Now these are the indisputable facts of the case; the undoubted results of the two treaties; and the remarkable fact is that these results are exactly such as the students of prophecy have been predicting for many years. From one prophecy they have foretold for years that there must be a decay of the Ottoman Empire simultaneous with the loss of the temporal power of the Pope, {7a} and now we see their words come true. From another prophecy they have believed that the decay of the Ottoman power is represented in symbol by the drying up of the Euphratean flood, so that the Ottoman must recede from his conquests just as the waters of a flood recede from the land over which there has been an overflow, {7b} and this is the process which we are now witnessing. From Europe the waters are almost, if not entirely, gone, so that Europe is practically dry. And as for Asia, the waters there have become so shallow that the Englishman, we hope, will walk through them and scarcely wet his feet. I am well aware that some people have felt a difficulty in applying the symbol of the Euphratean overflow to the Ottoman invasion, and I am quite prepared to acknowledge that there is a great uncertainty about the interpretation of all symbolic prophecies; but one thing we must all admit, that if we are right in our interpretation of the symbol, we see in these two treaties the most remarkable fulfilment of the prophecy. We see the drying up going on in our own days and under our own eyes; so that we have this day a fresh evidence conspicuous before the world of the divine inspiration of God’s holy word, of the truth of the prophetic scriptures, and of the sovereignty of God over the mightiest nations of the world. Sceptics may doubt, and infidels may scoff; but we see that God’s word is from himself. What he has predicted, that is coming to pass, and, though the time appointed has been long, we see in the great facts of our own day that the word of God’s prophecy is true. II. We may proceed then to consider WHAT WE MAY ANTICIPATE AS THE PROBABLE CONSEQUENCE OF ALL THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE. When our Lord spoke those words referred to in St. Matthew, he was clearly speaking of the second Advent; but the events which we are now witnessing are not the same as those described in that chapter, and therefore we cannot regard them as the predicted signs of that glorious appearing. But there is another great event foretold in prophecy, which many of us believe must take place before the Advent, and for that event I cannot but hope that these two treaties will rapidly prepare the way. I mean the return of the Jews and the ten tribes to Palestine.