The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

and excessive taxation of the people in whose land war is waged, bringing discontent. On
the overthrow of a government, the peoples are loosed from the restraining influences of
its laws, and until a stable government is established, a state bordering on anarchy
prevails. The significance of this symbol is very forcibly illustrated in the present time in
the effects produced by the great war in Europe, resulting in the overthrow of the
autocratic governments of Russia, Austria, Germany, and others. The contending factions
of the "sea" classes, each endeavoring to assume the reins of government, cause a condition
that very vividly pictures the meaning of this symbol of the "sea becoming blood."
Similar conditions existed during the invasions into the Roman territory, and also
followed for some time the downfall of Western Rome. The historian describes the terrible
condition existing in this period:
"In the beginning of this (fifth) century the Roman Empire was divided into two distinct
sovereignties, one of which comprehended the eastern provinces, the other those of the
West. . . . Honorius, who governed the Western provinces . . . neglected the great affairs of
the empire, and, inattentive to the weighty duties of his station held the reins of
government with an unsteady hand. The Goths taking advantage of this criminal
indolence, made incursions into Italy, laid waste its fairest provinces, and sometimes
carried their desolations as far as Rome, which they ravaged and plundered in the most
dreadful manner. These calamities which fell upon the western part of the empire from the
Gothic depredations, were followed by others still more dreadful under the succeeding
emperors. A fierce and warlike people, issuing out of Germany, overspread Italy, Gaul,
and Spain, the noblest of all the European provinces, and erected new kingdoms in these
fertile countries; and Odoacer, at last, at the head of the Heruli, having conquered
Augustulus, in 476, gave the mortal blow to the Western Empire and reduced all Italy
under his dominion."