Fled Into the wilderness.—“Error, always more popular than truth, when exalted to influence and power, hunted down, proscribed and made disreputable the truth, and all who held it. This was the time when the true Church (woman) fled into the wilderness—into solitude—an outcast because of her fidelity to the truth, and to the true Lord and Head of the Church.”—B. 329. Where she hath a place prepared of God.—“The secret place of the Most High.”—Psa. 91:1. That they.—The antitypical ravens that fed the Elijah class, the unknown, “faithful men” who, in secret, broke the bread of life to those that hungered for righteousness. Should feed her there.—As Elijah was fed in the wilderness.—Rev. 2:20. A thousand two hundred and threescore days.—1260 years, from A. D. 539 to 1799.—Rev. 11:2, 3. 12:7. And there was war in heaven.—Between the two ecclesiastical powers, Pagan Rome and Papal Rome. Michael.—“Who as God,” the Pope.—B. 275; C. 62. And his angels.—The Bishops. The following is the reply given in the Catholic catechism to the question, “Who are the successors of the Apostles?” Ans. “The bishops who are rightly consecrated, and are in communion with the head of the Church, the Pope.” [Fought against] TO WAR WITH the dragon.—Attempted to get the temporal power away from the civil rulers.—Rev. 2:12. And the dragon.—Imperial Rome.—B. 288; Rev. 12:3; 20:2. Fought and his angels.—Did everything possible to circumscribe the growing power of the papacy, but all in vain.—Rev. 2:12. 12:8. And THEY prevailed not AGAINST HIM, neither was [their place] HE THEN found any more in heaven.—The Papacy came out of the contest victorious. “Paganism, defeated, relinquished all things pertaining to religious affairs and contented itself with social, civic and political affairs,” so stated one of Pastor Russell’s coworkers. 12:9. And the great dragon was cast out.—Verses 9 to 12 contain the rejoicings of the Papacy over their triumph. That old serpent, called the Devil, [and] Satan.—“To this fourth beast, representing Rome, Daniel gives no descriptive name. While the others are described as lion‐like, bear‐like and leopard‐like, the fourth was so ferocious and hideous that none of the beasts of earth could be compared with it. John the Revelator, seeing in vision the same symbolic beast (government), was also at a loss for a name by which to describe it, and finally gives it several. Among others, he called it ‘the Devil.’ He certainly chose an appropriate name; for Rome, when viewed in the light of its bloody persecutions, certainly has been the most devilish of all earthly governments. Even in its change from Rome Pagan to Rome Papal it illustrated one of Satan’s chief characteristics; for he also transforms himself to appear as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14), as Rome transformed itself from heathenism and claimed to be Christian—the Kingdom of Christ.”—A. 258.