he Crusaders of Europe were carrying on a
determined war with the Saracens for the possession of the Holy Land.
For two centuries the armies of Christendom poured into Syria and
Palestine to recover from the hands of the "infidels," as they were
called, the holy sepulchre and the country that gave birth to
Christianity; but when Europe finally abandoned the project, then went
forth the command to loose the four angels, "which were prepared for an
hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of
man." To kill men symbolically, I have already shown, signifies the
destruction either of an empire as a political body or of the church
(that is, the so-called church) as a religious body. The locusts under
the fifth trumpet were to do neither; but the symbolic characters of
this vision are "to slay the third part of men," by which is set forth
the fall and subjugation of the Eastern empire and church; just as,
under the fifth trumpet, the fall of the Western empire was described by
the darkening of a third part of the sun, moon, and stars.

Before considering the time-prophecy in this vision, we will pass on to
notice a few particulars respecting the horses and their riders. The
horsemen possessed breastplates of fire, jacinth, and brimstone; while
out of the mouths of the horses proceeded fire, smoke, and brimstone.
There is evidently a special design in distinguishing between the horses
and their riders. These symbols, being drawn from different sources--the
former from the natural world and the latter from human life--point out
the two characteristics of the Turks as a politico-religious power. The
symbolic description of the two is almost identical. The horsemen had
breastplates of fire, jacinth (purplish or reddish blue), and brimstone.
This describes the character of the Turks as a religious system. Out of
the horses' mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and brimstone, which
represents the Moslems as a political power. The only difference is that
the smoke is substituted for the jacinth, but they very nearly agree in
color. We are thus brought to the conclusion that the political and the
religious power of the Turks is in harmony and agreement with each
other--united in the closest manner possible, like a horse and its
rider, and both animated by the same spirit. That spirit is perhaps
their fierce, fanatical, aggressive, intolerant character.

The tails of the horses were like serpents with heads, their p