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    CHAPTER III. THE FIRST TRUMPET

    OF the prophecies of these Trumpets it has been well said that “none could elucidate the texts more clearly, or expound them more fully, than the task has been performed by Gibbon:” that the chapters of Gibbon “that treat directly of the matter, need but a text prefixed ... to form a series of expository lectures on the eighth and ninth chapters of Revelation.” History is the only true commentary on the prophecies; and the only true exposition of the prophecies is to set down together the history and the prophecy; because history as it really is, is but the complement of prophecy as it is written. In this pamphlet the full history can not be set down; but enough will be given to make plain the events contemplated in the prophecy, with reference indicating exactly where the complete history can be found.GNT 21.1

    “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” Revelation 8:7.GNT 21.2

    The time covered by this prophecy is from 395 to 419 A. D., and relates to the invasions of the Visigoths, especially under Alaric; and the great horde of barbarians under Radagaisus. “The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the confidence in his future designs, insensibly united the body of the nation under his victorious standard; and, with the unanimous consent of the barbarian chieftains, the master general of Illyricum was elevated, according to the ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed king of the Visigoths. Armed with this double power, seated on the verge of the two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful promises to the courts of Arcadius and Honorius; till he declared and executed his resolution of invading the kingdoms of the West.GNT 21.3

    “The provinces of Europe which belonged to the Eastern Emperor were already exhausted; those of Asia were inaccessible; and the strength of Constantinople had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of Italy, which he had twice visited; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his army with the accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs.... The old man, who had passed his simple and innocent life in the neighborhood of Verona, was a stranger to the quarrels both of kings and of bishops; his pleasures, his desires, his knowledge, were confined in the little circle of his paternal farm; and a staff supported his aged steps, on the same ground where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this humble and rustic felicity was still exposed to the undistinguishing rage of war. His trees, his old contemporary trees, must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country [note the words of the prophecy, “the third part of the trees was burnt up”]; a detachment of Gothic cavalry might sweep away his cottage and his family; and the power of Alaric could destroy this happiness, which he was not able either to taste or bestow.GNT 22.1

    “‘Fame,’ says the poet, ‘enriching with terror her gloomy wings, proclaimed the march of the barbarian army, and filled Italy with consternation:’ the apprehensions of each individual were increased in just proportion to the measure of his fortune: and the most timid, who had also embarked their valuable effects, meditated their escape to the island of Sicily, or the African coast.”—“Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Chap. XXX, par. 4, 5. When he had ravaged northern Italy, almost to the city of Turin, Alaric suffered defeat by the armies of Rome under the command of Stilicho. His course was thus checked for a season; but only for a season. Yet, the space of time between Alaric’s first invasion and his final one, was abundantly filled by the tide that was started by Radagaisus.GNT 23.1

    In the year A. D. 405 “the haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus, marched from the northern extremities of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to achieve the destruction of the West. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians formed the strength of this mighty host.... Twelve thousand warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble birth or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; and the whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, might be increased, by the accession of women, of children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand persons. This formidable emigration issued from the same coast of the Baltic which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and the Teutons, to assault Rome and Italy in the vigor of the republic.”GNT 23.2

    When this great host had swept all before it as far as to the city of Florence, in Italy, it likewise suffered a check, and finally defeat. Finding their way barred to further progress in that direction, more than a hundred thousand of them turned back upon their march, and “acquired, from the junction of some Pannonian deserters, the knowledge of the country and of the roads; and the invasion of Gaul which Alaric had designed, was executed [A. D. 406, Dec. 31] by the remains of the great army of Radagaisus.”GNT 24.1

    “The victorious confederates pursued their march, and on the last day of the year [406], in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most probably frozen, they entered, without opposition, the defenseless provinces of Gaul. This memorable passage of the Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never afterward retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman Empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers which had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the earth, were from that fatal moment leveled with the ground.”GNT 24.2

    “While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of the Franks and the neutrality of the Alemanni, the subjects of Rome, unconscious of their approaching calamities, enjoyed the state of quiet and prosperity, which had seldom blessed the frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze in the pastures of the barbarians; their huntsmen penetrated without fear or danger into the darkest recesses of the Hercynian wood. The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like those of the Tiber, with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms; and if a poet descended the river, he might express his doubt on which side was situated the territory of the Romans.GNT 25.1

    “This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolation of man. The flourishing city of Mentz was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand Christians were inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished after a long and obstinate siege; Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke; and the consuming flames of war spread [A. D. 407] from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars.”—“Decline and Fall of the Roman Expire,” Chap. XXX, par. 14-19.GNT 25.2

    In 408 Alaric with his Visigoths again poured into Italy, and passed victoriously to the walls of Rome. As he marched on his way, “An Italian hermit, whose zeal and sanctity were respected by the barbarians themselves, encountered the victorious monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of Heaven against the oppressors of the earth. But the saint himself was confounded by the solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt a secret and preternatural impulse, which directed, and even compelled, his march to the gates of Rome.”GNT 26.1

    Three times in the three successive years, 408, 409, and 410, the city of Rome was besieged by Alaric, and was afflicted with famine, pestilence, and all the horrors that accompany a determined siege and stubborn defense. At last, however, in 410, the final siege was ended, and “eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a portion of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.” For six days the city was given up to pillage, to flame, to rapine, to captivity, and to slaughter. “It is not easy to compute the multitudes who from an honorable station and a prosperous fortune, were suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.... This awful catastrophe of Rome filled the astonished empire with grief and terror” to such an extent that they were fairly “tempted to confound the destruction of the capital and the dissolution of the globe.”GNT 26.2

    After six days, “at the head of an army encumbered with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unresisting country.” This he continued to the southern extremity of Italy, and designed even to carry it into the island of Sicily. But, in the midst of his preparations to carry his army across the straits, Alaric died, A. D. 410. In two years his brother-in-law Adolphus had traversed again, with the Gothic host, the whole length of Italy, from south to north, and passed finally into southwestern Gaul, where the nation settled and remained.—Id., Chap. XXXI, pars. 2, 14-28.GNT 27.1

    “The union of the Roman Empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.”—Id., Chap. XXXIII, last sentence.GNT 27.2

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