r three hundred and ninety-one years, marked the time
during which they were "prepared" to extend their conquests. But it is
not stated that the woe itself, or the Ottoman power, would then cease;
for it is not represented as ending until after the death and the
resurrection of the witnesses (chap. 11:14), immediately following which
the coming of Christ and the general judgment, or the third woe, is
described. Verses 15-18. The Turkish power has made no advance for
centuries, but has been on the decline; yet it will endure for its
allotted time. It furnishes us a way-mark by which we can determine our
position along the pathway of time; for when it falls, we may rest
assured that the coming of Christ is imminent.

For nearly two centuries it has been the wonder of civilized nations how
that corrupt, tyrannical government, which has been described as a
"despotism tempered by assassination," could exist in the increased
light and onward advance of modern civilization. Concerning its position
in Europe, Judson, in his recent history of Europe in the Nineteenth
Century, says: "The Turkish empire has been an element of unrest in
Europe. It has long been plain to all that it is not permanent. It has
taken no root. The Turks are merely encamped in Europe; and it is merely
a question of time when the last of them must return across the
Bosphorus." Pp. 269, 270. But Turkey will continue to hold this
territory of the old Greek empire until the time appointed by the Father
for her overthrow. The nations of Europe have often conspired for her
overthrow. This is what is known as the great Eastern Question, which
has been described by one writer as "the expulsion of the Turk from
Europe, and the scramble for his territory." But it has not yet been
accomplished, for the very reason doubtless, that it _could not_ take
place before the resurrection of the witnesses, of which we will speak
later. Judson thus continues his account of the matter: "As soon as this
idea was realized [that Turkish power in Europe must fall] by the
Western nations, in place of the dread of the Turk which had so long
been part and parcel of European thinking, the question of the disposal
to be made of the Turkish possessions became matter of live interest.
And this is the Eastern Question. The Greek empire vanished forever when
the last Constantine fell in 1453. The only problem is one of partition.
And the heart of it all is the disposal to be made of Constant