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/265

 we should then witness precisely what this prophecy leads us to expect: we should see all the kings of the earth "weeping and bewailing themselves" (Apoc. xviii. 9) over their great Babylon, overwhelmed as she then would be in the general conflagration: we should see the merchants "weeping and mourning over her" (ver. 11), for their commerce would be at an end: we should see the shipmasters (ver. 17) bewailing the end of their trade and their gains. Cities and villages, palaces and cottages, parks and gardens, would all perish in the general conflagration. Anarchy would sweep away every vestige of order, and instead of the boasted civilization of the nineteenth century, all things would be reduced to primitive chaos.

Now horrible as it may seem, no one can read the eighteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, and not perceive that some such catastrophe is foretold, if at least he believe in the Divine inspiration of that book: and, on the other hand, if he looks around and accurately scans the various elements that are at work in modern society, he will not regard such an issue, awful though it be, as in any degree impossible: on the contrary, unless the destructive influences that are at work are removed, it is clearly inevitable.