The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"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 for ever and
ever."--Rev. 11:14,15.
As introductory to a consideration of the symbols of the seventh trumpet vision, we here
call the reader's attention to the fact that the par-.enthetic visions recorded in chapter 10,
verse 1 to chapter 11, verse 15, end at this point. The events of the seventh trumpet are
immediately introduced with the words: "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third
woe cometh quickly." The woes themselves should not be confounded with the trumpets.
As has been seen, the fifth and sixth trumpets represent certain movements connected
with the unfolding of the Divine Plan, covering long periods of time. The woes represent
those calamitous events which came upon apostate Christian communities during the
periods covered by the trumpets. Viewed in this light it will be seen that the events
described in chapters ten and eleven up to verse 15 cover much the same period of time as
the sixth trumpet, but do not represent the woe itself. The woe feature of the sixth trumpet
falls on apostate Eastern Christendom. The agency employed to inflict this woe was that of
the Turkish-Ottoman power.
Regarding the significance of the words, "The second woe is passed," we find that in one
sense the woe ended when the Turkish-Ottoman forces were restrained in their attempt to
perpetuate their ravages on the territory of Western Christendom. It is an undisputed fact
of history that . . .
". . . from the date of the fall of Constantinople before the advance of the Mohammedan
hordes, AD 1453, up to the great naval battle of Lepanto, AD 1571, the Turkish power had
been continually advancing in Europe. The Euphratean flood rose higher and higher, till it
reached its highest point under Solomon the Magnificent, in the middle of the sixteenth
century. It remained stationary at high-water mark for half a century, and even as late as
1669, Candia was added to the dominions of the Porte. But the last quarter of the
seventeenth century was a time of fierce struggle, and of alternate victory and defeat. Wars
with Russia and Austria severely shook the Ottoman power, and the war which was
closed by the Peace of Carlowitz, signed in 1699, broke forever the aggressive power of the
Turkish Empire."
In another and more complete sense the Turkish-Ottoman power can not be said to have
ended until it was compelled to yield to the control of the allied powers of Europe. History
further informs us that . . .
". . . in 1844, the Porte was compelled by the Christian nations of Europe to issue an edict
of religious toleration, abolishing forever its characteristic and sanguinary practice of
execution for apostasy, that is, for the adoption of the Christian faith. As this was entirely
against its will, because against the precepts of the Koran, and contrary to the practice of
all the ages during which Mohammedanism had been in existence, it was a most potent
proof that Ottoman independence was gone, as a matter of fact, though often mentioned