FULFILLED TO THE VERY DAY
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FULFILLED TO THE VERY DAY
The period of “woe” began, then, July 27, 1299. One hundred and fifty years from this singularly accurate date extends to July 27, 1449. Then the word continues, “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.” And now still other elements of destruction are to be let loose. “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.”EQ 4.6
An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year. Counting 30 days to the month, according to the scriptural mode of computing time, a year is 360 days, and taking “each day for a year,” we have 360 years. A month-30 days-is 30 years. A day is 1 year. These added together give 391 years. From July 27, 1449, the 391 years reach to July 27, 1840. But there is “an hour” yet. An hour is the twenty-fourth part of a day. And (a day for a year) this would be the twenty-fourth part of a year, or 15 days. Fifteen days from July 27 extends to August 11. Therefore, on August 11, 1840, this period of an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, would expire. For this length of time, and to this date, the power of the Ottoman Empire was to continue. And on that very day 1The reader who desires full information in regard to the circumstances under which this was done, and an elaborate exposition of the other prophetic passages referred to in this tract, will do well to consult the book “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” by Uriah Smith, which is to be had at this office. the actual power of the Turkish Government passed into the hands of the great powers of Europe, and from that day to this the very existence of the Ottoman Empire has been, and is now, solely dependent on the support of these great powers. Several times since 1840 the Turkish Government would have ceased to be, had it not been upheld in this way. In a little pamphlet on the Turkish-Armenian question, lately published by the Armenian Society in London, statement is made concerning England’s connection with this matter:-EQ 5.1
“We are responsible for Turkey. We saved the Turk twice at least from the doom which he richly merited. The Duke of Wellington sixty years ago lamented that the Russians had not entered Constantinople in 1829 and brought the Ottoman Empire to an end. We have much more reason to lament that it was not destroyed in 1853, and again in 1878. On both of these occasions we interfered to save it. But for us there would be no sultan on the Bosphorus.”-Page 17.EQ 5.2
On the same page is a quotation from an article by the Duke of Argyle, in the Times, in which the duke says:-EQ 6.1
“It is not too much to say that England has twice saved Turkey from complete subjection since 1853. It is largely-mainly-due to our action that she now exists at all as an independent power. On both these occasions we dragged the powers of Europe along with us in maintaining the Ottoman Government.”EQ 6.2
We do not reproduce these statements for the purpose of attaching blame to England or to any other power, but solely for the purpose of making clear the fact that the Ottoman Empire since 1840 has not existed by its own power, but wholly by the action of the other powers. In accordance with this fact the pamphlet truly says:-EQ 6.3
“It is impossible to talk of the Ottoman Empire as if it were a nation like the United States or like Holland. It is an artificial ... creation of treaties, that is kept in existence by the powers for their own convenience.”EQ 6.4
Thus on the eleventh day of August, 1840, the time set by the Scripture for the existence and work of the Ottoman Empire, as such, expired;2 In 1840 the hostilities which for some years had been progressing between Turkey and her vassal kingdom, Egypt, being about to end in the defeat of the sultan, four of the great European powers interposed to save him. Fearing the consequences of the dismemberment of Turkey, the governments of England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia united in an agreement to maintain her autonomy. At the dictation of these powers, the sultan sent an ultimatum to the Egyptian pasha, and the four powers assumed the responsibility of seeing that it was accepted. This occurred on the 11th of August, 1840, and from that date Turkey, as a government, has existed only by the sufferance of those powers. on that day the sixth trumpet ceased to sound, and the second woe ended; and of the seventh trumpet-the third woe-we read: “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded: and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”EQ 6.5
Every expression in this record of the sounding of the seventh trumpet proclaims the end of all things of this world. Look at them again in detail:-EQ 7.1
1. The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ; His reign begins, in His own kingdom, upon His own throne, by His own power, of which kingdom and reign there shall be no end.EQ 7.2
2. “The nations are angry.” Rulers admit this, and each, fearful of some hostile move on the part of the others, is continually trying to make himself stronger against the time when war will begin, which all are sure must be soon. But they all dread the slightest step that might involve actual hostilities, because of the danger that, if war is begun in earnest at any spot, it will suddenly spread, and involve all in one horrible and universal conflict.EQ 7.3
Indeed, it is plainly stated by one of the leading authorities of the world that it is as a bulwark against this great danger of universal war that the Ottoman Government has been maintained these last fifty years. Read the following lines from the speech of Lord Salisbury, at the Mansion House, November 9, 1895:-EQ 7.4
“Turkey is in that remarkable condition that it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great powers of the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territories of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire there lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilised in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was a danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger which has not passed away.”EQ 7.5
These words are in plain fulfilment of prophecy, and clearly indicate that the world stands trembling in the times of the seventh trumpet, when “the nations are angry.” And while, in the presence of this appalling danger, rulers, kings, and emperors are earnestly endeavoring by every possible means to maintain the peace of the world, what blundering and fatuous blindness it is that the churches and the pulpits and the religious press should be exciting and stirring up the spirit and elements of war, calling for armies and navies to wipe out suddenly and without further consideration the Ottoman Government, and thus break down the bulwark which the powers have set up against the horrible flood of a universal war. The president of Robert College, at Constantinople, well sets forth the critical character of the present situation in Europe in the following words:-EQ 8.1
“I believe that there is a general impression among thinking men in Europe that we are approaching a great crisis in the world’s history. It is certainly within the bounds of possibility that this year may see the great Christian nations engaged in a universal war. I am by nature and choice an optimist [one who looks for good]. I like to find out the good rather than the evil in men and nations; but a man must either shut his eyes or fall back upon an unwarranted faith in God to be an optimist in Europe to-day-so far as the immediate future is concerned.... It is perfectly plain that the civilization of Europe is rotten to the core; and if we can learn anything from the lessons of history, it must pass through the throes of death before it can rise again to a new and higher life. If it were only the governments which were corrupt, the people might rise in their strength and overthrow them, but with a degenerate people there is no hope.”-New York Independent, February 6, 1896, pp. 9, 10.EQ 8.2