With the accession of multitudes of unworthy members, and the prevalence of false doctrines, the true church would have been speedily overwhelmed had not the people of God been sustained from such deleterious influences. To the woman, therefore, were given two wings of a great eagle that she might escape. Wings are symbolic of power of flight—for succor, or escape. The four-winged leopard of Daniel used his speed to approach and demolish the enemy; the woman, to escape hers. The church of old was sustained in like manner. Thus God said to Israel, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.”—Ex. 19:4. On the introduction of new rites and doctrines into the church, multitudes withdrew from the public assemblies, and worshipped apart. They retired from the observation of their rulers and lived secluded for a long period. Some may inquire for the historical evidence of the _time_ when such a body withdrew. This, from the nature of the case, it may be difficult to give. If the withdrawal of the true worshippers had been an occurrence of so much notoriety as to be prominently historically noticed, it might have defeated their withdrawal. It is sufficient that the prophecy makes such a withdrawal necessary; and that at a later period such a body was found existing as predicted. See p. 198. Says Mr. Lord: “Her retreat into her place from the face of the serpent, denotes that the scene of her residence was unknown to the rulers. The anger of the serpent indicates their continued disposition to destroy her, if in their power; while its going on to make war with such of her seed as had not retreated to the desert, denotes that they continued, after her disappearance, to persecute the isolated individuals that from time to time dissented from the corrupt church, and professed the pure faith. “As it was by spiritual aids that the true worshippers were enabled to resist the temptations and force by which the rulers endeavored to constrain them to apostasy, and to fly to the desert, no specific record of those aids is to be sought on the page of history. The only evidence that we can ask or possess, that they were conferred, is presented in the fact that a body of dissentients from the corrupt church were in a latter age found in a secluded scene, who had survived the endeavors of the rulers of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and following centuries, to compel all their subjects to conformity, and who have continued to maintain a separate existence, and offer an unidolatrous worship to the present time.