This rejoicing connected with the Lamb shines faintly through the heathen perversions and myths: for HERODOTUS tells us how the ancient Egyptians, once a year, when it opened by the entrance of the sun into ARIES,(55) slew a Ram, at the festival of Jupiter Ammon; branches were placed over the doors, the Ram was garlanded with wreaths of flowers and carried in procession. Now the sun entered ARIES on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan, and _another lamb_ was then ordered to be slain, even “the LORD’S passover”—the type of that Lamb that should in the fulness of time be offered without blemish and without spot. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the sun, at the time of the Exodus, had receded into this sign of ARIES, which then marked the Spring Equinox. But by the time that the antitype—the Lamb of God, was slain, the sun had still further receded, and on the 14th of Nisan, in the year of the Crucifixion, stood at the very spot marked by the stars α, _El Nath_, _the pierced_, _the wounded_ or _slain_, and β, _Al Sheratan_, _the bruised_ _or wounded_! God so ordained “the times and seasons” that during that noon‐day darkness the sun was seen near those stars which had spoken for so many centuries of this bruising of the woman’s Seed—the Lamb of God. Was this design? or was it chance? It is far easier to believe the former. It makes a smaller demand upon our faith; yes, we are compelled to believe that He who created the sun and the stars “for signs and for cycles,” ordained also the times and the seasons, and it is He who tells us that “WHEN THE FULNESS OF TIME WAS COME, God sent forth His Son” (Gal. iv. 4), and that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. v. 6). 1. CASSIOPEIA (The Enthroned Woman). _The Captive Delivered, and Preparing for her Husband, the Redeemer._ In the last chapter we saw the _woman bound_; here we see the same woman freed, delivered, and enthroned. ULUGH BEY says its Arabic name is _El Seder_, which means _the freed_. In the Denderah Zodiac her name is _Set_, which means _set_, _set up as Queen_. ALBUMAZER says this constellation was anciently called “_the daughter of splendour_.” This appears to be the meaning of the word _Cassiopeia_, _the enthroned_, _the beautiful_. The Arabic name is _Ruchba_, _the enthroned_. This is also the meaning of its Chaldee name, _Dat al cursa_. There are 55 stars in this constellation, of which five are of the 3rd magnitude, five of the 4th, etc. This beautiful constellation passes vertically over Great Britain every day, and is easily distinguished by its five brightest stars, forming an irregular W. [Illustration] Illustration showing the W of Cassiopeia This brilliant constellation contains one binary star, a triple star, a double star, a quadruple star, and a large number of nebulæ. [Illustration] Plate 25: CASSIOPEIA (the Enthroned Woman)