f the
church--were stars in her crown of rejoicing, 1:20. From the utterance of
the prediction that the woman's seed should bruise the serpent's head
(Gen. 3:15), the coming of the promised deliverer was the great desire of
the church. Even Eve exclaimed, at the birth of her first-born
(_literally_), "I have gotten _the_ man from the Lord," Gen. 4:1. For his
coming,

"Kings and prophets waited long
But died without the sight."

They "inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of
Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow," 1 Pet. 1:10, 11.
"Many righteous men desired" to see his day (Matt. 13:17); Abraham
rejoiced and was made glad at its prospect, when in the distant future
(John, 8:56); and Hezekiah lamented that because of death he should not
see "the Lord in the land of the living," Isa. 38:11.

The seventy weeks indicated to the Jews the time of "the Messiah, the
Prince," Dan. 9:26-27. When these were near their termination, to the
pious and devout Simeon who was "waiting for the consolation of Israel,"
it "was revealed by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he
had seen the Lord's Christ," Luke 2:25, 26. And the opinion was so
general, that when the _Baptist_ preceded him, "the people were in
expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were
the Christ or no," Luke 3:15. This expectation is testified to by the
Jewish historians Philo and Josephus; and it was that which so troubled
Herod, when wise men came, saying, "Where is he that is born King of the
Jews?" Matt. 2:1-3.

The belief that some remarkable personage was about to appear in Judea,
was not confined to Palestine, but extended to Egypt, Rome, Greece, and
wherever the Jews were scattered abroad. Says Suetonius, a Roman
historian: "An ancient and settled persuasion prevailed throughout the
East, that the Fates had decreed some one to proceed from Judea, who
should attain universal empire." And Tacitus, another Roman historian,
says: "Many were persuaded that it was contained in the ancient books of
their priests, that at that very time the East should prevail, and that
some one should proceed from Judea, and possess the dominion."

The great red dragon sustains a relation to the woman, analogous to that
sustained by the nondescript beast