ot get a
proper understanding of such prophecies.

Spoken or written language is a very complicated affair, but it is
in reality an arbitrary arrangement. The name that we attach to a
particular object could as well be given to a totally different object
instead if we only agreed to make the change. For this reason spoken
language is variable. Changes are constantly taking place. The
language of Bible symbols, on the other hand, is not subject to
the law of change, as we shall see; it is not based on arbitrary
arrangement or mere convenience, but its foundational principles exist
in the very nature of things.

Webster defines _symbol_ as follows: "The sign or representation of
any moral thing by the images or properties of natural things. Thus,
a lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of meekness or
patience." Horne, in his Introduction to the Study of the Bible, says:
"By symbols we mean certain representative marks, rather than express
pictures; or, if pictures, such as were at the time _characters_, and
besides presenting to the eye the resemblance of a particular object,
suggested a general idea to the mind, as when a _horn_ was made
to denote _strength_, an _eye_ and _scepter_, _majesty_, and in
numberless such instances, where the picture was not drawn to
express merely the thing itself, but something else, which was or was
conceived to be, analogous to it."

According to these definitions, the main idea of a symbol is the
representation of an object or quality, not by exhibition of itself,
but by another object or character analogous to it. Nor are we limited
in the use of symbols to the exhibition of moral subjects alone.
Any object may be symbolized, provided a corresponding object can be
found.

[Sidenote: Analogy the basic law]

Analogy, then, is the fundamental law of symbols. This being true,
it is clear that symbols must be definitely applied. They are not
arbitrary. There is no reason why we could not call a book a table,
and a table it would be, provided we agreed universally to adopt that
designation; but we violate nature if we attempt to represent the
quiet, peaceful, gentle disposition of a child by a lion or a tiger,
or a cruel, vindictive, tyrannical disposition by a lamb. A polluted
harlot may represent an apostate church, but not the true church. A
proper correspondence of character and quality must be observed. We
must follow nature strictly. And this is the law of symbols.