Euphrates, ix. 14; and when the sixth vial was poured out
it fell on the Euphrates, and the Euphrates was dried up, xvi. 12.

Surely, then, we may come to the conclusion that this prophecy in chapter
xvi. relates to the same great power as that referred to in chapter ix.;
and as I believe that it has been proved that the trumpet prophecy
predicts the invasion of Christendom by the Ottoman empire, so I am
persuaded in my own mind that that under the vial foretells its
exhaustion and decay.  The Ottoman empire I believe to be the subject of
both the prophecies.

II.  The overflow.  There is no actual mention in this passage of the
symbol of an overflow, but as that figure is elsewhere employed in Holy
Scripture to represent invasion, we may regard it in this instance as
descriptive of the invasion by the Ottomans as predicted under the sixth
trumpet.  If you turn to Jer. xlvi. 7, 8, you find an invasion by Egypt
described by an exactly similar figure.  The invasion by Egypt is there
compared to an overflow of the Nile.  ‘Egypt cometh up like a flood, and
his waters are moved as the rivers.’  So in Isa. viii. 7, 8, the invasion
of Palestine by the Assyrians is foretold under the figure of an
inundation: ‘He shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his
banks: and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over.’
And so here the invasion by the Ottoman or Euphratian horsemen appears to
be represented by an overflow of the Euphrates.

Now consider the result of the recent floods in our own country.  When
the Trent rose above its banks, what happened?  The waters spread far and
wide on both sides the river, till, instead of fields and homesteads, you
saw a vast inland lake.  As you passed by in the train you might have
seen the whole country under water.  Just so it was when, according to
the symbol, the Euphrates overflowed its banks; or, according to history,
the Ottomans invaded Europe.  The invading waters rushed on in every
direction.  On the east they reached the borders of China; on