There is something very remarkable in this fact, because these are the two powers especially connected with the two great predicted apostasies, Popery and Mahommedanism; Rome being the seat of the Popedom, and the Sultan of Turkey the recognised head of the Mahommedan apostasy.
But I have no time now to examine that connexion, nor is it my present object to do so. The one fact I desire to leave perfectly clear on your mind is this, that Rome and the Mussulman power of which Turkey is now the head, are the two Gentile powers which for the last eighteen hundred years must be charged with having trodden down Jerusalem.
And now what is the present position of these two powers? And how do they stand in Europe? What is the condition, and what the prospect, of these two great oppressors of Jerusalem?
As for Rome, as a political power it has ceased to exist, for I need not say that the modern kingdom of Italy has nothing to do with it. It is not built on the old lines, but is altogether a new creation, an extension of the kingdom of Sardinia. Now there can be no doubt whatever that the vast, iron-footed, undivided Roman Empire, of which Titus was emperor at the time he trod down Jerusalem, has long since passed away. Different historians may assign different dates to its dissolution, but no one doubts for one moment that it is dissolved. The power that trampled down Jerusalem is broken up into ten kingdoms, and the Imperial head is no more. There is no successor to the throne of Titus, and the throne itself is in fragments.
It is very remarkable also that the Papal head which succeeded the Imperial has within the past few years come also to an end as a political power. After the division of the undivided empire the ten kingdoms were to a great extent held together by the Papal head which succeeded the Imperial. The Pope claimed to be the sole authority from which the kings derived their power, and before the Reformation, all Europe acknowledged his claims. He was supposed to hold all the crowns of Europe in his hand. But that is all over now. The kings have taken away his dominion. As a political power the Papal head has followed the Imperial. According to Sir G. Bowyer, in the _Times_ of Nov. 10, 1874, ‘The Pope has been dethroned, and all his dominions and property have been reduced to a palace, a church, and a garden,’ it does not seem, therefore, very probable that Rome in either shape will ever again tread down Jerusalem. We may safely say that the first of the two oppressors is no more.