The man-child is the next object that claims our attention. Some have supposed that it represented Jesus Christ in his first advent to the world. But this could not be; for Christ is never represented as being the offspring of the church, but, on the other hand, is declared to be its originator. Some, also, have supposed that it represented the church bringing forth Christ to the world in a spiritual sense. This, however, would be in direct conflict with the known laws of symbolic language. A visible, living, intelligent agent, such as this man-child evidently was, could not be the symbol of an invisible spiritual presence. Besides, it has been clearly shown that Christ always appears in his own person, unrepresented by another, from the fact that he can not be symbolized. It is clear that this child can not signify a single definite personage; for after he is caught up to God, there is still a remnant of the woman's seed left upon earth. See verse 17. What, then, does the man-child signify? It symbolizes the mighty host of new converts or children that the early church by her earnest travail brought forth. The seeming incongruity that the church, or mother, and her children are alike only serves to establish the point in question when rightly understood. A child is of the same substance as its mother and is designed to perpetuate the race. So, also, the new-born babes in the church are just the same spiritually as those who are older, and are intended to perpetuate the church of God on earth. But this explanation of itself is not sufficient to entirely satisfy an inquiring mind, and the question is sure to be asked, Why was it necessary that the church of God in this dispensation should be represented by two individuals--a woman and her son? I also will ask a question--Why, on the other hand, was it necessary that the great apostasy of this dispensation should be represented by the double-figure of a woman and her daughters? The answer to the latter question would readily be given--to symbolize two distinct phases of apostasy. So, also, it was necessary that a double-symbol, such as a woman and her son, should be chosen to set forth _two phases_ of the church brought to view in this chapter. If but a single symbol were used, how could the church be thereby represented as continuing on earth and fleeing into the wilderness and at the same time be represented as "overcome," persecuted to the death, and "caught up unto God and to his throne"? This double-phase of the church--the experience of the saints on earth and the reign of the martyrs in Paradise--will be made very clear to the reader hereafter. But it would be impossible to set forth these two phases under one symbol, and therefore two are chosen.