evil. The time is come that thou "shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth." This was a cause for the exultation of the elders when the earthly temple fell, when the heavenly temple was opened; this must reconcile us to the fall of even that which is dearest and most hallowed in our eyes—which has been dearest and most hallowed in God's eyes-if it ceases to be a witness for Him, if it hides the ark of His testament from men.

LECTURE XII.

THE WOMAN AND THE MAN-CHILD.

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 there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the starsof heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a manchild, 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 had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 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. xii.

In the last vision the earthly temple disappeared, a temple in heaven was opened. The first sight presented to the spirit of the prophet in that higher region, is a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

It must have been indeed a wonder to him. There could have been no more striking discovery of the contrast between the old world which was passing away, and the new world which was commencing. That old world has often been called in praise or in disparagement a male world. The epithet applies at least as forcibly to the Jew as to the Roman. It would be the greatest injustice to either to say that the reverence for women was wanting in them. It was cultivated, in the Jew by all his institutions, by all his prophecies; it gives a colouring to some of the most striking legends, as well as to some of the most unquestioned records which the Roman republican cherished. But the man was called out to be the servant and witness of Jehovah, especially by those acts in which the woman could not share. The dread lest some other than a male standard of worth should creep into the State and destroy its nerve, was a chief reason why the elder Romans dreaded the incursion of the art and learning of Greece. For there had been in that land a floating

vision of transcendent beauty, which could not be embodied merely in an Apollo. Pallas and Aphrodite had disputed the supremacy with him, though the sternness of the first, and the merely passive grace of the second, had shown how difficult it was, and how dangerous, to lose sight of the other ideal.

What the change means, whether it has necessarily involved the growth of effeminacy, whether it implies progress or declension, are questions which have occupied thinkers much in all times, never more than in this time. This heavenly vision, connected as it is with the whole purpose of the Apocalypse-beginning, as it does, a series of visions-may, I believe, throw a light upon this subject which we want scarcely more for the study of history, than for our own daily and practical guidance.

Per

I. The wonder which the Apostle saw is exactly the wonder which has accompanied Christendom through all the different stages of its life and growth. The mother and the child, under one aspect or another, have been present to all who have tried to satisfy themselves what the human is, and how it is related to the Divine. All have felt more or less distinctly, "What we are seeking for is there; how, we cannot tell. haps it cannot be put into words at all. Perhaps the symbol is itself all that we need." Romanists and Protestants have felt their difference, their intense opposition, nowhere more strongly than when this subject forces itself as it is always forcing itself— upon them. They are conscious that there must lie the very secret of their dissensions. And yet they have a dim feeling that there also, if they could penetrate a little deeper, might lie the secret of reconciliation. May not some neglect or inversion of the law which binds this mother to this child, explain a number of

corruptions which have made men in the new world. sigh for what seemed to them the simpler and manlier glories of the old? May not the true perception of that law vindicate both the old and the new, and prove that the latter is indeed a blessed unfolding of that which was hidden or imperfect in the former? May not the book which professes to be a revelation of Jesus Christ, give us that unfolding?

She has no

The woman is clothed with the sun. brightness or glory in herself. Yet she is covered with a brightness and glory. She dwells in the perfect light. She is able to look up to the source of light. The crown of twelve stars on her head distinguishes the brightness which is about herself, which to those who contemplate her from beneath seems to be hers, from that which she herself perceives, from that true Divinity which she confesses and worships. The moon at her feet shows that there is a reflection of this Divinity coming from herself, but of which she must not become enamoured. If that image attracts her, the fate of Narcissus will be hers her self-love will be her destruction.

Here is a very striking symbol of humanity. No one which is derived from the old world is anything like so complete. That male ideal of which I spoke struggles in vain to be more than national. In aspiring to be more in the Greek, it sank into effeminacy and slavery. In aspiring to be more in the Roman, it passed into imperialism. In aspiring to be more in the Jew, it was either changed into the narrowest sectarianism, or else burst forth into this very type of humanity that we are contemplating.

II. But though more perfect than anything that the world had yet seen, it is still imperfect. Another element is wanting. "And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." Something is needed