whole world. We have a few more than one billion inhabitants on the earth, and in a few centuries past the average population on the globe has not varied much from one billion. But of that billion about five hundred millions (one-half) are females, leaving an average population of male inhabitants of about five hundred millions; and of that number about one-half are minors, leaving about two hundred and fifty millions of adult males on the earth at a time. But of that number of adult males about one-fifth are superannuated--too old to fight. These are statistical facts. This/150/loaves exactly John's two hundred millions of fighting men on earth. And when we prove a matter mathematically, we think it is pretty well done.

John thus saw the whole fighting force of the earth let loose--two hundred millions of soldiers let loose from some river that held them bound until the sixth angel sounded his trumpet. They were bound in the great river Euphrates; but what is that river? The river that runs through Mystery Babylon, as certainly as that type answers to antitype. There was a literal Babylon, a city in the plains of Shinar; and the literal river Euphrates ran through it, and was its strength and support for twelve hundred years, and then became the means of its overthrow. History tells us that Cyrus posted his troops above the city of Babylon, where the river Euphrates entered the city, and a portion of them below the city, where the river came out of the city, and dispatched another portion up the river to drain it into the great artificial lake, and by midnight they had 60 completely drained it that he marched his troops up and down its dried-up channel, through the gates and into the city, and took it the night Belshazzar was drinking wine out of the vessels of the Lord's house. The river that sustained and enriched literal Babylon so long, was the means of its overthrow. And Mystery Babylon has its river--its ten kingdoms--its imperial political power that has sustained it, as the Lord says in the seventeenth chapter; and will until the purpose of God is finished, and then its imperial political river will turn against it. So says the Lord in the seventeenth chapter of this book of Revelation. That political power of the papacy, or Mystery Babylon, will finally turn (and it has turned already) against it, and be dried up to it. And that imperial power, here called a river, held the nations of the earth down, bound fast, that they could not move without its permission; they could not declare war or make peace, only as/151/its mighty power permitted them to. And through the power of this imperial river the popes put their feet on the necks of kings, and had the monarchs lashed with rods-- had the whole world bound down under the control of Mystery Babylon, until the sixth angel sounded his trumpet. They are loosed now. No king asks that imperial power, the papacy, whether he may make war now. No monarch now asks the pope whether he shall make peace or form alliances. The whole world is let loose from the power that held them bound so long. The sixth angel is sounding his trumpet.

But when let loose, John tells us how they fought. We are now in the time of the sounding of the sixth angel's trumpet as certain as that the nations of earth are loosed to fight; and there is no power to prevent them from it. "And thus I saw the horses in the Vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone." The heads of the horses, including the rider, were as the heads of lions.

John is pointing to the modern mode of fighting on horseback, with the rider leaning forward, which, to his sight, and to the sight of one looking on at a distance, would appear as the great mane of the lion; the man leaning on his horse's neck. He would, in fighting with firearms, have to lean forward to discharge his piece, lest he might shoot down his own horse that he was riding. In John's day the posture was very different. Then those Greek and Roman warriors leaned back, when fighting on horseback, in order to throw their javelins and darts with greater force. But in this great fight in the sound of the sixth angel's trumpet, they lean forward, and it has the appearance of the head of a lion. "And out of their mouths" (I would rather paraphrase it, and say, out from/152/their mouths) "issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed." By the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out from their horses' mouths.

Now, I want to ask my friendly hearers if it is not as literally fulfilled before our eyes as anything can be? Are not all nations now engaged in this mode of warfare? Do they not kill men with fire and smoke and brimstone? "I do not know." Do you not know that this is just ignited gunpowder? Do not all men know, without calling in a chemist, that it is precisely the chemical division of gunpowder when ignited--fire, smoke, and brimstone? There is a little saltpetre in gunpowder in its crude state; but when you touch a spark of fire to it, this is all taken up in the flame and smoke, and there is nothing of ignited gunpowder but fire, smoke and sulphur,--that is all. And if John had been living now, and been looking on a battle scene, where men are fighting with firearms, he could not have described the appearance better than he has here in this book. Fire and smoke and brimstone are doing the work. One said to me, some time since, that "gunpowder does not kill men; it is the ball that kills them." I know the ball kills the man, but I would not fear a shipload of bullets if you keep the powder away. It is the powder that does it after all. But,'then, the powder itself is harmless as the ball of lead that it sends, until it is converted, by being ignited, into what John said--fire, smoke and sulphur. '['hen it does the work, and never before.

Could an uninspired man, in the last of the first century, have told of this matter? Could he have known, unless he had been inspired, that soon after the darkest time of the dark ages, when these greedy preachers hurt the men that had not the knowledge of God's Word, that the nations would all be let loose from that mighty power that bound them, and engage in the fight with fire and smoke/153/and brimstone? It is unreasonable to think that an uninspired man could have foretold it; it is utterly impossible.

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts."

Says one, "I would have supposed they repented when such a dreadful plague was on them." But John told it correctly. They are as wicked as ever; as ungodly as before the gunpowder fight commenced. They blaspheme God on tho battle-field; they worship their demons or dead heroes; they rap up the spirits of the dead, and they worship idols of gold in the shape of money; and brass, and wood, and stone, in the shape of buildings and earthly goods; and they still go on with their murders; and the most ungodly blasphemy that I have ever heard in my life, was right where the fire and smoke and brimstone were doing their deadliest work. They do not repent of their thefts; they steal as much as they ever did. It is woe to the men of the world; and the good Lord grant that Christians may not be contaminated by it.

How did John know that they would still be wicked while this fight with gunpowder was going on? How long? Was it a little trouble of our country, a few years ago, that we were talking about? O! no; not that alone. Lt is said that this fighting with fire and smoke and brimstone, or ignited gunpowder, is to last about four hundred years, prophetic count. Not one single battle, not that all the two hundred millions would engage in fighting at one time; but the whole world would be engaged in fighting in this way for nearly four hundred years. An hour, a day a month and a year, when reduced to days, make/154/nearly four hundred days, and a day in the prophecies stands for a year; in the Old Testament, and all through this book of Revelation, it stands for a year. The proof of this will be brought up in due time.

This four hundred years of fighting with firearms does not date from the invention of gunpowder in the fourteenth century; but from the time that the nations are let loose to fight. And when were they let loose? Gradually, my brother, they have been let loose from the day that Germany slipped away from the papal power, in the days of Luther; and soon Switzerland went, and England followed, and they have been dropping away from that imperial power that held them, nation after nation, until not one remains bound by the papal power. Whether we date from the time they were all let loose, or from the commencement of the letting loose, is a question that the Lord intended we should not fully determine, I suppose. Gradually they are let loose; gradually the fight will die out. But the time of the battle's raging must be something near four hundred years of fighting with firearms, and in the time they will kill one-third of the population. It is a mighty margin to fill up yet. The nations of tho old world have not nearly done their dreadful work of slaughter. They will fight on in this way until every government and kingdom moves out of its place and tumbles down to ruins, and every crown drops from every monarch's brow, and the whole earth is given to the saints, and they have a grand Democratic Republic all over the world, and no king but Jesus, and he reigning in heaven and through his saints on earth.

But we have not done with this sixth trumpet yet. There are several other matters to which God calls our attention, as it were with the sound of a trumpet in our ears.

"I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven" (while this fight with firearms is going on. This angel/155/comes down from heaven), "clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." He looks very much like the description John gave of the Lord, in the first chapter. It was tho Lord's people doubtless; we will notice that in due time. "And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices."

At some time during this fight with fire, smoke and brimstone, there is a little book to be opened, a sealed book to he unsealed--a prophetic book to be understood. The Lord has said it, and we had better begin to examine it. He had in his hand a little book, open; no seal there. The fight will last until the prophetic book is opened.

This angel, with the a loud voice, as when open book in his hand, "cried with a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not."

Here is a difficulty. What did the seven thunders say? John was commanded not to write what they said. Why was it not put down? Where is there a revelation to make known things to come, by saying, do not write what is said? I have an opinion as to what the seven thunders uttered, and my opinion is, that the seven thunders told John the meaning of the Vision he had seen--of all of it: that the four beasts signify, what their wings signify, what the white horse, the red horse, the black horse, and the pale horse, and all the Vision he had seen, what each single thing represented; and he was going to write it down. One reason I have for thinking so, is, that the book/156/was open; another is, that seven thunders uttered their voices, and seven is a sacred full number; and it is just about equivalent to saying it told him all, and he was about to write it. But a voice from heaven said, "Seal up the things that the seven thunders uttered, and write them not;" that is, do not write down in plain words the meaning of the Vision. Why? O! do ;you not wish, if that be true, that he had written it? That he had just told us in plain language the meaning of the Vision? It would not be necessary, my brother; it was not right he should. It would have rather forestalled our free action. Men would have fought against it all the time, and it would have taken a miracle to bring about the very things the Lord said should come to pass.

I must give one illustration of the man that said he knew the doctrine of foreordination was true, and that God had determined, from all eternity, every act of our lives, and that nothing could be done, only as he had decreed it. But as he was about to cross a stream of water over which was a narrow foot-bridge, he felt doubtful as to whether he could walk the bridge; he was fearful he might fall in and drown. He just remarked that he knew that it was ordained, from before the world began, that he should undertake to cross that bridge, and fall in and be drowned. But he said, as he knew the decree beforehand, it should not come to pass; and he turned around and went the other way. Now, the point in this is clear: that if the Lord had permitted John to write down the meaning of the Vision in plain language, that every sinner would be bound to understand, they would have fought against it--they would have said the prophecy of the Lord shall not be fulfilled.

Julian said the temple should be rebuilt, when Jesus said it should remain in ruins; and it took a miracle from the God of heaven to keep him from rebuilding it. So it was/157/better for John to leave the vision as he saw it, and not write the meaning as it was given to him by the seven thunders' voices; for men to find it out, as the fiord's people could, and would, by examining the Bible's definitions; and sinners who did not care to understand it, could go on and blindly fulfill the whole prediction

I said this was my opinion; but I have more than an opinion for it.

"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth"--upon the religious and political powers-- "lifted up his hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he had declared to his servants the prophets." Do not write the meaning, John, of what the seven thunders uttered. Then, with a solemn oath he swore that when the seventh angel should begin to sound, the matter should be delayed no longer; that is, the mystery of God should be a mystery no longer. It would be opened in the days of the fighting with gunpowder; the seals would be broken, and the matter understood without John's writing it; the angel swore to it. A mystery of prophecy is not finished while it is still a mystery. It is when it is understood, that the mystery is finished. John was forbidden to write the meaning of the Vision; for it would be made plain when the seventh angel would begin to sound. We have to investigate the matter a little before the seventh angel begins to sound.

When the seventh angel begins to sound his trumpet, the kingdoms of this world are the kingdoms of Christ; the mystery is finished, the prophecy is understood. Then let us investigate it seriously. We have not done with what/158/John saw when the sixth angel's trumpet was sounding. He tells of a great many more matters that are to transpire during the sound of the sixth angel's trumpet. We are now in that period of time. The nations are let loose from any and every power that ever held them down. There is no power on earth that holds the nation's back from fighting now. The imperial river of the papacy is dried up so that it can not hold them any longer; and they are fighting with fire, smoke, and brimstone, as certain as ignited gunpowder is this, and every chemist knows that is so. And the God of heaven tells us in this same sounding of the sixth angel's trumpet what we ought to be about, that we may be ready to meet the Lord when he comes.