Gospel in the Stars XV

THE BLESSED OUTCOME

Rev. 5:12: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, ami blessing."

"The text celebrates the worthiness, glory, and dominion of the Lamb, who is further described as appearing to have been slain, but here as standing in the midst of the throne, having the perfection of strength and wisdom, and the fulness of spiritual and divine energy operative in the world for the complete salvation of His people; for this is what is meant by the "seven horns and seven eyes— the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." And in the sign of Aries we have this same Lamb, or Prince of the flock, the Son of man as the Head, Sacrifice, and High Priest of the Church, lifted up upon the path of the Sun, looking forth in the repose of power, and working that very translation and glorification of His people which the Scriptures everywhere set before us as the blessed hope of all saints.
To this interesting presentation, then, let us now direct our attention.

The Sign Of Aries

"The figure here is that of a vigorous Ram. It is called Aries, the Chief, the Head; as Aryan means the Lordly. So Christ is the Chief, the Head and Lord of His Church. The English name, Ram, means high, great, elevated, lifted up. In Syriac the name is Amroo, the Lamb, the same as John 1: 29, where it is said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" also the Branch, the Palm-branch, recognized by the Jews as denotive of Christ's royal coming to His Church. The Arabic calls this figure Al Hamal, the Sheep, the Gentle, the Merciful. The principal stars included in this figure are called El Nath or El Natik, and Al Sharetan, which mean the Wounded, the Bruised, the Slain. Over the head of the figure is a triangle, which the old Greeks said exhibited the name of the Deity, and its principal star bears a name signifying the Head, the Uplifted, hence the Lamb exalted to the divine glory, to the throne of the all-holy One.

It is unreasonable to suppose that all this could have happened by mere accident. There was manifestly some intelligent design by which the whole was arranged. And the entire presentation is in thorough accord with what the Scriptures say concerning the Seed of the woman. As the Son of man He is continually represented as the Head and Prince of the flock, the Lamb—"the Lamb that was slain"—the Lamb lifted to divine dominion and glory. In His pure, meek, and sacrificial character the Scriptures style Christ "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." In His exaltation He is represented as "the Lamb in the midst of the throne." In the administrations of judgment upon the wicked world He is contemplated as the Lamb, whose wrath is unbearable. As the Bridegroom and Husband of the Church He is also the Lamb, to whose marriage supper the Gospel calls us. As the Keeper of the Book of life in which the names of the saints are written, the Lifter of the title-deed of our inheritance, and the Breaker of the seals by which the earth is purged of usurpers and the mystery of God completed, He is presented as "the Lamb." As the consociate of the eternal Father in the joy and sovereignty of the world to come, in which the saints glory for ever and ever, He is still referred to as "the Lamb," by whose blood they overcome and in whose light they live world without end. And in whatever attitude He appears, back of all He is still the Lamb."
The Mythic Stories

"The mythic stories concerning Aries still further identify him with the Lamb of the text. This noble and mysterious animal was given by Nephele to her two children, Phrixus and Helle, when Ino, their mortal stepmother, was about to have them sacrificed to Jupiter. It was by seating themselves on its back and clinging to its fleece that they were to make their escape. Nephele means the Cloud. She is reputed the queen of Thebes; and Thebes was the house, city, or congregation of God. We thus have the cloud over God's house, or congregation, precisely as the Scriptures tell of the cloud of God's gracious manifestations to His ancient people—in their deliverance from Egypt, in their journeyings in the wilderness, and in their worship in the tabernacle and the temple. God visibly dealt with them as their merciful Guide, Instructor, Protector, and Ruler; and His gracious presence was almost uniformly manifested in the form of the cloud. Also in Job's time "thick clouds " were His covering. It was by these cloud-manifestations that He called and formed the congregation of His people, assembled them around Him, and kept them in communion with himself as His Church or city.

The two children of the cloud are therefore the same with the two Fishes in the preceding sign; that is, the multitudinous twofold Church, which is born of these merciful divine manifestations. These children were all under sentence of death. So the Church, consisting of men who had fallen under the power of incoming sin, was in danger of being sacrificed. From such a fate believers are delivered by means of the blest "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

This Lamb was furnished to these children from the same cloud of which they themselves are born; and so Christ was begotten by the power of the Highest coming upon and overshadowing the Virgin of Nazareth, and upon himself at His baptism and transfiguration.

The safety of these children of the cloud rested exclusively in this Lamb, and so the name of Jesus is the only name given under heaven among men whereby we can be saved. Both of them in fact were safe, and carried far aloft from Ino's reach and power, so long as they both continued firmly seated on this Lamb; and so the Church is lifted far above all condemnation by virtue of its being planted on Jesus Christ as its Help and Redeemer. Helle, one of these cloud-children, became giddy in the heavenly elevation to which she was lifted by this Lamb, lost her hold upon his back, and fell off into the sea, thereafter called Hellespont, or Helle's Sea; and so the antediluvian Church apostatized and was drowned in the flood; as likewise the Israelitish Church, becoming giddy in its sublime elevation, let go its hold on the Lamb by rejecting Christ, and dropped from its heavenly position into the sea of the common world. Phrixus, the more manly part of this mystic cloud-seed, held on to the mystic Lamb, and was brought in safety to Colchis, the citadel of reconciliation, the city of refuge. So likewise there has ever been a true people of God remaining faithful amid the apostasies around them, who never let go their hold on the Lamb of God, and are securely borne to the citadel of peace and salvation.

Nephele's Lamb was sacrificed to Jupiter as those who were saved by him would have been without him; and so Christ, the true Aries, was sacrificed for us, and died in our stead. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." And it was this Lamb of Nephele that yielded the Golden Fleece, which made him who possessed it the envy of kings, and which constituted the highest treasure to be found by the children of men. And this, again, is a most striking image of the heavenly robe of Christ's meritorious righteousness, the sublimest and most enriching treasure and ornament of the Church.

It is wonderful to see how these traditional legends of the constellations interpret on the theory that they have come from prophecies and sacred beliefs touching the promised Seed of the woman and the Church which He has purchased with His blood.

It is also worthy of remark that the Egyptians celebrated a sacred feast to the Ram upon the entrance of the Sun into the sign of Aries. They prepared for it before the full moon next to the spring equinox, and on the fourteenth day of that moon all Egypt was in joy over the dominion of the Ram. Everybody put foliage or boughs, or some mark of the feast, over his door. The people crowned the ram with flowers, carried him with extraordinary pomp in grand processions, and rejoiced in him to the utmost. It was then that the horn was full. The ancient Persians had a similar festival of Aries. For all this it is hard to account except in connection with what was prophetically signified by Aries. But taken in relation to what the Scriptures foretell of the Lamb, in the period when He shall take to Him His great power for the deliverance and glorification of His Church, we can easily see how this would come to be one of the very gladdest and most exultant of the sacred feasts. It is when the Lamb thus comes upon the throne, and appears for the taking up of the deeds of the inheritance, the gladdest period in all the history of the Church and people of God is come. Then it is that the songs break forth in heaven in tremendous volume of Worthiness, and Blesssing, and Honor, and Glory to the Lamb for redeeming men by His blood, and making them kings and priests unto God, and certifying unto them that now they "shall reign on the earth."

And when we turn to the accompanying Decans of this sign, the very work and doings ascribed to the Lamb in this entrance upon His great power are still more specifically set before us, in which the joy in Him on the part of His Church and people comes to its culmination. The first of these is Cassiopeia."
Cassiopeia

"This is nothing less than a picture of the true Church of God lifted up out of all evils, bonds, and disabilities, and seated with her glorious Redeemer in heaven. The figure is that of a queenly woman, matchless in beauty, seated in exalted dignity, with her foot on the Arctic Circle, on which her chair likewise is set. In one hand she holds aloft the branch of victory and triumph, and with the other she is spreading and arranging her hair, as if preparing herself for some great public manifestation. Albumazer says this woman was anciently called "the daughter of splendor," hence "the glorified woman." Her common name is Cassiopeia, the beautiful, the enthroned; or, as Pluche derives the name, the Boundary of Typhoris power, the Delivered from all evil. The constellation itself is one of the most beautiful in the heavens.

Four stars of the third magnitude, which never set, form the seat upon which this woman sits. The star on her right side is on the equinoctial colure, and on a straight line with Al Pherats in Andromeda's cheek to the north pole. The constellation embraces a binary star, a triple star, a double star, a quadruple star, and an extraordinary number of starclusters of similar constituents to the general field of greater stars.

About three hundred years ago there occurred in this constellation what was a great mystery to astronomers. A star, surpassing in brilliancy and splendor all the fixed stars, suddenly appeared on the tenth of November, 1572, and, after shining in continuous glory for sixteen months, disappeared, and has never since been seen, just as the Church disappears in the shadow of death, or is presently to be caught away to the invisible world.

And if there is any one constellation of the sky, or any figure among these celestial frescoes, specially fitted to be the symbol and representative of the Church, particularly in its enfranchised and glorified condition, it is this. The names are equally significant. The first star marking the figure of this woman is called Shedar, which means the Freed, and Ruchbah and Dat al Cursa, signifying the Enthroned, the Seated. On her right hand is also the glorious star-crowned King, holding out his sceptre toward her, whilst all the accounts pronounce her his wife, just as the Scriptures everywhere describe the Church as affianced to Christ, hereafter to be married to Him as "the bride, the Lamb's wife."

Cassiopeia is universally represented as the mother of Andromeda; and so the Apostle refers to the heavenly Church as the mother of the earthly Church. The Jerusalem that is above "is the mother of us all." The whole presentation is that of deliverance and heavenly triumph, precisely as we speak of the Church triumphant; and the ready-making is for the great marriage ceremonial. (Compare Rev. 19:7, 8.)

The perfection of this woman's beauty, fairer than Juno and the envy of all the nymphs of the sea, likewise answers exactly to the Scripture descriptions of the Church: "Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I put upon thee, saith the Lord" (Ezek. 16: 14). Christ is to present it to himself, "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5 : 27). Cassiopeia is an enthroned queen; and this is also uniformly the biblical picture of the Church when once it comes to enter upon its promised glory. John saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and they reigned with Christ. And it was further said that so "they shall reign for ever and ever." The Church is "the queen in gold of Ophir" of which the Psalmist (45 : 9) so enthusiastically sung."
Cetus

"But when the time comes for the Church to enter upon her royal exaltation and authority, another very important and marked event is to occur. John beheld it in apocalyptic vision, and writes : "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years are fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season " (Rev. 20: 1-3). And this is pictorially given in the second Decan of Aries.

The picture is that of a great sea-monster (Cetus), the true Leviathan of Job and Isaiah, which covers the largest space of any one figure in the sky. It is a vast scaly beast, with enormous head, mouth, and front paws, and having the body and tail of a whale. It is generally called "the Whale" on our planispheres. It is an animal of the waters and marshes, and the natural enemy and devourer of the fishes. It is the same which the seagod sent to devour Andromeda, and hence the particular foe and persecutor of the Church. It is a downward constellation, bordering on the lower regions. One of its characteristic stars, Mira, situated in the neck of the scaly monster, is the most wonderfully variable and unsteady in the heavens. From a star of the second magnitude it dwindles away so as to become invisible once in about every three hundred days, and Hevelius affirms that it once disappeared for the space of four years. It is a striking symbol of the arch-Deceiver, and, singularly enough, its name means the Rebel. And what is specially remarkable in the case is, that the doubled end of the Band which upholds the Fishes, after passing the front foot or hand of the Lamb, is fastened on the neck of this monster, and holds him firmly bound. The name of the first of the Cetus stars, Menkar, refers to this; for Menkar means the chained Enemy. And so the name of the second star, Diphda, means the Overthrown, the Thrust-down.

Satan is loose now. Peter writes: "Your adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (Pet. 5:8). God speaks of him, and puts the confounding questions: "Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with the cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put a hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? Shall thy companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish-spears? Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up" (Job 41 : i—10). But he whom no man can take or bind, the Lamb has in His power, and will yet lay hold upon, and fasten with a great chain, from which he cannot break away. By the same power with which He upholds the Fishes He restrains the devouring Enemy; and with that same power He will yet fasten up the monster for final destruction. Of old, Isaiah prophesied of a day when "the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even Leviathan that crooked Serpent, and He shall slay the Dragon that is in the sea" (Isa. 27:1). And here we have the same forepictured in the stars, showing how the enthroned Lamb will bind and punish Leviathan, even as the written word of prophecy describes. The sign in the heavens answers precisely to the descriptions in the Book, proving that one is of the same piece with the other, and that both are from the same eternal Spirit which has moved to show us things to come."

Perseus

"But in still greater vigor and animation is this whole scene set out in the third accompanying side-piece to this sign of the enthroned Lamb. Micah (2 : 12, 13) prophesies of a time when the flock of God shall be gathered, their King pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them; and says that this shall be when "the Breaker is come up before them" Whatever may have been in the foreground of this prediction, it is agreed that "the Breaker" here must needs be Christ, the very Lamb of our text, breaking the way of His people through all the doors and gates of their present imprisonment and disability, and dashing to pieces all the antagonizing powers which stand in the way of their full deliverance and redemption. So the Lamb in the Apocalypse is the Breaker of the seals and of apostate nations, the same as the Son in the second Psalm. And this Breaker, in these very acts, is the precise picture in this constellation.

Here is the figure of a mighty man, stepping with one foot on the brightest part of the Milky Way, wearing a helmet on his head and wings on his feet, holding aloft a great sword in his right hand, and carrying away the blood-dripping head of the Gorgon in his left. His name in the constellation is Perets, Graecised Perses or Perseus, the same as in Micah's prophecy—the Breaker. The name of the star by his left foot is Atik, He who breaks. The name of the brightest middle star in the figure is Al Genib, the One who carries away, and Mirfak, Who helps. And when Perseus comes to the meridian the most brilliant portion of the starry heavens opens out its sublimest magnificence in the eastern hemisphere."
The Myths

"Now, one of the most beloved and admired of all the hero-gods of mythology was this Perseus. He was the son of the divine Father, who came upon Danae in the form of a shower of gold. No sooner was he born than he and his mother were put into a chest and cast into the sea; but Jupiter so directed that they were rescued by the fishermen on the coast of one of the Cyclades, and carried to the king, who treated them with great kindness, and entrusted to them the care of the temple of the goddess of wisdom. His rising genius and great courage made him a favorite of the gods. At a great feast of the king, at which the nobles were expected to make some splendid present to their sovereign, Perseus, who was so specially indebted to the king's favors, not wishing to be behind the rest or feebler in his expressions than were his obligations, engaged to bring the head of Medusa, the only one of the three horrible Gorgons subject to mortality.

These Gorgons were fabled beings, with bodies grown indissolubly together and covered with impenetrable scales. They had tusks like boars, yellow wings, and brazen hands, and were very dangerous. Their heads were full of serpents in place of hair, and their very looks had power to turn to stone any one on whom they fixed their gaze. To equip Perseus for his expedition Pluto lent him his helmet, which had the power of rendering the wearer invisible; and Minerva furnished him with her buckler, resplendent as a polished mirror; and Mercury gave him wings for his feet and a diamond sword for his hand. Thus furnished, he mounted into the air, led by the goddess of wisdom, and came upon the tangled monsters. He,

"In the mirror of his polished shield Reflected, saw Medusa slumbers take, And not one serpent by good chance awake; Then backward an unerring blow he sped, And from her body lopped at once her head." Grasping the same in his left hand, he again mounted into the air, and

"O'er Lybia's sands his airy journey sped; The gory drops distilled as swift he flew, And from each drop envenomed serpents grew."

By this victory he was rendered immortal, and took his place among the stars, ever holding fast the reeking head of the Gorgon. It was on his return from this brave deed that he saw the beautiful Andromeda chained to the rock, and the terrible monster of the sea advancing to devour her. On condition that she should become his wife, he broke her chains, plunged his sword into the monster that sought her life, fought off and turned to stone the tyrant Phineus who sought to prevent the wedding, and made Andromeda his bride, begetting many worthy sons and daughters, and by varied administrations of miraculous power changing portions of the earth and its governments and rulers, returning betimes to bless the countries that honored him."
Perseus And Christ

"No natural events in the seasons or in the history of man could ever serve as a foundation for such a story as this. Here is a divine-human son, begotten of a golden shower from the Deity, a child of affliction and persecution from his very birth, but predestined by the heavenly powers to live and triumph. By his high qualities he is made the keeper and conservator of the temple of wisdom and sacred worship. Out of devotion to his king he undertakes to destroy the Gorgons as far as they are destructible. For this he descends into hell, and brings forth armor from thence. He is in communion with the divine wisdom, and thereby is girded in splendor and led unerringly. He is winged, and given a diamond sword, as Heaven's messenger and herald to undo the powers of evil and administer deliverance and prosperity. He wounds the dire Gorgons in the head, and carries off their power. He punishes Leviathan with his "sore and great and strong sword." He breaks the bonds of Andromeda, and makes her his bride amid high festival, at which he puts down all opposition. And thereupon he goes forth to countries far and near, punishing and expelling tyrants and usurpers, rooting out untruth and corrupt worship, and blessing and rejoicing the city and kingdom of heroes. All this interprets with wonderful literalness and brilliancy when understood of the promised Seed of the woman, the Lamb that was slain, going forward at the head of His people as the Breaker, bringing death and destruction to the monsters of evil, setting wronged captives free, and joining them to himself in glory everlasting. Nor is there anything else of which it will interpret or that can adequately account for the existence of the story."
Medusa's Head

"And that we are so to understand this figure is still further manifest in the facts and names in the reeking, snake-covered head grasped by the hero. Medusa means the Trodden under foot. The name of the principal star in this head, Al Ghoul, contracted into Algol, means the Evil Spirit. The same is also a variable star, like Mira. It changes about every three days from a star of the second magnitude to one of the fourth, and makes its changes from one to the other in three and a half hours. Rosh Satan and Al Oneh are other names of the stars in this head, which mean Satan's head, the Weakened, the Subdued. And the invincible Subduer and Breaker is none other than "the Lamb," the biblical Peretz, the Persian Bershuash, taking to himself His great power, and enforcing His saving dominion and authority for the full redemption of His people."
The Church's Hope

"With great vividness, beauty, and fulness does this sign of Aries thus symbolize the blessed outcome of the Church, whose earthly estate and career were signified in the three preceding. Out of the sacrificial death and mediation of the Seed of the woman, the slain Lamb, the Church obtains its being. By the unfailing stream of the spiritual waters, which pour down from heaven as the fruit of His mediatorial intercession, it is quickened into life and celestial fellowship. By the bands of royal power with which He has been crowned at the right hand of eternal Majesty it is upheld, directed, and governed amid this sea of earthly existence, turmoil, danger, and temptation. Helpless in its own strength, despised, hated, threatened by the serpents of Medusa's head, and exposed to the attacks of the monster lord of this world, it is still sustained and preserved by the right hand of Him whose is the dominion. And the time is coming when He who walks amid the golden candlesticks and holds in His hand the seven stars shall lift the title-deed of its inheritance, and call its members up from this doomed world to meet Him in the air, whilst He proceeds to punish and dash in pieces all enemies, cutting off Medusa's head, putting Leviathan in bonds, and lifting the chained Andromeda to Cassiopeia's starry throne.

And then it is that all heaven rings with the song, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing;" whilst all creation thrills with "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, untc Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

Dear friends, may I not here turn to ask, Have you been brought into fellowship and communion with this Church and congregation of the Lord? If so, then thank God for it, and be glad before Him that He has bestowed upon you so great a favor. Bless His name for the grace that has led you into those holy gates, and for the treasures and dignities of which He has thus made you heirs. Trials, dangers, and disabilities may be upon you now, but the Lamb is in the midst of the throne to uphold, protect, and comfort you, and by His blood and interces sion you are safe. Cling to Him and His golden fleece, and no malignity of the Destroyer shall ever be able to touch a hair of your head. Wait and pray on in patience and in hope; the victorious Perseus comes for your deliverance and to share with you His own triumphant immortality.

Or does the present moment find you still lingering without the gates, and far aside from the assembly and congregation of God's flock? These starry lights that look down so lovingly upon you are hung with admonitions of your danger, and in diamond utterance point you to the better way. "There is no speech nor language, their voice is not heard; but their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world," marking out the tabernacle of the Sun of Righteousness, in which alone there is covenanted safety and salvation for exposed and helpless man. In full harmony with the written Book night by night they hold forth their pictorial showings to corroborate the testimony of Prophets and Apostles, that the erring seed of Adam may learn wisdom, enter the chambers of security, and shut themselves in to life and glory against the time when the Breaker shall come. The light-bearers in the sky join with the lightbearers in the Church in giving out the one great testimony of God : "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3 : 36)."

Gospel in the Stars XIV

Andromeda

Two Major Women in History

The church, or congregation of the redeemed, is described in scripture as a woman. Likewise the congregation of the lost is described as a woman. These two women are discussed in the scriptures, particularly in the Book of Revelation. Every person is part of one or the other of these two women.

Apocalyptic Descriptions of The Two Women

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered...And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days...And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev. 12: 1, 2, 5, 6, 15-17)

Wrote Seiss (in his book on the Apocalypse)

"In the passage which we are now to consider (Rev. 12), we have the picture of a marvellous Woman, clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, and she herself agitated and agonizing with the anxieties of parturition. This, the Apostle tells us is a sign, semeion, a word which he here uses for the first time in the Apocalypse, and which serves to show that the apparition is not simply a "wonder," as our version has it, but a wonder intended to bring before us something beyond itself. I have repeatedly remarked, that when the Scriptures use figures or symbols, or speak in a way not intended to be taken literally, like all serious writings they always give intimation of it, in one way or another. The text is a case in point. What is described, is said to be a sign, a representation or picture of something else—a symbol. And the fact that we are here told that this is a sign, goes far to prove that the Apocalypse in general is to be taken literally, except where indication to the contrary is given. It would be quite superfluous to tell us that this thing is a sign, and that certain things mean certain other things, except upon the assumption that whatever is not so labelled is to be taken just as it reads, a woman for a woman, a star for a star, a mountain for a mountain, and so on. But, whatever else is literal in this book, the case of this woman is not; for the Apostle says it is a sign—a picture—a symbol of something else, which is the true subject of contemplation. He further tells us that it is "a great sign." In itself it was something very imposing and sublime to the eye which beheld it. But the greatness cannot be well understood, except with reference to the thing signified. It was a great sign as indicating something great, remarkable, momentous. The whole picture is itself so marvellous and extraordinary as to necessitate the idea of something of the greatest excellence, conspicuity, and importance. And when it is yet added, that the sign is a "great" one, that to which it refers must needs be of the utmost consequence and consideration, and no trifling object or ordinary event can be admitted as fulfilling the majesty of such a picture."

"A more important question is that respecting the object intended to be symbolized by this Woman. Who is she, and what are we to understand by her? The answers returned by expositors are not in all cases the same.

Some are disposed to consider it the picture of the Virgin Mary giving birth to the blessed Saviour. Even Professor Stuart says, that no attentive reader can help thinking of the birth of Christ and the massacre of Bethlehem. But, much as we may think of it, and howsoever included, this cannot be the proper subject. If the Apostle had believed it a representative of Mary, he doubtless would have said so; neither is it congruous thus mysteriously to give us the picture of one woman so superlatively exalted, in order to denote another woman so poor and lowly as Mary at the birth of our Lord. Nor was Mary ever clad and adorned as here set forth. She has also long since passed away from the earth, while this woman continues even until after the sounding of the last trumpet. When Christ was caught up to God, this Apocalypse was not yet written, nor for half a century after, whereas it was said at the time of the writing that it referred to things then still future.

Others think that it means the City of Jerusalem. It has been said that there are only two women spoken of in this book, and that as the one is "that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth," so the other is that city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. But it is as foreign to all Scripture diction, as it is contrary to the nature of things, for a material earthly city to take wings and fly away to the wilderness, and after 1260 days to return again.

A more common view, in which there is a more general agreement, is, that this woman somehow represents the Church, the body of God's professed people. It belongs to the ordinary Scripture imagery to speak of the Church under the figure of a woman, a spouse, a mother. We read of "the Daughter of Zion" as a personification of this kind under the Old Testament, and Paul speaks of the spiritual Jerusalem as "the mother of us all." The Canticles, which certainly are to be taken in a mystic sense, show how familiar such conceptions were to the Jews; and the same sort of language is everywhere employed, in one form or another, in the New Testament. And when we contemplate all the splendid particulars respecting this woman, how she is assailed by Satan, and the destiny of the offspring she bears, there is hardly any room left for a doubt, that it is the collective body of the Church or people of God that we are to see in this picture.

But what Church, or the Church of what particular dispensation or era, or the Church in what particular aspect, is not so generally agreed. Some say it is the Old Testament Church, others that it is the Christian Church of the early centuries persecuted by the heathen, agonizing for converts, and finally bringing forth the Emperor Constantino; others, that it is tbe Latin Church of a later period; and others still, that it refers to the Church in yet other times, or the Church in general, without undertaking to find any one particular fulfilment for it.

In trying to come to a definite conclusion where there is so much irreconcilable diversity, it is necessary to bear in mind that we are here dealing with consummations. The Apocalypse is the Book and revealer of consummations; and the seventh trumpet, under which this sign appears, above all, refers to the times and scenes in which everything runs to its final completion and end, and appears in its terminal culmination. It is the climax of the great judgment period, when all that has gone before comes to its full, and is finally disposed of. It would therefore harmonize best with the time, and with the character of the connected administrations, that any picture of the Church here introduced should embrace it in its largest fulness, aa made up through all ages and dispensations, and as related to the great consummating events pertaining to the end.

So, then, I have been led to view and interpret this wonderful sign. It does not refer to the Jewish Church exclusively; for that, apart from the Christian, never, to the same degree, possessed the majesty and glory which pertain to this woman. It is not the Christian Church exclusively; for the man-child who is to rule the nations with the rod of iron must necessarily include the Lord Jesus as its Lord and head; but he was born before the Christian Church, as such, had an existence. But the Church of the Old Testament and that of the New, are, after all, not so alien to each other. There is still an inner oneness between them never to be overlooked, which makes one a necessary part of the other, and which constitutes them the one" Church of God, notwithstanding the differences of dispensations and outward form. Christian believers are children of faithful Abraham, and brethren of the ancient prophets, who were not perfect without us. Changes of external order and administration have occurred, and will perhaps occur again when the present age is consummated, but it is still the same Church of the living God. There has really been but one Church on earth, existing through all times and under all economies. And so we have here, as the symbol of it, this one glorious woman, in whom all its highest excellences and chief characteristics are summed up from the beginning even unto the great consummation, at which point, and with reference to the great occurrences of that time, it is here brought to our contemplation. It is the one only Church of God on earth, though its several parts have existed in succession—even the same which was patriarchal hefore Moses, Jewish before Christ, and Christian since Christ, here aggregately exhibited, that we may at one and the same view see it in its fulness, and particularly with reference to what is to happen it under the seventh and last trumpet.

It is wonderful also what a profound and complete view of the Church, in all its deepest peculiarities, excellences, office, and prospects, is here given in one single picture, at once as simple as it is sublime.

1. We have here the image of a woman. Woman was made out of Adam. A deep sleep fell upon him for the purpose, and out of that sleep woman came into being. From a rib out of his side was she builded. There was but one made, and Adam had none other. She was brought unto the man, and accepted and loved as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and made oue with him in the closest of all earthly relations. This is not only history, but also parable and prophecy. Paul is very particular to tell us that it is "a mystery," a sacred revelation set in historic facts, to show the character and relations of the Church. Adam was "the figure of Him that was to come." Christ is "the Second Adam." And the wife of the Second Adam is the Church, made out of Him by the hand and Spirit of God from that deep sleep of His for the sins of the world. It is but one, and beside it there is none other. It is Christ himself begotten in His people, and joined to Him in holy compact, service, fellowship, and love, so deep and close as to be really organic; for "we are members of his body, and of his flesh, and of his bones"—one with him as the branches with the vine—sharing each other's characteristics, estates, and destiny. And to say nothing of the feminine qualities as distinguished from the masculine, there is here the profoundest reason for the representation of the Church in the figure of a woman,—a pure, beautiful, sublime, and perfect woman. The Church is the woman, in her creation from the second Adam, in her naming after Christ, and in her receptivity, love, maternity, trusting dependence, beauty, and willing obedience. She is the betrothed of the Lord, His Bride, His Queen, partaker of His inmost love, and all His estate and kingdom, having her joy in Him and His in her. Nor is there another image known to man which more richly and truly sets forth that mystic body, which we recognize and identify in every age as the Church or people of God.

2. This woman is in the way of motherhood. This is the characteristic of the Church in every period of its existence, and with special reference to what is to be fulfilled when the last trumpet shall Bound. She ever bears in her body the maturing germs of a mighty birth awaited in the future. There is one individual outward figure, but that figure incloses and carries within it an invisible seed, the royal sous of a royal sire. As seen and known to us, the Church is the assembly of God's called and chosen people, manifest in the fellowship and profession of the rites and signs of revealed religion. This assembly, however, embraces two classes, the truly elect and regenerate, whom God has begotten as His own children, and in whom the Church has its life-character as the congregation of saints, but along with them many nominal outward members, who are not God's children in living reality. It is quite manifest, to those who look, that not all are saints who profess Christianity and observe its rites; but who are the true members is not certainly known to us, but to God only. There is, therefore, a visible and an invisible Church—one woman, but compassing a hidden seed to be revealed hereafter. The invisible Church lies within the visible, and there is begotten, nourished, and borne, till the time comes for it to be brought forth. The visible Church is truly the Church, because the elect are in it, only it embraces some who are not of the elect. In it alone are God's true people to be found. There are the means and instruments through which saints are begotten and nurtured, and the Church collected, and its offices and administrations tilled. Though it has many who are not really what they profess, and are not of the inner household of faith, it does not cease to be the true Church of God and the only mother of saints on that account. Their profession still is right, and the word and sacraments which they handle are still God's appointed means of grace and salvation. And it is the Church as one glorious whole, outward and inward, visible and invisible, that we are to see in this magnificent woman.

3. This woman is magnificently arrayed. It is sometimes decried as a woman's weakness that she is fond of beautiful attire, and has an irrepressible instinct for personal adornment. It is not a weakness, but an instrument of power. It is part of her God-given nature, as the original type and representative of the Church. She may abuse it, and fall into many silly mistakes and sins by reason of it, but it becomes her, and belongs to her proper womanliness to be as beautiful as possible, and to be as beautifully and appropriately arrayed as she honestly can. She owes it to herself, to her sex, to her husband, and to society. A slattern is a monstrosity to the Divine ideal. The Church is the truest and heavenliest woman, and she is splendidly arrayed. She is "clothed with the sun."

Of course, no mere creature, or any number of creatures, can be literally dressed with the sun. That sublime luminary cannot be worn as a garment. It is only a pictorial representation, which is to be figuratively understood. But it is a gorgeous and most expressive figure.

The sun is the fairest and most brilliant thing our eyes have ever seen. It is the great orb of brightness. To be clothed with it, one would needs be clothed with light. And so it is with the Church and the people of God. Jesus says, they are "the children of light" (Luke 16 :8). It is the office and end of all God's merciful appointments " to turn men from darkness to light" (Acts 26: 18). Of those whom the Apostles enrolled as members of the Church of Christ, it is written, "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord" (Eph. 5: 8). The Church has ever been an illuminated body. Its children are not of darkness, but of the day. God, who caused the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into their hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His own glory. They " walk in the light." They wear it about them as a garment. If there be any light in the Divine revelations, they have it as their constant possession. If there bo any teaching and illumination of the Holy Ghost, they enjoy it. They are an instructed people, illuminated from on high. They are the truly wise. They have the true philosophy of things, and are. the widest awake to the highest truth and wisdom. While others grope.in darkness, they are arrayed in light.

The sun is at the same time the great lightgiver. It radiates brightness as well as possesses it. Light streams forth from it as the illuminator of this whole sublunary world. And to be clothed with the sun, one must necessarily be a glorious dispenser of illumination. And such is the Church. Its members and ministers have been the brightest lights of the ages. It is the pillar and ground of the truth—the golden candlestick of God amid the abounding and otherwise sunless darkness of this alien world. It is constituted and ordained for the teaching of the nations, and the bearing of the light of heaven to the benighted souls of men. People can learn the way of truth only through its testimony and confession. Christ hath said of His people, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matt. 5 : 14). By them it is that the knowledge and joy of salvation are carried over the earth, and ministered unto the dwellers in darkness and the shadow of death. They are the dispensers of the light of God. It is a great and wonderful endowment and office; but this treasure hath the Lord given to His Church. Oh, that His people may know and realize it!

The sun is likewise an orb of great excellence and purity. Nothing can diminish its glory, or taint its rays. To be clothed with it, is to be clothed with unsullied excellency. And so it is with the Church. It may have shabby members, but they are not really of it. Whatever may be the native corruption of men, or their entanglement with the errors and vices of an ungodly world, in becoming God's people they are washed, they are sanctified, they are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. They are the purest and holiest of the race. They are the flower of mankind. They are the jewels of the Lord of hosts. They are saints, having put on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the Sun of Righteousness."

Light is the garment of God. It is the symbol of His own nature. And as all true people of Ilis are "partakers of the divine nature," being begotten unto Him from above, they enter also into the same clothing. The Church is robed with the sun.

4. This woman is victorious in her position. She has "the moon under her feet." Needless is the perplexity which men have felt in ascertaining what we are here to understand by the moon. As the sun is the king of day, so the moon is the empress of night; and hence a fit picture of the kingdom of darkness. And as to be clothed with the one is to be "light in the Lord," a glorious lightbearer to the world, a possessor of great excellence and purity; so to tread the moon under foot is the image of victory over the powers of darkness, whether of nature, or aught else. And this is a blessed characteristic and honor of the Church. All her true members are conquerors. Not all have yet come to the final triumph. This is not a picture of the Church triumphant, for the woman is still the subject of persecution, compelled to fly into the wilderness for her life. But even now, all who have come to real standing and membership in the household of faith, must needs have gained certain victories, and attained to the character of conquerors. By whatever Divine helps and gratuities it has been achieved, they have vanquished their native ignorance and hatred of God. They have subdued their prejudices, and brought their bodies and passions under the sway of another and better dominion and discipline. They have risen in rebellion against the old bondage, and have conquered it, and broken away from it, and by stern resolve through the grace of God have entered upon the field of self-mastery and independence. With some the battle still rages, and " there remaineth yet much land to be possessed." But they have not warred in vain. Some glorious vantage-grounds have been won. They have conquered so far, that if they will only stand firm, their final triumph is sure. On fields once held by Satan, they have succeeded in planting the banners of Jehovah. And from the heights they have already gained, they see the victory from afar, and realize it even now. The moon is under their feet.

5. Still further: this woman is royal in rank and dignity. Regal gems glitter about her brow. There is "on her head a crown"—a crown "of stars,"— stars to the sacred number of completeness,— "twelve stars." Whatever the particular allusion may be, whether to patriarchs, or tribes, or apostles, or all of these, or to the totality of her teaching agency, there flashes forth from this the unmistakable idea of kinghood and authority; yea, of celestial royalty and dominion. And this too is one of the sublime possessions of the Church. Christians are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." (1 Peter 2 : 9.) By anticipation at least, all who are washed from their sins in the blood of Jesus, are "Kings and priests unto God." (Rev. 1: 6.) All who are called by the Gospel, are called to royal place and dignity, and in so far as they have made that calling sure, whatever be their earthly estate or place, they are anointed and sealed as lords and princes of the eternal realm. They are joint heirs with Him to whom all power in heaven and earth is given. Time only is needed to instate them in immortal thrones. Crowns are theirs and the glory of imperishable empire.

6. Aud she is in travail to bring forth. She is persecuted; but these are not so much pains of persecution. The pains of persecution come upon her from without; this anguish is from within. Persecution proceeds from the wicked, for the purpose of destruction; this agony proceeds from a treasure of heavenly sons, and is a travail to produce. Persecution has its spring in hell's malignity; this agonizing has its origin in the love, and faith, and hope of a pious maternity.

Friends and Brethren: There is a grand and glorious birthday on hand when once the seventh trumpet begins to sound,—a birthday foreshadowed by the seizing away from earth of Enoch and Elijah, and forepledged by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, and his sublime ascension to the right hand of the Father,—a birthday which Paul had in his eye when he wrote, "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall bo raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Cor. 15 : 52.) To that all the promises point.

For this present we are in heaviness and tribulation. Heaven is not in this world. Our inheritance is beyond, and only the resurrection can bring us to the full fruition of it. In the day of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, and His saints come to that for which they look, and long, and cry out, in all these years of waiting. Think, then, what a time that will be when once the object of all these prayers, sufferings, and endeavors has at last been reached! What, indeed, is all the glorious light, and victory, and royalty, and joy of faith and hope we now possess, compared with the fulness of joy which shall come with that glad consummation!

"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns." (Rev. 17: 1-7)

On The Woman (Babylon) of Revelation 17, Seiss writes:

"The subject itself is one of great prominence in the Apocalypse, as in all the prophecies; but it has proven about as difficult as it is conspicuous. On none of the current methods of treating this Book is it possible to come to any clear, consistent, and satisfying conclusions with regard to it. The body of preterist expositors have found themselves necessitated to take Great Babylon as meaning the city, the church, or the ecclesiastical system of Rome, not so much because the features of the record call for it, or really admit of it, when fairly dealt with, but because unable on their theory to do any better. That Rome and the Romish system are involved, may readily be admitted; but that this is all, and that the sudden fall of Great Babylon is simply the fall of Romanism, or the utter destruction of the city of Rome, must be emphatically denied, if the inspired portraiture is to stand as it is written. If we cannot find more solid ground than that on which the Rome theory rests we must needs consign the whole subject to the department of doubt and uncertainty, and let all these tremendous foreshowings pass for nothing. Unite with me, then, dear friends, in praying God to open our understandings, that we may not fail to take in what He really intends that His people should see in these sacred visions.

The first thing which strikes me in the study of this subject, is one which I have nowhere seen duly noticed, namely: the evident correlation and contrast between the Woman here pictured and another Woman described in the twelfth chapter. There, " a great sign was seen in the heaven, a Woman?' here, it is remarked, " he bore me away in spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a Woman."

Both these Women are mothers; the first "brought forth a son, a male [neuter, embracing either sex], who is to rule all the nations;" the second " is the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." Both are splendidly dressed ; the first is " clothed with the sun." Her raiment is light from heaven. The second is " clothed in purple, and scarlet, decked with gold,' and precious stone, and pearls." All her ornaments are from below, made up of things out of the earth and the sea. Both are very influential in their position; the first has " the moon," the empress of night, the powers of darkness, " under her feet;" the second " hath rule, or kiugdom, upon the kings of the earth." Both are sufferers; against the first is the Dragon, who stands watching to devour her child, and persecutes and pursues her, and drives her into the wilderness, and sends out a river to overwhelm her, and is at war with all her seed that he can find; against the second are the ten kings, who ultimately hate her, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, whilst God in His strength judgeth her, and visits her with plague, death, and utter destruction. Both are very conspicuous, and fill a large space in the history of the world, and in all the administrations of divine providence and judgment. That they are counterparts of each other there can hardly be a reasonable doubt. The one is a pure woman, the other is a harlot. The first is hated by the powers on earth, the second is loved, flattered, and caressed by them. "Where the one has sway, things are heavenly; where the other lives, it is "wilderness." The one produces masculine nobility, which is ultimately caught away to God and to His throne; the other produces effeminate impurity, which calls down the fierceness of the divine wrath. The one is sustained and helped by celestial wings; the other is supported and carried by the Dragon power,—the Beast with the seven heads and ten horns. The one has a crown of twelve stars, wearing the patriarchs and apostles as her royal diadem ; the other has upon her forehead the name of the greatest destroyer and oppressor of the holy people, and is drunken with " the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth." The one finally comes out in a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, made up of imperishable jewels, and arrayed in all the glory of God and the Lamb; the other finally comes out in a city of this world's superlative admiration, which suddenly goes down forever under the intense wrath of Heaven, and becomes the habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit.

These two Women, thus related, and set over one against the other as opposites and rivals, must necessarily be interpreted in the same way. As Antichrist corresponds to Christ as a rival and antagonist of Christ, so Great Babylon corresponds to the Woman that bears the Man-child, as her rival and antagonist.

By recalling, therefore, who and what is meant by the first Woman, we will be in position to understand who aud what is meant by the second.

Beyond question, the sun-clad Woman is God's great symbol of the visible Church,—the Lamb's Wife,—the bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh, fashioned out of His rifted side as the Second Adam, who fell into the deep sleep of death for that purpose. As Methodius taught, " The woman seen in heaven, clothed with the sun, and adorned with a crown of twelve stars, is, in the highest and strictest sense, our Mother. The prophets, considering what is spoken of her, call her Jerusalem, at other times The Bride, the Mount Sion, the Temple and Tabernacle of God." She is not the church of any one period or dispensation, but the entire Universal Church of all time, as Victorinus, the earliest commentator on this Book, held and affirmed, saying: " The Woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, is the Church of the Patriarchs, and of the Prophets, and of the holy Apostles "—that is, the Church from the days of Adam and Eve on to the last victory over the worship, name, and mark, of the final Antichrist. What then can this rival Woman be but the organized Antichurch, the psendochurch, the Bride made out of Satan, the universal body and congregation of false-believers and false-worshippers ? As Christ has had a visible Church in all time, embodying the wisdom and spirit of heaven, aud maintaining the confession of His truth and worship, so has the Devil had a corresponding following in all time, embodying the sensual and devilish wisdom and spirit, and maintaining the profession and teaching of Satan's lies. And as the first Woman denotes the one, so the second Woman denotes the other. The proofs of this will appear as we consider the particulars of the case."

"A still further representation of the Church is supplied in the third Decan of this sign. This is the picture of a beautiful woman, with fetters upon her wrists and ankles, and fastened down so as to be unable to rise. This woman in the Decan is the same as the Fishes in the sign. The change of the image argues no change in the subject. The Church is often a woman, and oftener than it is a net full of fishes; but it is both—sometimes the one, and sometimes the other—in the representations of the Scriptures. Besides, in some of the ancient planispheres these Fishes were pictured with the heads of women, thus identifying them with the woman."

Greek mythology calls this woman Andromeda (andro-medo), man-ruler, but with what idea, or for what reason, does not appear in the myths. The name is perhaps derived from some ancient designation of similar significance, which has no meaning in the Greek fables, but which covers a most important and inspiring biblical representation respecting the Church. Here we discover the true Andromeda—the mystic woman called and appointed to rule and guardianship over men. When Peter wished to know what he and his fellowdisciples should have by way of compensation for having forsaken everything for Christ, the blessed Master said: "Ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28). Hence Paul spoke to the Corinthians as of a well-understood fact, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" (i Cor. 6: 2). Hence the enraptured John ascribes everlasting glory and dominion to the divine Christ, not only for washing us from our sins in His own blood, but that He "hath made us kings and priests unto God" (Rev. i : 5, 6). The true people of God, the real Church, are the elect kings of the future ages. Even now already they are embodiments and bearers of the heavenly kingdom and dominion upon earth. Through them the word goes forth for the governing of men, and the regulation of their hearts and lives, and the bringing of them under a new spiritual dominion, so that none ever come to forgiveness and glory except as they come into submission to the truth and the teachings of the Church. The great All-Ruler has so united the Church to himself, and so embodied himself in it, that by its word, testimonies, and ordinances He rules, governs, tutors, and guards men, and brings them under His saving dominion. The Prophets, Apostles, Confessors, Pastors, and Teachers which He has raised up in the Chuich, with those associated with them in the fellowship of the same faith and work, are the true kings and guardians of men, who have been ruling from their spiritual thrones for all these ages, and will continue to rule more and more for ever as the spiritual and eternal kingdom is more and more revealed and enforced. Most significantly, therefore, may the Church be called Andromeda; and the fact that the mystic woman in this constellation is so called, with no other known reason for it, goes far to identify her as verily intended to be a prophetic picture of the Church, which she truly represents beyond anything else that has ever been in fable or in fact.

Andromeda's Chains

But this woman is in chains, bound hand and foot. The names in the sign mean the Broken-down, the Weak, the Afflicted, the Chained. The fables say that she was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, promised to her uncle Phineus in marriage, when Neptune sent a flood and a sea-monster to ravage the country in answer to the resentful clamors of his favorite nymphs against Cassiopeia, because she boasted herself fairer than Juno and the Nereides. Nor would the incensed god be pacified until, at the instance of Jupiter Ammon, the beautiful Andromeda was exposed to the sea-monster, chained to a rock near Joppa in Palestine, and left to be devoured. But Perseus, on returning from the conquest of the Gorgons, rescued her and made her his bride.

Here, then, was a case of malignant jealousy and persecution resulting in the disability, exposure, and intended destruction of an innocent person. And thus, again, we have a striking picture of the unfavorable side of the Church's condition in this world. Jealous rivals hate her and clamor against her. The world-powers in their selfishness fail to protect her, and lend themselves for her exposure and destruction. Innocently she is made to suffer. Though a lovely and influential princess, she is hindered by personal disabilities and bonds. It will not be so always. The time will come when those bonds shall be broken and that exposure ended. There is One engaged in a war with the powers of darkness and the children of hell who will presently come this way to rescue and deliver the fair maiden and to make her His glorious bride. But for the present affliction and hardship are appointed to her. She cannot move as she would, or enjoy what pertains to her royal character, her innocence, and her beauty. She is bound to the hard, and ponderous rock of this earthly life. Born to reign with her redeeming Lord, Apostles can only wish that she did reign, that they might reign with her. She is within the sacred territory, but it is as yet a place of captivity and bonds. She never can be truly herself in this mortal life. Nor is she completely free from the oppressive Phineus until the victorious Perseus comes. The whole picture is true to the life, and shows with what profound prophetic foresight and knowledge the makers of these signs were endowed.

Ill-favor Of The Church

Among the ancients the Zodiacal Pisces was considered the most unfavorable of all the signs. The astrological calendars describe its influences as malignant, and interpret its emblems as indicative of violence and death. The Syrians and the Egyptians largely abstained from the eating of fish, from the dread and abhorrence which they associated with the Fishes in the Zodiac. In the hieroglyphics of Egypt the fish is the symbol of odiousness, dislike, and hatred. And this, too, falls in exactly with our interpretation. The earthly condition and fortunes of the Church are nothing but unfavorable and repulsive to the tastes and likes of carnal and self-seeking man. The restraints and disabilities which go along with it are what the world hates, derides, and rebels against. These Bands that bind the Fishes together, and hold them with bridles of heavenly command and control, and enclose them with meshes beyond which they cannot pass, are what unsanctified humanity disdains as humiliation and reckons as adversity to the proper joy and good of life. Though people can sustain no charges against the Church, and cannot deny her princely beauty, yet to take sides with her is to them nothing but flood, drowning, and devastation to what they most cherish and admire. Let her be chained, disabled, exposed and devoured, if need be, only so that they are exempt from association with her! Let her suffer, and let her be given to death and destruction, the more and the sooner the better if they only can thereby have the greater freedom for their likes, passions, and enjoyments uncurbed and unrestrained! This is the feeling and this the spirit which have obtained toward the Church in all the ages. And the dislike of men to this sign is but the filling out of the picture in the stars as I have been expounding it. It is another link in the chain of evidence that we have here a divine symbol of the Church in its earthly estate and career. The coincidences, to say the least, are very marvellous. To say that the Church has been formed from and to the signs, as French infidelity would have it, is in the highest degree absurd. The Church has not accepted humiliation, disability, contempt, hatred, and oppression from the world just to conform herself to the indications connected with Pisces; and yet her condition today, as in all other time, is precisely that which this sign represents, and has been representing on the face of the sky for all these four or five thousand years. The sign has in no sense or degree conditioned the Church, and yet it truly represents the estate of the Church in all generations. To what other conclusion, then, can we come than that the sign in its place, and the whole system of signs of which it forms a conspicuous part, is from that good and infallible prescience which knows the course and end of all things from the beginning? Let those doubt it who will; for my own part, I have no doubt upon the subject."

Gospel in the Stars XIII

THE MYSTIC FISHES

John 21 : 6: "And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."

"Our blessed Saviour taught by acts, as well as words. He gave out parables in deeds, as well as in stories and descriptions. All His works of wonder were living allegories—pictures and prophecies incarnated in visible and tangible facts. This is particularly true of the miracle to which the text refers. It was a supernatural thing, to prove the divine power of Him by whom it was wrought; but its chief significance lies in its symbolic character as an illustration of that catching of men by the preaching of the Gospel to which the Apostles were called and ordained."

Apostolic Fishing

"At the beginning of his ministry, seeing Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea, He said unto them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men;" that is, ministers of the Word, who by the holding forth of the truth were to cast the great evangelic net into the sea of the world, and enclose people as Christian believers and members of the Church. So He also said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away." So, likewise, when He commanded Peter to launch out into the deep and let down the nets for a draught, which resulted in taking such a multitude of fishes that the nets brake in the drawing, and two boats were loaded down to the sinking point with the product, He meant to show the disciples not only His divine power, but a picture of that mystic fishing on which he was about to send them, and which was to be the work of His ministers in all the ages. And the miracle before us is a corresponding picture of the same thing—with this difference, that the other instances refer to the Church nominal and visible as it appears to human view, embracing both good and bad, to be assorted in the day of judgment; whilst the reference here, is to the inward, true, invisible Church— the Church as it appears to the eye of God— which includes none but the good, the genuine children of grace and salvation, the definite number of real saints.

It is thus abundantly established and clear that in the symbology of the Scriptures and the teachings of Christ the congregation of those who profess to believe in Him—that is, the Church—is likened to fishes enclosed in the fisherman's net. The world is likened to a sea, in which natural men range without control, following their own likes and impulses, and belonging to no one. So the Gospel is likened to a net, which the ministering servants of the Lord spread in the waters in order to enclose and gather men—not to destroy them, but to secure them for Christ, that they may be held by His word and grace and be His peculiar possession. And when they are thus secured and brought within the enclosure of the influences and laws of the Gospel as Christ's professed followers, and formed into His congregation, they are His mystic fishes, caught by His command and direction and made His peculiar property. The aptness of the figure no one can dispute, and the scripturalness of the imagery is fixed and settled beyond all possibility of mistake. Christ himself makes fishes the symbol of His Church.

But as is the picture in the Scriptures, so we find in the figures of the constellations. The new life that rises out of the death of the sacrificial goat is in the form of a large and vigorous fish. Those who come to the heavenly Waterman to drink in the stream of living influences which he pours down from on high are represented by a great fish. And as the Church is the most important institute, result, and embodiment of the redemptive work and achievements of the Seed of the woman, so we have one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac specially and exclusively devoted to it; and that sign is the sign of the fishes, which we are now to consider.

The Sign Of Pisces

This constellation is now the first in the order of the twelve signs of the Zodiac; but in the original order, which I have been following, it is the seventh. The figure by which it is represented consists of two large fishes, one headed toward the north pole, and the other parallel with the path of the Sun. They are some distance apart, but are tied to the two ends of a long, undulating band or ribbon, which is held by the foot of the Ram in the next succeeding sign.

The names of this sign in Hebrew and Arabic, as in the Greek and Latin, mean the same as in English—the Fishes. In Syriac it is called Nuno, the Fish prolonged, the fish with the idea of posterity or successive generations. In Coptic its name is Pi-cot Orion, the Fish, congregation, or company of the coming Prince. Two prominent names in the sign are Okda, the United, and Al Samaca, the Upheld. And all the indications connected with Pisces tend to the conclusion that in these two great fishes we are to see and read precisely what was symbolized by Christ in the miracle to which the text refers; namely, a pictorial representation of the Church.

The Myths

The origin of this sign, as mythology gives it, is not at variance with this idea. It is said that Venus and Cupid were one day on the banks of the Euphrates, and were there surprised by the apparition of the giant monster Typhon. To save themselves they plunged into the river, and escaped by being changed into fishes—saved by transformation through water. To commemorate the occurrence it is said that Minerva placed these two fishes among the stars.

We have already noted some symbolic connection between the mythic Venus and the Church. The ancient Phoenicians, according to Nigidius, asserted that she was hatched from an egg by a heavenly dove. Cupid, or the ancient Eros, was held to be the first-born of the creation, one of the causes in the formation of the world, the uniting love-power which brought order and harmony to the conflicting elements of Chaos. The later fables of Cupid are remote inventions out of the original cosmic Eros, the ideas concerning whom well agree with the sign, and readily interpret in their application to Christ and the Church. Christ was "the first-born of every creature " (Col. 1:15), and is the Head of "the general assembly and Church of the first-born," who, through His uniting love, combines the chaotic elements of humanity into order and union with himself, bringing into being the mystic woman, "born of water and of the Spirit," which is part of His own mystic organism, His body. By that means also those who compose the Church escape the hundredheaded enemy of God and all good. And in so far as this sign of the Fishes was divinely framed and placed in the heavens to commemorate this transformation and deliverance by water, it is nothing more nor less than a divine symbol of the Church—the impersonation of escape from horrible confusion and destruction, as also of that new-creating love of God, the mother of all holy order and salvation.

Twofoldness Of The Church

These Fishes are two in number. The general idea thus expressed is the idea of multitude, which is characteristic of all the sacred promises relating to the success of the Messianic work among men. The Church, in comparison with the great unsanctified world around it, is always a "little flock "—a special elect called out from among the great body of mankind outside of itself—just as the fishes enclosed in a net are but a small portion of the myriads that are in the sea. But, in itself considered, multitudinousness is always one of its characteristics. To Abraham it was figured as the stars of the sky and as the sand on the seashore for multitude. To Ezekiel the sacred waters embraced "a very great multitude of fish." Every symbolic casting of the net at Christ's command took a great multitude of fishes. The very name carries in it the idea of multitude, and the duplication of the symbol gives the still further idea of outspread multiplication—a glorious company of Apostles, a goodly fellowship of Prophets, a noble army of Martyrs, a holy Church throughout all the world.

But, beyond this, the Church, in historical fact and development, is twofold. There was a Church before Christ, and there is a Church since Christ; and whilst these two make up the one universal Church, they are still quite distinct in character. The patriarchal Church, which was more definitely organized under the institutes given by Moses, was one. It is a singular fact that the ancient rabbis always considered the people of Israel as denoted by this sign. The Sethites and Shemites, and all adherents to the true God and His promises and worship, were by both themselves and the heathen astronomically associated with these Fishes. They are certainly one set of the great Saviour's fishes. The Christian Church, organized under the institutes of Jesus Christ, was the other of these Fishes. Though in some sense the same old Church reformed, it was still in many respects quite another—so much so that it became apostasy to turn from it to "the beggarly elements" of the former dispensation. Here, then, are the two great branches or departments of the one great universal Church of the promised Seed of the woman. To the one His coming was future, and so it dealt in types, shadows, symbols, and figures of the true. To the other the ancient anticipations have passed into actual fact, and exist as living realities, already far on the way toward the final consummation. The faith of both is the same, and the spiritual life of both is the same. Hence both are mystic Fishes. But the stage of development, the historical place and condition, and the entire external economy, are different, as type and antitype are different, though in interior substance one and the same. The Fish in its multitudinousness symbolizes both. The old Church was the Fish arising out of the slain sacrifice believed in in advance, and signified in the old ordinances; and the new Church, organized under Christ, is the Fish arising afresh out of the same, which has now become an accomplished and existing reality. Hence the whole thing was fore-signified in the stars under the image of two Fishes, which are indeed two under one method of conception, and yet one and the same in another method of conception. It is the one Fish in both, yet two Fishes in historic presentation and external dispensation.

The Band

The Decans of this sign serve to bring out this idea with great clearness. The first Decan is a very long waving Ribbon or Band. The ancient name of it is Al Risha, the Band or bridle. It is one, continuous, unbroken piece, and so doubled that one of its ends goes out to the northern Fish, and is tightly bound around its tail; whilst the other end goes out to the other Fish, and is fastened to it in the same way. By this Band these two Fishes are inseparably tied together, so that the one cannot get on without the other. And so the fact is. The patriarchal Church is really tied to the Christian Church. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that the ancient saints, from Adam onward, could not be made perfect without us (chap, 11 :4o). The consummation of all they hoped for was inevitably tied up with what was to be subsequently achieved by Christ, much of which is still a matter of promise and hope. And so the Christian Church is really tied to the patriarchal Church. All the necessary preparations and foundations for Christianity were vouchsafed through the Old Testament. What was then testified, believed, and looked for we must needs also accept, believe, and take in. The Christian does not stand just where the ancient believer stood, but the old was the bridge by which the new was reached. Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and to complete what they looked to and anticipated. There could be no Christian Church without the patriarchal going before it, just as there could be no patriarchal Church without the Christian coming after it to complete and fulfil what the old was meant to prepare for. And here is the Band of connection unalterably binding them together in a unity which still is dual.

The doubled part of this Band, strange to say, is in the hand or front foot of the symbolic figure in the next succeeding sign; that is, in the hand of Aries, the Ram or Lamb. The point of unity between these two Fishes is therefore in Christ and His administrations, by which both are equally affected and upheld. Both belong to Christ in the attitude of the reigning and victorious Lamb. He upholds, guides, and governs them by one and the same Band. These Fishes thus have their places and status by His appointment and authority. They are caught Fishes, no longer roaming at large according to their own will. They are bound together in the hand of the glorious Lamb. They are His, and are upheld, governed, and made to fulfil their offices and mission by His power, will, and grace. And this is precisely the relation and condition of the Church in all dispensations. Like the net of Peter, which held, controlled, and lifted the literal fishes enclosed by it, so this Band holds, controls, and lifts the mystic Fishes which constitute the Church. It is the tie of connection between all saints, and at the same time the tie of connection between them and the glorified Saviour, by whose word they have been taken and made His precious possession. "Without Me ye can do nothing," was His word when on earth; and ever of old His promise has been: "Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right liand of my righteousness" And here is the same word pictorially expressed.

Cepheus

Who the friend and protector of these Fishes is, the second accompanying side-piece also very sublimely shows. Here is the figure of a glorious king, wearing his royal robe, bearing aloft a branch or sceptre, and having on his head a crown of stars. He is calmly seated in the repose of power, with one foot on the solstitial colure,* and the other on the pole-star itself, whilst his right hand grasps the Ribbons. Bearing with us what the Scriptures tell of the present exaltation and glory of Jesus Christ, we here behold every particular so completely and thrillingly embraced that the picture stands self-interpreted. It so vividly portrays our enthroned Saviour, and fits so sublimely to Him, and to Him only, that no special prompting is necessary to enable us to see Him in it. And if we need further assurance on the subject, we find it in the accompanying star-names.

*(astronomy) That great circle of the celestial sphere through the celestial poles and the solstices.

On the right shoulder of this figure, in glittering brilliancy, shines a star whose name, Al Deramin, means the Quickly-returning. In the girdle shines another, equally conspicuous, whose name, Al Phirk, means the Redeemer. In the left knee is still another, whose name means the Shepherd. The Egyptians called this royal figure Pe-ku-hor, the Ruler that cometh. His more common designation is Cepheus, which means the royal Branch, the King. Everything thus combines to identify this figure as intended to represent our Saviour as now enthroned in glory, even the Seed of the woman, clothed with celestial royalty and dominion.

In the Zodiac of Dendera the figure in this constellation is a large front leg of an animal connected with a small figure of a sheep, in the same posture as Aries in the next sign. It is the strong hand of the Lamb, and so the same which holds the Band of the Fishes. It identifies what is otherwise represented as a glorious king with the upholder of the Fishes, and makes Cepheus one and the same with the victorious Lamb.

Christ has been really invested with all royal rights and dominion. It was predicted of Him from of old, "He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne" (Zech. 6: 13). And so the testimony of the Apostles is that, having been made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and having humbled himself to the cross for our redemption, God hath highly exalted Him, and set Him on His own right hand in the heavens, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all (Eph. 1 : 19-23). Hence also it is said to all believers, "Ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:10). With a high hand and an outstretched arm He sitteth in royal majesty to help, uphold, and deliver His Church; "and of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end."

Gospel in the Stars XII

Aquarius

"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos 5: 24)

God's People are Good Fishes

"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them..." (Jer. 6: 16)

"And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh." (Eze. 47: 9)

"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matt. 4: 19)

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind (of fish): Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 13: 47-50)

The Southern Fish

"That this sign was really framed to be a picture of the risen and glorified Redeemer pouring out from heaven the saving influence and gifts of the Holy Ghost, is further evidenced by the first Decan of Aquarius. Those who truly profit by the gifts and powers procured and poured out by our glorious Intercessor are the people who believe in Christ, the regenerate, the saved Church. These, as we saw in our last, are the mystic fishes. And here, as the first Decan of Aquarius, we have the picture of a fish—Pisces Australis— drinking in the stream which pours from the urn of the beautiful One in heaven. It is the picture of the believing acceptance of the invitation of the text. Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink;" and here is a coming from below—a glad coming to the stream which issues from on high, a drinking in of the heavenly waters, and a vigorous life sustained and expanded by means of that drinking.

The mythic legends do not help us much with regard to the interpretation of this constellation, but they still furnish a few significant hints. Some say this fish represents Astarte, called Aphrodite by the Greeks and Venus by the Romans, and that she here appears in the form into which she metamorphosed herself to escape the advances and power of the horrible Typhon. Astarte was the moon-goddess, the great mother, the embodiment of the dependent but ever-productive feminine principle. In the symbology of the Scriptures the moon sometimes denotes the mother of the family, as in Joseph's dream (Gen. 37), and both the woman and the moon are representatives of the Church. As the woman was made out of the side of Adam while He slept, so the Church was made out of Christ by means of that deep sleep of death which came upon Him, and to which He submitted for the purpose. The whole mystery of marriage is the symbol of the union between Christ and His Church (Eph. 5 : 23-32). Everywhere the congregation of believers is pictured as the spouse of Christ, the spiritual woman, the mother of us all. And if this fish represents the Astarte of the pagan religion, we have only to strip off the heathen impurities, and understand the reference in the sense and application of the Scripture symbols, in order to find here a picture of the regenerate people of God, the Church, the bride of Christ, the mother of saints.

So understood, the metamorphosis into a fish is also applicable and significant, as in no other interpretation. All true members of the Church are transformed persons, made over again by the power of a new spiritual creation, and living a new life superadded to Nature. It is by this spiritual metamorphosis that we make our escape from the power and dominion of the Devil. And it is by means of this transformation that we have our status and relations in the heavenly economy and kingdom. The light comes feebly through the dark and murky atmosphere of the pagan world; but wherever we get sight of a distinct ray, it easily resolves back into the figures of the primeval constellations, and thence into the sacred story of redemption through the promised Seed of the woman."

The people of God are they who drink from this water pouring forth from Aquarius.

"Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4: 13, 14)

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." (John 7: 37)

"And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." (Rev. 21: 6)

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22: 17)

"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Rev. 22: 1)

Pegasus

"And in perfect consistence with, and as fur ther illustration of, what I have given as the meaning of this sign, is the second Decan. Here is the figure of a great horse pushing forward with full speed, with great wings springing from his shoulders. The elements of his name, as in Isaiah 64: 5, signify the swift divine messenger bringing joy to those whom he meets, otherwise the horse of the opening; or as the Greeks put it, without obliteration of the old Noetic nomenclature, the horse of the gushing fountain—a celestial horse, ever associated with glad song, the favorite of the Muses, under whose hoofs the Pierian springs started upon Mount Helicon, and on whose back rode Bellerophon as he went forth to slay the monster Chimaera.

The fables say that this wonderful horse sprang into being from the slaying of Medusa by Perseus; that he was called Pegasus, Horse of the Fountain, because he first appeared near the springs of the ocean; that he lived in the palace of the King and Father of gods, and thundered and lightened for Jupiter; and that Bellerophon obtained possession of him through sacrifice to the goddess of justice, followed by a deep sleep, during which he was divinely given the golden bridle which the wild horse obeyed, and thus he was borne forth to victory, though not without receiving a painful sting in his foot.

In the first chapter of Zechariah the appearance of such horses are the symbols of those whom "God hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth," not simply to see and report the condition of affairs, but to shake and disturb nations, so as to restore liberty, peace, and blessing to God's people. Pegasus is not precisely one of those horses, or all of them combined in one, but still a somewhat corresponding ambassador of God. Pegasus is winged; he moves with heavenly speed. The first part of his or his rider's name, Pega, Peka, or Pacha, in the Noetic dialects means the chief; and the latter part, sus, means, not only a horse, but swiftly coming or returning, with the idea of joy-bringing; hence the chief, coming forth again in great victory, and with good tidings and blessing to those to whom he comes. The ancient names of the stars which make up his constellation are—Markab, the returning; Scheat, he who goeth and returneth; Enif, the Branch; Al Genib, who carries; Hainan, the waters; Matar, who causeth the plenteous overflow. The names show to what the picture applies."

The idea of coming and returning, as in a circuit, in connection with the incarnation of Christ, is something we have already mentioned. The Hebrew letter Koph denoted a "circuit" or to "move in a circle." The Hebrew letter Mem denoted "water, waves, flood." In Eccl. 1 Solomon mentions two things that go and return, or go in circuits, and that is water and wind and both are types of the Holy Ghost.

Pegasus is a picture of the sending forth of the good news of Christ's victory through the cross.

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." (Prov. 25: 25)

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Rev. 14: 6, 7)

"Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." (Eccl. 10: 20)

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isa. 40: 31)

They shall mount up with wings, not only as eagles, but as Pegasus, as Cygnus the Swan.

"...the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork..." (Zech. 5: 9)

"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." (Mal. 4: 2)

"Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting." (Job 39: 19-25)

"But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift." (Isa. 30: 16)

"Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit." (Isa. 31: 3)

"Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled." (Jer. 4: 13)

"...as the horse rusheth into the battle." (Jer. 8: 6)

"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?" (Jer. 12: 5)

"Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?" (Hab. 3: 8)

"He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly." (Psa. 147: 15)

Gospel messengers are like Paul Revere, giving warning, and bearing good news.

"And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." (Hab. 2: 2)

"And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead...And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word." (Matt. 28: 7, 8)

"Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." (Phill. 2: 16)

"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." (Rev. 3: 11)

"Gathering up these remarkable items, and combining them, as they all readily combine, in one consistent narrative, we have in astonishing fulness one of the sublimest evangelic presentations; nay, the very going forth of Christ in His living Gospel, as from the scenes of that supper-hall which witnessed the coming of the Paraclete the joyous waters of cleansing and redemption, through His successful mediation, poured their glad flood into our weary world. Then the word was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel [Good Tidings] to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Thenceforward, Parthians and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, in Lybia, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, and people to the farthest ends of the earth, were made to hear, in their tongues, the wonderful works and achievements of God for the renewal and saving of men. Thenceforward the Glad Tidings went, winged with the Spirit of God, waking poetic springs of joy upon the mountains and in the valleys, slaying the powers of darkness and superstition, overwhelming the dominion of the Devil, and bringing song and salvation to every thirsty and perishing soul which hears and obeys the call of the Lord of life to come unto Him and drink. The true Pegasus is the herald and bringer of Christ's mediatorial success and salvation to a famishing world, which the saintly patriarchs looked for from the beginning, and which they thus figured in the constellations in advance as an imperishable witness of what was to come through and by that Coming One in whom all their hopes were centred."

The Swan

"The final side-piece which accompanies the Zodiacal Aquarius accords precisely with this presentation. It is one of the most interesting and beautiful of the constellations, both in its natural peculiarities and in its evangelic references. It consists of eighty-one stars— one of the first or second magnitude, six of the third, and twelve of the fourth; and some of these never set. It embraces at least five double stars and one quadruple. The binary star (61 Cygni) is the most remarkable known in the heavens. It is one of the nearest to our system of the fixed stars. It consists of two connected stars, which, besides their revolution about each other, have a common progressive and uniform motion toward some determinate region, and moving thousands of times faster than the swiftest body known to our system. This constellation has a number of distinct systems in itself, and shows planetary nebulae which have led astronomers to regard it as the intermediate link between the planetary worlds and the nebulous stars. It has in it specimens of both, and lies in the midst of the great Galactic Stream of nebulous stars. It is therefore remarkably suited to represent that peculiar and complex economy—partly celestial and partly terrestrial, partly acting by itself and partly dependent on the heavenly powers—by which grace and salvation are carried and ministered to the children of men.

The figure in this constellation is the figure of a swan, the lordly bird-king of the waters, in all ages and in all refined countries considered the emblem of poetic dignity, purity, and grace. By the Greeks and Romans it was held sacred to the god of beauty and the Muses, and special sweetness was connected with its death. Eschylus sung,

"The swan, Expiring, dies in melody."

As the white dove is the emblem of the Holy Ghost, so the elegant, pure, and graceful swan is a fitting emblem of Him who, dying, sends forth the glad river of living waters, and presides in His majesty over the administration of them to the thirsty children of men. And this is here the underlying idea.

But this swan is on the wing, in the act of rapid flight, "circling and returning," as its name in Greek and Latin signifies. It seems to be flying down the Milky Way, in the same general direction with the river which pours from the heavenly urn. The principal stars which mark its wings and length of body form a large and beautiful cross, the most regular of all the crosses formed by the constellations. It is thus the bird of matchless beauty, purity, dignity, and grace, bearing aloft the cross, and circling with it over the blessed waters of life; whilst in the naming of its stars, the brightest is Deneb, the Lord or Judge to come; Azel, who goes and returns; Fafage, glorious, shining forth; Sadr, who returns as in a circle; Adige, flying swiftly; Arided, He shall come down; and other words of like import, we find strong identifications of this lordly bird-king of the waters with Him who, through the preaching of His cross hither and thither over all this nether world, cries and says, "If any man thirst, let hint come urto Me, and drink "

Greek and Roman mythology is greatly at a loss to account for the presence of this bird in the sky; but the stories on the subject are not destitute of thought and suggestion corresponding with the evangelic truth. The. Greeks enumerated a collection of characters of different parentages and histories, each reputed to have been the original of this swan in the heavens. One was the son of Apollo, a handsome hunter, who in some strange fit leaped into Lake Canope, and was metamorphosed into this swan. Another was the son of Poseidon, an ally of the Trojans, who could not be hurt with arms of iron, but was strangled by Achilles—whose body, when the victor meant to rifle it, suddenly took its departure to heaven in the form of a swan. A third was the son of Ares, killed by Herakles in a duel, who at his death was changed by his father into a swan. A fourth was the son of Sthenelus and a dear friend and relative of Phaeton, who so lamented the fate of, him whom Jupiter destroyed for his bad driving of the chariot of the sun that Apollo metamorphosed him into a swan and placed him among the stars. Some dim embodiments of the true prophetic delineations of this swan, and of that history of the Redeemer through which He came to the position and relations in which this picture received fulfilment, appear in the several myths. Christ was of divine birth and nature. He was in himself invincible. He did submit to death in heroic conflict with the powers of darkness and the just penalties due the sins of the world. It was His great love for those to whom He became a Brother that brought him down to the dark river. His body did take life again after death, and disappear into a new form of brightness and glory to assume position in the heavens. In these several particulars the myths touching this constellation are in remarkable accord with the Gospel history, and help to reflect how minute and clear and vivid were the believing anticipations of the makers of these signs already in the very first ages of our race."

The swan is an "emblem of dignity, purity, and grace." It is a symbol too of beauty. Think of the story of the "ugly duckling" who transforms into a beautiful swan. The story connects then with transformation. Christ was transformed, after his resurrection. So too are they who are saved.

Those who are saved are "new creatures," people who have been transformed or metamorphed, changed. They were once ugly because of sin, but now beautiful because of the righteousness of Christ.

"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." (Psa. 48: 2)

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." (Psa. 50: 2)

"Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners." (Song 6: 4)

"In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel." (Isa. 4: 2)

"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean." (Isa. 52: 1)

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Isa. 52: 7)

"One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple." (Psa. 27: 4)

"...let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us..." (Psa. 90: 17)

"And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock." (Zech. 11: 6)

"Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever." (Psa. 45: 2)

"For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck." (Prov. 1: 9 & 4: 9)

"So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck." (Prov. 3: 22)

Not only is the Swan connected with beauty and grace, but with lordship and kingship. The lion is the king of land animals, the eagle is the king of the sky, but the swan is king of water and air.

"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (Rev. 1: 6)

A Beautiful Picture

"Thus, then, in the Zodiacal Aquarius we have the picture in the stars of the heavenly waters of life and salvation; of their source in the beautiful Seed of the woman, slain indeed, but risen again and lifted up in everlasting glory; of the voluminous plenteous ness in which they flow down into all oui dry and thirsty world; of the new creation and joyous life they bring to those who drink them; of the swift heralding and bearing of the glad provision to all people; and of the graceful holding forth of the cross to the nations over which, on outspread wings, the Lord of these waters circles, in His meek loveliness ever calling, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."

Beautiful picture of most precious Gospel truths!—a picture which I can interpret no otherwise than as intended by men fully informed beforehand of these glorious facts. And if, perchance, these constellations were not meant in token, testimony, and prophecy of what was foreknown, believed, and expected by the primeval patriarchs who arranged them, the picture is still true to what has since come to pass, and which it is part of our holy religion to accept and rejoice in as the great mercy of God to a fallen world. Christ Jesus is the beautiful Saviour of mankind, Son of God and Son of man. He did come in the flesh and live a human life in which humanity came to its loveliest and highest bloom. He did suffer and die a violent death from offended justice on account of sin which He assumed, but in no degree chargeable to Him. He did rise again from death by the power of the eternal Spirit, changed, transfigured, and glorified, and soar away beyond all reach of enemies, even to the calm heavens, where no revolutions of time can any more obscure His brightness or eclipse the outshining of His glory. He is there as the Lord of life and grace, obtaining by His meritorious intercession an exhaustless fulness of spiritual treasures, like very rivers of renewing and sanctifying mercies, which He has poured, and is ever pouring, down into our world for the comfort, cheer, and salvation of those who believe in Him. He has arranged, and himself conducts and energizes, a great system of means for carrying and proclaiming the same all over the world amid songs of halleluia and rejoicing which can never die. Deep in it all He has embedded the great doctrine of His Cross and Passion as the central thought and brightest substance of the sublime and wonderful economy. And in and amid it all faith beholds Him in His lordly beauty stationed by the true Pierian spring, ever crying and ever calling, "If Any Man Thirst, Let Him Come Unto Me, And Drink."

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price;" "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Blessed tidings! blessed provision! blessed opportunity! O man! awake to the glory and drink; drink deep, drink earnestly, drink with all the capacity of thy soul; for thy Lord and Redeemer saith, "WhosoeVer drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."