history treats familiarly of a Greek, as well as a Latin church and empire.  As the trumpets cover the whole time from the opening of the sixth seal till the final overthrow of the whole fourth monarchy; (Dan. vii. 26; Rev. xi. 15,) it follows that the eastern section must be the object of a part of them.  Accordingly, the remaining part of the second period,—­the Period of the Trumpets, includes the first two of the three, emphatically and significantly styled “woe-trumpets.”

CHAPTER IX.

1.  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth:  and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2.  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3.  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4.  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

5.  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months:  and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6.  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

7.  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were us the faces of men.

8.  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9.  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10.  And they had tails like unto scorpions; and there were stings in their tails:  and their power was to hurt men five months.

11.  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.

Vs. 1-11.—­The scene of the events announced by the sounding of the first “woe-trumpet,” is the eastern Roman empire.  A variety of symbols is here employed to represent the judgment to be inflicted.  The principal agents and events are,—­a “star, locusts, Apollyon their king, their depredations, the time of their continuance.”

Neither Boniface III. nor Mahomet answers to the symbol “falling star.”  Allowing that a star, as a symbol, may represent a person in either civil or ecclesiastical office, no successful aspirants to places of power, as both of these were, can be here understood.  Obviously degradation and not elevation is intended.  Either dethronement of a prince or apostacy of a theological dignitary must be intended.