5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.

The imperial pagan Roman Tempter

They were both probed to the quick; but by provers suitable to the times, place, and circumstances around them.

But, though the proving agents in the trials of the two Adams have never experimented upon any others of our race, Christ's brethren stand related to a power, styled ho peiradzoon, which which is rendered in the English version, 'the tempter.'—(1 Thes. 3:5.)

By reference to the passage it is manifest that the tempter alluded to there was not an invisible devil, but a persecuting power under which the disciples lived in Thessalonica. They were suffering persecution when Paul wrote to them for their encouragement.

'Let no man,' says he, 'be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.'

He then refers to what he had told them before, and not them only, but all others; that

'it is through much tribulation that they (the baptized) must enter the kingdom of God.'

But he reminds them that they are not alone in their trouble, but are 'suffering like things of their countrymen,' that Christ's brethren in Judea had of the Jews. This saying reveals the power as that of the Gentile authorities in Thessalonica, who, stirred up by 'lewd fellows of the baser sort,' were carrying into effect as far as they could 'the decrees of Cæsar,' with all the pains and penalties annexed against the refractory.'—(Acts 17:5–8; 2 Thes. 1:4. 5.)

These were torture, imprisonment, and death, which served to prove their inseparable devotion to the doctrine of God's kingdom, for which they suffered. These 'persecutions and tribulations' might be avoided upon one condition, which was offered to them by the enemy—if they would renounce the faith, and burn incense to Cæsar's image. This was the temptation offered to them by the tempting power.

If they yielded to the temptation, they saved their lives, but lost 'God's kingdom and glory.' Fearing this result in some cases, Paul says,

'I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain."

In the case before us, the tempter was the imperial pagan Roman power, styled in the apocalypse, 'a Great Red Dragon,' and the Great Dragon, the ancient Serpent, the surnamed diabolos and the Satan.'—(Rev. 12:3, 9.) The Dragon, or Serpent, was the symbol of the Roman sovereignty selected by the Romans themselves as representative of its imperiality.

Chrysostom, who flourished in the 4th century, says that 'the emperors wore among other things to distinguish them silken robes embroidered with gold, in which dragons were represented.'

Gibbon also says, speaking of the procession of Constantine from Milan to Rome,

'he was encompassed by the glittering arms of the numerous squadrons of his guards and cuirassiers. Their streaming banners of silk, embroidered with gold and shaped like dragons, waved round the person of the emperor.'

The emperor Constantine speaks of the dragon as the symbol of Pagan Roman sovereignty in his epistle to Eusebius and other bishops concerning the rebuilding and repair of churches.

'Liberty being now restored,' says he, 'and that dragon being removed from the administration of public affairs, by the providence of the great God, and by my ministry; I esteem the great power of God to have been made manifest even to all.'

Moreover, on the testimony of Eusebius, we are informed, that a picture of Constantine was set up over the palace gate, with a cross over his head, and under his feet

'the great enemy of mankind, who persecuted the church by means of impious tyrants, in the form of a dragon, '

transfixed by a spear through the midst of the body, and falling headlong into the depths of the sea. Hence it is evident that the species of serpent called the dragon was as much the symbol of the Roman power as the lion is of British at this day.

The Romans probably borrowed it from Egypt, which had become a province of their dominion. When an independent monarchy under the Pharaohs, its majesty was represented by

'the Great Dragon, that lieth in the midst of his rivers.'

The annexation of so ancient and renowned a kingdom was very likely celebrated by the adoption of its ancient symbol into the Roman heraldry. Hence, the Roman dragon is styled 'the ancient serpent, ' or the Egyptian [Rev 11: 8].

The Christadelphian, Dec 1873