“The Position of Britain”

'The downfall of Napoleon in 1815 left Britain in unchallenged dominion over a large portion of the globe. France and indeed the whole continent of Europe was exhausted. A United Germany had not yet arisen and Italy still lay in fragments. Russia was withdrawing from Western Europe. The Spanish and Portuguese peoples were busy in their peninsula and in their tropical possessions overseas. In the following decades revolution and civil commotion smote many of the Powers of Europe, and new nations were born. Britain alone escaped almost unscathed from these years of unrest.'

(From the Preface to Winston S Churchill's, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Vol. 4, “The Great Democracies”; Cassel & Company Ltd, 1958, 1974).

What follows is extracted from Chapter VI of, The Approaching War Among the Powers of Europe (1864):

CHAPTER VI

THE POSITION OF BRITAIN

'Whatever be Britain's shortcomings and defections, surely she is a nation in which lives the genius of the gospel of Jesus. Liberty, benevolence, public charity, progress, enlightenment, have all had a starting-point in the land. If there is error, sin, and backsliding, let it be remembered that humanity is in a state of imperfection; and let this also never be forgotten, that Britain has only to be true to the religious foundation on which she rests, to reach national purity and righteousness. The foundation is laid, and needs not to be changed. What she requires to do is to build in harmony with the foundation, and to sweep away her false erections; and when “the time of trouble” comes . . . the day of fiery trial shall purge this land, but shall not destroy it . . . . [T]he trial to which Britain is to be subjected shall be in proportion to her failure to build aright on her true foundation. . . .

'This is the test to which Britain shall be put in the day of European judgment. Her highest wisdom now is to cultivate that righteousness which exalteth a nation; to rid herself more and more of her connexion with Antichrist; and to understand, better than she yet does, the relation of antagonism which she occupies to the despotic powers of Europe, so that she may clearly know the work that has been given her to do, and do it, not from the promptings of instinct and feeling and interest alone, but from a regard for truth and justice, from a conviction of duty, and from a deeper spiritual insight. She is like a great giant, working with half-opened eyes, and in the main she takes the right path, but it is less through judgment than through instinct. What she much wants is a clearer knowledge of her position, and of her high mission in the interests of humanity. Let but her statesmen govern and her people obey, under a knowledge of the truth, and she shall proceed on her high course with immensely increased intelligence and power.

'Britain is the natural antagonist of the despotisms of Europe, and she and they are equally conscious that she is so. She is openly disliked by the whole of them; her liberal laws, her free institutions, her popular government, her protest against oppression, and her unfettered advocacy of human rights, make her hated by those powers whose thrones are based on tyranny and maintained by iron rule — while her physical power makes her feared as much as she is hated. . . .

'Britain proves incontestable that popular government is no vain theory, and that free thought and action lead not to anarchy, but to the safest and securest order. Nowhere in Europe is the majesty of the law so manifest as in this country, where the law-makers are the law-obeyers, and where the highest freedom is found to spring directly out of the strongest necessity. Accordingly, Britain has ever been a stimulative to patriots and peoples who have struggled to be free: to this land of ours all true hearts and panting nationalities turn for sympathy and guidance; Britain is to them the land of the morning, the land of light and hope, the bright beaming star in the darkness of their sky: and likewise, by a correspondence of feeling, the despots and oppressors regard Britain with a common hatred, and view her as the nursery of European revolution. There can possibly be no cordial friendship between her and them; they belong to the doomed past, she belongs to the promised future; they are the offspring of darkness, she is the child of light; they are an incarnate and developed lie, she is the embryo of undying truth. In all things she stands as their antipodes, and though political expediency may cause them to maintain with her an external correspondence, they would gladly hail a safe opportunity to crush and overthrow her.

'She is, however, a divinely-reserved power to work against them. Her place and influence in fulfilled prediction have been prominent within the last fifty years, and her whole history for more than three hundred years back has been a preparation for her grand mission on the earth. She was made the great centre of truth, and she has been a centre of influence for the whole world. Her ideas are not those ideas of conquest or of military glory, which have ever animated heathen and antichristian powers; but they are ideas of peace, of industry, of commerce, and moral and intellectual progress. Thus she has colonised the earth, and planted her race and her principles on distant continents. Her language is spoken, and her institutions flourish, in all parts of the globe; while her power is so far spread as to induce the remark, that on the British Empire the sun never sets. In prosecuting this work, she has by no means kept her garments spotless. She has sometimes been unjust and oppressive towards the tribes whose territories she entered upon; and one serious blot upon her conduct was the introduction of negro slavery into America. But see how the gospel principles she rested on ultimately brought her right on that matter, and caused her, at the cost of an immense sum of money, to emancipate the slaves in her West Indian possessions, and to decree that the moment the foot of a slave rested on British soil, that slave was free! It is the noble characteristic of our country, and one which makes amends for many faults, that she is open to the ingress of truth; and that when she comes to see her duty, she will do it, at whatever sacrifice.

'It was for a very important purpose that Britain rose to supremacy, and extended herself over the globe. The territory occupied by the Babylonian empire was given up to Antichrist There he was to establish his seat — to set up his banner of rebellion; and there he was to reign and triumph in his wickedness, till the time determined should be accomplished. But the world at large was not to be given him for a prey. Christ was to have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uppermost parts of the earth for His possession; and it was necessary that a diffusive and evangelising power should be raised up to spread His truth and maintain His cause, and to prepare the way for His kingdom that was to come. At the very borders of the antichristian territory, therefore, — and so near that Antichrist cast its shadow over it, yet so separated by insular position as to remain distinct and apart, — the Anglo-Saxon people grew into a strong and independent power. Keeping Continental despotism in check, and sending its God-received life and truth into unpeopled wastes and heathen wilds, Britain has shadowed with its wings the very ends of the earth. . . . It has sent its people to occupy the far West, and the still far more distant South. It has sent its missionaries and spread the Bible among the regions of the shadow of death. It is easy enough to sermonise on the sins of our land; but let her be judged by the wide charity of the gospel of Christ, and let justice be done to the efforts she has made, and the achievements she has accomplished, on behalf of human freedom. Fix the thoughts not on particular flaws and blots, but on general tendencies and characteristics, and these will be found to be on the side of truth and for the sake of that Christian truth which she holds, and on which she rests . . .

'Britain is, we say, a divinely-reserved power, and her mission is twofold, — to spread the truth, and take a stand against despotism. This latter work she has most obviously been doing for the past half century. . . . (pp. 84-92)

(“Britannia” Union Flag image modified from image by Charles Ashburner from: “FOTW Flags Of The World Website” at http://flagspot.net/flags)

“The Approaching War Amongst the Powers of Europe” (1864)

TWO YEARS AFTER

AND ONWARDS

OR

THE APPROACHING WAR AMONGST THE

POWERS OF EUROPE

AND OTHER FUTURE EVENTS DESCRIBED AS FORETOLD

IN SCRIPTURE PROPHECY

BY THE AUTHOR OF

“THE COMING STRUGGLE”

LONDON HOULSTON AND WRIGHT

65 PATERNOSTER ROW

MDCCCLXIV

[1864]

PREFACE

'We had no intention of saying more in the way of introduction to this little Work than what we have said in the First Chapter; but inasmuch as the notice of its publication has called forth remarks in various newspapers, we think it just to ourselves and due to our readers, again to protest against the unfounded and absurd assumption that we, and all who write on the subject of Scripture prediction, pretend to possess prophetic power or insight. We do no such thing. We do our best to explain a portion of the Word of God, which is not only extremely interesting but most important, and all the more important because it seems so much neglected and misunderstood. The London Standard, of August 23d, contained a leading article devoted to us and our former works, the spirit, tone, and general character, of which were eminently representative of that hostility which a large portion of the newspapers press manifest towards those who venture to give an explanation of Bible prophecy. Such critics speak as if the very attempt were a presumption, and as if the exposition given must be nonsense. Is that portion of the Bible, then, a sealed mystery, not to be studied, and not to be understood, even remotely? or do the conclusions of interpreters make religion too real for the secular tastes and perhaps sceptical notions of mere political writers? The hostility to which we refer must be based on one or other of these grounds, because it takes the form not of criticism but of scoffing, taunting vituperation; the lowest motives are attributed to those who take up the subject, and, under cover of a notice of their productions, an opportunity is taken to make an attack on the Bible itself.

'The writer in the Standard declares that the eleven years which have elapsed since the issue of our pamphlet, “The Coming Struggle,” have not brought to pass any of the events which we there anticipated. Well, but have these eleven years falsified our interpretation? On the contrary, we assert that the events which have occurred, have been plainly in the direction indicated, and have produced a situation of affairs in Europe which points significantly to such occurrences as we declared, and still declare, to be Bible predictions soon to come to pass. . . .

'It is to the Christian faith and the religious feeling of the people of this country that we address ourselves. Those who believe in the Bible, and love and reverence the sublime truths it reveals, will not scoff or sneer at an effort made to render these truths clearer and more precious by a fuller possession. Believing, as we do most firmly, that the events of latter-day prophecy are on the eve of fulfilment, and that these events are of the character indicated in this little Work, we send it forth in the hope that it will help to prepare the Christian people in this country, or wherever it may be read, for “the time of trouble that is coming upon the earth,” and for the dread realities which the approaching war among the nations shall precede and usher in.

October 1864.'

(pp. v-viii)

CHAPTER I

THE FUTURE

'But whatever diversity there may be amongst expositors of prophecy, there is this general agreement, that the last of the Scripture predictions are on the eve of fulfilment.... All, or nearly all, are agreed that the “seals” and trumpets, with the events they import, are past; that five of the vials are poured out; that the sixth has been running for some time; and that the seventh and last, and most terrible and momentous of all, was in all probability opened about the year 1830. Now, this seventh vial is, as we know, the final boundary of Scripture prophecy. In it the mystery of God shall be finished; it will contain “the indignation” spoken of by Isaiah, “the great day” of Jeremiah, “the time of trouble” of Daniel, and the terrible period of “great tribulation” predicted by Christ in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. And for a full and detailed account of the unparalleled events of the period, read in the Book of Revelation, from the seventeenth verse of the sixteenth chapter to the end of the nineteenth chapter. The language of these chapters is, no doubt, the language of symbolism; but Divine symbolism never exceeds the reality. If the description there is not to receive a literal fulfilment, the events symbolised will be of a character as dreadful as the images employed to shadow them forth. In plain words, they indicate a series of events which are very soon to transpire upon the continent of Europe, involving the whole powers there in war, and resulting in an issue which shall totally alter the character and condition of the world.

'Seeing, then, that the general, almost universal opinion of interpreters is, that this unequalled period of political change and physical conflict is near at hand . . . [Once] the strife [has] begun . . . [it] shall rage as no earthly strife has raged before, and terminate with a catastrophe which the [whole] world shall witness . . . [so] is it not of the very highest importance that Christians should be looking for it, and coming to some understanding of it? Yet how very few Christians in this country are familiar with the subject of Scripture prophecy! The supposed hopelessness of its mystery, and, shall we say, the aversion manifested to it by most of the clergy, have led them away from it, and [so] they have now come to regard the world's relation to God with comparative indifference.' (pp. 11-13)

CHAPTER II

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY

'New Testament prophecies, and the predictions in the Old Testament concerning New Testament times, are not less, but more plainly, inspirited by “the testimony of Jesus.” They relate to the rise, progress, and fall of anti-Christ; of a power or powers that should work in the Church and the world in opposition to Jesus, and His doctrines and precepts — to Jesus, as the Redeemer and King of this earth. Here we have sin again as the cause of prophecy. If Christianity had not been oppressed, persecuted, and corrupted; if the precepts and doctrines of Jesus had been received by man, and kept in their purity and simplicity, the wars and revolutions predicted, and in part accomplished in Europe, would never have been matter of prophecy, and would never have taken place. But the antichristian power arose, as God foresaw that it would arise; it arose and put forth its energy against Christianity, it prevailed, and it was punished, — just as the Spirit of God shewed by the mouth of prophets that it should.

'The seventeen centuries of New Testament prophecy that are now past, have contained in their fulfilment nothing which can be looked upon as arbitrary Divine interference. All the events have arisen out of natural causes. God has no doubt arranged them and disposed them for the punishment of the antichristian power, and the progress of Christian truth, but they have fallen with all natural smoothness into the course of human history. The actors were men of flesh and blood, men of human passions and human powers, who, by their deeds and attempts, sought only the furtherance of their own interests, and had no thought whatever of God's plan or of prophetic fulfilment.' (pp. 20-21)

CHAPTER III

THE CONSTRUCTION AND UNITY OF PROPHECY

'The destruction of the present political and ecclesiastical structure of continental Europe is approaching; and we may easily suppose that a change so awful must be preceded and accompanied by events of the most terrible description. A universal war must come, so fierce and sanguinary that no previous war can in its character be compared with it.' (p. 33)

CHAPTER IV

THE TIME OF THE END

'Britain, if she did not miss the [Antichristian] fiend altogether, made a much less closer acquaintance with him; and at an early date caught sight of the true and fair Divinity.

'Here, then, in this little rocky island of the sea a powerful kingdom was established, based professedly on Gospel principles, with a Church whose worship was comparatively simple and pure, and whose constitution rested on principles which are eternal. This was the power which, in connexion with Protestant Germany, fitly came against the Napoleonic democracy, and destroyed it.

'In this work of ridding Europe of Napoleon we obtain a glimpse of the true mission and destiny of our country. Britain is the power reserved by God for maintaining and defending the truth. The despotisms of Europe will war among themselves, and the principles on neither side shall be worthy of victory; but Britain — however defectively she may, in practice, have realised her principles — does stand upon the glorious basis of Christian truth; and is capable of opposing, on a moral and spiritual ground, the power of Antichrist. Britain may be considered the only real antagonistic power which Antichrist has; and by and by we have no doubt that she will have Antichrist to fight with. But geographically, and morally, and spiritually, she is beyond the image territory, and is not one of the toe kingdoms, or ten horns . . . Nevertheless, as the antagonistic or Christian power, she has a great work to do — the first instalment of which was the withstanding and overthrowing of Napoleon. When we come to treat of the events that are future, we shall obtain a more extended view of the important mission and glorious destiny for which our country is reserved.' (pp. 57-58)

CHAPTER V

THE PRESENT TIME

'[The] rise [of the Turkish power] is prefigured in the sixth trumpet [of the Apocalypse], where the four angels were loosed in the great river Euphrates, and came in with an immense army of horsemen. From the time of this inroad of the Turks their power grew, till, in 1453, Mahomet the Great took Constantinople, and established the Ottoman power....

'[The] fate [of the Turkish power] was also shadowed forth under the sixth vial, and it seems almost certain that this vial began in 1820, when the Greeks successfully rebelled against the sultan, and set up a kingdom of their own. The decay of the Turkish power is represented by the drying up of the river Euphrates, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. It is somewhat difficult to understand who are meant by “the kings of the East;” but the drying up of the river Euphrates is easily understood. From the time of the Greek rebellion the Turkish empire has been gradually weakened and shaken. It has had to sustain heavy wars against Russia and France, the former of whom wrested from it a large portion of its Greco-Roman territory, while the latter divested it of the province of Algeria. Then it received a heavy blow when, in 1839, Egypt and Syria were taken by Mehemet Ali, who established his kingdom on its southern frontier.' (pp. 64-65)

'So far, then, the sixth vial has been poured out. During the last forty years the Turkish power has been greatly weakened. What with insurrections and rebellions at home, and wasting wars with stronger powers, she is well-nigh exhausted. The waters of the Euphrates are visibly drying up, and but for foreign aid, the Ottoman Empire would, ere this, have been overthrown.' (pp. 68-69)

'The seventh vial, as well as the sixth, is being poured out at the present time. It was to be poured out into the air, thus signifying that it would affect the whole of the social and political atmosphere of Europe. This is the last and greatest vial of wrath, and culminates in the roar of a universal conflagration. In it the awful judgments of a righteous Lord are gathered and concentrated. It contains, as it were, the dregs of all the other vials [including the sixth – so, that under the seventh vial, in the ensuing predicted, “great war”, the Ottoman Empire is finally extinguished!]. . . . Under [the seventh vial] it is “the time of trouble,” and “the last indignation.” Under it nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; when men's hearts shall fail them for fear, and for looking for those things that are coming upon the earth. Under it shall be national and political convulsions, unparalleled in all past history.' (p. 70)

CHAPTER VII

THE COMING EVENTS OF THE SIXTH VIAL

'The Ottoman empire is to be overthrown, “that the way of the kings of the east might he prepared.” We shall [later] offer an explanation of the meaning of this [passage of the Revelation] . . .' (p. 96)

'[T]he Divine purpose which is required of [the British power, is to initiate] . . . we believe . . . the return to Palestine of its former light and glory, [that is] — the restoration of the Jews to their own land . . . [It will be Britain which will further] the colonisation of Judea, with its old inhabitants the Jews. Thus the way of the kings of the East will be prepared. The kings of the East must mean either the British power which rules in India, or the Jews, who are to be the future rulers in the Holy Land.

'This is the next event which naturally claims our consideration – THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

'Nothing in the form of prophetic interpretation has surprised us more than the opinion seriously expressed by some commentators, that the predictions regarding the future of the Jews will find their whole fulfilment in the conversion to Christianity of God's ancient people. To our view the scheme of interpretation which does not recognise the physical, national, and political restoration of the Jews misses the scope of prophecy altogether. The idea is neither in accordance with its letter nor its spirit; for the predictions regarding the return of the Jews to their own land are abundant, and couched in language so explicit, that nothing but an utter perversion of the meaning of words can make them apply to spiritual conversion, and to that alone. Thus a physical restoration is so evidently in harmony with the spirit of God's gracious dealings, that to leave that out as an event to be accomplished gives a shock both to the reason and the heart, and creates a void in the universality of the Divine restoration of all things. Our conviction on this matter are strong and unwavering. The restoration of the Jews appears to us to be the central point on which Scripture prophecy turns.' (pp. 100-102)

CHAPTER VIII

THE COMING EVENTS OF THE SEVENTH AND LAST VIAL

'Turning now to the prophecy, we read that the outpouring of the seventh vial on the air was immediately followed by voices and thunders and lightnings — that is, by great public agitation, and threatenings of a general conflict. Now, this has been precisely the state of matters in Europe since 1830. Throughout its entire length and breadth it has been excited and alarmed; and frequently have the lightnings flashed and the thunders of war rolled. As yet these lightnings have been fitful, and the thunder-peals not greatly prolonged; but, to every one who has had occasion to consider them, they give indication of a terrible impending storm — the awful character of which, however, is to be gathered from Scripture prophecy alone. It is thus that the apostle John describes it:—

“And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven : and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” — Rev. xvi. 18-21.

'Daniel characterises the appalling catastrophe as “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time.” And Christ, the greatest authority of all, thus prophesies of it:— “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

'Can language indicate anything more appalling than this coming war? It will be universal and unprecedented. All the wars that have in former times raged on the earth are as nothing to this final and overwhelming conflict; and we believe it is nigh at hand, even at the door. It comes as a preparation for, and the immediate occasion of, the fall of Papal Rome — an event which is calculated by most interpreters to take place in or near to the year 1866*. In all probability, therefore, it is just on the eve of bursting forth. Let us try to come to some understanding of its political and physical features.

[*1870 saw the actual fall of Rome to the forces of Victor Emanuel; and the Temporal Power of the Papacy was ended that very year.]

'It is a war which, in its various characteristics, shall be final — that is, the opposing powers will instinctively understand that they are fighting for very existence — that their quarrel is mortal, and can only terminate with the overthrow of one side or the other. It is the last and uncompromising struggle between democracy and despotism — between the ancient and the later blasphemies. They well know that they cannot exist together, and conclude that Europe must be ruled either by the one or the other. Despotism, standing on its pedestal of hoary antiquity, and looking upon democracy as a deadly heresy, which threatens its existence, will muster for its destruction; and democracy, imagining in its turn that it is destined to annihilate the old superstitions and oppressions, and realise its wild dream of liberty, will put forth its utmost efforts to hurl the thrones of tyrants to the dust. It is long since the two combatants entered the lists; but hitherto they have been only measuring their strength, and feinting at each other with a few passages of arms. Once before, indeed, they met in deadly determined conflict, and the young demon of democracy was restrained. But its strength has returned, and it looks forward to resume the contest on more equal terms. Thus both sides are prepared for a decisive encounter, and are conscious that they must conquer or die. . . .

'In what direction, or in what manner, is the storm likely to burst? Where, or from what cause, shall the war begin? These questions naturally arise, but the prophecy does not answer them. A very trivial matter may suffice to bring on a contest for which everything is so ripe. . . . We are inclined to think, however, that it will be the Italian question which shall bring on the conflict*. The power most directly opposed to France in Europe is Austria. These two are not only the chief representatives of democracy and despotism, but they are jealous rivals, their interests clash, and in Italy meet in direct opposition.' (pp. 114-118)

[* The following quote is taken from the historian Sidney Bradshaw Fay's work, Before Sarajevo: The Origins of the [First] World War , Vol 1, 1928:

'The most valuable to the historian of all the Austro-Hungarian memoirs is the voluminous work of the Austrian Chief of Staff, Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorf (entitled, Aus meiner Dienstzeit [My Years of Service], 5 vols.; published Vienna, 1921-25). It consists in large part of an undigested mass of important documents of all sorts, copies of which he evidently took from the official files and published in chronological order, with a commentary of his own. It also includes conversations in dialogue form which appear to be taken from a diary kept from day to day. With extraordinary frankness, he recounts the repeated efforts he made to have Austria make war on Italy or Serbia on what he regarded as numerous favourable occasions between 1906 and 1914. In July, 1914, it was probably he, more than anyone else, who galvanised the incompetent and hesitating Berchtold into an active advocate of war against Serbia.']

Returning back to, The Approaching War Among the Powers of Europe (1864):

'[From the] moment [that] the war becomes universal and beyond all control . . . . the strongest passions and the wildest hopes [will be] let loose, [and] further compromise . . . [will then become] impossible. France, Italy, and the oppressed nationalities on the one side, and Prussia, Russia, and Austria on the other, will wage a war, which even unaided reason sees must be unparalleled by all former wars. Reflect what progress the powers of Europe have made in the construction of warlike weapons since the last great Continental war; what an increase has been made on the power of heavy ordnance, and in the capabilities of vessels! There are the tremendous iron ships of the French navy, and the immense guns and mortars, which all the powers possess, both for land and sea service. All these indicate a power of destruction utterly unknown in former times, and render it no difficulty to understand that a great war now must be inconceivable in its effects. How, then, shall we imagine the consequences of a conflict in which the whole world-power is engaged? The destructive power of evil will never become so apparent as then, when it is turned in upon itself. Then, also, will appear the true value of European civilisation and advancement in art and science when cultivated apart from Christianity. The very forces of nature which evil takes to work upon, contribute finally to its overthrow. In connexion with obedience to law, and with the principles of rectitude, Nature and all its powers work for human well-being; but when . . . the conditions of well-being are rejected, nature's forces can be, and are, turned to purposes of destruction. Thus we have the ruining and desolating influence of the engines of war; and these will do their fell work with unexampled intensity in the world's final conflict. The apostle John saw in vision that “the cities of the nations fell.” What particular cities will be laid in ruins, we know not; but the fact that there will be cities destroyed indicates the fierceness and uncompromising character of the contest. A fallen city implies an array of unimagined horrors — a dark and terrible scene of plunder and massacre, and cruelties of the very worst description. And yet it is not one city, but many, that shall be overtaken by this fate . . . . The power of Austria will probably be the first to feel the shock of a wave of retribution from this surging sea of Divine judgment. Austria, as the two-horned beast, has been the chief supporter of Papal Antichrist. It has been the most obedient and zealous servant of the Papacy. It practised all its abominations and cruelties, and shall be dragged first into the whirlpool of wrath.' (pp. 123-125)