Photograph from AMERICAN ANTIQUARI Worcester, Mass. Permission for use of for any other then the f must be procurod fer a cred. The is raqulo ཟླ se W to str God, whose watchful eye had witnessed all her sources of grief, and provided for her retreat. Here, she was prophetically seen, and described, by the inspired penman, in a scene of further trials. Alas! the -enemy pursues her into the wilderness with infuriated malignity. And to make a finish of her for ever, he raises up his huge body in serpent form, and terror, taller than the trees of the forest, and larger in bulk than the whole wilderness itself; then opens his tremendous mouth, and thus extending his frightful jaws as though he was about to disgorge a lake of liquid fire, he cast forth from the trunk of his body water as a flood, that he might cause the woman to be carried away of the flood, and be lost in perdition. Such is a symbolical sketch of the horrid scene, and the amount of the figurative import of the prediction comprised in the text, so far as it relates to the enemy's assault upon the woman. We shall now endeavor to strip the prediction of its figurative form, and set the import in plain language. By the symbol of the woman in the wilderness, we are to understand the church, seeking to find a place on earth where she may enjoy liberty of conscience in the spiritual worship of God, without the annoyance of persecuting agents of Satan. The wilderness to which the church emigrated, may be understood to comprise portions of the habitable earth, both in city and country, lying principally within the boundaries of Europe and America, in regions to which the church has fled for refuge from the sword and tortures of merciless persecutors. But the wilderness was no hiding place from the sagacious eye of Satan. This enemy pursued the church to destroy her in every place of retreat. Enraged by former disappointments, he rushed into the wilderness like a flood. He poured from his mouth water as a flood to carry away the church into perdition. These are bold figures of speech, which require special attention. When the enemy is represented as coming in like a flood, we are to understand the figure as alluding to the furious, impetuous, malignant, overwhelming, and almost irresistible power and force of Satan's attack, siege and warfare against the church for her destruction, like the fury of an overwhelming and resistless flood of water, the progress -of which nothing, but the power of Omnipotence, can resist or control. But, when it is said, "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," the nature of the figure of a FLOOD is changed from furious impetuosity to artifice. A flood proceeding from Satan's mouth, is to be understood as a stragatem, a device, a new invention, the destructive effects of which, depended not so much on the fury of the overwhelming flood, as upon the deep laid artifice, and complicated stratagem which was brooded in Satan's mind, and flowed like a flood from his mouth, to spread the knowledge of the device, and urge it forward into successful operation. Hence, by the flood which the serpent cast out of his mouth for the destruction of the Church of God, we may understand, not literally, a flood of cold water; but hot water, to scald the church to death. He invented a new stratagem of destruction. This was the art of distilling fermented liquors for the purpose of extracting the pure, hot water of alcohol from all extraneous Photograph from the AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY Worcester, Mass. 01609 Permission for use of this photograph for any other than the agreed purpose must be procured from the Society. A credit line is required, when published substances, that by it, the work of destruction might be carried on with more fury. Alcohol, whether existing in fermented liquors, or pure distilled ardent spirits, is the hot water comprising the flood which the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman (the church) to destroy her. Alcohol, manufactured in conformity with the device of Satan, out of apples, grapes, barley, rye, potatoes, sugar-cane, and a variety of other fruits of the earth, first, by fermentation, and secondly, by distillation, is most evidently the scalding hot water of deadly poison, which Satan vomits from his mouth for men, women, and children to drink till they love it, and then love to drink it to drunkenness and perdition. Satan well knew that the church, scattered over the wilderness of this world, was not to be destroyed by a flood of water deluging the earth, literally, like Noah's flood; for God had for ever provided against a repetition of such a disaster, by a covenant, the token of which was often presented by a bow in the clouds; and no power of Satan could ever produce from his mouth a flood of water, literally, for the destruction of mankind. Hence, the figure of water as a flood, cast from the mouth of the serpent, is to be understood to signify, and foretell, that a device of Satan would be invented, which by a liquid, resembling water in appearance, would be multiplied to the similitude of a flood for its plentiful effusion upon mankind; and that this newly invented water would intoxicate, bewitch, unnerve, and poison the very fountains of life, and, eventually, drown mankind in destruction and perdition. And we hesitate not to aver, that the figure of a flood of water from the serpent's mouth for the destruction of the woman, is to be understood as a Divine prediction of a capital device of Satan for the destruction of the bodies and souls of men, and especially, for the desolation of the Church of God by INTEMPERANCE in the use alcoholic liquors. : In accordance with the foregoing obvious interpretation of Scripture, the sum of the whole matter is, that the nature, and common use of the water proceeding from Satan's mouth, will produce the mischief designed to be effected by the fiendish stratagem. The prediction is, that "The serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman to destroy her." The interpretation is, that this is a device of Satan, to make the likeness of water in appearance, by the art of distillation, the effect of which is alcohol, and the use of which, results in the greatest proportion of the evils of this life, and the everlasting ruin of both body and soul in the world to come. Let the following remark be well remembered: That, as the prediction discloses the fact, that the grand object of Satan's stratagem, in the use of alcoholic liquors, was the desolation of the Christian Church; hence, it is within the bounds of CHRISTENDOM, that we are to look for the fulfilment of the prediction, by a Satanic attempt to drown the church in a flood of alcohol. And it is within the bounds of Christendom, also, that we are to look for the fulfilment of that part of the prophecy, which relates to the lifting up of a Divine standard against the enemy, and the earth's aid of the woman in absorbing the flood emitted from the mouth of the serpent, by which figura |