AND the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died, and the third part of ships were destroyed. We will here repeat, that the first four trumpets in the series of the seven bring to view the division of the Roman Empire into its ten parts, and also the special calamities which befell Rome in her decline and fall. Already has it been shown that up to A. D. 407 seven powerful clans of Barbarians had seized upon large parts of the empire, established governments (kingdoms), and were managing things in their own way. These kingdoms retained their identities until the last vestige of civil power in the Roman commonwealth was obliterated.165 We are now down in the stream of time, when the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, and Suevi are desolating the classic fields of Rome and often bringing her armies under subjugation. The word Vandalism has become commonplace among historians. In speaking of the decline of Rome, it is recorded that “Vandalism desolated her classic fields.” The hero of Vandal aggression and destruction was Genseric. A Latin author describes him as follows: “He was a more frightful barbarian than any who had as yet arisen among the foes of Rome. Lame and hideous in aspect, of slow speech, but of iron will, inconceivable duplicity and boundless ambition, he had never been known to listen to the voice of justice or mercy; he had never recoiled from any act of perfidy or blood which he believed his interests to demand. He is admitted to have been temperate in his personal habits, but utterly incapable of controlling himself when aroused to anger. His perspicacity saw to the bottom of everything. He never missed an opportunity; he carried out a project in less time than others spent in meditating upon it.” We understand that the above prophecy of the second trumpet was fulfilled by the Vandals. This tribe who at first settled in what is now Spain, saw brighter prospects for themselves in Africa, consequently about A. D. 428 their kingdom was transferred there, making Carthage their head-quarters. Here Genseric soon gained the greatest maritime power of his age. His noted conquests were mostly naval. His great object was to destroy the power of Rome, and his attacks were mostly on the middle tripartite division of the empire. Majorian, the emperor of the West, who retained only the middle tripartite division of the empire, (as it was divided by Constantine the Great), fitted out a fleet to operate against the Vandals, but Genseric outgeneraled him. He burnt and sunk in a day what cost Majorian three years of labor at a great expense. For many years he was the tyrant of the sea, and imagined that he himself was fated to be the scourge of the Romans. He pillaged Rome, and carried away the sacred vessels of the temple which Titus took from Jerusalem. His success at sea and his desperate assaults upon Majorian, so enraged Leo, the emperor of the East, that he sent him word that, if he did not desist from his ravages, he would send a force sufficient to exterminate the Vandal power entirely. For this purpose a fleet left Constantinople A. D. 468, and arrived before Carthage. It consisted of 1113 vessels at a cost of 5,200,000 pounds sterling, and soldiers and mariners, about 100,000. As soon as this fleet arrived, Genseric asked for a truce of three days. During this time he fitted up vessels filled with combustible materials, impelled them against the unsuspecting Romans at night, and thus set fire to their whole fleet, and gained a complete victory. In A. D. 429, he began his attacks upon the Romans, and in A. D. 468, his crowning feat was accomplished. This naval warfare is symbolized by a great burning mountain cast into the sea. The third part of the sea became blood, seems to have reference to the terrible slaughter of man in this division of the empire. (Africa was included in this division by Constantine the Great.) The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. This may include the mariners engaged in this warfare. But why, says one, do you call the creatures here men? Are not creatures sometimes inferior animals, as fish? They are. But the great burning mountain symbolizes a great warfare. Now the fish had nothing to do with the warfare; hence such creatures as men or horses which are used in a battle could only supply the analogy in the symbol. And the third part of the ships were destroyed. This doubtless refers to the complete ruin of Leo’s fleet. While Genseric was reducing the Roman power by sea, there began to be carried on a confederate attack of the other above-mentioned tribes by land, under Attila, the king of the Huns, which brings us to the third trumpet. For other particulars in regard to these trumpets, the reader is referred to Thoughts on the Revelation, published at Battle Creek, Mich.