“And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.” The following fact of history will explain this: “The Saracens had their Caliphs, the successors of Mohammed, who united in themselves the supreme civil, military and ecclesiastical powers. They were the high-priests of their religion, the commanders of their armies, and the emperors of the nation.” This king over them signifies a succession of rulers, and they are well described as “the angel of the bottomless pit,” for that is the very place where the delusion is said to have originated. Mahomet, as a fallen star, opened the pit and let out the smoke, and his successors, who grasped his power and authority, are fitly characterized as angels from the same place, bearing the name Abaddon or Apollyon, which terms both signify Destroyer.
Is not this a wonderful combination of symbols which can be carried out with surprising accuracy? What human ingenuity could have ever contrived such a marvelous series of events, and described them under such appropriate symbols? Finally, let me ask, Where in the whole compass of universal history can be found another series of events so perfectly meeting every requirement of the symbols? In this we must acknowledge the hand of God.
12. One woe is past;
and, behold, there come two woes more
hereafter.
This announcement, that one woe is past, meaning that the period of one hundred and fifty years during which the Saracens were to continue their conquests has ended, serves an important purpose in enabling us to fix the chronology of the events described. It proves that they succeed each other.
13. And the sixth angel
sounded, and I heard a voice from the
four horns of the golden altar
which is before God,
14. Saying to the sixth
angel which had the trumpet, Loose the
four angels which are bound
in the great river Euphrates.
15. And the four angels
were loosed, which were prepared for an
hour, and a day, and a month,
and a year, for to slay the third
part of men.
16. And the number of
the army of the horsemen were two hundred
thousand thousand: and
I heard the number of them.