But that I believe to be our position now, and that we are at this present time living under the sixth vial. I believe that the great public, political event of the sixth vial, is the drying up of the Ottoman Empire, and that we can all see to be in progress. There can be no doubt about the great, public, political fact. It is confirmed by every newspaper, and is forced on the attention of England by the sore distress brought on many families through the Turkish bankruptcy. But if this be the fact predicted by the symbol of the drying up of the Euphrates, then it follows that we are living under the sixth vial, and that the seventh vial is all that remains of the great prophetic series. (2.) But consider next the contents of the seventh vial. The seventh seal contained the series of seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet the series of seven vials. May there not be some similar series wrapped up in the seventh vial? Such a question would be perfectly reasonable, but the only answer that we can give is that we do not find any such series described in the prophecy. On the other hand, everything in it looks like the end. When the seventh angel poured out his vial there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ It certainly did not look like the commencement of another series, but taught us rather to look out for the great winding up of the world and the final close of the great prophetic plan. So in the account of the seventh vial you may see four things plainly revealed. The fall of Babylon, which I believe to be the fall of Rome: chap, xvi. 17, to the end of xviii. The marriage supper of the Lamb, chap. xix. 1–9. The triumphant victory of the Son of God: chap. xix. 11, 12; and, last of all, the millennial reign, chap, xx. Surely, then, this vial brings us to the end. Surely when it is poured forth we shall have done with the politics of the world, and shall cease to look for the gradual development of history. All thoughts will then be occupied by the unspeakable blessedness of the marriage supper of the Lamb.