The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"Here, however, there was a direct blow aimed at that power, yet not such as to secure its
final overthrow, for that is reserved to the pouring out of the last vial, ver. 17-21. All that is
represented here is a heavy judgment which was merely preliminary to that final
overthrow, but which affected the very seat of the beast. The phrase, 'the seat of the beast'
means the seat or throne which the representative of that power occupied; the central point
of the anti-Christian dominion. . . . I understand this as referring to the very seat of the
Papal power--Rome--the Vatican."
Commenting on the expression, "And his Kingdom was full of darkness," Mr. Barnes gives
as the meaning of this, "confusion; disorder; distress; for darkness is often the emblem of
calamity.--Jer. 13:16; Isa. 59:9,10; Ezek. 30:18; 32:7,8; 34:12; Joel 2:2."
In concluding our examination of the fifth plague vision it will be to the point as bearing
on the fact of its having had only a partial fulfillment up to the present time, to keep in
mind the suggestion "that the full results of this evil or plague will not be felt for many
years; it has its beginning only, now. It is well also to remember that one plague or evil
goes on increasingly, after a second and third, etc., are added, until in the end the entire
seven forms of evil will be operating simultaneously."
It will thus be seen that when the seventh plague is meeting its fulfillment, each of the
others will also be operating, and together will work to the accomplishment of the Divine
purpose--the overthrow of every form of evil and wrong, producing genuine repentance,
reformation, on the part of those who live through that judgment period.
Sixth vial poured on great river Euphrates
"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water
thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."--Rev. 16:12.
There can be no question that the great river Euphrates is used in this sixth plague as a
symbol. There will be suggested to the mind of the student of the Apocalyptic visions
almost immediately the use of this symbol in the sixth trumpet vision; and at once the
question arises, Is there not some correspondence or connection between the two. In
considering the sixth trumpet the river Euphrates was interpreted to represent that which
bound or held in check for a time, the four angels--the Turkish-Ottoman forces in their
invasion of the Eastern or Greek Christendom. In this sixth plague symbol it is represented
as something that stands in the way of or hinders what is termed the coming of the kings
of the east, or the kings from the sunrising (Diaglott), and the exercise of their office work.
Before attempting to make an application of what is meant in the vision by the drying up
of the great river Euphrates, may we not find the key to the correct interpretation in the
discovery of who are meant by the kings of the sunrising? There is a general disposition on
the part of expositors who wrote in the first half of the nineteenth century to apply these
kings from the sunrising to peoples living in the eastern parts of Europe and Asia, and the
drying up of the river Euphrates to the removal of those obstacles that stand in the way of
their conversion to Christianity. Mr. Elliott thus expresses this thought: