like manner with that renewed creation in and through which that glory is to be manifested.

66

Of the things which we have thus spoken, then, this is the sum. We recognise in the cherubim of glory the great scriptural symbol of the realisation of God's ideal in the final glorification of the. mundane creation; we trace it from Genesis to Revelation, spanning the whole field of revelation as with a rainbow of undying hope, till its ever-growing splendours are lost in the sublime declaration with which the canon of inspiration virtually closes :-" And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell (Shekinise) with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain: FOR THE FORMER THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY." (Rev. xxi. 1-4.) Florence Villa, W. MAUDE.

North Finchley, N.

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

IS TURKEY SYMBOLISED BY THE DRYING UP OF THE EUPHRATES IN REV. XVI. 12?

THE Eastern Question is at present exciting considerable attention. This has arisen partly from the financial condition of Turkey, and the insurrection of certain of its subject peoples, but chiefly from the part which Eritain has taken in the purchase of shares of the Suez Canal, and other proceedings not exactly in harmony with the great powers of Europe. A few remarks on the place which Turkey is supposed to occupy in prophecy may not be without some use in the pages of the RAINBOW.

For upwards of two hundred and forty years the generality of interpreters of prophecy have held that the decay of the Turkish power is predicted in this passage:-"The sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates. And the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared." Joseph Mede seems to have been the first to give this interpretation. It is contained in his commentary on the Apocalypse, published in 1632. Luther's view, published 1534, was that it signified the exhaustion of the wealth and power of Papal Rome, the modern Babylon. And Pareus held the same view, published in 1608. Mede was the next commentator, and his view was adopted by the great majority of his successors in this department of Biblical study.

The late E. B. Elliott, in his Hore Apocalyptice, who adopts the same view, says: "It is manifest that the same Turkish power

is here intended that was described, under the sixth trumpet, as loosed from the Euphrates. Like the Assyrian power of old, when providentially employed to desolate Judah, it had overflowed from its Euphratean river-banks over Grecian Christendom. And now the Apocalyptic vision represented that its symbolic river-flood was to be dried up." But I fail to find in anything, either under the sixth trumpet, or here under the sixth vial, the slightest allusion to a river overflowing its banks. In Rev. xvi. 12, it is simply the drying up of the water of the river that is described, and under the sixth trumpet the figure of an inundation is nowhere to be found.

But Mr. Elliott quotes a passage from Isaiah (viii. 7) to illustrate the scriptural use of a river-flood to signify a conquering power. "Now, therefore, behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory, and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks," &c. But this is only the invading army of Assyria that is denoted by an inundation. This was fulfilled in the invasion under Sennacherib, so signally defeated. It is not a power making an extensive incursion into a distant territory, acquiring a new capital, and there fixing the seat of its government, as the case of the Turkish empire demands. We have in Jer. xlvii. 2, 3, a similar instance of invasion signified by an inundation:Behold, waters shall rise up out of the south, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein, ... at the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots," &c.

The fact that the Euphrates runs through the Turkish territory is generally assigned as a reason for applying the symbol to Turkey; but I think it can be easily shown that the context points expressly to a different signification. It is also affirmed that a river is, in Scripture, used to symbolise an empire. The only instance of this I have seen is Rahab, supposed to be the Nile, signifying Egypt. But Rahab, according to Dr. Kitto, is "a name signifying seamonster,' which is applied as an appellation to Egypt in Psa. Ixxiv., lxxxvii., lxxxix.; Isa. li. (and sometimes to its king, Ezek. xxix. 3; xxxiii. 3; comp. Psa. lxviii. 31); which metaphorical designation probably involves an allusion to the crocodiles, hippopotami, and other aquatic creatures of the Nile."

We shall see, in looking into the apocalyptic scene, that there is nothing corresponding to an inundation, or a river overflowing its banks. It is the drying up of the bed of a river flowing naturally between its banks.

I may mention that many hold the literal sense of this passage. This derives an appearance of soundness from Isaiah xi. 15, 16, where there is evidently a physical drying up of the Euphrates predicted, in order to afford a passage for Israel from Assyria. But there is nothing to connect this prediction with what is depicted in

Rev. xvi. 12. Besides other reasons, which shall be presented immediately, I would only mention here that the term "kings of the East" cannot, with any propriety, be applied to the gathering tribes of Israel. The context points to a metaphorical sense, which commends itself more to my judgment, and I request the attention of the reader to a few remarks thereon.

It seems to me that the interpretation which finds the Turkish empire in this prophecy, ignores the entire context of five chapters (xiv. to xviii., both inclusive). This portion of the Apocalypse shows that the grand theme of the prophecy is the destruction of Babylon, whatever that name may be found to signify. The river Euphrates bore a very important relation to Babylon of old, and it is surely no stretch of conjecture to suppose that here also an equally important relationship is intended.

But there is evidence of a more explicit character as to the closeness of this relation. The woman who is called "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT," is described as "sitting upon many waters,' and is expressly said to be "that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Rev. xvii. 1, 18). This "sitting upon many waters" is the very style of the prophets in their description of old Babylon. Thus, in Isa. xliv. 27; xlv. 1, 2, in a prophecy concerning the deliverance of the Jews from the seventy years' captivity in Babylon by Cyrus, it is said, "That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers; that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the twoleaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in pieces the bars of iron." Again, in Jer. 1. 35-38: "A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men; . . . a drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up.' Also in Jer. li. 12, 13: "The Lord hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness." It is plain from these quotations, that the Euphrates is spoken of as "many waters," and that Babylon is described as dwelling upon (that is, beside) "many waters,' just as we have it in the Revelation. It seems to be a Hebrew idiom to use "waters" in the plural in speaking of a large river. An example may be seen in Dan. xii. 5-7, compared with x. 4, 5. We have, therefore, in Revelation, a picture derived from Babylon on the Euphrates, and not a mere allusion to the river as an isolated object.

Another element of this picture is derived from the means by

which the conquest of Babylon was effected, and by which a way was prepared for the kings of the east and their armies. Cyrus had besieged Babylon for two years, but the city contained so much land within its walls, that its inhabitants were sustained by the produce. He then resorted to stratagem. The Euphrates ran through the centre of the city. He opened up certain old channels which had been originally made for drawing off the superfluous waters in times of flood into an extensive artificial lake. He had his soldiers stationed at the northern side of the city, where it was entered by the Euphrates, and at the southern side, where the river left it. He gave orders that when the waters should subside to a certain point, admitting of the passage of his troops, they should enter the bed of the river simultaneously at both points, and join their forces for a combined entrance. "Belshazzar was celebrating the annual festival of the god Bel, and was spending the night in revelling and banqueting; and Cyrus thought it a suitable moment to surprise the enemy, and take him unprepared. "The gates of brass," never open on any other occasion, had this night been left unclosed. The ascent from the river to the city was free, and invited the easy approach of the invader. Both parties met according to appointment at the gate of the royal palace, and surprising the guard of Belshazzar, instantly cut them to pieces. Thus by drying up the Euphrates a way for the kings of the east was prepared, and Babylon was taken.

But what does Scripture tell us about "the kings of the east ? " The prophecies already quoted leave no doubt in the matter. In Jer. li. 11 we read, "The Lord hath raised up the kings of the Medes; for his device is against Babylon to destroy it.' Those "kings of the Medes" were Cyrus and Darius. Of the former it is written, "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus" (already quoted). Again, "I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun (the east) he shall call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay." (Isa. xli. 25.) On this verse Cobbin says, " Cyrus, by his father, was a Mede; by his mother, a Persian. And his army consisted of Medes, whose country lay north, and Persians, whose country lay east, from Babylon." In Isa. xlvi. 11, Cyrus is thus spoken of:-"My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country.” A different quality of this chosen one is thus referred to:-" Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings." (Isa. xli. 2.)

It is worthy of note, that Media lay as much to the east as to the north of Babylon. Cyrus was the son of Cambyses, satrap or king of Persia, and of Mandana, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. He was nephew to Cyaxares II., who was otherwise

called Darius the Mede, mentioned in Daniel. It was the Medes and Persians united who conquered Babylon, and "the kings of the east" may be said to be Darius and Cyrus, though there were other kings who had by this time been subjected to their sway.

In addition to these historical facts, which so exactly correspond with the scene depicted in Rev. xvi. 12, there are several other points of analogy which clearly show that the entire picture in the Revelation is derived directly from the conquest of old Babylon. To show this more plainly, I put the quotations from the prophets and the Apocalyse in parallel columns:

"Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad." (Jer. li. 7.)

"Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon." (Jer. 1. 41, 42.)

"Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed." (Jer. li. 8.)

"Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it oven to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob." (Isa. xlviii. 20.)

"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence." (Jer. li. 6.)

"Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." (Rev. xiv. 8.)

"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." (Rev. xvii. 3, 4.)

"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." (Rev. xvii. 16.)

"Babylon the great is fallen, 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." (Rev. xviii. 2.)

"Alas, alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." (Rev. xviii. 10.)

"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: For her sins hath reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." (Rev. xviii. 4, 5.)