A  conservative,  sober,  consistent  and  harmo-
nious interpretation  of  the  beautiful  imagery  em-
ployed in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Eevelation  lays
before  us,  couched  in  type  and  symbol  easily  re-
solvable into  the  familiar  terms  of  our  vernacular,
the  prophetic  history  of  an  event  of  supreme  in-
terest to  us  as  Americans,  portraying  with  infinite
skill  and  marvelous  exactness  an  outline  of  the
history  of  events  that  led  up  to  the  birth  of  this
nation.
Let  us  dissect  the  record  and  discover,  if  we
may,  the  meaning  of  the  various  s^rmbols  used.
First,  the  locality  where  the  revelator  saw  the
' '  wonders ' ' — a  symbolic  heaven :  ^  ^  And  there  ap-
peared a  great  wonder  in  heaven.'^

Our  first  impulse  naturally  is  to  turn  our
thought  upward  and  seek  beyond  the  stars,  in
realms  supernal,  for  the  place  where  the  wonder
appeared ;  and  if  the  sight  that  first  met  the  eyes
of  St.  John  were  all — ''A  woman  clothed  with  the
sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her
head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars'' — we  might  well
stand  by  our  first  impressions;  but  presently
"there  appeared  another  wonder  m /ieai;6^  .  ..
a  great  red  dragon  ...  to  devour  her  child ; ' '
and  again,  "And  there  was  war  in  heaven/'  Now
let  us  insist  upon  our  first  and  natural  concep-
tion of  the  meaning  of  the  word  "heaven''  and
see  how  we  are  compassed  about  with  difficulties.
