CHAPTER XII. We have now come to a new section in the book of Revelation beginning with chapter twelve. The preceding section, chapters four and eleven inclusive, is ended. The seven seals are all loosed; the seven trumpets have all sounded, and what they signified has now been disclosed. These all portended the destruction of Jerusalem as the first great persecutor of the Christian church. That climax has been reached; and all that was meant by the seals and trumpets has now been revealed; and with the ending of the seals and trumpets that section of Revelation came to a close. In a little booklet, by J.H. McConkey, we find the writer connecting the seventh trumpet with the seven vials of subsequent chapters so as to make the seventh trumpet include the vials; but there is no ground in the book of Revelation for such a position. The two series are distinct as the two historical situations are distinct, and the line of cleavage is here between the eleventh and twelfth chapters. The next section begins with chapter twelve and ends with chapter nineteen. And as the last section dealt with the first great persecutor, this section on which we are entering deals with the second great persecutor, Rome.