THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
Its Basis in the Seven Trumpets.
“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” Rev. 8:7. The time covered by this prophecy is from 395 to 419 A. D., and relates to the invasions of the Visigoths, especially under Alaric, and the great horde of barbarians under Radagaisus, in which wide regions, “which were covered with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, . . . were suddenly changed into a desert, distinguished from the solitude of nature only by smoking ruins,” causing “a secluded old man of Verona pathetically” to lament “the fate of his contemporary trees, which must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country [note the words of the prophecy—‘the third part of the trees was burnt up.’]” “The public devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman Empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the north, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.” “The last word, Africa, is the signal for the sounding of the second trumpet. The scene changes from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the Mediterranean, or from the frozen regions of the north to the borders of burning Africa. And, instead of a storm of hail being cast upon the earth, a burning mountain was cast into the sea.” “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.” Rev. 8:8, 9. The period covered by this trumpet is from 428 to 476. “The history illustrative of the sounding of this trumpet evidently relates to the invasion and conquest of Africa, and afterward of Italy, by the terrible Genseric.” “The word Vandalism has become commonplace among historians. In speaking of the decline of Rome, it is recorded that ‘Vandalism desolated her classic fields.’ The hero of Vandal aggression and destruction was Genseric. “His conquests were, for the most part, NAVAL, and his triumphs were ‘as it were a great mountain burning with fire, . . . cast into the sea.’ What figure would better, or so well, illustrate the collision of navies, and the general havoc of war on maritime coasts?” “In the spring of each year they [the Vandal pirates] equipped a formidable navy in the port of Carthage, and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age, still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked by his pilot what course he should steer, ‘Leave the determination to the winds,’ replied the barbarian, with pious arrogance; ‘they will transport us to the guilty coast whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice.’” Thus the terrible Genseric became “the tyrant of the sea;” and “before he died, in the fullness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the Empire of the West.” “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” Rev. 8:10, 11. The period covered by this trumpet was brief, as “a-burning star,” 441–453. Of this Albert Barnes, in his Notes, says: “That there would be some chieftain, or warrior, who might be compared to a blazing meteor whose course would be singularly brilliant; who would appear suddenly, LIKE a blazing star, and then disappear like a star whose light was quenched in the waters: that the desolating course of that meteor would be mainly on those portions of the world that abounded with springs of water and running streams; that an effect would be produced as if those streams and fountains were made bitter; that is, that many persons would perish, and that wild desolations would be caused in the vicinity of those rivers and streams, as if a baleful star should fall into the waters, and death should spread over lands adjacent to them and watered by them.” This trumpet describes the work of the terrible Attila, with his Huns and allies. “While the Vandals under Genseric [the ‘great burning mountain’] for forty years were destroying the Roman power by sea, there were other clans of barbarians confederating in order to strike a decisive blow against the same power by land. All Europe and a part of Asia had been aroused to the great struggle for the mastery. Many tribes are rallying to the standard of Attila, and the Romans are preparing to repel their terrible foe. Attila anticipates that his best trophies are beyond the Alps. At the sound of his war-cry, all Europe musters to arms. Since Xerxes led his immense army against the Greeks, no greater body of warriors had ever assembled to act a part in the fulfillment of prophecy. The engagement that succeeded [the battle of Chalons] is recorded as one of the four decisive battles of history.” “The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons. The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real or effective loss sufficient to justify the historian’s remark that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour.” “The course of the fiery meteor was changed, not stayed; and, touching Italy for the first time, the great star, after having burned as it were a lamp, fell upon the ‘third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.’ Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation of Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. He passed the Alps, invaded Italy, besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of barbarians. The succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and, as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. “Attila advanced not farther into Italy than the plains of Lombardy and the banks of the Po. He reduced the cities, situated on that river and its tributary streams, to heaps of stones and ashes. But there his ravages ceased. The great star which burned as it were a lamp, no sooner fell upon the fountains and rivers of waters, and turned cities into ashes, than it was extinguished. Unlike the great mountain burning with fire, the great star that fell from heaven, after suddenly scorching a part of Italy, rapidly disappeared. One paragraph in the ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ describes ‘the invasion of Italy by Attila, A. D. 452.’ Another is entitled, under the same date, ‘Attila gives peace to the Romans.’ The next paragraph describes the ‘death of Attila, A. D. 453,’ and the very next records, without any interval, the destruction of his empire.” “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise,” Verse 12. This trumpet illustrates the closing up of the Roman government. Sun, moon, and stars are evidently symbols that denote the rulers in the government—its emperors, consuls, and senators. The sun sends forth light of itself—the decree of the emperor is law. The moon shines with a borrowed light—the authority of the consul was dependent in some measure on the will of another. The stars shine when the night comes—the wants of the people demanded attention, and then the senate acted. “The sun was smitten.” Odoacer caused the title of emperor to cease. But one-third part only is affected—the jurisdiction of Rome then extended over only the middle division of the empire, as ceded by Constantine to his three sons. One-third part of the moon was smitten; the effect of this political calamity had the same extent as the former. When the consulship was taken away, Rome had ceded all her territory beyond the Alps. “The power and the glory of Rome, as bearing rule over any nation, became extinct. The name alone remained to the queen of nations. Every token of royalty disappeared from the imperial city. She who had ruled over the nations sat in the dust, like a second Babylon, and there was no throne where the Cæsars had reigned. The last act of obedience to a Roman prince, which that once august assembly performed, was the acceptance of the resignation of the last emperor of the West, and the abolition of the imperial succession in Italy.” “Neither, at last, was the whole sun smitten, but the ‘third part.’ The throne of the Cæsars had for ages been the sun of the world, while other kings were designated as stars. But the imperial power had first been transferred to Constantinople by Constantine; and it was afterward divided between the East and the West. And the Eastern Empire was not yet doomed to destruction. Even the Western Empire was afterwards revived, and a more modern dynasty arose to claim and maintain the title of emperor of the Romans. But, for the first time, after sudden, and violent, and distinctly marked and connected convulsions, the imperial power in Rome, where for so long a period it had reigned triumphant, was cut off forever; and the third part of the sun was smitten.” “But though the third part of the sun was smitten, and the Roman imperial power was at an end in the city of the Cæsars, yet the moon and the stars still shone, or glimmered, for a little longer in the Western hemisphere.” “But in their prophetic order, the consulship and the senate of Rome met their fate, though they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. The next revolution in Italy was its subjection to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the East. He did not spare what barbarians had hallowed. ‘The Roman Consulship Extinguished by Justinian, A. D. 541,’ is the title of the last paragraph of the fortieth chapter of Gibbon’s ‘History of the Decline and Fall of Rome.’ ‘The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.’ The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. “In the political firmament of the ancient world, while under the reign of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, and the senate, shone like the sun, the moon, and the stars. The history of their decline and fall is brought down till the two former were ‘extinguished,’ in reference to Rome and Italy, which so long had ranked as the first of cities and of countries, and finally, as the fourth trumpet closes, we see the extinction of that illustrious assembly, the Roman senate. The city that had ruled the world, as if in mockery of human greatness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the successor of Belisarius. He defeated the Goths (A. D. 552), achieved ‘the conquest of Rome,’ and the fate of the senate was sealed. “The calamities of imperial Rome, in its downfall, were told to the very last of them, till Rome was without an emperor, a consul, or a senate.”