Men and women who are subtle, smooth, deceitful, treacherous, secretive are called "snakes in the grass." Their plans and movements are under cover; they strike or sting from an hidden covert. The serpent is synonymous with the hiss, the blazing eye, the forked tongue, the poison; once it catches the eye of a bird the poor thing may wail and flutter, but it is powerless to escape. The bird is drawn into the jaws of death by a strange magnetism. This enemy of God and race is a serpent, slipping cautiously, noiselessly through all the dark, tangled mysteries about us. No one can fathom or interpret his cunning movements; we are stung, poisoned, charmed, fastened in the slimy coils, and yet do not know it. We have most to fear from the enemy who operates in the dark. This fallen archangel is never so dangerous as when acting in the personification of a serpent. _Dragon._ In the Hebrew it is "tannoth," _howler_--_jackal_; making a noise like the howling jackal in the wilderness. Again we are appalled at this title. The dragon is represented as a monstrous animal having the form of a serpent, with crested head, wings, and tremendous claws; ferocious and dangerous. The Scriptures have appropriated this fabulous monster--believed to have existed in days of mythology as the most dreaded creature on land or sea--to enforce and emphasize the danger of him who seeks our destruction. He is called the "great red dragon"--or fiery dragon, howling like a vicious jackal. It was in this peculiar manifestation that he stood before the woman and sought to destroy the Man Child as soon as He was born; then cast a flood after her as she fled from his presence. The dragon incarnates himself, and King Herod at once seeks to destroy the infant Jesus (Matt. ii.; Rev. xii. 1-5). V DIABOLUS--DEMONIA--ABADDON-APOLLYON "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."--_Matthew xxv. 41._ "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon."--_Revelation ix. 11._ We now desire to analyze more minutely the Greek names Diabolus and Demonia; reference was made to this distinction in a former chapter. In the Authorized Version the two names are often translated or rather _used_ interchangeably; devil for demon, and vice versa. We read of a "legion of devils," "seven devils," "cast out devils," "possessed with devils," etc. Technically--literally translated, these statements are incorrect. Demonia should never read devil--but _demon_; diabolus always means, not a devil, but _the Devil_.