Chapter 44

the following quotation from the People's Cyclopædia will throw some light on the subject: "In the mythical history and legendary poetry of almost every nation, the dragon appears as the emblem of the destructive and anarchistic principle.... Like the serpent, the dragon is always a minister of evil ... the object of which is to fight order, harmony, and progress. In Christian art, the dragon is the emblem of sin.... It is often represented as crushed under the feet of saints and martyrs.... Sometimes its prostrate attitude signifies the triumph of Christianity over Paganism." Art. Dragon. Considering this usage of these terms for ages, it is not strange that they were applied also to that great antichristian, persecuting system of Paganism, which stood before Christianity as its greatest barrier to "order, harmony, and progress."

The angel that overthrew this public system of Pagan infidelity symbolizes the primitive host of Christians, the ministers in particular. Some have supposed that he represented Christ; but, as already shown conclusively, Christ can not be symbolized by an inferior intelligence, hence always appears upon the scene in his own character, proclaiming his own eternal name. The fact that this angel possessed the key of the bottomless pit is no proof that he is Christ, even though in