This is explained satisfactorily by noticing carefully the facts.  The woman, who is always the true church composed of holy people, was at first identical with the visible church, or the great body of Christians, and in this condition was successful in spreading the pure gospel and casting down the powers of iniquity symbolized by the dragon.  But the dragon politically, as symbolized by his being a beast from the natural world, with heads and horns, remained in power for some time, his religious prestige only being lost.  Christianity did not attempt to cast down the dragon in the sense of destroying the civil empire.  As is well known, a great spiritual declension followed the period of the church’s greatest triumph, which decline drove the woman, or the true church, into the wilderness; hence to all appearances the church became a defeated party.  About this same time, the dying cause of Paganism revived for a season in terrible severity in the latter part of the third century; hence to all appearances the dragon was triumphant.  This supreme effort of Paganism’s to regain its former position will be better understood in connection with what follows regarding the flood which he cast out of his mouth.  But that the dragon was not permanently triumphant is shown by the fact that he afterwards resigned his power and position unto the beast.  Chap. 13:2.

As to the meaning of the “two wings of a great eagle” given the woman to aid her in her flight, I am not able to say positively.  Some apply them to “the grace and providence of God which watched over the church”; others to the “spiritual gifts of faith, love,” etc., which, like supporting wings, bore the church above her enemies.  But I can not see how the wings of a great eagle can properly symbolize such things.  They are not drawn from the right source.  Perhaps nothing more is intended by the wings than to denote the fact of her successful flight.  That this idea is the correct one seems quite clear when we consider the fact that the remarkable deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage is set forth under the same figure, that of eagles’ wings.  “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.”  Ex. 19:4.  With the wings of such a powerful bird she was able to escape, so that the dragon could not overtake her.

“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.”  Here is a peculiar combination of symbols from different departments—­the serpent, a flood of water, the woman, and the earth.  The last two as allies is a very unusual circumstance.  Some refer the flood of waters to heresies that arose in, or was connected with, the hierarchy about this time; but in that case how could it be said that it