Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/247

 much later, if we date its commencement from the taking of Jerusalem by the Caliph Omar, which took place in the year of our Lord 637.

And assuredly when we look at the present state of mankind, and reflect how very far it is from what the glowing predictions of Holy Writ would lead us to anticipate of its condition in the blessed period, we may well fear that the farther period would be more probable than one less distant. But be this as it may, it would seem as if the destruction of the Mahometan empire, as distinguished from the religious system upheld by it, would not be delayed beyond the year of our Lord 1865.

In the meanwhile, looking to the various statements of Divine prophecy, we apprehend that a time is coming, nay even already commenced, of unprecedented trouble and disaster. These calamitous times, while they witness the destruction of the mystic Babylon, will also witness, if we may refer to the same sources, a terrible persecution of the Catholic Church, a persecution which will purify and prepare her for her great millennial triumph.

Let us glance at some of the symbolical predictions of the Apocalypse, which are commonly referred by Catholic interpreters to this last great persecution of the Church. We find a very vivid and striking one in the eleventh