p. 37 | THE LAST PLAGUES by M. E. Cornell

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 23, 1859

THE LAST PLAGUES.

By M. E. Cornell

THE description of the seven last plagues in the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, though brief, is yet the most terrible that can be found in all the book of God. At different periods since the creation, the wrath of God has been manifested against the wicked in various and terrible judgments; but no judgment of the past can compare with the last plagues—they are the "wine of the wrath of God" without any mixture of mercy; the "time of trouble such as never was."

In that trouble, the most noisome and grievous sores will break out upon men, causing the most excruciating pain, with faintness and thirst. They go for water, but the second and third vials have turned it all to blood, like that of a dead man. No language can describe the horrors of that time, when, burning with fever, and famishing with thirst, man shall have nothing but blood to drink. But in addition to this, the fourth angel's vial, poured upon the sun, brings down his strength sevenfold, the heat of seven days. They will then be scorched with a fire of great heat, and still there is no water to cool a parched tongue.

The horrors of a guilty conscience will also enhance their misery. They have worshiped the beast, rejected the last solemn warning, and now they are rejected of God, who is to them a consuming fire. Mercy is clean gone for ever, and they blaspheme because there is no repentance. Could this suffering purify and save them, there would be relief; but alas! there is no hope—they must suffer and die. For one hour of probation they would give worlds if they had them to give, but the decree is past, and they must be "filthy still."

But the work is not yet done, there are still lingering dying men upon the earth. The last vial is poured out; the treasures of the hail are opened, and the great hail stones, each weighing a talent (57 lbs.) sent down by the whirlwind of fury, will complete the work.

O reader, let us heed the third angel's call—it is the proclamation of the day of vengeance of our God. Now is the time to be thoughtful and consider, before it is too late. The warning is now, and the judgment will follow. It is no new thing, that the Lord will smite with a curse. The flood, the destruction of Sodom, Nineveh, Babylon and Jerusalem—all are witness to God's faithfulness in rewarding iniquity. O how solemn, when we think of the greatest times of trouble in the past, and consider that the one to come is far greater still. It is good to call to remembrance the former days, and be warned in time. How soon the inhabitants of earth have forgotten the dreadful scourge of the cholera. They never will be mindful of God's judgments till too late. Alas! there is no fear of God before their eyes.

Nations have been visited for their sins, but they do not turn to God. In A. D. 1333, a plague called the black death swept over Europe, destroying one fourth of its inhabitants. The following description will give some idea of its terribleness.

"This dreadful scourge broke out in the East in the year 1333, and with various symptoms traversed during twenty-six years, the whole of the old world, from China to England. Wherever it came, people were oppressed with dumb fear or grew mad with terror. The churches were closed—family ties were dissolved—mothers deserted their children, and children their parents. The miser forgot his gold, and the lady her lover. Everything the sick had touched, their breath and clothes spread the contagion. Merchants of immense wealth brought their goods to the church, but money had become poison, and the monks only received it to die. The churchyards could no longer contain the corpses, and they were left unburied, or arranged by thousands in pits, or thrown into rivers. China lost thirteen millions of inhabitants. India was depopulated, Tartary, Mesopotamia and Syria were covered with dead bodies. The Kurds fled in vain to the mountains.' In Germania and Cesaria, none were left alive. Only a few cities of Asia escaped, and her loss, aside from that of China, was nearly 24,000,000. From the Orient, preceded by an offensive mist, the plague settled down upon Italy and Europe. Here ensued the same destruction of business, and the devastation of cities. More than 200,000 towns and villages were depopulated. Italy lost half her inhabitants. Germany lost 1,200,000. In many places in France, not more than two in twenty were left alive. In England, it is said nearly nine-tenths of the inhabitants perished. This last is evidently too large an estimate, but without exaggeration, Europe was despoiled of 25,000,000, or one fourth of its entire population. In Florence, it was forbidden to toll the bells, lest the survivors should surrender to despair; and the historian records, that when the plague had ceased, men thought they were still wandering among the dead, so livid had terror and anxiety left the countenances of the survivors."

"And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation." Dan. xii, 1.

O spare thy people, and save them from the awful plagues which are soon to be poured out.

M. E. CORNELL.