ONE of the most wonderful chapters of the Word of God is Revelation 12. In it are presented, in concrete objects, the great principles of right and wrong, of good and evil, of sin and righteousness. These principles are personified. In graphic, forcible figures is portrayed the warfare between the principles that Right IS might, and that Might makes Right. For the first stands the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ; for the second stands Lucifer, the arch-enemy of Christ, and the destroyer of souls. From the time that sin first entered the universe of God there has been incessant, unrelenting, uncompromising war between the two, with victory often apparently resting with Might regardless of Right. Right has seemed to be silent or dead, and Might has ridden with ruthless sway over the world, crushing hope and burying virtue and piety under the wrecks of lust and greed. God has permitted it. He permits it still. His character is challenged. He can not use the weapons or the arts nor act by the motives of the devil. He will not depart from the unswerving principle of right, assured that in the end Might without Right will prove its own destruction, while Right will in the end be demonstrated to be everlasting and beneficent Might. Revelation 12 is a wonderful key which opens to us a great storehouse of prophetic knowledge. The prophecy of which it is a part is like a watch-tower on a mountain top; for it comprehends in its outlook the great field of prophecy. It sweeps backward to that time when man was not, and forward to that eternity when sin shall be no more. It is like a giant door, which, opened, reveals to us God's temple of historic knowledge for His children, marshaling in panoramic array the various acts of the great controversy of the ages, the prizes sought and lost and won, the actors in the great drama, and the glorious outcome. These things will be developed as we pursue our studies. We will find the symbolism bold and startling; but by comparing scripture with scripture, we shall find clear and consistent interpretation. With these preliminary thoughts let us proceed to —