While, therefore, the opposition which the Christian encounters, the temptations which beset him, the evil against which he must struggle proceed incipiently from the great adversary, it is only the emissaries and agents of the ruler of this world’s darkness whom he is called on personally to encounter. As God, in order to save man, must become incarnate in human flesh, so must Satan, in order to tempt, embody himself in some earthly form. The comforting assurance which Paul administered to the brethren of Corinth was, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common [that is, moderated] to man.” The work of the Lord Jesus Christ extends some of its blessings to all the race of mankind, to the disobedient as well as to the faithful, and tempers the vicissitudes of our mortal state to our capacity of enduring them. It exempts us, though it did not him, from exposure to Satan’s unshackled power. Satan himself is bound and shut up in the pit. God’s seal is on him, for he, too, is the property of the divine Being. And he deceives “the nations no more” till the thousand years are fulfilled. Then he is to be “loosed a little season,” as we shall see, prior to his overwhelming discomfiture and irretrievable defeat. 2. _Outpouring of the Holy Spirit under the Emblem of Resurrection._ ――What has already, in the interpretation of this part of the Apocalypse, been said upon this question will obviate the necessity for any long discussion of it. Holding the prophecy of Ezekiel in mind, we cannot but conclude that what was meant to be taught by the resurrection of the bones in the valley of vision is likewise indicated by the expression, “They lived and reigned with Christ.” “This is the first resurrection.” As the resurrection spoken of in Ezekiel was a striking emblem of the power of the Holy Spirit to effect spiritual regeneration, so are the words to be taken here. The usage of describing regeneration by the emblem of a resurrection is so common in the Scriptures that there is no need to adduce illustrations of it. Nor is there any need to dwell upon the analogies between the two or to draw out the important lessons suggested thereby.