The Revelation Explained Part 17

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of G.o.d.

2. And I saw as it were a sea of gla.s.s mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of gla.s.s, having the harps of G.o.d.

3. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of G.o.d, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord G.o.d Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

4. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and wors.h.i.+p before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest:

5. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

6. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their b.r.e.a.s.t.s girded with golden girdles.

7. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of G.o.d, who liveth for ever and ever.

8. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of G.o.d, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The scene presented to us in this vision is but an introduction to the solemn scenes of awful judgment immediately following. The first thing that attracted John's attention was a sign, great and marvelous, "seven angels having the seven last plagues." The reason why these are denominated the "last plagues" is because that "in them is filled up the wrath of G.o.d." These are the completion, then, the finis.h.i.+ng up of the work of divine judgment against the persecutors of the church. When the last one is poured out the work is done, the time of judgment is over.

These angels are not designed to symbolize any agencies on earth, for they do not appear on earth; they are simply the conductors of the Revelation. G.o.d never commissions his people on earth to perform such great judgments upon their persecutors as the temporal judgments of the seven last plagues will be shown to be; but, on the contrary, he has given them the express command not to avenge themselves, but to suffer wrong. He himself lays exclusive claim to this prerogative, saying, "Vengeance is _mine_; I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. 12:19.

As soon as the subject of the plagues is introduced and before they are poured out, the narrative suddenly changes and a short history of G.o.d's redeemed saints is given. This, perhaps, thus occurs for two reasons--to a.s.sist us in fixing the chronology of the events described and to encourage us with the thought that, even while the awful judgments of G.o.d are being "made manifest" upon the haughty oppressors of earth, G.o.d has a chosen people who have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name."

They stand upon the "sea of gla.s.s, having the harps of G.o.d"--a symbol of melody and praise--and sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.

The song of Moses was that sung by the Israelites when they had escaped to the further side of the Red Sea, thus securing perfect deliverance from their enemies. So, also, this company of wors.h.i.+pers sing a great song of deliverance--deliverance from the beast and his image. In chapters 4 and 5 John saw the great host redeemed before the apostasy standing on this sea of gla.s.s, singing the song of redemption--the song of the Lamb--but this company are enabled to sing another song as well--the song of deliverance--for they have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." Halleluiah! "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord G.o.d Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."

As before stated (chap. 8:3), the heavenly world as opened up to John appeared symbolized after the sanctuary of the temple. By "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony," out of which the seven angels came fully prepared for their work, is meant the most holy place of the sanctuary, called "the tabernacle of the testimony" because there was deposited in it, beneath the wings of the cherubim, the ark of the testimony, or G.o.d's covenant. It was therefore as from the most holy place of the sanctuary--from the very presence of the Deity--that these angels went forth commissioned to execute the seven last plagues. This shows that they went by the divine command as ministers of vengeance.

The purity and beauty of their attire denoted both the spotless excellency of their characters and the justice of the work in which they were to engage. Although theirs was a work of awful avenging judgment, still the garments they wore would not be soiled thereby; and their flowing robes of white were girded up with a beautiful golden girdle.

Therefore there is no inconsistency between the purity and love of G.o.d and the work of his vengeance. It would seem to human reasoning that the two are irreconcilable, but these symbols teach differently.

These angels received their vials (goblets) of wrath at the hands of one of the four living creatures, who are symbols of the redeemed sons of earth. Their deliverance by one of these doubtless denotes that these judgments were to be executed in their behalf and in answer to their prayers. For centuries the wrath of deadly persecutors had been poured out upon G.o.d's people, until the cry ascended from the lips of the martyrs, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Chap. 6:10. Now their prayer is answered, and by their hand, as it were, the vials of wrath are delivered with the divine sanction unto the seven angels to be poured out upon these proud oppressors of the Lord's people. These vials, too, were "full of wrath." What a fearful expression! _Full of wrath_, even "_the wrath of G.o.d_, who liveth forever and ever." There was nothing in them but wrath and that to the very brim.

As soon as the vials were delivered, "the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of G.o.d." This symbol is taken from the Shekinah which filled the ancient tabernacle. We read that when the tabernacle was finished, "a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Ex. 40:34, 35. The same thing occurred at the dedication of Solomon's temple. "The cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord." 1 Kings 8:10, 11. So, also, in the symbol before us the glory of G.o.d filled the temple so that no man was able to enter. This is intended to set forth the fact that these avenging judgments were for the manifestation of the divine glory and that there was no access to the throne of G.o.d nor to his mercy-seat to alter them or to stay their execution. Such is the sublime scene presented to our view preparatory to the pouring out of the seven last great plagues.

CHAPTER XVI.

And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of G.o.d upon the earth.

2. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which wors.h.i.+pped his image.

A great voice out of the temple, now filled with the glory of the divine presence, commanded the seven angels to enter upon their mission. It came, therefore, from G.o.d, who alone fixed the time for these judgments to begin.

Before an intelligent explanation of these plagues can be given, however, the following points must be made clear: 1. _Where_ the vials were poured out. 2. _Upon whom_ they were emptied. 3. _Why_ they were thus poured out. 4. _When_ they were fulfilled, or, rather, at what time they began to be fulfilled. These points we will first briefly consider in the order named, after which we will discuss the _nature_ of the plagues and their individual application.

1. The place where these vials of wrath were poured out was "upon the earth"; that is, the Apocalyptic earth, or that portion of the earth made the special subject of Apocalyptic vision; namely, the territory of the ten kingdoms. The last two vials, however, will be found to embrace a larger territory.

2. They were poured out upon those "which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which wors.h.i.+ped his image." It has already been shown that the image made by the second beast of chapter 13 was the Protestant ecclesiastical organizations; hence the "beast" here referred to, to which the image was made, must signify the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Rome, the original. So the plagues fell upon the adherents of both organized Romanism and Protestantism in Europe.

3. The reason why the judgments of the first three vials especially descended upon them was because "they had shed the blood of saints and prophets." Verse 6. That Romanism was a fierce oppressor of G.o.d's people has already been noticed: Protestantism as their persecutor, also, must now be considered further. Protestant sects after they first became established and got power in their own hands, acted much in the same manner as the church of Rome did before them, persecuting, banis.h.i.+ng, imprisoning, and even putting to death those who refused to receive their tenets or to conform to the system of religion they had adopted.

The Lutherans, at first a pious, persecuted people, on becoming numerous and exalted by the favor of the great, established a certain system of religion and then, when it was in their power, persecuted, imprisoned, banished, or put to death all that dissented. As early after the Reformation as 1574, in a convention at Torgaw, they established the real presence in the eucharist and instigated the Elector of Saxony to seize, imprison, and banish all the secret Calvinists that differed from them in sentiment, and to reduce their followers by every act of violence, to renounce their sentiments and to confess the ubiquity.

Peucer, for his opinions, suffered ten years of imprisonment in the severest manner. In 1577 a form of concord was produced in which the real manducation of Christ's body and blood in the eucharist was established and heresy and excommunication laid on all that refused this as an article of faith, with pains and penalties to be enforced by the secular arm. Crellius, in 1601, was put to death.

In Switzerland, before the city of Zurich was entirely safe itself from the encroachments of Romanism, its Protestant council condemned a young man named Felix Mantz to be drowned because he insisted that the baby-sprinkling of Romanism was not baptism and that all who had received the rite ought to be immersed. This sentence was carried into effect. The severest laws were pa.s.sed in different countries of Europe against the Anabaptists, and large numbers were banished or burnt at the stake. See Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. Anabaptists. Protestants may claim this was because of their fanaticism on other lines; but it remains a fact, nevertheless, that the chief sentiment at the base of these laws was religious persecution and that Protestants sanctioned and carried them into execution.

King Henry VIII., the founder of the Established Church in England, adopted the most stringent laws to enforce its doctrines. Certain articles of religion were drawn up, known in history as the "b.l.o.o.d.y Six Articles." Concerning these the People's Cyclopaedia says: "The doctrines were substantially those of the Roman Catholic Church. Whoever denied the first articles (that embodying the doctrine of transubstantiation) was to be declared a heretic, and burnt without opportunity of abjuration; whoso spoke against the other five articles should, for the first offense, forfeit his property; and whosoever refused to abjure his first offense, or committed a second, was to die like a felon." Art.

Henry VIII. "The royal reformer persecuted alike Catholics and Protestants. Thus, on one occasion, three Catholics who denied that the king was the rightful head of the church, and three Protestants who disputed the doctrine of the real presence in the sacrament,... were dragged on the same sled to the place of execution." In speaking of that period of history and of the religious persecutions of the times, Myers says: "Punishment of heresy was then regarded, by both Catholics and Protestants alike, as a duty which could be neglected by those in authority only at the peril of Heaven's displeasure. Believing this, those of that age could consistently do nothing less than labor to exterminate heresy with axe, sword and f.a.got." General History, p. 553.

That religious intolerance even at a later date was practised in England, witness the twelve years' imprisonment of John Bunyan and the hundreds confined in jails throughout that country for not conforming to the established religion. It was such severe persecution by that early Protestant sect that drove the Puritans from England's fair country to the then inhospitable sh.o.r.es of America, that they might have an opportunity to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d according to the dictates of their own conscience. In Scotland the Covenanters "insisted on their right to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d in their own way. They were therefore subjected to most cruel and unrelenting persecution. They were hunted by English troopers over their native moors and among the wild recesses of their mountains, whither they secretly retired for prayer and wors.h.i.+p. The tales of the suffering of the Scotch Covenanters at the hands of the English Protestants form a most harrowing chapter of the records of the ages of religious persecution." This list might be considerably augmented, but it is unnecessary. However, that Protestant persecution and tyranny should never reach the enormous extent of the Romanists before them is proved by the fact that her horns were "like a lamb." Chap. 13:11.

4. It is very important for us to ascertain the _time_ for the beginning of these plagues; for they can not be identified unless we understand the chronology of the events described. It is a fact no one can question that the seventh plague is the judgment of the last day, for in the seven "is filled up" the wrath of G.o.d; hence they are denominated the _last_ plagues. It is also a fact, well-known to all who are spiritual and who understand the truth in the present reformation, that certain events said to occur under the period of the sixth plague are _now_ taking place; namely, the confederation of all false religions to oppose the people of G.o.d, led on by the "unclean spirits" that come "out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." Verses 13, 14.

Therefore five of the plagues precede the time in which we are now living. It is evident that the plagues could not begin before the reformation; for the vials were poured out upon the "image of the beast"--Protestantism--also. Hence we are directed to some period between the sixteenth century and the present day for their commencement. The reason _why_ the first judgments especially were poured out will a.s.sist us in determining the starting-point--"They have shed the blood of saints and prophets." This expression seems to indicate that the time for the plagues to begin was after Romanism and Protestantism ceased putting people to death because of their religious sentiments. That this is the correct idea is clearly proved by what was said to the martyrs when they cried unto G.o.d for the avenging of their blood on them that dwell on the earth. "And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Chap. 6:10, 11. For additional information concerning the terrible persecutions that followed the Sixteenth Century Reformation, see remarks on chapter 6:10, 11.

We must now determine about what time the great persecutions referred to ceased, or nearly ceased, and that will give us the right starting-point from which to reckon the pouring out of the first vial. In A.D. 1685 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV. of France, took place, and in the terrible persecutions that occurred during his reign three hundred thousand are said to have lost their lives. The time that we are endeavoring to establish, then, must be later than the seventeenth century. Louis died in 1714. Persecutions continued from time to time in France, with considerable severity, until about the middle of the century. "Soon after this ... the flowing of heretic blood ceased, though an effort was made in 1765 by the Popish clergy to resist the tendency to toleration by a remonstrance to the king." History of Romanism, p. 608. A few individual cases of persecution may have occurred later in other countries; but in the main we are safe in pointing to about the middle of the eighteenth century for the general cessation of these religious _murders_. We will now consider the nature of the first plague.

The pouring out of this vial produced the most painful malignant ulcers upon the human body. Such ulcers are evidently not political calamities; for the symbol is drawn, not from nature, but from human life. Still, it is not drawn from a human being as a whole (in which case religious events would be symbolized), but only from his body. What, then, is the a.n.a.lagous object of which the human body may stand as a proper representative? Evidently, the mind. We would naturally pa.s.s from the bodily to the mental; and what painful ulcers are to the one, marring its beauty and filling it with burning anguish, such are blasphemous opinions and malignant principles to the other.

Considering the time for this plague pointed out above, the student of Revelation who is acquainted with the history of the past will scarcely fail to discern at once, in the striking points of this symbol, those horrible principles of infidelity, atheism, and licentiousness, which were spread so extensively over Europe during the latter half of the eighteenth century, and which were the most efficient causes in bringing about the fearful convulsions which followed in the French Revolution.

That all may understand this matter in its proper light, however, it will be necessary to state some of the facts respecting this "noisome and grievous sore" that fell at that time upon the inhabitants of Europe. In writing upon the causes that led up to the French Revolution, Mr. Wickes gathered the following facts of history mainly from the Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, under the articles headed _Philosophists_ and _Illuminati_. I will quote his own language, as it is very pointed.

"Philosophists was a name given to several persons in France, who entered into a combination to overthrow the religion of Jesus, and eradicate from the human heart every religious sentiment. The man more particularly to whom this idea first occurred, was Voltaire, who being weary (as he said himself) of hearing it repeated that twelve men were sufficient to establish Christianity, resolved to prove that one might be sufficient to overturn it. Full of this project, he swore, before the year 1730, to devote his life to its accomplishment, and for some time he flattered himself that he should enjoy alone the glory of destroying the Christian religion. He found, however, that a.s.sociates would be necessary; and from the numerous tribe of his admirers and disciples, he chose D'Alembert and Diderot, as the most proper persons to co-operate with him in his designs. He contrived also to enlist Frederick II., king of Prussia, who became one of his most zealous coadjutors, until he found that Voltaire was waging war with the throne as well as the altar.

This, indeed, was not originally Voltaire's intention. He was vain; from natural disposition an aristocrat, and an admirer of royalty. But when he found that almost every sovereign but Frederick disapproved of his ambitious designs, as soon as he perceived their issue, he determined to oppose all the governments on earth rather than forfeit the glory with which he flattered himself, of vanquis.h.i.+ng Christ and his apostles in the field of controversy.

"He now set himself, with his a.s.sociates, D'Alembert and Diderot, to excite universal discontent with the established order of things. For this purpose, they formed secret societies, a.s.sumed new names, and employed an enigmatical language. In their secret meetings they professed to celebrate the mysteries of _Mythra_; and their great object, as they professed to one another, was to confound the wretch, meaning Jesus Christ. Hence their secret watchword was 'Crush the wretch.' The following are some of their doctrines, as found in their books expressly designed for general circulation. Sometimes standing out in their naked horror, at other times enveloped in sophistry and disguise. The Universal Cause, that G.o.d of the philosophers, of the Jews, and of the Christians, is but a chimera and a phantom--The phenomena of nature only prove the existence of G.o.d to a few prepossessed men--It is more reasonable to admit, with Manes, of a two-fold G.o.d, than of the G.o.d of Christianity--We can not know whether a G.o.d really exists, or whether there is any difference between good and evil, or vice and virtue--Nothing can be more absurd than to believe the soul a spiritual being--The immortality of the soul, so far from stimulating men to the practise of virtue, is nothing but a barbarous, desperate, fatal tenet, and contrary to all legislation--All ideas of justice and injustice, of virtue and vice, of glory and infamy, are purely arbitrary, and dependent on custom--Conscience and remorse are nothing but the foresight of those physical penalties to which crimes expose us--The man who is above the law, can commit, without remorse, the dishonest act that may serve his purpose--The fear of G.o.d, so far from being the beginning of wisdom, should be the beginning of folly--The command to love one's parents is more the work of education than of nature--Modesty is only an invention of refined voluptuousness--The law which condemns married people to live together, becomes barbarous and cruel on the day they cease to love one another.

"Such were the atrocious sentiments, though sometimes artfully veiled, which were disseminated in their books, and which, spreading all over Europe, imperceptibly took possession of the public mind, and prepared the way for the subversion of religion, morals, and government. As soon as the sale of the works was sufficient to pay expenses, inferior editions were printed and given away, or sold at a very low price; circulating libraries of them were formed, and reading societies inst.i.tuted. While they constantly denied these productions to the world, they contrived to give them a false celebrity through their confidential agents and correspondents, who were not themselves always trusted with the entire secret.

"By degrees they got possession nearly of all the reviews and periodical publications; established a general intercourse, by means of hawkers and pedlars, with the distant provinces; and inst.i.tuted an office to supply all schools with teachers; and thus did they acquire unprecedented dominion over every species of literature, over the minds of all ranks of people, and the education of the youth, without giving any alarm to the world. The lovers of wit and polite literature were caught by Voltaire; the men of science were perverted, and children corrupted in the first rudiments of learning, by D'Alembert and Diderot; stronger appet.i.tes were fed by the secret club of Baron Holbach; the imaginations of the higher orders were set dangerously afloat by Montesquieu; and the mult.i.tude of all ranks was surprised, confounded, and hurried away by Rousseau. Thus was the public mind in France completely corrupted, and the way prepared for the dreadful scenes that followed."

But there is also another chapter to the dark history of this "noisome and grievous sore." The same author says again:

"After Voltaire had broached his system of infidel philosophy, and brought it unto perfection, it was taken up by the celebrated Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law in the University of Ingolstadt, and by him perfected as a system of light or illuminism. On the 1st of May, 1776, he founded, among the students of the above-named University, a secret society under the name of the _Illuminati_, whose avowed object was to diffuse the light of science, these secret societies being so many radiating centers of light. But the science taught was the most atrocious infidelity, and its object the overturning of all government and religion. Free masonry, being in high repute all over Europe when Weishaupt first formed the plan of his society, he availed himself of its secrecy to introduce his new order, which rapidly spread, by the efforts of its founders and disciples, through all those countries, and found its way even to the United States. It would not be possible here to give even an outline of the nature and const.i.tution of this extraordinary society--of its secrets and mysteries--of the deep dissimulation, consummate hypocrisy, and shocking impiety of its founder and his a.s.sociates--of their Jesuitical arts in concealing their real objects, and their incredible industry and astonis.h.i.+ng exertions in making converts--of the absolute despotism and complete system of _espionage_ established throughout the order--of the blind obedience exacted of the _novices_, and the absolute power of life and death a.s.sumed by the order and conceded by the novices--of the pretended morality, real blasphemies, and absolute atheism of the founder and his tried friends. Reference can only be made to these things as well-established facts.

"It is important here to bear in mind one or two facts, in order to realize what an engine of corruption this secret organization of the _Illuminati_ was. One fact is, the high popularity which these secret societies at that period enjoyed. It was unbounded. There is something which commends such secret organizations most powerfully to the depraved human nature. Men love them because they are secret, and because they can wield such tremendous power. The other fact to be considered, is the absence, to a such vast extent, of the controlling elements of true religion in the European mind, and its predisposition to skepticism. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century had broken the shackles of priestly Papal superst.i.tion over the human mind; and [true] evangelical doctrine not being introduced to supply the vacuum, the ma.s.s swung readily over from the regions of dark superst.i.tion to blank atheism. Thus were the elements ready prepared to hand for such spirits as Voltaire, D'Alembert, Diderot, Weishaupt, and others, to work upon, and by reason of their secret powerful agencies, to mould to their own liking.

"It was now this d.a.m.ning system of infidelity, under the specious name of philosophy, light, and science, spread with such untiring industry over the European mind, that unhinged the whole framework of society, and prepared it, like a vast magazine, for an awful explosion. All the principles that held society together in the fear of G.o.d and future retribution--regard for human law--respect for magistrates, parents, and the marriage-tie--yea, in the very distinctions of virtue and vice, had been unsettled or taken away. They had been reasoned down and laughed out of the world; and when these only restraints, which G.o.d has imposed upon human selfishness and pa.s.sion were removed, what was then to hold back those fierce pa.s.sions and that deep selfishness from the most unbounded excesses? G.o.d was no more feared--government was no more sacred--religion was a delusion--immorality was a lie--virtue was a name--the marriage-tie was a farce--modesty was refined voluptuousness: and when men were persuaded of these things, society began to roll and heave under the long swells of that portentous storm of wrath which was soon to break, in all its desolating fury, over the earth."

In the facts here presented it may be seen how far we are justified in applying to them this first vial of wrath. The vial was poured out "upon the earth"--on the inhabitants of the ten kingdoms when in a state of tranquility. This was their condition, unsuspicious of danger, when the dread infection was spread through society. According to the testimony of Pres. Dwight, within ten years from the first establishment of the Illuminati, in 1776, "they were established in great numbers through Germany, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, Austria, Holland, France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Scotland, and America. They spread with a rapidity which nothing but fact could have induced any sober mind to believe."

This system of infidelity is well symbolized by a noisome, grevious ulcer, which is loathsome to the sight, offensive to the smell, corrupting to the body, and productive of awful pain. That it appeared so to others besides the author of the Revelation is shown by the following epithets which Burke, the celebrated English orator, applied to the spirit of the French Revolution, which was only the discharged virus of these ulcers. He styled it "the fever of Jacobinism;" "the epidemic of atheistical fanaticism;" "an evil lying deep in the corruptions of human nature;" "such a plague, that the precaution of the most severe quarantine ought to be established against it." The result, he says, was "the corruption of all morals," "the decomposition of all society." What greater plague could fall upon Romanism and Protestantism than this fearful scourge of infidelity?

I have dwelt for a considerable length of time upon this subject, because of its deep interest, and also because I desired to verify the application of the symbol as much as possible, on account of its close connection with the pouring out of the vials which follow.

3. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

This vial was poured out upon the "sea." The sea is a large body of water within the earth, subject to violent storms and agitations. As a symbol it would denote some central power or kingdom within the symbolic earth in a state of revolution. The effects produced by this vial were two-fold--the waters were changed into blood as of a dead man, and all the living creatures in the sea died. The waters of the sea represent the inhabitants of this kingdom (see a similar explanation of _water_ in chap. 17:15) as the earth does the inhabitants of the empire, or the ten kingdoms. The living creatures in the sea, therefore, could signify the rulers and princes of the kingdom, as they bear an a.n.a.lagous relation to the people that fishes do to the waters. The statement that the waters of the sea became "as the blood of a dead man" is doubtless intended to signify a much more dreadful state of things than if they had simply been changed to blood. They were converted into black and poisonous, or corrupt, blood. This denotes the vast slaughter and ma.s.sacre of the inhabitants of this kingdom; while the death of the living creatures denotes the extinction of those in power.

It may appear at first that making the conversion of water into blood a symbol of bloodshed is adopting the literal method of interpretation; but not so, and for the following reason: The symbol is taken from nature, the waters of the sea representing the inhabitants of the kingdom. The waters are changed into an unnatural state or element, that of blood, and this change denotes an a.n.a.lagous one pa.s.sing upon the inhabitants. Their continuing in life would be their remaining as waters: their ma.s.sacre and destruction would be the waters changed to blood--a horrible and unnatural element. Likewise, the death of the living things in the sea is a similar destruction overtaking the kings, rulers, and princes.