Vs. 10, 11.--The object of the third trumpet is the waters as
before,--the population of the empire, but not in collective form as a
_sea_; rather in a state of separation or disconnected, as "rivers and
fountains." Some apply this symbol of a "falling star" to Genseric, but
this is incongruous. On the contrary, he was a victorious prince,--a
_rising_ star. It is more consonant to the truth of history and the
chronological series of prophecy, to apply this symbol to the downfall
of Momyllus the last of the Roman emperors, who was deposed by Odoacer
king of the Heruli, called in derision Augustulus,--the diminutive
Augustus. Doubtless the allusion here is to the king of Babylon:--"How
art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, (day-star,) son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"
(Isa. xiv. 12.) A star may indeed signify either a civil or
ecclesiastical officer, but the scope and context determine all these
judgments to the enemies of the church, and those of her illustrious
Head. It is the "vengeance of his temple." We have already found a star
the emblem of a gospel minister, and we shall hereafter find it employed
in that sense; but it does not seem to refer in the present connexion to
any apostate. The name of this star,--"Wormwood," embittering the
waters, is a lively emblem of the miseries experienced by the people, in
the use of the remaining temporal comforts which the preceding
calamities had left.


12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was
smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the
stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not
for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

V. 12.--The design of all the trumpets is to point out the utter