ut the churches of the north of Africa, and the Asiatic
portion of the Eastern empire, had become greatly debased, and worshipped
saints and images. And while the territories of these were speedily
subverted to Mohammedanism, and became a part of the Arabian empire, the
east of Europe was wonderfully preserved from their inroads.

Their power was not to kill, but to torment men five months. To kill,
symbolically, according to the significance of the second seal, p. 60, is
to compel men to apostasize; and they could not be in a condition to force
their religion on the men of the eastern empire, without first subjecting
it by force of arms.

The time of this torment was limited to five prophetic months. In one
hundred and fifty years from the _Hegira_ the Saracen empire had ceased to
be aggressive. In 762 Bagdad, the city of peace, was founded on the
Tigris, by Al-Mansur, who died in 774. "From this time," says ROTTICK,
"the Arabian history assumes an entirely different character." It was no
longer progressive; the proud Saracen empire became dismembered, and three
independent and hostile Caliphates, and several fragments of kingdoms,
were formed from its ruins. In 841, the reigning Caliph at Bagdad,
distrusting the spirit of his own troops, hired a body of fifty thousand
Turkish soldiers, which he distributed in his dominions. These accelerated
the ruin of the Caliphate, and, in time, the whole of the Saracen
territory became subject to the Tartar rule, which had become Mohammedan,
and also aimed to subject the eastern empire.

The declaration that "one woe is past," v. 12, implies an interval between
that and the woe following. In a corresponding manner, the crusaders from
Europe, like the successive overflowing of a mighty river, restrained the
Tartars from the conquest of Constantinople, which had now consented to
image worship, till the sounding of:

The Sixth Trumpet.

"And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice out of the four
horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel
having the trumpet, Loose the four messengers bound near the great
river Euphrates. And the four messengers were loosed, prepared for
an hour, and day, and month, and year, to slay the third part of
men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred
thousand thousand: I heard the number of them. And thus I saw on
the horses in the vision, and those, who sat on them, ha