Such are a few of the leading events with reference to the decline of the Ottoman empire; and there is only one further remark that I would make respecting it. The failure has not been the result of external conquest, but of internal decay. The Turks have not been brought down by any great defeats, but by their own want of life. The powers of Europe have not attacked them, but, on the contrary, have done their best to uphold them, as, _e.g._, in the Crimean war; but, notwithstanding all that France and England could do, their power is falling to pieces of itself. The sick man is dying, and the physicians cannot keep him alive. Their energy seems gone, their exchequer is exhausted, and their population is so much diminished, that there are now only 2,000,000 Turks or Ottomans left in Europe. In other words, the Euphrates is drying up, and the inundation cannot long remain upon the land. Now I can quite understand the feeling of those who have experienced a certain amount of disappointment in hearing this morning about the Turkish empire, instead of something bearing more directly on their own personal salvation, and I should myself have preferred to have preached on some such subject. But I have taken this subject on principle. 1. Because, as I have already said, ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ No portion, therefore, of God’s word, whether it be prophetic or historical, ought to be set aside by those who really desire to know God’s truth. If we wish to know the whole mind of God we must be prepared to study the whole of the Holy Scriptures which God has given us.