If we turn to the prophecy respecting the drying up of the Euphrates in Rev. xvi. 12, we find that it will be dried up in order that “the way of the kings of the East may be prepared.” That expression “the kings of the East” does not mean the kings now reigning in the East, but it does mean the kings who are to come up from the East. So that the full meaning of the text would be given if we were to render it “that the way of the kings might be prepared from the East!” The persons referred to are kings by birthright, though they are far away in the East instead of in their own home; but when the Euphrates is dried up a way will be made for their return. Who then are those kings? And what nation is it that God has chosen to royalty? Turn to Exod. xix. 6, and there you read of Israel, “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests;” the meaning of which expression is explained by St. Peter’s quotation of it, in which he substitutes the words “A royal priesthood.” Surely then it is not altogether unreasonable to believe that the priests of that royal priesthood may be the kings referred to, and that a way will be prepared for their return by the drying up of the Euphrates, or the wasting of the Turkish power. The same conclusion may be drawn from the words of our blessed Saviour in Luke xxi. 24, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Those words most clearly teach us that Jerusalem is to be trodden down for a time, but they no less clearly imply that it will be for a time only, and that it will be restored when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. By whom then is Jerusalem now trodden down? Who is it that is at the present day treading down the captive city? There can be no doubt as to the answer. It is the Turk that is the treader down of Jerusalem. It is the Ottoman power that holds it under foot. It is the Euphratean flood that has overwhelmed it; and if so, is it not an obvious conclusion that the fall of Turkey is likely to be the rise of Jerusalem, and that Turkish decay is the harbinger of the Jew’s prosperity? When therefore we see the waste of Turkey, and witness the receding of the waters, we see in that waste the budding of the fig tree; and, as believers in God’s word, we are taught by the prophetic Scriptures to look out for the outburst of the summer in all its glory on Palestine. But now turn to the treaty with Turkey, and see how it bears on the prospects of Israel. Look at it well, and consider whether it may not be regarded as the budding of the Jewish fig tree.