ection as toward the earth.
Besides, if one should come tumbling down here, it would knock this
world into oblivion. But with a knowledge of the proper use of symbols
we can easily identify this dragon with the Roman empire under its Pagan
form; and the casting down of the stars, which were doubtless used as
symbols of ministers as in verse 1, signifies the warfare which this
awful beast power waged against the church of God, in which her
ministers were always a shining mark for the first persecution and
suffered terribly for the cause they represented.

The man-child is the next object that claims our attention. Some have
supposed that it represented Jesus Christ in his first advent to the
world. But this could not be; for Christ is never represented as being
the offspring of the church, but, on the other hand, is declared to be
its originator. Some, also, have supposed that it represented the church
bringing forth Christ to the world in a spiritual sense. This, however,
would be in direct conflict with the known laws of symbolic language. A
visible, living, intelligent agent, such as this man-child evidently
was, could not be the symbol of an invisible spiritual presence.
Besides, it has been clearly shown that Christ always appears in his own
person, unrepresented by another, from the fact that he can not be
symbolized. It is clear that this child can not signify a single
definite personage; for after he is caught up to God, there is still a
remnant of the woman's seed left upon earth. See verse 17.

What, then, does the man-child signify? It symbolizes the mighty host of
new converts or children that the early church by her earnest travail
brought forth. The seeming incongruity that the church, or mother, and
her children are alike only serves to establish the point in question
when rightly understood. A child is of the same substance as its mother
and is designed to perpetuate the race. So, also, the new-born babes in
the church are just the same spiritually as those who are older, and are
intended to perpetuate the church of God on earth. But this explanation
of itself is not sufficient to entirely satisfy an inquiring mind, and
the question is sure to be asked, Why was it necessary that the church
of God in this dispensation should be represented by two individuals--a
woman and her son? I also will ask a question--Why, on the other hand,
was it necessary that the great apostasy of this dispensation should be
rep