God was preached unto the Gentiles; and Jesus was believed on in the world. But truth finds not a ready access to the heart; and the struggle is often hard, before it be admitted. It is not easy for those to learn righteousness who are naturally prone to do evil, and averse to that which is good. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature. And the kingdom of God which he came to establish, consists not, like other creeds, in meats, or drinks, or days, or ordinances, but is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Author of our faith hath declared, that except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. It was the office of his apostles to turn men from darkness to light. And in speaking of the change of heart that had to be wrought through faith, Paul, adopting the very figure which is used in the vision, says, My little children, of whom I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you. In similar significancy, the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and who had upon her head a crown of twelve stars, being with child, cried travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. Such symbolically was the first aspect of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus had a baptism to be baptized with, and how was he straitened till it was accomplished! He had to be lifted up on the accursed tree, before men would be drawn unto him. And in the very early propagation of the gospel, while the kingdom of God was beginning to be formed, we read that (Acts xiv. 21, 22) when the apostles had preached the gospel to Derbe, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch and such, in travail and in pain, was the

manner in which that kingdom began to be established.

The mutual destruction of the Roman and Persian empires, left no formidable enemy to contend with Saracen fanatics, when they came forth from Arabia in armed multitudes to propagate the faith of Mahomet: and the love of plunder, as a stimulus to conquest, is a feeling which it needed not a prophet to implant in the human breast. Their success lay in their swords. But contrariwise, no sooner was the faith of Jesus preached, than the Roman empire, holding the world in subjection, and supporting with all its authority a pompous paganism, was prepared, like a ferocious monster, to devour the infant church, or to persecute unto the death those who should profess a holy faith and disown the worship of many gods. The seven heads, or as otherwise interpreted, the seven mountains, on which the imperial city was built; the ten horns, or according both to the Book of Daniel and the Revelation, the ten kingdoms, into which the Roman empire was divided; and the seven crowns, or different successive forms of government, (Rev. xix. 9, 10,) mark the empire of Rome, in its bloody persecutions, as the great red dragon that stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. As Herod the king sought the life of the holy child Jesus, so the power of Rome was exerted in vain to stifle Christianity at its very birth. And as Satan, in the hour of the prince of darkness, entered into the heart of Judas when he betrayed the Lord into the hands of sinners, so that great dragon which sought the destruction of the church is denominated, in the sequel of this prophecy, however varied may be the form he assumes, whoever may be the agent of his will, or whatever may be the instrument of his power-that old serpent, the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.-Men

were led captive by him at his will; and the kings of the earth claimed not freedom from his sway. The purposed destruction of the church of Christ was a device worthy of the great adversary of God and of man. And never was there a more powerful instrument ready to his hand than Rome in all the majesty of its greatness, wholly given up to idolatry, and, though subjecting the world to its sway, enslaved to the grossest vices. Satan is repeatedly termed in scripture the prince of this world. "We wrestle not," saith the apostle, "against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." That sin and death reign upon the earth, can scarcely be hid from the blindest. Such truths need not any revelation from heaven to declare them. Each individual has given witness to the one, and must therefore bear witness to the other. The scriptures reveal how sin came into the world, and the gospel proclaims redemption from its guilt, and salvation from its power to them that obey it. And thus though there be a mystery of iniquity at work on earth, there is a mystery of godliness at work against it. The contest, begun in Eden, is not closed. It may be long; but the issue is not doubtful. He by whom all things were made has not given up the world to be for ever ruled and desolated by sin; but righteousness shall reign on the earth, and be established for ever. In the days of earthly kingdoms, over which idolatry and sin domineered, did the God of heaven set up his kingdom. And that kingdom, symbolized by the stone cut without hands, which shall finally smite the image till it fall into dust, was not itself to be crushed or to be sunk for ever in the earth by the Roman empire, though then concentrating in itself all human power, and lorded over by the prince of darkness. The disciples

of Jesus wrestled not in vain with all principalities and powers. But the dragon sought in vain to devour the child so soon as it was born. The manchild was brought forth who shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. And if the kingdom of God be indeed symbolized by the woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and upon her head twelve stars, (the gospel of the kingdon, of heavenly brightness, eclipsing every other faith, and propagated by the twelve apostles); then the children of the kingdom, as the name is given them in scripture, the true believers of the gospel, may well be esteemed her progeny, brought forth as they were, in pangs and throes, and manifold tribulations. The words of Jesus are spirit and are life. The symbol is an express similitude. It is as being born again that men enter into the kingdom of God; as well as by tribulation that they then approved themselves as its children.. And there is the same relation between the gospel and believers, as between a mother and a child. The people that did know their God were strong and did exploits. And they that understood among the people instructed many; yet they fell by the sword, and by flame, and by captivity, and by spoil many days. The dragon could not devour them. The Roman empire could not destroy the church," the body of Christ," of which true believers are the members. A church was formed by the preaching of the gospel. A man-child was brought forth, who shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. Not only is it written of Jesus that he shall thus rule, and that God will give him the heathen for a heritage, and the uttermost part of the earth for a possession; but the Spirit also saith unto the churches, "He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be

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`broken to shivers ; even as I received of my Father," Rev. ii. 27. The kingdom of God shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and they shall become as the chaff of the summer threshing floors. Looking from the first conflict to the final triumph of the church, the apostle, in this vision, heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God: in like manner as it is said in the book of Daniel, "And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." He shall finally bruise the serpent's head.

But Christianity was not destined to triumph, til many subjects, throughout many ages, should first be gathered to the kingdom of God. Farther identifying his people as his own, it is said that the manchild was caught up to God and to his throne, even as Jesus after his exaltation on high, said-To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.

But the pangs of child-birth were not the only perils of the woman clothed with the sun. After the man-child was brought forth, new dangers arose. And after a Christian church was formed, a long period was to elapse, and new dangers to be encountered, before the prince of darkness and of this world would cease to exercise his malignity, or be deprived of his power. After the emperor of Rome "should be removed out of the way, that wicked one would be revealed, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all powers, and signs, and lying wonders," &c. And as Daniel represents the church passing from one state of tribulation, that inflicted by the Roman