well may we repeat the words uttered by a certain minister to the
writer, "The book should have been called Mystification, not
Revelation."

The same principle of analogy is carried out in another particular.
Whenever the enemies of God or destructive agents are intended, objects
of a corresponding desolating character are chosen as their symbols;
whereas the peaceful triumphs of the cross, as exhibited by God's chosen
people, are described under symbols of an equally benign and gentle
character. Thus, the anti-christian, persecuting power of Rome is
described as a ferocious wild beast, stamping everything beneath its
feet and spreading desolation on every side. The Vandal hordes of
Northern barbarians, who, under Genseric overran the Western Roman
empire early in the fifth century, are symbolized by a volcanic mountain
cast into the sea and spreading its streams of molten lava in every
direction. The fearful pest of Mohammedanism is a dense smoke issuing
from the bottomless pit and darkening the heavens. The Saracens of
Mahomet are swarms of locusts appearing upon the earth, with scorpion
stings, tormenting men five months, or, prophetically, one hundred and
fifty years. On the other hand, a church is a candle-stick; its pastor,
a beautiful star; the whole church, a virgin bride; the glorious
assembly of God's reformers, a rainbow angel, etc.

From the foregoing it will be seen that symbols are not words, but
things, chosen because of some analagous resemblance to represent other
things; and by a careful study of the nature of the symbols themselves
we can ascertain where to look for their fulfilment. In the present work
no attempt has been made to prove the interpretations given merely by
the authority of learned names (for they can be arrayed on every side of
a passage), but the nature of the symbols themselves has been developed;