represents a city; (See Rev. xvii. 18,) and in Old Testament prophecy, Zion is addressed as an afflicted and travailing woman. (See Isa. xlix. 13-26, and lxvi. 5-14. Jer. xxx. 4-17.) The travailing woman of Revelation, may therefore, represent "the city of the Lord; the Zion of the Holy One of Israel." She may represent both Zion's holy mount, and Zion's covenanted heirs. For Zion's heirs are of the house of Jacob, and of Jacob and his house, the sun, with which the woman is clothed, the moon, that is under her feet, and the stars, that compose her crown, were of old, the acknowledged signs. (See Gen. xxxvii. 9-11.)

"And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land." (Gen. xxxv. 9-12.)

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The travailing woman may symbolize the mount Zion, clothed with her own children," for, to “his afflicted," Zion, her Lord, hath said :-" Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make

haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste. shall go forth of thee.

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Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,

and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." (Isa. xlix. 16-26.)

"And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her and the Highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there." (Ps. lxxxvii. 5, 6.)

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nor

"My covenant will I not break," saith the Lord, alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." (Ps. lxxxix. 34-37.)

The man child that was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and that was caught up unto God and to his throne, must symbolize "Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh :" for he hath received of his Father to rule the nations with a rod of iron; and he is set down with his Father in his throne. (See Rev. ii. 27, and iii. 21.) He is the only begotten Son to whom the Father hath said: Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine

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inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

"But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." (See Isa. xi. 1-5.)

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He is the Redeemer that 'shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob." (See Isa. lix. 20.) He is the Deliverer that shall come out of Sion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (See Rom. xi. 26.) He is the Saviour-the Redeemer -the mighty One of Jacob, who hath graven Zion on the palms of his hands. He is that "pierced" Saviour upon whom the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall look. In her travailing state, the emblematical woman may represent the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, looking by faith unto him whom they have pierced, and mourning for him as one mourneth for his only

son. The woman's cry, therefore, may result from the outpouring of the spirit of grace and of supplication:" it may be the utterance of faith in her promised Redeemer; and this inwrought cry, may mark the indwelling power of that mighty One who hath said ;- I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman." (Isa. xlii. 14.)

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"And I will," saith the Lord, "pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart." (Zec. xii. 10-14.)

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And in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness."

(Zec. xiii. 1.)

As there is but one laver for sin and for uncleanness, and as this laver is the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood