Chapter III: The Euphrates

The condition of the Turkish Empire is one of the greatest interests of the day, and is engaging more than any other public subject the grave thoughts of thinking men. The capitalists of England are deploring the loss of many millions of money through its bankruptcy. Those who rejoice in religious liberty are watching with the deepest interest the noble struggles of the men of Herzegovina to free themselves from the fearful yoke of Mohammedan oppression. And the politicians of all the great states of Europe are at their wits’ end to know what is to become of Turkey. Nor is this a state of things that has come on suddenly. It is not the transitory effect of any sudden calamity, but the result of a steady decay that has been going forward with irresistible power for certainly not less than fifty years. France and England combined in the Crimean war to endeavour to maintain the Turkish power, but it was all in vain. That power has been steadily on the wane ever since, till now the crisis of bankruptcy has arrived, and ‘the Sick Man,’ as the Turkish empire has been called, appears on the very point of his dissolution. {37}

Now I am quite aware of the difficulty of preaching on such subjects, and I have no doubt that in your mind as well as my own there is a preference for those portions of the Word of God which bear directly on our spiritual experience; but still ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’; and, moreover, there is a special blessing on the congregational study of this Revelation of St. John, for it is said, chap. i. 3, ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy.’ I propose, therefore, to consider three questions: (1.) Has the present state of Turkey been foretold in prophecy? (2.) Does it teach us any lessons respecting our spiritual position? (3.) Does it throw any light on our hope of the coming of our Lord? I pray God that He may fulfil to us the promise attached to this wonderful book, and that both they that hear and he that readeth may alike enjoy His blessing.

With reference to the first question—Has the present state of Turkey been foretold in prophecy? I have not the least hesitation in expressing my own conviction that it has been foretold in a most remarkable manner, and that the present state of things is nothing more than the fulfilment of what God predicted little less than 1800 years ago.

It is impossible in a short lecture to give all the reasons for this opinion. I can only attempt the barest outline. But we may gain some idea of the subject if we consider what is meant by the Euphrates; what by its overflow; and what by its drying up, as described in Rev. xvi. 12: ‘And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the waters thereof were dried up.’

I. The Euphrates. By this we must not understand the literal river, for the whole book is symbolical. The river, therefore, stands as the symbol for something else. It is this that makes the subject so difficult, for the symbols are like hieroglyphics, and therefore, though full of meaning, peculiarly liable to be misunderstood. The question then is, What is the power of which the Euphrates in this verse stands as a symbol or hieroglyphic? Of course, in the answer to such a question we must distrust ourselves, and I dare not speak on it with the certainty with which we ought to speak of the plainly revealed facts of Scripture. All I can do is to express my own very confident conviction that by the Euphrates is symbolized the Ottoman, or, as it is frequently called, the Turkish Empire.

For this I give two reasons:—

(1.) It is the one great empire existing in the world that originated on the banks of the river Euphrates. It was in the district to the east of that river that the Turk, who originally came from Turkistan, became a formidable power, and from thence that the Turkish hosts were let loose against Roman Christendom. For we must remember that the Turks, or Ottomans, do not belong to the soil of Turkey. The French are the natives of France, and the Italians of Italy, but the Turks are not the natives of Turkey, but invaders from Asia. They hold the country by conquest. The head-quarters of the empire are now in Turkey, on the shores of the Bosphorus; but its birthplace was on the Eastern bank of the Euphrates.

(2.) There are two series of prophecies in the book of Revelation, the one given under the figure of seven trumpets, the other of seven vials, and they appear to be linked together by a very remarkable connexion as to the subject of the prophecies. You will see the correspondence clearly if you compare the account of the trumpets in chapters viii. and ix. with that of the vials in chapter xvi.

When the first trumpet sounded the judgment was on the earth, viii. 7; and so the first vial was poured on the earth, xvi. 2.

When the second trumpet sounded, the judgment was on the sea, chap. viii. 8. So the second vial was poured on the sea, xvi. 3.

When the third trumpet sounded, the judgment was on the rivers and fountains of waters, viii. 10. So the third angel poured out his vial on the rivers and fountains of waters, xvi. 4.

When the fourth trumpet sounded, the judgment was on the sun, viii. 12. So the fourth angel poured out his vial on the sun, xvi. 8.

When the fifth trumpet sounded, the judgment was on those men who had not the seal of God on their foreheads, ix. 4. So the fifth vial was on the seat of the beast, xvi. 10.

The correspondence is not at first sight so apparent in this as in the other vials; but if we bear in mind the prophecy that all shall worship the beast whose names are not written in the book of life, we shall see the same reality in the coincidence.

And, lastly, when the sixth trumpet sounded, there was a mighty host loosed from the Euphrates, ix. 14; and when the sixth vial was poured out it fell on the Euphrates, and the Euphrates was dried up, xvi. 12.

Surely, then, we may come to the conclusion that this prophecy in chapter xvi. relates to the same great power as that referred to in chapter ix.; and as I believe that it has been proved that the trumpet prophecy predicts the invasion of Christendom by the Ottoman empire, so I am persuaded in my own mind that that under the vial foretells its exhaustion and decay. The Ottoman empire I believe to be the subject of both the prophecies.

II. The overflow. There is no actual mention in this passage of the symbol of an overflow, but as that figure is elsewhere employed in Holy Scripture to represent invasion, we may regard it in this instance as descriptive of the invasion by the Ottomans as predicted under the sixth trumpet. If you turn to Jer. xlvi. 7, 8, you find an invasion by Egypt described by an exactly similar figure. The invasion by Egypt is there compared to an overflow of the Nile. ‘Egypt cometh up like a flood, and his waters are moved as the rivers.’ So in Isa. viii. 7, 8, the invasion of Palestine by the Assyrians is foretold under the figure of an inundation: ‘He shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over.’ And so here the invasion by the Ottoman or Euphratian horsemen appears to be represented by an overflow of the Euphrates.

Now consider the result of the recent floods in our own country. When the Trent rose above its banks, what happened? The waters spread far and wide on both sides the river, till, instead of fields and homesteads, you saw a vast inland lake. As you passed by in the train you might have seen the whole country under water. Just so it was when, according to the symbol, the Euphrates overflowed its banks; or, according to history, the Ottomans invaded Europe. The invading waters rushed on in every direction. On the east they reached the borders of China; on the west they soon reached Palestine, and all the heroic efforts of the Crusaders failed to check them. They then spread out in two branches. On the south they crossed into Africa, and spread over the greater part of the northern portion of that vast continent. In the north they spread rapidly over Asia Minor, crossed the Bosphorus, conquered Greece, and spread over Europe till they reached the shores of the Adriatic, and even Venice. {45} Thus when they had reached the height of their power, the whole of south-east Europe, the greater part of north Africa, and the whole of west Asia, were flooded by the vast inundation. Their dominion extended from the shores of the Adriatic on the west to the borders of China on the east; while in Africa it reached very nearly from the Atlantic to Suez. Accordingly we have been taught from our childhood of Turkey in Europe, Turkey in Asia, and Turkey in Africa. But I am not sure that we are all aware that the Turks, or Ottomans, are Asiatic invaders who obtained their dominions by conquest.

III. So much for the overflow. Let us now turn to the drying up, as predicted in the prophecy.

Think once more of the illustration of the river, and consider what would be the effect on the overflow if the waters were to subside in the river. The inundation would gradually recede, and one field after another would be left dry, until after a time the whole country would be free. If, therefore, the interpretation of the prophecy be correct, we should expect to see the Ottoman power gradually dying out, and the various nations that were overrun by conquest one by one shaking off the yoke. And this is exactly what has been taking place ever since the year 1820. There is a remarkable prophecy in Daniel believed to refer to this same Ottoman power, and from it some of the best students of prophecy in the course of the last century named that year as the probable commencement of the decline of Turkey. Up to the spring of the year all appeared to prosper; but then the waters began rapidly to recede. That very year the Greek insurrection began. The flood receded from Greece, so that in 1827 the present kingdom was established. In that same year the inundation went back so far that Servia was left dry. In the same year Moldavia and Wallachia, and the territory north of the Danube, were set free from the Ottoman yoke; and now there seems to be every hope that Herzegovina and Bosnia will succeed in shaking off the invader. Indeed, the whole Turkish empire is in such a condition that if the statesmen of Europe could agree as to who should possess Constantinople, the whole Ottoman Power would in all probability be driven out of Europe before another year is over. {47}

As for Africa, the flood has already left it almost dry. Morocco is an independent state. Algeria has been taken by the French, while on the east, Egypt has asserted its independence, and with the one exception of an annual tribute, is entirely free from the Turkish yoke. For some years this process had been going on, till at length, in 1866, the Pasha assumed the title of ‘Khedive,’ which means king, proclaiming thereby an independent monarchy. The only possession remaining to Turkey is the little province of Tripoli, containing considerably less than 1,000,000 inhabitants. Turkey in Africa has almost ceased to exist. {48} Turkey in Europe may last a little longer, but is going fast. As for Turkey in Asia, it has ceased to be a power to any great distance east of the Euphrates; and I fully believe that on the west of the river the drying-up process will be steadily continued till the floods recede from Palestine, and that beautiful land shall be set free from the blight of Turkish misgovernment, and handed over to be once more a land flowing with milk and honey to its rightful possessors, the seed of Abraham, the nation to which God has given it.

Such are a few of the leading events with reference to the decline of the Ottoman empire; and there is only one further remark that I would make respecting it. The decline has not been the result of external conquest, but of internal decay. The Turks have not been brought down by any great defeats, but by their own want of life. The powers of Europe have not attacked them, but, on the contrary, have done their best to uphold them, as, _e.g._, in the Crimean war; but, notwithstanding all that France and England could do, the Turkish power is falling to pieces of itself. The Sick Man is dying, and the physicians cannot keep him alive. Their energy seems gone, their exchequer is exhausted, and their population is so much diminished, that there are now only 2,000,000 Turks, or Ottomans, left in Europe. {50} In other words, the Euphrates is drying up, and the inundation cannot long remain upon the land.

Now I can quite understand the feeling of those who have experienced a certain amount of disappointment in hearing this morning about the Turkish empire, instead of something bearing more directly on their own personal salvation, and I should myself have preferred to have preached on some such subject. But I have taken this subject on principle.

1. Because, as I have already said, ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ No portion, therefore, of God’s word, whether it be prophetic or historical, ought to be set aside by those who really desire to know God’s truth. If we wish to know the whole mind of God we must be prepared to study the whole of the Holy Scriptures which God has given us.

2. But, besides that, we must remember that our whole faith depends on Holy Scripture. All that we know of the Lord Jesus Christ, of His great high-priesthood, of His atoning blood, of His free salvation, of the gift of the Holy Ghost, of the new birth, and of the coming Advent, all our hope for the future, and all our rest for the present, depend simply and entirely on the Word of God. In it we find all; without it we have nothing. When, therefore, we see a great prophecy of Holy Scripture fulfilled in our own day, within reach of our own observation, traceable on our own maps, and included within the range of our own memory, we ought not to pass it by, but should accept it with thankfulness in these days of rebuke and infidelity, as a most blessed confirmation of our faith. Let any one who has the slightest doubt as to the inspiration of Scripture look at the facts. Two thousand four hundred years ago there was a prophet, the prophet Daniel, by the river of Ulai, and he foresaw in a vision the rise and progress of a mighty power, telling us at the same time how long it was likely to continue. Six hundred years after him there arose another prophet, who described what appears to be the same power, and gave a graphic picture both of its progress and decay. Students of Holy Scripture have since been diligently occupied in the study of these two prophecies; and by comparing Scripture with Scripture were long since brought to the conclusion that in the course of this century the decline of the Ottoman Empire would take place. And now we see it going on. Just when the students thought it would begin, then it began, and just as the prophet described its decay, so it is decaying. The prophets themselves could have known nothing about it when they prophesied, for the empire did not arise till many centuries after they had foretold its fall. But God knew all, and a thousand years were to Him as one day. These prophecies, therefore, did not arise from any private interpretation or human calculation of probabilities, but ‘holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’

Now what should be the result on our minds? What effect should such facts have on ourselves? Should they not strengthen faith and confirm us in a simple, childlike, unquestioning trust in the inspired word of the living God? Who but God Himself could have foretold either to Daniel or John the rise and decay of the Ottoman Empire? It is God’s own word, then, with which we are dealing when we study Holy Scripture. There may be things in it completely beyond all power of human calculation, as the history of the Ottoman Empire was utterly beyond the human calculation of either Daniel or John. But God’s truth does not depend on our power of calculation. It is beyond us altogether, infinite, eternal, divine; and our part is, whether we can fit it together or not, to receive the whole as God has given it, and as weak, ignorant, short-lived, and short-sighted creatures, to receive His will as He has revealed it, into our hands, and hearts, and say, ‘I believe God, that it shall be as it was said unto me.’