Historical Gleanings

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1873

Historical Gleanings.

DESTROY NO FRUIT TREES.

In a prophecy, which by common agreement is applied to the Saracens, we read that it was commanded them not to hurt any tree. Rev. 9: 4. A fulfillment of this has been found in the particular directions issued by Abubeker, the successor of Mahomet, to the Arabian tribes, as they were about to go forth on their excursions of blood and pillage. See Thoughts on the Revelation, p. 162. But it appears that not only on this particular occasion was such a command given, but it was a general law of Mahomet that no fruit trees should be destroyed. Gibbon, describing the siege of Tayef by Mahomet and his followers, says:—

“A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not how) in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of battering rams and military engines, with a body of five hundred artificers. But it was in vain that he offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violated his own laws by the extirpation of the fruit trees; that the ground was opened by the miners; that the breach was assaulted by the troops.”—Dec. and Fall, Vol. v., p. 139.

From this it appears that it was a standing law with them, not to destroy fruit trees; which still more clearly serves to identify this power as the one brought to view in Rev. 9: 4.

A TRUE ESTIMATE OF WORLDLY FELICITY.

About the middle of the eighth century, the caliphs of the house of Ommiyah were ruling in Spain. Of the riches and pomp of the most illustrious of these, Gibbon thus speaks:—

“Three miles from Cordova, in honor of his favorite sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans constructed the city, palace and gardens of Zehra. Twenty-five years, and above three millions sterling, were employed by the founder: his liberal taste invited the artists of Constantinople, the most skillful sculptors and architects of the age; and the buildings were sustained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of Spanish and African, of Greek and Italian, marble. The hall of audience was incrusted with gold and pearl, and a great basin in the center was surrounded with the curious and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basins and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished, not with water, but with the purest quicksilver. The seraglio of Abdelrahman, his wives, concubines, and black eunuchs, amounted to six thousand three hundred persons: and he was attended to the field by a guard of twelve thousand horse, whose belts and cimeters were studded with gold.”—Id. pp. 298, 299.

As a picture of earthly happiness, this would seem to be complete. What other feature could be added by the most worldly worldling, as a source from which happiness in this life is supposed to be derived. Here are riches, honor, power, and every pleasure of which the imagination can conceive. But what was the result? Listen again to the words of Gibbon:—

“Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture, and whatever may be the cool dictates of reason, there are few among us who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some use to borrow the experience of the same Abdalrahman, whose magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial which was found in the closet of the deceased caliph: ‘I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honor, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to FOURTEEN:—O man! place not thy confidence in this present world!’”—Id. p. 299.

In fifty years, there are eighteen thousand, two hundred and fifty days. All these he had passed with every advantage for pleasure at his command; and yet in all these he found just fourteen days of happiness. A genuine Christian, though living in the lowliest dwelling, and on the poorest fare, would have found as many in two weeks. No wonder this pampered devotee of luxury, this man of wealth and power, exclaimed, “O man! place not thy confidence in this present world!” Long ages before him, another, under similar circumstances, tried all the world has to give of happiness, and pronounced it all “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Eccl. 1: 14. Let us heed the lesson, and suffer not ourselves to be cheated into a delusive chase after happiness, in a direction where it does not exist. In God it lives, and in his service alone is it to be found.

RUSSIA TO TAKE CONSTANTINOPLE.

The idea of the conquest of European Turkey by Russia, and the seizure of Constantinople as the southern capital of the Russian empire, an event which now seems so near, and which is to furnish so startling a fulfillment of prophecy, is no conception of modern times. The following remarkable language on this point is found in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. v., p. 431. Speaking of fleets of Russian ships that used to descend their rivers from high northern latitudes, into the Black Sea, and visit Constantinople, he says:—

“The memory of these arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the polar circle, left a deep impression of terror on the imperial city. By the vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed, that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should become masters of Constantinople. In our own time, a Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes [now the river Dnieper], has circumnavigated the continent of Europe; and the Turkish capital has been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of war, each of which, with its naval science and thundering artillery, could have sunk or scattered a hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation may yet behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable.”