Revelation 12:3-4

"And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold. great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of 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."--12:3, 4.

The Apostle also sees

A RED DRAGON

with seven heads and ten horns. Seven crowns are upon his heads. With his tail he draws one-third part of the stars of heaven. He is the woman's enemy. He stands waiting, ready to devour her offspring.

I shall more fully describe in. subsequent chapter the meaning of the various marks of the dragon. The dragon, the seven heads, the ten horns, are named several times in the book of Revelation, and are also described in the seventh chapter of Daniel. In all these places they describes the same baneful power. The proofs that they represent various features of the Romish sway, of Pagan Rome, followed by spiritual Rome, are complete, and will be laid before the reader ere we close this series.

But there is another power behind these manifestations,. power that, assuming various forms, has animated both heathen and Papal Rome. That power is named in the ninth verse. The great dragon is the old serpent, called the devil and Satan. He is the source of all the opposition that has ever sprung up against the Church. He can transform himself into an angel of light. He can take the form of. church to compass his ends, or he can incite secular authority to the persecution of the true Church.

At this time, the period already indicated in the history of the Church, he assumes the form of Rome, of imperial Rome, the seven-hilled city, for says the Apostle, Revelation 17:9, "the seven heads are seven mountains." This, then, is the period when the Church is sweeping on with. mighty increase; when imperial Rome seeks to check that mighty growth; when Diocletian decrees the utter abolition of the Christian name; when Maxentius, the competitor of Constantine for the empire, vowed to Jupiter that if he would give him success, he would exterminate Christianity from the face of the earth. It is. period of mighty conflict, of. stern grapple between the moral resistance of the Church and the murderous legions of Rome. It is the period when the dragon, red, bloody, mighty, seeks to destroy the offspring of the woman, the saints, from the earth.