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for it was evident, if let alone, Mehemet would soon become master of the sultan's throne.
(The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About A.D. 1843, p. 157).

The sultan accepted this intervention of the great powers, and voluntarily handed over the
settlement of the question into their hands. A conference of these powers was held in London, the
Sheik Effendi Bey Likgis being present as the Ottoman plenipotentiary. An agreement was drawn
up to be presented to the pasha of Egypt, whereby the sultan was to offer him the hereditary gov-
ernment of Egypt, and all that part of Syria extending from the Gulf of Suez to the Lake of Tiberias,
together with the province of Acre, for life. The pasha, on his part, was to evacuate all other parts
of the sultan's dominions then occupied by him, and to return what was left of the Ottoman fleet. If
the pasha was to refuse this offer from the sultan, the four powers were to take matters into their
own hands -- and use such means to bring him to terms as they should see fit.

On August 11, 1840, the period of 391 years and 15 days allotted to the continuance of the
Ottoman Empire, ended; and the sultan's independence was gone. The four great powers had the
supremacy of the Ottoman Empire in their hands, and that empire has existed ever since only by the
sufferance of these Christian powers. Thus the prophecy was fulfilled to the very letter.

The description of verses 17-19 brings to mind the conquering power of lions, the swift-
ness and fearlessness of horses, the destructive agencies of fire, smoke, and brimstone (whereby "a
third part of mankind" were killed), and the poison of serpents in their tails. This is so much a
repetition of the symbols of the fifth trumpet that it is evident the same people are again being de-
scribed -- but with differences that indicate the identity is not complete. This judgment was not to
be final, for it was to fatally affect only "a third part." Author Bengel comments upon this removal
of a third part by death --

In the present day also there is a great corruption among unbelievers and nominal chris-
tians, in all parts of Christendom, and in all conditions of men; but if we could see what
in former times has been taken away, we should find that God has continually saved out
of the corrupt mass a good portion to remain for seed. Those portions that have been ex-
tirpated have been for the most part a bad commodity....It is therefore necessary for the
holy angels to blow with their trumpets, that men may learn to fear the Lord, and not be
forever contending against Him.

Verses 20 and 21: "The rest of mankind, those who were not killed by these plagues, even
then did not turn from what they had made with their own hands -- they did not stop worship-
ping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, which cannot see or hear
or walk. Nor did they turn from their murdering, their misuse of drugs in connection with the
occult, their sexual immorality or their stealing."

Verses 20 and 21 show that this woe had a remedial object: to call to repentance "the rest
of mankind, those who were not killed by these plagues." But the warning fell on deaf ears; for it is
stated twice that they did NOT repent of their evil ways. And history verifies this -- the nations
that suffered under the Saracenic and Ottoman scourges did not repent of their demonic ways, their
idolatries and their worse than pagan practices. This can be compared with the hardness of heart

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