II. The overflow. There is no actual mention in this passage of the symbol of an overflow, but as that figure is elsewhere employed in Holy Scripture to represent invasion, we may regard it in this instance as descriptive of the invasion by the Ottomans, as predicted under the seventh trumpet. If you turn to Jer. xlvi. 7, 8, you find an invasion by Egypt described by an exactly similar figure. The invasion by Egypt is there compared to an overflow of the Nile. ‘Egypt cometh up like a flood, and his waters are moved as the rivers.’ So in Isa. viii. 7, 8, the invasion of Palestine by the Assyrians is foretold under the figure of an inundation: ‘He shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow, and go over.’ And so here the invasion by the Ottoman or Euphratian horsemen appears to be represented by an overflow of the Euphrates. Now consider the result of the recent floods in our own country. When the Trent rose above its banks, what happened? The waters spread far and wide on both sides the river, till, instead of fields and homesteads, you saw a vast inland lake. As you passed by in the train you might have seen the whole country under water. Just so it was when, according to the symbol, the Euphrates overflowed its banks; or, according to history, the Ottomans invaded Europe. The invading waters rushed on in every direction. On the east they reached the borders of China; on the west they soon reached Palestine, and all the heroic efforts of the Crusaders failed to check them. They then spread out in two branches. On the south they crossed into Africa, and spread over the greater part of the northern portion of that vast continent. In the north they spread rapidly over Asia Minor, crossed the Bosphorus, conquered Greece, and spread over Europe till they reached the shores of the Adriatic, and even Venice. Thus when they had reached the height of their power, the whole of south-east Europe, the greater part of north Africa, and the whole of west Asia, were flooded by the vast inundation. Their dominion extended from the shores of the Adriatic on the west to the borders of China on the east; while in Africa it reached very nearly from the Atlantic to Suez. Accordingly we have been taught from our childhood of Turkey in Europe, Turkey in Asia, and Turkey in Africa. But I am not sure that we are all aware that the Turks, or Ottomans, are Asiatic invaders who obtained their dominions by conquest. III. So much for the overflow. Let us now turn to the drying up, as predicted in the prophecy.