[Footnote 1:  The systems of hieroglyphical writing employed by various nations have, for the most part, remained unintelligible until a key of their interpretation was discovered.  In 1799 M. Bouchard, a French captain of engineers, while digging intrenchments on the site of an old temple near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, unearthed a black stone containing a trilingual inscription in hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and Greek.  The last paragraph of the Greek inscription stated that two translations, one in the sacred and the other in the popular Egyptian language, would be found adjacent; hence this celebrated stone has afforded European scholars a key to the language and writing of the ancient Egyptians.  The cuneiform writing of the Babylonians and Persians remained a mystery also until modern times, but great progress has now been made in the deciphering of thousands of inscribed clay tablets, cylinders, prisms, etc.  The key to its interpretation is the celebrated inscription at Behistun, cut upon the face of a high rock three hundred feet above its base, and recording a portion of the history of Darius.  It is written in the cuneiform characters, in three languages—­Median, Persian, and Assyrian.]

I do not wish to be understood as implying that the symbolical language of Scripture is identical with the hieroglyphics of ancient monuments.  There may be different kinds of symbolic representations; but they are not arbitrary, as is spoken language, and can not be arbitrarily applied; a fixed law governs them all.

Now, the book of Revelation is made up of this symbolic language.  It is not, however, confined to this book alone.  There are many instances of it to be found elsewhere in the sacred volume, and in many cases it is explained by inspiration itself, thus giving us a reliable key to the whole.  Joseph’s dream of the eleven sheaves that made obeisance to his sheaf was of this description (Gen. 37:7, 8), and his eleven brethren were angered, because its meaning was apparent—­that they should be humbled before him.  Also, his dream of the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars (verses 9, 10) was understood to signify the subjection of the entire family unto him, which was actually fulfilled after Joseph’s exaltation in Egypt.  The chief butler’s dream of the vine with three branches bearing grapes, which he took and pressed into the king’s cup, was interpretated by Joseph as signifying the butler’s restoration in three days to his former position of cup-bearer to the king; while the chief baker’s dream of the three baskets upon his head, out of which the birds ate, was interpretated as signifying his execution in the same length of time.  Gen. 40.  Pharaoh’s dream of the seven fat kine and the seven lean kine, also of the seven full ears and the seven thin ears, signified seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.  Gen. 41.