{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_43205/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_43205","id":"gutenberg_43205","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43205","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Devil","Good and evil"],"text":"Is the Devil a Myth?\n\n\n  By C. F. WIMBERLY\n  _Author of \"The Vulture's Claw,\" \"New Clothes for\n  the Old Man,\" \"The Cry in the Night,\" \"The\n  Winepress,\" \"The Lost Legacy,\" Etc., Etc._\n\n\n  NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO\n  Fleming H. Revell Company\n  LONDON AND EDINBURGH\n\n\n\n\n  Copyright, 1913, by\n  FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY\n\n  New York: 158 Fifth Avenue\n  Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.\n  London: 21 Paternoster Square\n  Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street\n\n\n\n\n  _With the fondest recollections and\n  appreciation of one, \"in age and\n  feebleness extreme,\" who taught me\n  the first lessons about the Being of\n  these studies; one who contributed\n  her all to the rearing of noble ideals,\n  MARTHA M. WIMBERLY,\n  My Mother,\n  this book is lovingly dedicated by\n  the Author_\n\n\n\n\nPreface\n\n\nIt is the writer's firm conviction, in these days when the most\nenthusiastic \"bookworm\" cannot even keep up with the titles of the book\noutput, that an earnest, sensible reason should be given for adding\nanother to the already endless list of books. We have enough books to-day,\n\"good, bad, indifferent,\" with which, if they were collected, to build\nanother Cyclops pyramid. The sage of the Old Testament declared in his\nday, concerning the endless making of books; such a statement, compared\nwith modern writing and publishing of books, sounds amusing.\n\nEvery possible subject, vagary, or ism, for which a book could be written,\nis overworked. Bible themes of all grades, from orthodoxy to ultra higher\ncriticism, have flooded the land. Especially is the iconoclast in much\nevidence; he is free lance, and shows no quarters. Cardinal tenets of\nBible faith, so long unquestioned, are being smitten with a merciless\nhand. Disintegration is the most obvious fact among us; nothing is too\nsacred for the crucible of what is termed \"scholarship.\"\n\nBut why this book? Let us take a little survey. Over against the modern\nidea, that the race is endowed with all the inherent elements of goodness\nnecessary to its regeneration, there is a correspondent belief that _evil_\nis only an error. When the race by social and mental evolution succeeds\nin eliminating all the superstitions and false dogmas, the body politic\nwill be self-curative, like the physical body, restoring itself by means\nof inspiration, respiration, exercise, sleep, food, etc., once the causes\nof disease are eliminated from the system.\n\nFor several decades we have been approaching the doctrine which denies all\nPersonalism--either good or bad. When we repudiate the Bible teaching,\nthat the source of all evil emanates from a great Personality, the Bible\nteaching of the Incarnation suffers in the same proportion.\n\nThe title of this book is a question, and one by no means strained, if\nconsidered from the view-point of modern thought. We have undertaken an\nanswer. If by reason and revelation we can arrive at a satisfactory\nconclusion, the gain thereby cannot be overestimated. If the personality\nof Satan can be successfully consigned to the religious junk pile, our\nBible is at once thrown into a jumble of contradictions and\ninconsistencies. The result will be even worse than our enemies claim for\nit now. One of the late recognized writers on the Old Testament says: \"The\nOld Testament is no longer considered valuable among scholars as a sacred\noracle, but it is valuable in that it is the history of a people.\" _If the\nDevil is a Myth, our Bible can be nothing better than historical chaos._\n\nIn the preparation of these pages, we wish to acknowledge with deep\ngratitude the assistance of Mr. S. D. Gordon, author of \"Quiet Talks\"; Dr.\nI. M. Haldeman, author and preacher; Dr. Gross Alexander, editor, author,\nand preacher; Dr. W. B. Godbey, an author of great learning and extensive\ntravel; Dr. B. Carradine, evangelist and author; Dr. H. C. Morrison,\ncollege president, editor, author, and evangelist; Prof. L. T. Townsend,\nand Hon. Philip Mauro.\n\nIf the reading of this book shall bring to any struggling soul helpful\ninformation concerning our common Enemy, we shall be doubly repaid for the\nlabour of its preparation. We send it forth saturated with prayer.\n\nC. F. W.\n\n_Madisonville, Ky._\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n       I. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL                         11\n\n      II. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL                          16\n\n     III. LUCIFER                                     20\n\n      IV. DEVIL--SATAN--SERPENT--DRAGON               24\n\n       V. DIABOLUS--DEMONIA--ABADDON-APOLLYON         28\n\n      VI. THE DEVIL A \"BLOCKADE\"                      31\n\n     VII. THE GREAT MAGICIAN                          34\n\n    VIII. THE ROARING LION                            37\n\n      IX. AN ANGEL OF LIGHT                           41\n\n       X. THE SOWER OF TARES                          46\n\n      XI. THE ARCH SLANDERER                          50\n\n     XII. THE DOUBLE ACCUSER                          54\n\n    XIII. SATAN A SPY                                 58\n\n     XIV. THE QUACK DOCTOR                            62\n\n      XV. THE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN                      66\n\n     XVI. THE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN (_Continued_)        71\n\n    XVII. THE DEVIL'S RIGHTEOUSNESS                   75\n\n   XVIII. THE WORLD'S TEMPTER                         80\n\n     XIX. THE CONFIDENCE MAN                          84\n\n      XX. THE TRAPPER                                 89\n\n     XXI. THE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER                     93\n\n    XXII. THE FATHER OF LIARS                         96\n\n   XXIII. THE KINGSHIP OF SATAN                      100\n\n    XXIV. THE DEVIL'S HANDMAIDEN                     105\n\n     XXV. THE ASTUTE AUTHOR                          110\n\n    XXVI. THE HYPNOTIST                              114\n\n   XXVII. DEVIL POSSESSION                           119\n\n  XXVIII. DEVIL OPPRESSION                           124\n\n    XXIX. DEVIL ABDUCTION                            129\n\n     XXX. THE RATIONALE OF SUICIDE                   134\n\n    XXXI. DEVIL WORSHIP                              138\n\n   XXXII. VICTORY THROUGH THE VICTOR                 143\n\n  XXXIII. THE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT                148\n\n   XXXIV. THE FINAL CONSUMMATION                     152\n\n    XXXV. SATANIC SYMBOL IN NATURE                   156\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE PROBLEM OF EVIL\n\n    \"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and\n    that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil\n    continually.\"--_Genesis vi. 5._\n\n\nThat we may appreciate this discussion, removed as far as possible from\ntheological terminology and theories, and get a concrete view-point, the\nfollowing head-lines from a single issue of a metropolitan daily will\nsuffice: \"War Clouds Hanging Low;\" \"Men Higher Up Involved;\" \"Eighty-seven\nDivorces On Docket;\" \"Blood Flows In the Streets;\" \"Gaunt Hunger Among\nStrikers;\" \"Arrested For Forgery;\" \"A White Slave Victim;\" \"Attempted\nTrain Robbery;\" \"Kills Wife and Ends Own Life;\" \"Two Men Bite Dust;\"\n\"Investigate Bribery.\"\n\nThis fearful list may be duplicated almost every day in the year. Our land\nis deluged with crime, without respect to person or place; its blight\ntouches all circles from the slum to the four hundred. Wealth and poverty,\nculture and ignorance, fame and obscurity, suffer alike from this Pandora\nBox scourge. The march of history--the pilgrimage of the race, has enjoyed\nbut little respite from tears and blood. Those who strive to maintain a\nstandard of purity, righteousness, and honour, are beset by strange,\npowerful, intangible influences, from the cradle to the grave. The child\nin swaddling clothes has a predisposition to willfullness, deception, and\ndisobedience; paroxysms of passion and anger are manifested with the\nslightest provocation.\n\nNotwithstanding the barriers thrown up by the home and society; the\nincentives and assurances for noble, industrious living, the dykes are\ncontinually giving way, so that police power and the frowning walls of\npenal institutions are insufficient to check the overflow. The Church of\nGod, with its open Book, ringing out messages of life and hope at every\ncorner; the object lessons on the \"wages of sin,\" sweeping in full view\nbefore us, like the reel-film of a motion picture--do not seem to lessen\nthe harvest of moral shipwreck.\n\nAccording to some recent police records and statistics, only about\none-half of the country's criminals are apprehended; if this is true of\nthose who violate the law, a much smaller per cent. of those who break the\nperfect moral law, as related to domestic and religious life, are ever\nexposed. When these facts are considered, the perspective for the reign of\nrighteousness is lurid and hopeless. The country has been amazed,\nrecently, at the revelations of how municipal and national treasuries are\nbeing looted by extortion, extravagance, and misrule, on the part of men\nholding positions as a sacred trust. Civilization fosters and maintains a\ntraffic which has not one redeeming feature; besides killing directly and\nindirectly more men daily than were blown up in the battle-ship _Maine_.\n\nLet us view the problem of evil from another angle: a writer on the\nsubject of food supplies says the earth each year furnishes an abundant\nquantity of fruits, meats, cereals, and vegetables to feed all her\npeoples; yet gaunt famine is never entirely removed. Even in America a\nsurprising per cent. of our people are underfed and underclothed. \"Fifty\nthousand go to bed hungry every night in New York City,\" declares a\nprofessor of economics. The same ratio obtains in other large cities of\nour land. Scenes of pinching poverty occur within a few blocks of the most\nwanton luxury and extravagance. One lady spends fifty thousand\ndollars--enough to satisfy all the hungry--on one evening's entertainment.\nOranges rot on the Pacific coast by car-loads, when the children of the\nGhetto scarcely taste them.\n\nNature fills her storehouses, and tries to scatter with a prodigal hand,\nbut her resources are cornered and controlled by a criminal system which\nrevolves around the \"almighty dollar\"--the root of all evil.\n\nAre we to conclude that man's free agency is responsible for this moral\nmonstrosity? Or, to be theologically particular, shall we say, free agency\ndominated by an innate disposition to evil: human depravity, original sin,\nthe carnal mind? Allowing the fullest latitude to the free moral agency of\nthe race; allowing the evil nature, like the foul soil producing a\ncontinuous crop of vile weeds, to produce an inexorable bent, or\npredisposition to sin, operating on man's free agency--have we a full and\nsufficient explanation of the presence and power of Evil?\n\nThe carnal mind is enmity with God, not subject to His laws; but the\ncarnal mind is in competition with a _human_ nature, wherein are found\nemotions and sentiments that are far from being all sinful: sympathy,\ntenderness, benevolence, paternal and filial love, sex-love, and honesty.\nAgain, we rarely find environment as an unmixed evil. Notwithstanding\nthese hindrances the press almost daily has details and delineations of\ncrimes so fearful and shocking that no trace of the human appears.\nFrequently we hear of a man, who has committed some dreadful outrage,\npersonified as \"beast,\" \"fiend,\" \"inhuman,\" etc. A young man in his teens,\nwishing to marry, but being under age and without sufficient means,\ndecided that if he could dispose of his father, mother, brother, and\nsister--the farm and property would all be his, then, unmolested, could\nconsummate his matrimonial plans. Whereupon, armed with an axe, at the\nmidnight hour, he executes his \"fiendish\" plot. Another man, with a young\nand beautiful wife, and the father of two bright children, becomes\ninfatuated with a young woman in a distant state; he woos and wins her\naffections; he returns home to arrange \"some business matters\" on the day\npreceding the wedding. This business matter was to dispose of his wife and\nchildren, which he did; on the following night, led to the marriage altar\nan innocent, unsuspecting girl. A young minister commits double murder,\nand on the following day enters his pulpit and preaches from the text:\n\"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable\nin Thy sight, O Lord.\"\n\nThese cases are actual occurrences, mentioned for emphasis only, that the\nproblem of evil may be studied from life. These examples prove\nconclusively that the problem goes deeper than human depravity or free\nagency; both are accessories--conditions, binding cords, as it were, but\nthe jarring stroke comes from a mightier hand.\n\nThe unregenerated heart has been called a \"playground,\" and a \"coaling\nstation\" for the headmaster of all villainies. It was more than wounded\npride and vanity that propagated the scheme of Haman, whereby a whole\nnation was to be destroyed at a single stroke. Vengeance and hate are\nterrible passions, but only as they are fanned by the breath of an\ninhabitant of the Inferno can they go to such extremes. It was more than a\ndesire to crush out heresy that could instigate a \"St. Bartholomew's Day,\"\nthen sing the Te Deum after the bloody deed was accomplished.\n\nWe shall endeavour in the subsequent pages to throw a few rays of light,\nin obscure corners, on the problem of evil through its multiform phases\nand ramifications.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF EVIL\n\n    \"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the\n    Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out\n    into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.\"--_Revelation\n    xii. 9._\n\n\nIt requires but a casual survey of this problem to reach a conclusion that\nits hideousness cannot be explained by any other hypothesis than the power\nof an invisible Personality. When we scrutinize the footprints of the\nrace, it will be found that progress has been along a dark, slimy trail;\nthe infidels and philosophers who are loud in their boastings of inherent\ngoodness will have difficulty in reconciling this fact. All who think are\nconfronted with an ever-recurring question--yea, exclamations: why do such\nthings happen? What meaneth these barbarities, ravages, cruelties? Why so\nmuch domestic discord, ending in ruin--so many suicides? Why do men and\nwomen hurl themselves over the precipice of vice and deadly\nindulgences--when even a novice might easily see the inevitable?\n\nFor a parallel we are reminded of an incident in war: log-chains were used\nwhen the cannon-ball supply was exhausted; lanes the width of the chain\nlength were mowed through the ranks of the opposing army. These chasms of\ndeath were closed up each time, only to be cut down again by the next\ndischarge. The pathway of ruin is thronged--the \"broad road\" is easy;\nhowever, there is something stranger than this utter blindness: the\nvictims laugh and shout on this highway, paved as it is by the macadam of\ncrushed humanity.\n\nNow, can there be found a rationale for this dreadful twist in human\naffairs--this seeming unfathomable conundrum? We cannot believe that God\nwould create a \"footstool\" in which sin, suffering, and misery were to\nabound; no such provision could have been in the divine plan. In the Word\nof God alone we find the explanation of it all. The Word gives an\nunmistakable account of an insurrection in heaven: \"Michael and his angels\nfought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and\nprevailed not.\" This strange warfare was inaugurated by the great\narchangelic leader.\n\nThis \"war in heaven\" could have but one ending: the complete overthrow of\nthe disturber and his followers. They were cast out, and are, beyond a\ndoubt, swarming around this sin-blinded planet--invisible, yet personal\nand all but omnipresent. When we remember that one-third of the angelic\npopulation of heaven cast their lot with this chieftain, his strength and\npersonality can be somewhat understood. It is written: \"The tail\n(influence) of the dragon drew the third part of the stars (angels) of\nheaven, and cast them down to the earth.\" In their relation to heaven, the\ndragon and his angels met with irremediable ruin; now, defeated,\nhumiliated, maddened, doomed, this fallen archangel and his innumerable\nmyrmidons are filling the whole earth with every curse that can be\nconjured up by their superior, supernatural intelligence. There can be no\nroom to doubt the truth of this hellish propaganda, as he is called the\n\"god of this world.\"\n\nIt must be kept clearly in mind that the powers of darkness can, in no\nsense, mean an ethereal, impersonal spirit of evil--or perverseness of\nweak human nature; but rather a Being who rules and commands legions upon\nlegions of subjects--_demons_, each of them endowed with all the powers\nand gifts possessed when they were ministering emissaries of God. They are\nnow \"the angels which kept not their first estate.\"\n\nWe have no way to estimate the size of this satanic army, marshalled for\nthe destruction of the race and the overthrow of Christ's kingdom.\nHowever, we read in the tenth chapter of Revelation that two hundred\nmillion were turned loose in the earth at one time. Ten thousand were in\nthe country of the Gadarenes when the Master entered there; no wonder the\nentire land was kept in terror, even though their incarnation seemed to\nhave been limited to one man living in a graveyard. Seven demons were cast\nout of one woman.\n\nWe should keep in mind the distinction between \"the devil\" and demons;\nthere is but one _Devil_, but the demons are swarming the length and\nbreadth of the whole earth. Just as God directs His angels in ministeries\nof righteousness, so this god of darkness directs his angels to do his\nnefarious will. There are feats so daring and important that the Devil, it\nseems, will not trust to his underlings. He engineered in person the\ntemptations of the Master; he entered the heart of Judas, and caused him\nto sell his Lord, then commit suicide.\n\nThe Bible undoubtedly teaches that Satan and his cohorts, having access to\nour fallen natures (which became so through his contribution of \"forbidden\nfruit\"--his great triumph in the Garden), are inciting this world to all\nthe crimes known to our criminal dockets. Think of the train wreckers,\nrapists, incendiaries, white slavers, riots, strikes, grafters, gamblers,\netc.; and as Paul has catalogued them: \"unrighteousness, fornication,\nwickedness, maliciousness, envy, deceit, malignity, whisperers,\nbackbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil\nthings, disobedient to parents, covenant breakers, without natural\naffection, implacable, unmerciful.\"\n\nNo one can consider this long, gruesome list of iniquities without a\nfeeling that they originated, somehow, in the realm of supernatural\ndarkness. The worst things that can be said of fallen humanity is its\navailability and susceptibility to the machinations of this past master of\nthe Pit, whose only ambition is to rob the blood of its purchase\npossessions by wrecking the souls for whom Christ died. Our sinful nature\nresponds to his touch; the wonderful gamut of the soul is capable of being\nswept its entire length by his skill. A master player on God's greatest\ninstrument--His masterpiece. All the fearful deeds committed seem to be\nacts of volition, and they are; but in the dark background lurks another\nsuperior will responsible for the initiative.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nLUCIFER\n\n    \"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How\n    art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the\n    nations!\"--_Isaiah xiv. 12._\n\n    \"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven,\n    burning as it were a lamp.\"--_Revelation viii. 10._\n\n    \"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto\n    the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless\n    pit.\"--_Revelation ix. 1._\n\n\nIt is reasonable to believe that all intelligent beings are morally free;\nand if free, are on probation. Intelligence, will-power, free agency, and\nprobation are logically inseparable, regardless of place or environment.\nWithout question, in the natural world this is true, and therefore must be\ntrue in the spiritual world. That men, angels, archangels, and redeemed\nspirits never attain a state of character beyond the possibility of free\nchoice is a most fearful responsibility.\n\nBut for the imperialism of intelligent will, the _fall of angels_ is\nunreasonable, improbable, impossible. Just how temptation can assail the\ninhabitants of heaven--the land, we are told, \"where the wicked cease from\ntroubling and the weary are at rest\"--is beyond all human comprehension.\nStartling as this truth appears to be, the Bible teaches it in\nunmistakable language.\n\n\"Lucifer, son of the morning,\" an archangel, a great being, created in\nholiness, standing near the Throne of God. His name means \"light bearer,\"\nindicative of his glorious office. We can scarcely imagine such honour,\nsuch power, such distinction. Just what the high-calling of \"light bearer\"\nwas, as it was performed under the highest commission in the universe, the\nBook fails to tell us; but the office of Lucifer was surely the peer of\nMichael or Gabriel, if not above them in rank. Brilliancy and splendour\nradiated from his person.\n\nMay we dare, not altogether by the imagination, to venture into that\nremote, prehistoric time when the Second Person of the Trinity--the\nAnointed One--the Logos, a being of perfection, made in the image of the\ninvisible God, became a Manifestation. That One of whom \"the whole family\nin heaven and earth is named\"; sharing the glory and honour equally with\nthe Father, on a throne in the heavenlies. Milton and others believe that\nthe presence of this Manifestation aroused in Lucifer a consuming spirit\nof ambition and envy; he at once aspired to the place and power which God\nreserved for His only begotten Son.\n\nWe get still another side-light on the personality of Lucifer, when we\nconsider his gigantic scheme. Aaron Burr planned the overthrow of his\ncountry, and dreamed of rulership; such a vision were impossible in the\nmind of any but a master of assemblies--an empire builder. Lucifer saw\nhimself a ruler above that of a Creator, as \"all things were made by Him.\"\nNo wonder the inspired exclamation concerning him: \"How art thou fallen,\nO Lucifer.\" When the climax of his overthrow came, he \"fell like lightning\nout of heaven.\" The honourable cognomen is now lost forever; the glory of\nholiness has given place to the dishonour of despair. In the language of\nthe poet, he \"preferred to rule in hell rather than serve in heaven.\" This\nlight bearer of Paradise is still a prince, but in the dark regions of\nendless woe; \"ruler of the darkness of this world.\"\n\nThis archangel who felt himself capable of heavenly authority finds an\neasier task here below. Speaking to the Master, hear his presumption and\naudacity, \"all these things (the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of\nthem) will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.\" What was\nthe condition named? The restoration of what he had lost: that the Son of\nGod pay him homage and obeisance. Baffled in this crowning stroke, he\nslunk away only to study the vantage more discreetly, reinforce, and\nreassert.\n\nLet us keep in mind that intelligence and personality are not affected by\nthe status of character; magnetic power and influence over others are not\nlost when the life is wholly given over to evil. Piety and holiness may be\ndisplaced by treachery and hate, but the force of personality remains. If\nany change takes place, the individual becomes more subtle and more\ninsidious in schemes to further selfish interests. If a righteous man,\nendowed with unusual powers, fall into a life of sin, he carries over into\nhis wickedness all his former gifts and faculties--nothing is lost.\n\nThis proposition enables us to further appreciate the marvellous\ncapabilities of the fallen Lucifer. Besides the Trinity, there are none\nsuperior in the universe. God allows His enemies, both men and devils, to\ncontinue a proprietary control of their talents, whether they be one or\nten. There will be no devestments until the last shifting of the scene.\nWhen we remember all the attributes, previous advantages, and present\nopportunities of the greatest of all apostates, the conundrum of human\nactions, individually and nationally, begins slowly to unravel. The fight\nis not alone with men in sin, but with the \"prince of the powers of the\nair.\"\n\nWhen Lucifer rebelled and met the just rebuke of God's wrath, all his\nglory, power, and brilliancy became demonized. Then, through all the\nmillenniums there has been not one hour of relaxation; no armistice for\nthe invisible warfare. Just as saints grow in faith, vision, and divine\nillumination, devils sink lower and lower; but at the same time develop in\nskill and efficiency by a continual application of their debased energies.\n\nIt is therefore reasonable to believe that our \"common Enemy\" is far more\nformidable than the day he was cast into the earth. Our ability to\nencounter him successfully becomes a more hopeless struggle with the\npassing days. If, in the days of Paul, it were expedient to have on the\n\"whole armour of God\" to meet him, nothing short of \"all the fullness of\nGod\" is the paramount need to-day.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nDEVIL--SATAN--SERPENT--DRAGON\n\n    \"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against\n    the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not;\n    neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon\n    was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which\n    deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his\n    angels were cast out with him.\"--_Revelation xii. 7-9._\n\n\nNames were significant in Bible times; they are given to-day at random,\nbut then names were indicative of character. When character changed, the\nname changed: Jacob to Israel; Saul to Paul, etc. While the subject of\nthese pages remained the holy, shining light bearer of heaven, he was\nLucifer, but that name was lost to him forever. So varied were his\npassions, characteristics, and powers that must be known by appropriate\nnames, and each, as given, designates some phase of his multiform\npersonality.\n\n_Devil._ Not only did Lucifer lose name and character; he exchanged a\nbrilliant, glorious external appearance (to eyes that penetrate the\ninvisible) for one ugly, loathsome, beastly. If language can be\ninterpreted literally, the eye of inspiration and revelation sees him a\n_Devil--sair_ in the Hebrew, \"hairy one,\" \"he goat,\" etc. The he goat, in\nthe Bible, stands for all that is low and base. Those who partake of the\n_sair_ nature, in the Last Day, are called _goats_. He divided the sheep\nfrom the goats. God teaches us spiritual lessons in all nature, especially\nby the animal kingdom, and as the goat is a synonym for the lowest\ninstincts of the animal; we find a being created in the highest realm of\nspiritual life sinking to the lowest level of brute life. If no further\ndelineation were given--no other name than Devil--the fall was from one\nextreme to the other.\n\nThis cognomen carried further has a second meaning: _spoiler_, one whose\ntouch soils and besmirches, rearranges; bright spots are smeared with\nblack soot; flowers with sweet odour, after his blight passes over them,\nsend out a stench; hearts of purity are defiled and debauched; faces of\nbeauty become marred and ugly. Whenever and wherever it serves his\npurpose, cosmos becomes chaos. He is a spoiler.\n\n_Satan._ In this familiar title we see him in the character r\u00f4le which\ndominates all his actions. As Satan he is the _hater_. Of all the evil\npassions of the soul, hate is the most terrible. As manifested in human\nrelationships, the hater is a murderer. Somehow hate seems to be a\nresultant of wrath, malice, envy, jealousy, and revenge. Hatred in the\nbosom of the weak or cowardly affects only its possessor; but hatred\nburning in the soul of one who is strong and courageous, nothing belonging\nto the object of his hatred is secure: life, personal property, or\nreputation.\n\nWe want carefully to note the full significance of hatred; then place\nbeside it the one who hates--yes, as no other being in all the universe\ncan hate. He is the father of haters; the tragedies of all kinds, filling\nthe world with terror, because of murders, bomb explosions, incendiaries,\npoisonings, are but the scattered rays reflected and deflected from this\nfull orb of hate as he revolves in his sphere of darkness.\n\nSatan hates God, hates the Holy Ghost, but the full force of his hate, of\nnecessity, is directed towards the _Son_ of God, his rival for place and\npower. The supreme work of the Son was the Atonement; now, the interest\nand anxiety of heaven has been transferred to this planet. The supreme\ntriumph of the Second Person of the Trinity was accomplished on the Cross\nwhere He paid the price of human redemption. His energies are now directed\nto the breaking down of all that was accomplished on the Cross. Every\nmovement, every motive, every virtue, coming directly or indirectly from\nthe merits of the Atonement, become at once the object of satanic hatred.\nTherefore every inch of territory conquered by the gospel propaganda was\nand is a victory over his hateful protest.\n\n_Serpent._ At the very suggestion of this title our nature recoils. The\n\"nachash,\" and \"zachal,\" mean \"_fearful_\"--\"_creeper_,\" therefore a\nfearful creeper. The snake is the most repulsive and dangerous of all\nreptiles. There is a strange antipathy about a snake; his nature is so\nstill, so sneaking, so oily; the appearance of one produces an involuntary\nshudder. Who has not felt the disgust at seeing men and\nwomen--\"charmers\"--take a number of the sleek, slimy monsters from a cage,\nand wind them around arms, neck, and body? The horror felt towards the\nsnake is not an accident; it was in the guise of a serpent the downfall of\nthe race was accomplished.\n\nMen and women who are subtle, smooth, deceitful, treacherous, secretive\nare called \"snakes in the grass.\" Their plans and movements are under\ncover; they strike or sting from an hidden covert. The serpent is\nsynonymous with the hiss, the blazing eye, the forked tongue, the poison;\nonce it catches the eye of a bird the poor thing may wail and flutter, but\nit is powerless to escape. The bird is drawn into the jaws of death by a\nstrange magnetism.\n\nThis enemy of God and race is a serpent, slipping cautiously, noiselessly\nthrough all the dark, tangled mysteries about us. No one can fathom or\ninterpret his cunning movements; we are stung, poisoned, charmed, fastened\nin the slimy coils, and yet do not know it. We have most to fear from the\nenemy who operates in the dark. This fallen archangel is never so\ndangerous as when acting in the personification of a serpent.\n\n_Dragon._ In the Hebrew it is \"tannoth,\" _howler_--_jackal_; making a\nnoise like the howling jackal in the wilderness. Again we are appalled at\nthis title. The dragon is represented as a monstrous animal having the\nform of a serpent, with crested head, wings, and tremendous claws;\nferocious and dangerous. The Scriptures have appropriated this fabulous\nmonster--believed to have existed in days of mythology as the most dreaded\ncreature on land or sea--to enforce and emphasize the danger of him who\nseeks our destruction. He is called the \"great red dragon\"--or fiery\ndragon, howling like a vicious jackal.\n\nIt was in this peculiar manifestation that he stood before the woman and\nsought to destroy the Man Child as soon as He was born; then cast a flood\nafter her as she fled from his presence. The dragon incarnates himself,\nand King Herod at once seeks to destroy the infant Jesus (Matt. ii.; Rev.\nxii. 1-5).\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nDIABOLUS--DEMONIA--ABADDON-APOLLYON\n\n    \"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye\n    cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his\n    angels.\"--_Matthew xxv. 41._\n\n    \"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless\n    pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek\n    tongue hath his name Apollyon.\"--_Revelation ix. 11._\n\n\nWe now desire to analyze more minutely the Greek names Diabolus and\nDemonia; reference was made to this distinction in a former chapter. In\nthe Authorized Version the two names are often translated or rather _used_\ninterchangeably; devil for demon, and vice versa. We read of a \"legion of\ndevils,\" \"seven devils,\" \"cast out devils,\" \"possessed with devils,\" etc.\nTechnically--literally translated, these statements are incorrect. Demonia\nshould never read devil--but _demon_; diabolus always means, not a devil,\nbut _the Devil_.\n\n_Diabolus._ This name designates him more as to his ruling and authority\nthan to the elements of his character. We have noticed already the meaning\nof Devil, but from the original word we get more explicit meaning as to\nhis rank of authority. As Lucifer we do not know his ruling rank, but in\nhis lost estate he ranks as Commander-in-chief. Whatever we may say of\nhim, the prefix, \"arch,\" designating his angel rank, can be logically\nattached: archspoiler--arch-deceiver--archaccuser--archslanderer, etc.\n\nHowever, if accurately defined, diabolus means\n_Calumniator_--archcalumniator; a propagator of calumny. Acting in the\ncapacity of calumniator, he seeks out and defames the innocent. He sends\nout a million rumours daily which would be, if tangible, cases for libel\nin any court.\n\n_Demonia._ A demon--a fallen angel--evil spirit, an imp. Literally, a\n_shade_--a dark spot, moving as noiselessly and rapidly as a shadow. The\nmany references in the New Testament to \"devil,\" and \"devils,\" should\nalways be _demons_; the great multitude, so often found in one place, come\nfrom the innumerable concourse which constitute the \"powers of darkness.\"\nShadow spirits, men and women who are controlled by these dark, shadowy\nimps, \"love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.\" The\ntransformation, as we learned, which took place with Lucifer was just as\ngreat and radical with his angel followers; the difference was only that\nof degree of rank.\n\n_Abaddon-Apollyon._ We have coupled the Hebrew and Greek names together,\nas each means exactly the same. We call the attention of the reader to the\nvariety of names, all of which are so nearly alike, but convey a\nsignificant difference. Abaddon-Apollyon means _destroyer_. He has been\ndiscussed as a \"spoiler,\" but one who destroys carries the work farther\nthan the spoiler. As Abaddon or Apollyon he is the king of the abyss, or\n\"Bottomless Pit,\" and when he appears it is with purpose and equipment for\ndestruction. Just as God sent the \"Destroying Angel\" throughout Egypt,\nbringing a curse upon Pharaoh for his hardness of heart, this mighty\nmessenger of the Abyss visits his destruction wherever and whenever he\nfinds, not the absence of the typical blood upon the door, but when he\nfinds it, or any evidence of allegiance to the One whose sacrificial blood\nhe seeks to destroy.\n\nAs Abaddon-Apollyon he assumes the part of Finisher of his task; when we\nsee him a _destroyer_, we have a full-sized photograph--leaving out not a\nsingle line of countenance, or a single character or attribute of his\ncomposite nature. He may soil, spoil, deceive, traduce, accuse, slander,\nwound, etc., but the ultimate aim is destruction. \"When sin is finished it\nbringeth forth death.\" We see how the two great Rivals stand over against\neach other in their respective spheres: \"For this cause the Son of God was\nmanifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.\" With the same\ndegree of purpose, the Devil seeks to destroy the work of the Son of God.\n\nThe Devil seeks to destroy truth, righteousness, virtue, religion, hope,\nfaith, visions of God, power of the Blood, thoughts of eternity and\nheaven. Every beautiful, holy thing on earth he would destroy, leaving\nbehind only black, charred cinders where once were the flowers of Eden.\nJust as he destroyed the earthly Paradise in the long ago, so he would\nblot from our hopes and aspirations the Paradise of the soul. His ambition\nand supreme joy would be to turn this world over to God blighted and\nwrecked by his finishing touches, while hell echoed with triumphant\nshouts--an infernal jubilee. Abaddon-Apollyon: archdestroyer.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nTHE DEVIL A \"BLOCKADE\"\n\n    \"Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again;\n    but Satan hindered us.\"--_1 Thessalonians ii. 18._\n\n    \"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty\n    days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help\n    me.\"--_Daniel x. 13._\n\n\nWe find another striking interpretation couched in the title of devil. The\nChurch in its organization is called _militant_, because it is engaged in\na moral and religious warfare. The writings of Paul bristle with military\nterms, as two mighty armies are contending and contesting for dominion.\nEach army is fighting under a leader; the surging campaign has changed its\nbase of operation--the battle-field has been transferred from heaven to\nthis planet. The rivalry between Christ and Satan has, many times, changed\n_modus operandi_, but the spirit of the contest and the end--all for which\nthey contend--change not.\n\nThe title-word of this chapter is not a Bible term; we appropriate and\naccommodate it because of its military meaning. Strictly in keeping with\nthe use of terms, the \"blockade\" belongs to naval operations; but any\nmovement, reconnoitre, or countermarch, which interferes, hinders, or\nhedges up the way of progress, is a blockade. A campaign ends in failure\nbecause of obstructions thrown up, access to base of supplies cut off,\nreinforcements thwarted in reaching the scene of activities, etc., convey\nthe idea set forth in the key Scriptures used giving emphasis to the\nchapter heading.\n\nThe Apostle Paul had all the advantages of equipment; his intellectual\nattainments the very best; he was a recognized leader of men, a chosen\nvessel of the Lord, and full of the Holy Ghost. No man besides the Master\nwas more able to withstand the opposition of the \"prince of darkness.\" Yet\nSatan actually prevents him from going to Thessalonica to comfort and\nstrengthen the struggling church at that place--literally hedges up the\nway.\n\nA careful examination of the tenth chapter of Daniel gives us a\nconversation between the prophet and a \"voice,\"--a \"vision\"--having an\nappearance \"like the similitude of the sons of men\"; evidently an angel of\nhigh rank, whose mission was to encourage Daniel, but he also acknowledges\nthat the \"prince of Persia\" hindered him from coming twenty days. This\nmighty angel, it seems, was helpless trying to reach Daniel, until Michael\ncame upon the scene. It was Michael who led the triumphant battle against\nhim when he was overthrown in heaven. He alone was able to meet the\n\"prince of Persia,\" the _Devil_.\n\nWe can, therefore, understand how successfully Satan can hinder--blockade\nthe progress of righteousness wherever he chooses to concentrate his\ndepraved energies. Volumes would be required to record the worthy\nenterprises in the Church of God which went down in failure, yet with no\ntangible explanation. Sudden reverses, turning the whole current of\naffairs, are daily happenings; revival efforts to reach certain\ncommunities, certain individuals, find insurmountable hindrances. It is\nthe work of the \"blockade.\"\n\nSuch occurrences are generally regarded as \"unfortunate coincidents\"\nrather than a resultant of some deep-laid plans--invisible and impersonal.\nA baby cries at a critical moment, a dog creates an uproar, the fire-bell\nrings, the engine becomes disabled; landslides, swollen streams, sudden\nillness, and many others similar, which are never credited to the proper\nsource or cause. The Bible concedes to Satan the dignity of being the god\nof this world; therefore he must of necessity control, to some extent, the\nphysical phenomena, directing them to an advantage. We do not venture a\ndogmatic position as to what extent the hindrances in the physical world\nare due to his power; but the Bible most clearly teaches that he is an\nobstructionist.\n\nThere are hundreds of ways and places where moral and religious blockades\nobtain. It would seem that in the blaze of the last century of\ncivilization war would be impossible. Why could not our Civil War have\nbeen averted? In the retrospect, we can see how easily it might have been\nsettled without such horror and bloodshed. The Hague with its millions of\nendowment is grinding away on international troubles, yet arbitration\nfails more often than it succeeds. But war continues, and all efforts in\nthat direction generally meet a \"stone wall of opposition.\"\n\nMust we conclude that all these lapses, coming in direct conflict with\nhuman weal and happiness, are just \"happen-sos\"? Unthinkable! \"Satan\nhindered,\" declares the great apostle. \"The prince of Persia withstood me\ntwenty and one days,\" says the angel.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE GREAT MAGICIAN\n\n    \"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against\n    the wiles of the devil.\"--_Ephesians vi. 11._\n\n    \"For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth\n    unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world.\"--_Revelation xvi.\n    14._\n\n\nFrom the earliest records of history men have lived who seemed to possess\nstrange, occult powers. Magicians--performing miracles, setting aside,\napparently, well-known physical laws. Moses met the sorcerers and\nmagicians of Egypt in close competition. There are men to-day, on lecture\nplatforms, performing feats which are miracles; there seems to be no\nvisible explanation.\n\n\"The hand is quicker than the eye,\" it is said; watches are pounded to\npieces before your eyes, the fragments crammed into a gun; the gun is\ndischarged, and the watch will be hanging on a hook, running as if nothing\nhad happened. We once saw a man sewed up in a tarpaulin, placed in a huge\ntrunk, and the trunk strapped securely. In less than five minutes the man\ncame out from an enclosure where the trunk was placed; not one buckle\nloosened, and not one stitch in the tarpaulin broken. Cannonballs are\ntaken from hats; live ducks, rabbits, and a dozen tin vessels are drawn\nfrom one hat in rapid succession. Cards are made to jump out of the deck\nwhen called by name. One magician laid his assistant on a table, cut off\nhis head with a large knife, lifted the gory head by the hair and placed\nit on another table; then carried on a conversation with the severed head\nin the presence of the astonished audience.\n\nEvery one knows these wonderful feats are done by some kind of magic, but\nfor all we can see they are done; the most astute observer cannot detect\nthe secret. The Apostle exhorts the believers to put on the whole armour\nof God, to be able to stand (not to be swept away or captured) against the\nwiles of the Devil. Then the Devil is a trickster--a sleight-of-hand\nperformer--a magician. One of his many methods to accomplish his purpose,\nwe find, is delusion: practicing sleights, tricks, and works of magic on\nthe gullibility of his victims.\n\nHow many unsophisticated men and boys have been robbed in daylight on a\nstreet corner by some little \"game,\" or trick, by a sharper. Farms have\nbeen deeded away for nothing in return. Now, if we were to catalogue all\nthe tricks of all the conjurers of all ages, we have in this evil\nchieftain a consummation, an embodiment of them all; he is not only a\nmagician, but the chief of them. He incessantly seeks victims more\nastutely than the crook seeks the ignorant with a purpose of robbery.\nObserve the text says, \"wiles of the devil\"; not one, but many; while we\nare penetrating and avoiding one of his \"wiles,\" behold, we are in the\nmeshes of another. Human intellect cannot fathom the feats of magic\nperformed in friendly entertainment, where every opportunity is given to\nexamine--then how much more are we at the mercy of s\u00e9ances concocted, not\nto entertain, but to delude and capture.\n\nThe astrologers, soothsayers, and magicians; the clairvoyants, ancient and\nmodern, are insignificant compared with this great magician. Is he not\nsuperior and supernatural, possessed with unearthly powers? Are there any\ncombinations and hidden laws of which he is unacquainted? Besides, no one\nis more familiar with the weaknesses and susceptibility of human nature\nthan he. So astute and cunning are his \"wiles\"--tricks of magic--Paul\nseems to feel that only the girdings and enduements of God, giving\nspiritual illumination to the things invisible, can withstand them. The\nantithesis of the Apostle's exhortation leaves no doubt in our mind as to\nhis meaning: if we strive and contend in our own wisdom, deception and\ndefeat are inevitable.\n\nTo be explicit, does it not look as if multitudes are under a\ndelusion--seeing things through distorted and false lenses--when words and\nactions, by the best and truest people on earth, are seen as blatant\nhypocrisy? Does it not look as if a sleight-of-hand expert were\nmanipulating the ideals of this pleasure-mad generation; hiding the true\ncharacter and dangers which lurk in every indulgence and excess? \"Presto,\nveto--change;\" there you are, safe, satisfied, happy. \"Spirits of devils,\"\ndeclares the seer of Patmos, \"working miracles, going to the kings, and to\nthe whole world.\" The arena wherein he practices his deadly delusions is\nthe whole world. No places exempt; no peoples immune. The whole armour of\nGod is the only sure protection.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nTHE ROARING LION\n\n    \"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring\n    lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.\"--_1 Peter v. 8._\n\n\nThus far we have studied Diabolus under various titles and cognomens which\ndeal almost exclusively with the secret side of his nature: the propaganda\nof hidden arts. The caption of this chapter will indicate quite a\ndifferent proposition. This title swings him into full view, stripped of\nall deception and legerdemain. The lion walks up and down the earth,\nshowing no quarters, making no apologies for his presence. When he roams\nin the forests, he is king; he allows no beast to interfere or question\nhis rights, and none dare to do it. He kills, tears to pieces, and devours\nwhatever he can catch; his roar strikes terror to all the forest dwellers.\n\nThe lion, therefore, is noisy; his approach is with loud demonstration.\nThere is something in noise that weakens and frightens; the keen clap of\nthunder, the shout of an approaching army, the blast of ram's horns, the\nloud proclaiming of the sword of the Lord and Gideon are historical\nexamples of victories by noise. The lion is also powerful; no other beast\nhas a chance in a match with him. One stroke with his mighty paw is death.\nHe walks about conscious of his strength; an ox or a buffalo are no more\nhis equal than a mouse contending with a cat. The lion is vicious; his\ngoing forth has one definite object--\"seeking to devour.\"\n\nThe lion presupposes that all the earth belongs to him; deer, antelopes,\npanthers, buffaloes, horses, cattle, etc., have no rights or possessions\nof which he feels under the slightest obligation to respect. The Devil\ndoes not come out _in person_: hoofs, horns, claws, bushy mane--the\nmake-up of a lion, building up his kingdom by tearing down and destroying\nmen and institutions opposed to him. He does these things, as a lion, by\nincarnating himself in men, evil combines, corrupt politics, vicious\nsociety, the liquor traffic, the White Slave system, etc. As he\nappropriates and embodies these institutions by entering in and possessing\nthe men who are leaders, he no longer acts as a conjurer or snake, but a\n_Lion_. The fullness of the earth, and they that dwell therein, belong to\nhim, to use, desecrate, prostitute, kill, devour, or destroy, just so he\nmay best serve and satisfy his insatiable appetite. Cities are to be\nofficered and governed, not for the peaceful protection of their citizens,\nbut for plunder, boodle, and graft. Men who desire to be public servants\nin deed and in truth must fight \"a roaring lion.\" The man who steps to the\nfront with a desire to question and curtail the exploitations of the\n\"officials,\" the \"traffic,\" the \"gang,\" places his life at once in\nimminent peril. Threats, black hand letters, pistols, poison, bombs, and\ntorches are the instruments boldly used to destroy the man or men who do\nnot believe that these human lions should be allowed to filch and devour\nthe privileges and possessions of others.\n\nWe find our \"adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about,\nseeking whom he may devour,\" has three methods which he uses according to\nthe exigencies of the case. It is first a \"roar,\" a bluff, or bulldoze:\nthe threat of the \"boss,\" whether he be a political boss, an\necclesiastical boss, or a liquor boss, accomplishes wonders in coercion;\nit frightens and cowers the weak-kneed and backboneless. The crack of the\nslave-driver's whip brought the obstreperous negro into humble submission.\nMen in office, in pulpits, in editorial rooms, have been awed into silence\nby the roar of men \"higher up.\" Then truth, righteousness, justice, and\nconscience are crucified; and behind the scene leering devils hold a\njubilee of triumph.\n\nHowever, the bluff and bulldoze will not always succeed; and when these\nloud, but mild methods fail, the boycott is ordered. Those who can stand\nundaunted in the presence of roaring threats will quail before the\nprospects of financial ruin. Employees are discharged, patronage cut off,\npositions given to others, preachers asked to resign. Somehow evil is so\ncompactly organized, wires of connection are so completely in touch with\nevery nook and corner, that the \"boss\" sits quietly at the switchboard and\nissues orders. The \"big stick\" and boycott have carried many elections;\nmunicipal, state, and national; they have made merchandise of sovereignty,\nand bargain counters of conscience. \"Your clerk must take his name off\nthat petition, or we will withdraw our patronage;\" \"His wife is an active\nworker in the W. C. T. U.--you must discharge him,\" were the identical\nwords overheard in a private office. Business and public men dread the\nboycott. Behind the boycott is our \"adversary, the Devil.\"\n\nBut the bluff and boycott by no means mark the limit when the self-assumed\nrights and privileges of the lion are questioned. Few can rise above the\nthreat and intimidation; but the roaring activities of the boss will not\nalways suffice. The lion in corrupt politics, in evil traffics, in\npriestly bigotry and intolerance, will not hesitate to stab, shoot, or\nburn to get rid of an offensive opposer. It is not necessary to discuss\nfacts so well known as these; but we are investigating the sources; we\nwant to locate the bacilli rather than examine the pustule.\n\nWe wish to reiterate a previous statement; the \"roaring lion\" is never\nheard if the still fight, the oily snake methods serve to a better\nadvantage. The Apostle's exhortation is timely: \"Be vigilant, be\nsober\"--be on the alert constantly, and be at your best, as an \"adversary\"\nwho knows no boundary lines in his work of subjugation and destruction has\ndeclared war to the end.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nAN ANGEL OF LIGHT\n\n    \"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming\n    themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan\n    himself is transformed into an angel of light.\"--_2 Corinthians xi.\n    13-14._\n\n\nThe Devil is a person, with a great personality; but like human beings, he\nis not equally endowed in all the attributes of his nature. However, the\nBook gives us no information as to his weaknesses. He is all superlative\nstrength; but if at any point there is a special endowed faculty that\nwould seem to overshadow the others, it is surely manifested when Satan is\ntransformed into an _angel of light_. The reason for this is obvious; it\nis a return to his old office of \"light bearer.\" When he can effectively\nserve his purpose by this startling transformation--darkness to light--he\nis at once in a realm where he is familiar with every inch of the\nterritory.\n\nA close observation of the signs of the times--the happenings in social\nand religious circles--will reveal the fact that _light_ is not only his\nmost familiar r\u00f4le, but his favourite r\u00f4le. The world is attracted by\nthings that are bright, beautiful, cheerful; anything that hides the\nsombre side of life, throws a mystic veil over its realities, and helps us\nto forget--whether it be books, music, lectures, or the nonentities of\nsociety--outweigh all else in the casting of accounts and in forming\ncomparative estimates.\n\nIf Satan were allowed to pose for a full sized picture of himself, just as\nhe wishes to be seen by the children of this generation, no portrait\npainter could produce a specimen of rarer beauty; it would grace the walls\nof the most exclusive parlour, and attract special attention in any great\nart gallery of the world. There would be no sharp angles, no coarse,\nsensuous lines, no out-of-date adornment--the traditional fiery-red would\nnot appear, but rather the most delicate tints and shades of colour. The\nfeatures would be the most graceful and artistic combination of curves and\ncircles. The \"hairy one,\" the jackal, the snake, the lion, the shadow, the\nspoiler at once become as \"beautiful as a dream.\" Amazing transformation!\n\n\"The devil of to-day\" is not only an apostle of sunshine, but of beauty.\nThis world is full of beauty; and why should we not forever keep the ugly\nand distorted in the background? The development of the beautiful should\nbe one of the fine arts. Think only of beauty; speak only of beauty; see\nonly the _beautiful_; then the sinful and unlovely will disappear. An\nangel of light--how suggestive!\n\nAs an apostle of sunshine his mission is to flood the world with light,\nand he does it; but observe--it is _his_ light; it neither warms nor\nilluminates, but for spectacular purposes it answers every demand. It\nreveals new standards of duty; proves the wrathful things in the Word of\nGod to be spurious, and the old plan of salvation obsolete and unsuited to\nthe present day needs. Such words as self-denial, crucifixion, dead to\nsin, judgment day, cross bearing, etc., so prominent in the New Testament,\nmust not be given a literal interpretation. Such truths cast an\nunnecessary gloom over the souls of otherwise happy people.\n\n\"The devil of to-day\" believes that ethical culture should be the slogan,\nthe watchword, the shibboleth of every pulpit and rostrum. Religion\nwithout refinement is absurd; the esthetic taste should be looked after\nmore than belief in some abstract Bible doctrine; then the race would be\nfree from the bondage of creed and fear. True religion is nothing more\nthan a just appreciation of art, literature, science, philosophy, and\nnature. God is in all these things rather than some musty, stereotyped\nstatement of faith.\n\nHe further believes it is a waste of energy for women to be organizing\ninto societies to study and help conditions among the slums or heathen\nlands, and urging upon the hard worked people to pay a tenth of their\nincome to support missionaries who are better fed and housed than\nthemselves. Far better devote the time to social clubs, book circles,\neuchre and bridge parties, and dressing properly.\n\nWe want to call attention again to a truth often overlooked: the Devil and\ndemons are never satisfied in a disembodied state; when they cannot enter\nthe souls of men, they seek something else. They will enter a swine when\nthere is nothing better available. We believe \"the prince of the air\" can\nwield a powerful influence, unincarnated, _in the air_, but he schemes\nand works best when he can possess and direct intelligent flesh and blood.\n\nJust now the machinery of the Church and all the auxiliaries are devoting\ntheir energies to various branches of social service; this is good,\nChristlike, and necessary; the point we raise, germane to this subject, is\nnot the work, but the abuse of the idea: social service and\nhumanitarianism are not religion. They are the fruits of the Good\nSamaritan spirit in the world, but they cannot take the place of personal\nrelationship to God. \"Though I give my body to be burned, and all my goods\nto feed the poor,\" says Paul, \"it profiteth me nothing\" without\nlove--divine love. The angel-of-light gospel places the emphasis on works\nwithout faith. Love the world, enjoy its lusts and allurements, disregard\nall Puritanic ideals of life, be a part of all worldliness--but be kind,\ncheerful, optimistic, generous, benevolent: help humanity. \"Pay the\nfiddler,\" then dance as you please. Do penance when your conscience lashes\nyou; but buy indulgences by works of supererogation. \"On with the dance,\nlet joy be unconfined.\"\n\nA concrete example will illustrate the proposition before us, and also\nreveal the power of polished, cultured emissary of \"sunshine and smiles.\"\nThe little city had a population of about fifteen hundred people; there\nwere four churches of nearly equal strength. Each congregation had a large\nflourishing organization of young people. Scarcely any worldliness\nobtained--dancing and card playing rarely ever. The pious, consecrated\nyoung people attracted no little attention. Finally there came to the\nplace a young woman fresh from college and conservatory as teacher of\nmusic and delsarte. She was an adept at all the niceties of modern\nsociety; things took on new colour at once. The work began with a literary\nclub, then cards, then the dance. She was beautiful and magnetic; in six\nmonths the \"stupid meetin's\" of the League and Christian Endeavour were\nabandoned for things more exhilarating. The religious foundation which had\nbeen crystallizing for years among the simple hearted boys and girls gave\nplace to the gayeties imported from the classic circles of city and\ncollege life. She moved among them \"an angel of light.\"\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nTHE SOWER OF TARES\n\n    \"The kingdom of heaven is like a man that sowed good seed in his\n    field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the\n    wheat and went away.\"--_Matthew xiii. 24-25._\n\n    \"The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the\n    kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy\n    that sowed them is the devil.\"--_Matthew xiii. 38-39._\n\n\nThe parable of the Sower is one of common-sense appeal; the sensible\nfarmer sows only good seed. The growing of tares among the wheat is not in\nthe original plan. Good seed were sown, but behold the tares! Whence came\nthey? While the servants slept an Enemy came and sowed them. The Master\ngives us His own interpretation: He is the sower--the good seed are the\nchildren of the kingdom, men and women into whose hearts the Truth has\nentered--the converted part of the Church. The sleeping of the servants is\nthe unwatchfulness of the Church: coldness, indifference, backslidden. The\nEnemy seizes the opportunity--the carelessness of Christ's servants--and\nsows _bad seed_. The enemy is the Devil--the Wicked One; the bad seed are\nthe children of the Devil. Growing side by side in this world-field are\nthe children of God and the children of the Devil.\n\nThe tare, or cheat, in appearance resembles the wheat; it grows exactly\nthe same height, and viewed casually, or at a distance, cannot be\ndetected from the genuine. Only the threshing and sifting bring out the\ndifference. These tares are the propaganda of the Devil, but a perfect\nimitation of the children of the kingdom. They make a profession, adhere\nto the same rules and regulations, profess and maintain, outwardly, a\nstandard of morality, wear all the regalia--even particular about details.\nWe observe another striking resemblance: strange as it may seem, these\ntares--children of the Devil--seek as their guide no books of heathen\nphilosophy, or twentieth century atheism; they make great capital of the\nBible; the ceremonies and ordinances are carried out to the letter. On a\nday of dress parade and review they meekly grade A 1.\n\nSuch an inconsistency is so glaring as to be almost unthinkable; but the\nparable teaches it beyond a doubt. The Devil sows into the Church his\nchildren: _a corrupt profession of Jesus Christ_. In a former chapter we\nstudied the Devil as a _destroyer_; and it will be remembered that in a\npreceding parable he came as a vulture devouring the seed; now he seeks to\nfurther weaken and hinder by adulteration. While continuing the\nbattering-ram process from without, a reversed method is used; he scales\nthe ramparts and places his cohorts on the inside, and, wherever possible,\nassumes leadership in a campaign of self-destruction. We are amazed at\nsuch audacity, but the Master, who is a rival in the field, has\nilluminated the parable for us.\n\nThere is a note of optimism ringing out in the land to the effect that the\nday of triumph is at hand; doors are opening, walls are crumbling,\nconservative nations are studying our religion, municipalities are being\nrenovated, higher standards in public life are demanded, the Church is\nlifting the race out of superstition and prejudice--we are about to see a\n\"nation born in a day.\" What does it mean? It means that Satan is being\nchained--defeated, etc. This sounds good and plausible; but a closer\ninspection will reveal, not a retreat, not an armistice, not a victory,\nbut a _change of base_.\n\nTwenty years ago a leading teacher said: \"Unless the signs of the times\nfail, the true Church of Christ is about to enter upon the most serious\nstruggle of her history. She is no longer called merely to fight an open\nfoe without, but as Dr. Green, of Princeton, says, 'the battle rages\naround the citadel,' and she is forced to fight the traitors within. The\nreal enemy is to be found on the inside.\" If such a condition were true\nthen, what is it to-day, since the last two decades have been the most\nrevolutionary in the history of the Church on the line of skepticism and\nadvanced thought?\n\nThe _Free Thinkers' Magazine_ recently had this to say: \"Tom Paine's work\nis now carried on by the descendants of his persecutors; all he said about\nthe Bible is being said in substance by orthodox divines, and from chairs\nof theology.\" Another writer observes: \"No need of Bridlaughs and\nIngersols wasting time preaching against the early chapters of Genesis,\nsneering at the story of temptation, cavilling at the record of long\nlives, denying the confusion of tongues, doubting if not denying the\ndeluge, when Christian ministers, on account of their official position,\nare doing the same work more effectually.\"\n\n\"Freedom of thought in religion,\" said an orthodox preacher at Tom Paine's\none hundredth anniversary, \"just what he stood for, is what most of us\nhave come to. In his own day vilified as an atheist--to-day he is looked\nupon as a defender of just principles of faith.\" There is a wide range of\nopinions found in the growing crop of tares: some are literalists,\ntouching Biblical interpretation, getting the minutia of husks, but\nrejecting the kernel--the envelope, but missing the message; others remain\nin the Church, preach a gospel shelter under her roof--eat her bread, but\ndeny the supernatural _in toto_. Few, if any, are honest enough to step\nout.\n\nThe Devil prefers his _cheat_ to grow in the same soil prepared for the\nwheat. No place is so wholesome and convenient for the children of the\nDevil as inside the Church of God. Why is not the wrath of God poured out\non the children of the Devil who have assumed place and power in His\nChurch? The same processes used for the removal of the tares would injure\nand uproot some of the wheat. There is now no remedy; at an unguarded\nmoment the harm was done. The Enemy continues to enter every available\ndoor, sowing, sowing, sowing--beside all waters. Not until the angelic\nreapers thrust in their sickles for the harvest will the children of the\nDevil cease to occupy, influence, and control.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nTHE ARCH SLANDERER\n\n    \"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes\n    shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and\n    evil.\"--_Genesis iii. 5._\n\n    \"But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath, and he will\n    curse thee to thy face.\"--_Job i. 11._\n\n\nIt is the first scene of the human drama; the staging is in an earthly\nParadise; perfection is written on everything animate and inanimate. With\nbut one restriction man roams through Edenic beauties, a being \"good and\nvery good,\" happy and holy. His communion with God is unbroken; fountains\nof love are opened in his heart as he beholds the beautiful mate at his\nside. Our wildest imaginations cannot estimate the glories of that\nlife-morning; but behold the Serpent. He utters his first words in the\nscheme of ruin, and it is a slander against God. \"Aha, He knows if you eat\nyou will be like He is--knowing all things, be as gods; He is not treating\nyou fairly; the case is misrepresented. You will not die, but you will be\nwise. Why does He keep back such privileges from you?\" As a result of this\nslander, the Paradise is lost. Flowers, fruits, peace and plenty are\nexchanged for weeds, briers, toil, sweat, suffering, death.\n\nAgain we find his impudent presence on the day Job is offering sacrifices.\nReading between the lines, we can imagine a conversation like this: \"You\nhere? You are looking for some pretense to discount My people; you say\nnone are good--all hypocrites. What do you think of My servant Job? What\nhave you to say about him?\"\n\n\"Oh, of course,\" says the slanderer, \"you have him hedged around--blessing\nhim continually. It pays Job to be good; just take away your special care\nof his material welfare and see--he will curse Thee to Thy face.\"\n\nAn artist once painted a picture of the human tongue in a way to represent\nhis conception of how the \"tongue of slander\" should appear. It was long,\ncoiled like a serpent, tapering at the end into a barbed spear point; from\neach of the papilla, scarcely visible, was a needle point, from which\noozed a green, slimy poison. The slandering tongue is \"a fire, a world of\niniquity--it defileth the whole body--it is set on fire of hell.\"\n\nThe slanderer is no respecter of persons; he rakes and scrapes the\nuttermost parts of the earth for victims: king and peasant, rich and poor,\npriest and prophet; living or dead suffer alike when once this vile,\ninhuman spirit touches them. Bacon said: \"Calumny crosses oceans, scales\nmountains, and traverses deserts with greater ease than the Scythian\nAbaris, and, like him, rides on a poisoned arrow.\" The winds of the\nArabian desert not only produce death, but rapid decomposition of the\nbody; so doth slander destroy every virtue of human character. The\ncloven-hoof slanderer, like the filthy worm, leaves behind a trail of\noffal and stench though his pathway wind through a bower of earth's\nsweetest flowers. A writer has said: \"So deep does the slanderer sink in\nthe murky waters of degradation and infamy that, could an angel apply an\nArchimedian moral lever to him, with heaven as a fulcrum, he could not in\na thousand years raise him to the grade of a convict felon.\"\n\n  \"Whose edge is sharper than a sword; whose tongue\n   Out-venoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath\n   Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie\n   All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states,\n   Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave\n   This viperous slander enter.\"\n\nIago is said to be the greatest villain in fiction or history; the\nrevolting crimes of Herod--slaughtering the innocent--does not compare\nwith Iago. Herod saw in the Man Child a possible rival, and blinded by\njealousy and ambition, he becomes the most heartless murderer--of all\ntimes. But what was the crime of Iago? Slander! With no object in view, no\nadvantage to gain, and too much of a coward to make an open charge, he\nslanders by insinuation the beautiful Desdemona until the enraged Othello\nstrangles her to death.\n\nHow can we reconcile this base passion in human character, as slander has\nno other avenue of expression? It is unnatural, inhuman, and hellish. The\nwolf and tiger devour to satisfy hunger; the vulture eats and fattens on\nrotting carcases, but the slanderer does neither. With the blood cruelty\nof a savage beast, the degraded appetite of the scavenger, the destroyed\nvictims of fiendish passion only intensify and burn, but never satisfy the\nslanderer. This spirit was never born among men; its origin is the region\nof the damned, where hunger gnaws, thirst fires, lust arouses, revenge\nconsumes--but satisfaction is unknown. The hot breath of slander comes\nfrom a bourne where dead hopes spring up eternal.\n\nThe caption of the chapter denominates the Devil as the arch slanderer; we\nuse it because there is no word of sufficient strength to convey the idea;\n\"arch\" fails to convey the whole truth in this case. Archangel is an\nintelligible term, as there are many of high order; there is, however, but\nOne slanderer. Just as he is the \"father of liars\"--propagating all\nlies--his relation to liars does not admit of comparison. He slandered\nfrom the day of his fall; he is the father of slanderers. Whether it be\ncirculated in the \"submerged world,\" the quiet circles of church life, or\namong the \"Four Hundred\" of fashion--it is a deflected arrow from the one\ngreat quiver.\n\nNo being--holy men, angels, or the Son of God--can escape the tongues\ndripping the venom of slander through the subtle incarnation of that\nfountainhead of every evil suggestion or insinuation. Whatever destroys\nhappiness, creates doubt and suspicion among the people, ending in\nlitigation, divorces, and murders, fulfills the mission of slander. The\ncaldron from which exudes this vile stench--filling all the earth--is\nseething and boiling in the Bottomless Pit, or wherever the throne of his\nmajesty--the Devil--is located. The society of earth will never be free\nfrom the poison of evil-speaking until the Archslanderer is arrested,\nchained, and located in the penitentiary prepared for him from the\nfoundation of the world.\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nTHE DOUBLE ACCUSER\n\n    \"Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about\n    all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his\n    hands, and his substance is increased in the land.\"--_Job i. 10._\n\n    \"Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and\n    the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,\n    which accused them before our God day and night.\"--_Revelation xii.\n    10._\n\n\nWhen we consider the Diabolus character--his strength and opportunity,\nwhereby he visits his vengeance upon a weak, susceptible race, we can\nreadily understand that his make-up would be far from complete without a\ncontinuous outflow of slander. But his courage and audacity stand out in\nglaring relief when we find him an Accuser. It does not require large\nintelligence or bravery to be a slanderer--only baseness of character--but\nto be an accuser, face to face with false charges, especially in the\npresence of One who has power over all things, reveals an impudent bravery\nthat dazes the judgment.\n\nWhen questioned of God about his presence among devout spirits--as they\nwere assembled for worship--he answered in the manner of a guilty boy:\n\"Just going to and fro in the earth.\" Peter tells us that his mission of\ngoing to and fro is of seeking and devouring. He is then reminded of Job's\ncharacter--how that this saint is perfect and just; Satan's blighting\ninfluence has not been able to touch and overthrow the aged Job. In his\nshrewd rejoinder Satan accuses God of two sins: _partiality and\nfalsehood_.\n\nTranslated into its literal meaning, the language would be about as\nfollows: \"I deny that Job is perfect; but for the protection you have\nthrown around him he would be as other men. His pretended piety is\nhypocrisy; he serves you because you have blest him with abundance; he has\nnot fallen into sin because you have hedged him about. If you treated Job\nas you treat others, his holiness would soon be about as genuine as mine.\"\n\nSatan accuses God of protecting His servant and blessing him in material\nthings in a special and partial manner, viz: \"a respecter of persons.\" But\nthe fiercest accusation is hidden in his reply to God's question, also put\nin the form of a question, and finished by an emphatic declaration: Job is\nnot the man God said he was; \"but put forth Thine hand and touch all that\nhe hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.\" A being who can stand before\nthe Lord God, of whom the hosts of heaven sing and shout--he, himself,\nonce among the number--saying: \"Holy, Holy, Holy,\" and accuse Him of being\nguilty of partiality and falsehood--what may _we_ expect from him? The\nWord says he accuses the saints day and night.\n\nObserve that he accuses the _saints_, those who are striving in\nrighteousness. The man who lies, cheats in business, accumulates a\nfortune, and lives all the vices without apology is not an object of\nmalicious accusation. The scandals in select circles cause only a ripple,\neven though the offenses occupy much space of the associated press. The\nprinciples of such affairs are often staged as heroes and heroines for the\nentertainment of a morbid public taste. Satan accuses the saints; the\npresumption is shouted from the housetops: \"There is none that doeth good,\nno not one.\"\n\nThe saints--every good man and woman--must at some time face charges\nagainst their moral or religious character. This hellish machination goes\non day and night. It is reasonable to conclude that much of the unrest,\ndepression, and backslidings among the people of God may be traced to this\ncause; innocent men and women have not only cast away their hope through\nrumoured accusations, but have been driven to desperation and suicide.\n\nThe reader must keep in mind the suggestion made in a former chapter: that\nwhile Satan has the power by his presence of himself, or his minions, to\ncreate an atmosphere, unfathomable, impenetrable, yet surcharged with\nhorror and dread; but his activities are seldom apart from human\ninstrumentalities. Just as he is the arch slanderer, through the word of\nmouth, so is he the accuser, both of God and saints, through human\npersonalities under his control.\n\nA flood sweeps away, or lightning destroys a man's possessions; he looks\nup, curses and accuses God of cruelty and injustice. Death enters the\nhome; the mourners charge God falsely. His accusations are confined to no\nparticular method; the one most suited to the case is used, whether\nself-condemnation or from another. Self-reproach, through memory and\nmeditation, is a most powerful agency in carrying on this work. Once we\nbegin to think on our ways--seeking to turn our steps unto the testimony\nof God--we face a life of sins and blunders mountain high and\nunsurmountable. But when faith takes wings and lifts the agonizing soul\n\"out of the mire and clay,\" an everlasting reminder of the _past_ clings\nto us, often robbing us of peace and joy. How many Christians have grown\nweary and given up because of memories blackened by consequences of past\nsins--sins which God said, if we confess and forsake, He would \"remember\nthem against us no more forever.\"\n\nIf the truth, which can never be revealed until the Judgment Day, could be\nknown! Our asylums are swarming with unfortunates who have lost mental\nbalance because of remorse and condemnation, resulting from an accusing\nmemory. Wherever Satan is unable to lure the saints into actual\ntransgression their life and usefulness are often destroyed by tormenting\nspirits accusing them day and night The Book holds out no deliverance from\nthis scourge until the Accuser is forever cast down by the wrath of God at\nthe final shifting of the scene.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nSATAN A SPY\n\n    \"And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered\n    the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from\n    walking up and down in it.\"--_Job i. 7._\n\n\nThe spy is the most dangerous man in the army; more is he to be feared\nthan the genius of a Napoleon or a Lee. The sphere in which he operates\nhas no duplicate in military activities; his bravery, boldness, and daring\nare unexcelled. Whether he be called from the ranks, or from among the\ncommissioned officers, his counsel and suggestions get a hearing in the\nhighest commandery of the army.\n\nThe movements of a spy are unknown even to his own corps, much less to the\nenemy. After receiving authority for such a perilous undertaking he is a\nfree lance, going and coming at will. Not only does he go beyond the\nenemy's line, but mingles freely with them in the camp. There is nothing\nin his appearance to indicate who or what he is. To-day he is a civilian\npeddling fruits among the soldiers, or innocently driving a yoke of steers\nalong the street or country road; to-morrow he is within the camp, dressed\nin their gay uniform, familiar with passwords and countersigns. Then he\nappears as a decrepit old woman, seeking a son who \"run away to jine the\nsolgers.\" In a few hours he is quietly resting or joking with the boys of\nhis own regiment.\n\nWhen a spy is captured all military courtesies are set aside; he is not\neven allowed the honour of a court-martial; but without trial he is\nexecuted at once.\n\nIt is of special interest, in view of the application to our subject, to\nnotice the particular business of a spy. Just as his movements are\nunknown, so is his mission unknown. He hurries to and fro, gathering up\nsuch bits of information here and there as he deems important for the\ncause he represents. If he belongs to the Federal forces he appears\nclothed in the \"butternut gray\"; then by tactics of bravery and nerve he\nenters the Confederate gray lines. The slightest blunder is certain death.\nHe takes a mental inventory of the whole situation, but in such a way as\nto attract the attention of no one. The strength of the fortifications,\nthe size and number of the batteries, the commissary department, and the\nchances and probabilities of reinforcements. In a moment, under the cover\nof night, he fades out into the darkness and is gone. The budget of\ninformation is placed at the earliest possible moment into the war\ncouncils of his own army.\n\nSatan plays the r\u00f4le of a crafty spy; he has access, by some mysterious\npower, to the heart life of men. At no point of the game for immortal\ntrophies is he so dangerous as when he can take advantage because of his\nsecret knowledge of men's weaknesses and sins. Only a vicious degenerate\ncan be tempted into all the crimes known to the docket of the Bible; few\nbeings on this planet but are fortified at some point of character. They\nmay be weak in many ways--but early training or environment have helped\nthem to become strong in some particulars.\n\nThe spy seeks to know when and where a blow may be struck in the enemy's\nlines, at a place of least resistance. The soul battles are exactly the\nsame; we have no special battles where we are strong; things that might\novercome another will mean nothing to us. Our battles are ever fought\naround the points of weak fortification; the enemy rarely, if ever, has\nthe pleasure of shouting over our downfall from the best that is in us.\n\nThe victories of athletic games--the pugilistic bouts in the sporting\narena, the mortal duel with rapiers, the battle-fields where thousands\nfell--have been lost and won by the application of this principle. The\ngeneral with his field-glass sees a weakening in the enemy's line and\norders a charge; the duelist observes a shortening of breath or an awkward\nmovement and seizes the opportunity. It is the weak link in the chain of\nlife that breaks; sins of the lower nature--sensuality--might not appeal\nto some who fall an easy victim to pride, ambition, or covetousness;\nothers who are liberal, honest to the cent, unassuming, are helpless when\ntempted in the realm of lower passions. We are at an incalculable\ndisadvantage when our enemy is familiar with our vulnerable points.\n\nSo long as the heart is unregenerated and unpurified by the cleansing\npower of the Holy Ghost, Satan has access to every nook and corner of our\nheart life. He enters and discovers every vulnerable and invulnerable\nsection of the soul's fortification. The tempted and fallen are often\nunable to tell how it was done. \"Why did you go there?\" or, \"Why did you\ndo it?\" Oh, so many, many times do we hear the answer: \"I do not know.\" A\nfriend once showed me a little iron safe in which he kept his valuable\npapers. This safe had a very ingenious lock; the combinations were such,\nand the mechanism so wonderful, that it was capable of _three hundred\nthousand combinations_.\n\nWhy and how are sane men and women overcome? They were met at a certain\nplace, under peculiar circumstances; met by several--a word, a smile, an\nargument, a pressure of the hand. How was it done? They do not know.\nSomehow the attack came in a way which rendered them helpless to resist.\nOne effort failed--a dozen failed; but as often as it failed the Expert\nchanged the _combination_, until the door yielded, and an entrance into\nthe citadel of Mansoul was effected. _Three hundred thousand\ncombinations._\n\nThe spy has information from within; and, therefore, the most dangerous\nman in the army. Satan, by his supernatural powers directing his practice\nand experience for several millenniums, is a crafty, sagacious spy,\nacquainted with all the weaknesses and emotions of the human heart. Who is\nequal to such an enemy? Contending alone, _no one_ on this sin-burdened\nfootstool.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nTHE QUACK DOCTOR\n\n    \"Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from\n    such turn away.\"--_2 Timothy iii. 5._\n\n\nWe do not agree with some late views of the nature of sin--that it is a\nphysical and mental disorder: the resultant of heredity, food, soil,\nclimate and social environment. If the root of the difficulty springs from\nthese primary causes, the whole problem of evil could be wiped out in one\ngeneration by the application of sanitary laws and social betterment. In\nthe Bible sin is known by several disease terms, but always such diseases\nas were incurable by any treatment known in those days: leprosy, born\nblind, deadly poison, paralytic, etc. Sin is a disease, and the whole man,\nbody, mind, and spirit, is more or less affected therefrom; but it is, in\nparticular, a soul malady, going deeper than human remedies can reach,\nwhether social or medicinal.\n\nTo cure this soul disease the race has sought eagerly from the day Cain\nand Abel built their altars. All the ramifications of civilization have\nhad one all-absorbing desire: a readjustment of something fundamentally\nwrong within. This fight for an atonement with the Creator has been a\nlong, heart-sore pilgrimage; it has painted the blackest pages of history\nand committed the bloodiest crimes. This human drama has been enacted in\ntragedy and tears. Why is it so? Because deeper than any other heart-throb\nis the consciousness of personal uncleanness, and the bitter anguish it\nhas caused.\n\nThe dead civilizations, on their monuments and mausoleums, have left\nbehind, carved indelibly, one story--whether on the banks of the Nile, the\nAreopagus of Greece, or the land of the Montezumas--it is the story of\nfeeling in the dark after God. They had the disease and sought for a\nremedy. From the days of the astrologers and soothsayers, anxious souls\nhave been victimized by every fad, fake and fanaticism in their search for\nrelief. The venders of pulverized snake skins and lizard tongues, in their\nday, found as willing a patronage as the cultured proprietors of\nsanitariums to-day. The long-haired man on a goods box can do a\nflourishing business, if he has the gift of gab to convince the crowd his\nstuff will _cure_.\n\nThe quack doctor does not handle a variety of medicine; he knows just\nenough of anatomy and materia medica to make his speech sound\nscholarly--but his remedy, costing less than the price of one visit from a\nphysician, will cure all the ills of the human body. Like De Soto, we are\nseeking the fountain of perennial youth--the elixir of life.\n\nJust as the disease of the body and a passion to live open wide the door\nto charlatans, fakirs, and \"healers\" claiming powers direct from Gabriel\nto Beelzebub, so the disease of the soul, and a hunger for eternal\nlife--\"deep calling unto deep\"--has opened the door of the heart to the\nreligious doctor with his cure-all prescriptions. Out from unknown depths\ncomes the yearning for readjustment and reconciliation with God.\n\nNo being, beside the Godhead, is more familiar with the secret hopes and\nimpulses of the soul--than Satan. The long-haired quack on the street,\nbawling his \"junk,\" is not half so anxious to defraud the crowd as Satan\nis to prescribe remedies that will not cure. His chief aspiration is to\nflood the land with bogus treatments which not only fail to cure, but they\npreempt the disease-infected spots so as to prevent the introduction of\nthe genuine remedy.\n\nThe quack doctor is, no doubt, pleased when an imaginary cure has been\nwrought by his wares; but Satan is filled with wrath if some of his\nformulas strike deeper than he anticipated, and a soul emerges from\ndarkness unto light. This, however, does not often occur; he is too\ncunning to advertise to a hungry, sin-sick world that which will bring\npermanent relief.\n\nThe beating of tom-toms by an upper Congo medicine man to drive away evil\nspirits has about the same efficacy as much that may be found in the\nesthetic circles of the world's religiosity. \"A form of godliness,\" be it\never so beautiful and orderly, which does not seek and obtain the inner\npower is just another way of beating tom-toms.\n\nWe look with compassion upon the poor benighted heathen woman who trots\naround the temple of her god one hundred times on a moonlight night; but\nhow much improvement over her plan of salvation do we find in the blaze of\ntwentieth century Christian enlightenment, if our religion consists of\njust \"doing something,\" rather than having _faith_ in a power that saves\nthrough the impartation of the Holy Ghost? At no time in the history of\nthe Church have we done so many things as we are doing now--all good; but\nobserve: the Church and the world go hand in hand. It is a rare exception\nwhen an essential difference can be seen in the life and business methods\nof the professor and non-professor. \"They will have a form of godliness,\"\nsays Paul, \"but deny the power.\"\n\nIt was not a dream or hallucination which took the rich and poor, in the\nlong ago, out from the world and caused them to give up even their lives\ncheerfully; it was an application of the power. They had tested the\n\"fountain opened in the house of David for sin and uncleanness.\"\n\n  \"Oh, that fountain deep and wide,\n   Flowing from the wounded side,\n   That was pierced for our redemption, long ago;\n   In thy ever cleansing wave, there is found all power to save;\n   It's the power that healed the nations long ago.\"\n\nIn the multitude of pretenses, makeshifts: forms, ceremonies, chantings,\ngenuflections, ordinances, will worship, self-righteousness, \"wondrous\nworks,\"--\"form of godliness\"--who is responsible? It is the great Quack\nDoctor that is deceiving the world; those who will not be dragged into sin\nand ruin he surfeits their lives with a \"form of godliness, but deny the\npower\" plan of salvation.\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\nTHE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN\n\n    \"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some\n    shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and\n    doctrines of devils.\"--_1 Timothy iv. 1._\n\n\nTheology is defined as \"the science which treats of God, His existence,\ncharacter, government, and doctrines,\" or the science of religion--a\nsystem of truth derived from the Scriptures. The caption of this\narticle--The Devil a Theologian--jars our spiritual nerve centres. There\nare three things necessary to produce a theologian: experience,\ninformation, ability. From every possible view-point the Devil is\npre\u00ebminently qualified to formulate a system of doctrinal statements\nhaving all the earmarks of genuineness and credentials of authenticity.\n\nIn our discussion of the Devil's theology we shall not, at the present,\ntouch upon the theories and vile imaginations of demon-possessed men, but\nthe finer phases of truth, beautifully presented by his apostles with a\nshow of orthodox reasonableness. By the term Devil's\ntheology--doctrines--we do not mean his beliefs--get the distinction--but\nwhat he wants us to believe. He is every whit orthodox; he believes the\nOld Book; he does not indorse the _new theology_, or the so-called higher\nlearning, only as it may be turned to his advantage. The Word of God is a\nmighty reality to him; he has met its blazing truths, and has been burned\nby its power. He has millions of skeptics and doubters blindly following\nhis delusions, but he is a believer in the \"old school\"; he \"believes and\ntrembles.\"\n\nWe call attention to the term \"doctrines\"--therefore religious beliefs:\nreasonable, plausible, satisfying beliefs. What are they? First: Ritualism\nis Religion; when we have gone through a certain proscribed\nprogramme--whether it be a chant, reading prayers, or burning a dim\nlight--there you are. How do we know we are religious? We have gone the\nrounds, said the required number of Ave Maries, counted the rosary, etc.,\netc., therefore the work is done. It sounds harsh to place these beautiful\nceremonies, which have doubtless comforted so many hearts, in the enemy's\ncatalogue; but the Pharisees were rigid ritualists, yet Christ denounced\nthem as miserable hypocrites--\"whited sepulchres.\" Anything he can get us\nto adopt, having a semblance of reality, yet does not save--does not deal\ndirectly with the sin question, he shouts over our delusion. He\nappropriates Ritualism for Religion and it becomes his doctrine.\n\nA second doctrine: Good Resolution for Regeneration. There has never been\nas much strenuous evangelism, of a certain quality, as we are having\nto-day. Great cities unite in stupendous revival effort; no expense is\nspared; the leading masters of assemblies are called as workers. The zeal\nand motives of it all are commendable; but the bane of such evangelism is\nthis: the work stops at the resolution period. Men are brought under\nconviction, and the Devil at once proposes his compromise. Not until the\n\"big meeting\" closes do the convicted multitudes discover the deception.\nHerein is the explanation of the lethargy, depression, and utter\nindifference which so often obtain after a \"sweeping revival.\" Faith is\nthen shaken, and sometimes permanently, in the truth of a conscious,\nknow-so salvation. If the Prodigal Son had stopped after passing a good\nresolution with himself he would have died at the swine pen without the\nknowledge of the father's love, the kiss, the robe, the ring, and the\nfatted calf. A sinner must not only \"quit his meanness\" but straighten out\nhis meanness. Regeneration is not by the will of the flesh, the will of\nman, not of blood; but it is to be born of God--born from above--a new\ncreature. Doctrines floating under the banner of evangelism which do not\nget believers into the kingdom must be listed with the enemy.\n\nA third doctrine: Sentiment is Salvation. We are a sentimental people;\nesthetic and humanitarian developments of recent years have done much to\nsoften our barbarian instincts. If sentiment were salvation, this land\nwould be redeemed. Many think we are rapidly becoming a saved nation;\nthose who enjoy such reflections should stand at the entrance of any\ntheatre on Sunday, or a pleasure garden, or a ball park; then hurry around\nto the entrance of the finest, best equipped church in the city for\ncomparison. Sentiment is educated emotion. Rome used to shout over the\nbloody scenes in the amphitheatre; now we can weep over the unfortunate\ngirl who goes down in spectacular glory behind the footlights. Sentiment\nmakes us rejoice with those who do rejoice, and weep with those who weep;\nit moves us to deeds of charity. Satan then has no difficulty in\npersuading us that we are religious--spiritually redeemed; if we weep over\nour loved ones, our emotions are very religious. The most grief we ever\nwitnessed at a funeral was in the home of a saloon-keeper; the dead wife\nand mother, a depraved opium and morphine eater; the home was utterly\nirreligious, but the grief was hysterical, explosive. The sacrifices of\nGod are a broken and a contrite heart--over sins committed, producing a\ngodly sorrow, and not a sentiment.\n\nAgain, the Devil takes great delight in telling the unsaved and unchurched\nmasses that religion is all selfishness; the poor are made to feel that\nthe Church is the rich man's institution. Notwithstanding the efforts of\nGod's people to reach and help the lost they are represented as mean and\nselfish, pretending a pious fraud, with no bread for the hungry and no\nhelping hand for the needy. We build stately temples of worship to gratify\nour pride and vanity with money earned by the sweat and toil of the poor\nman; money that ought to be given to the poor. Judas protested against\nbreaking the alabaster box. The church is a place for dress parade; the\nhumble and meanly clad are not wanted. All such is malicious slander\nagainst God, His Church and His people; but as stereotyped as this may\nsound, it is being used effectually everywhere. If a church preaches\nsalvation from sin, it is the poor man's best friend; but reference to the\nchurch and the preacher is often hissed in gatherings of toiling men.\nUnless there shall come to this land the establishment of the\nrighteousness of Christ, as taught in His Gospel, we shall see another\nreign of terror; the fires of restlessness, hate, and discontent are\nsmouldering in every shop, factory, and mine. \"The Golden Age will never\ncome until it is brought in by the Golden Rule of Christ.\" The Devil is\nbusy keeping these facts from becoming known. The doctrine stated: we are\nin it to serve a selfish end; take away our hope of advantages, and our\nfaith becomes religious junk.\n\n\n\n\nXVI\n\nTHE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN (_Continued_)\n\n\nOne of the Devil's tactics is to make much ado about nothing. It is\nastonishing how sane people can be deluded over childish non-essentials.\nThink of the doctrine of Abstinence; at certain seasons be holy with a\nvengeance. It is a mortal sin to let down during certain days and moons;\nno meats, no riotous gormandizing, no wine, no dancing, no theatre going,\nwhen the season is holy. But are we not so commanded concerning the\nSabbath day? The Sabbath day must be kept holy, but if our moral standard\nand relationship fall below during the week what we are supposed to make\nthem on Sabbath, our piety is a farce.\n\nAn incident will illustrate. It was a steamboat excursion; drinking and\ndancing were freely indulged in by the hilarious passengers. A _parson_\nwas among them; he danced not, neither did he look upon the wine that was\nred. He looked sad--_it was Lent_. One week later we beheld this same\n_parson_ in full evening dress gracefully waltzing with one of the lambs\nof his flock. Amazing spectacle! Robes of holiness to-day, with fastings\nand prayers; to-morrow, broadcloth, perfume, patent leathers, and arms\nencircling a maiden in the dizzy whirl of the dance. Paul saw such times\ncoming and warned against them.\n\nThere are many more, but we shall mention only one more: the gigantic\nsystem of saints' worship. What does this mean? Anything that diverts and\nabsorbs the attention away from things fundamental is surely of evil\norigin. His fall began when he conceived hatred and jealousy of Jesus; now\nif he can get people to pay a part or all of their homage to Mary, or any\none of the many \"saints,\" just so the Son of God is robbed of His glory\nand neglected, his devilish malice is somewhat gratified. There is a long\nlist of dead worthies who are reverenced and supplicated unto daily; but\nhigh over all is the \"Virgin Mother of God.\" After the birth of the\nSaviour Mary was the wife of Joseph, and bore children as a natural\nmother--she was not a virgin. \"Thou shalt have no other gods before me;\"\n\"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images--thou shalt not bow down\nto them.\" \"Doctrines of Devils.\"\n\nSpiritual minded students of the Bible and human conduct are forced to the\nconclusion that the Devil is not only a wise theologian, but he is a great\n_preacher_; and, as we have learned, he has a mighty gospel which he\npreaches with effectiveness and power. He has clearly defined doctrines\nwhich he promulgates at such times and places as will best meet the\ndesired end. But with cunning craftiness he preaches his dogmas and tenets\neverywhere: housetops, society parlours, centres of business,\nlegislatures, court rooms, barrooms, and bawdy houses, as well as in\npulpits. This sounds like a strange mixture: \"the sacred desk\" associated\nwith such an array of evil--_ad absurdum_. If the pulpit is immune, why\nPaul's exhortation? Doctrines presuppose a preacher, and also an effort to\ngain an audience whenever and wherever possible.\n\nYes, the Devil preaches, and if doors are barred he forces an entrance:\nhome and foreign missions, slums, emigrants, aristocrats and sports. He\nhas access to scores of avenues where the Gospel of Christ never enters;\nbut under the cover of human interests he takes the field with our Lord\nJesus and His ministers, offering a more beautiful, excellent, easier and\nsuccessful way. As God's method of saving the world is by the foolishness\nof preaching, what better agency of opposition could be launched than\n_preaching_? Nothing. Far stronger is the expulsive than the opposing\npower. The most dangerous poison in the world is the kind that hides its\ndeath in a cup of sweetness; a child eats a sugar-coated pill and never\nrecovers. Hell is peopled by the multitudes who have drunk at the Devil's\nfountain of soothing, satisfying poison. He keeps his deluded patrons from\nthe fountain of cleansing by an easier way to delectable fountains, the\nwaters of which paralyze with the chill of death.\n\nWe note another very remarkable fact concerning the Devil's doctrines and\nhis style of preaching. Christ's ministers often fail because of a lack of\nadaptability; \"he overshot his crowd\" is the comment often heard. The\ngenius of this subject does not make this mistake; he is a past-master at\nadaptability; to those who have a feeble, fluttering conscience for\nspiritual things he has the sincere milk of the word that soothes and\nsustains; but for his robust followers, whom he has bound in chains\nstronger than those which bound Prometheus, he gives the meat of\ndiabolism, prepared and seasoned by a skill of six thousand years'\npractice.\n\nPlace your ear at the keyhole where his children are conducting a \"revival\nmeeting\"--high carnival of sin--and hear the ideas of God, salvation,\npreachers, the Church, and the hereafter. This is the strong gospel\nreferred to; the gospel that fires the masses with hate and prejudice\nagainst the only means of human redemption. Yes, he preaches, preaches,\npreaches, and from every nook and corner; ten messengers to one preaching\nthe Christ; his preachers support themselves, and touch the highways and\nbyways; his lines are gone out into all the earth, circumscribing sea and\nland. The Devil gets an intelligent hearing. He has a long catalogue of\ndoctrines, but he does not believe a single one of them. We should be wise\nenough to eliminate them from our creed also.\n\n\n\n\nXVII\n\nTHE DEVIL'S RIGHTEOUSNESS\n\n    \"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain.\"--_Jude 11._\n\n    \"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to\n    establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto\n    the righteousness of God.\"--_Romans x. 3._\n\n\nWe are becoming, according to the canons of this world, a righteous\nnation; the standard of civic and commercial righteousness is elevated as\nnever before. Sleuth-hounds are scenting every indication of misrule and\nrunning to earth evil-doers, high and low. Our cities are keeping tab\nrigidly on sewerage, cesspools, and outhouses; a persistent war is being\nwaged on flies, mosquitoes, and germs of all kinds. Private citizens are\neverywhere organizing to co\u00f6perate with officials for public welfare.\nCorporation and municipal rings must answer at the bar of an outraged\npublic conscience.\n\nRighteousness is in the air; it resounds from the pulpit, platform and\npress. Chautauqua specialists who have discovered some deflection in the\npolitical and social woof and warp declare, amid salutes of fluttering\nhandkerchiefs, the righteousness of twentieth century standards. Preaching\non the cardinal doctrines of the Bible has been displaced by rhetorical\nmessages on altruism: light, ethics, mercy, cleanness, goodness. \"The\nfatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man,\" with a flavour of\nintellectualism, is the gospel that is now being emphasized with much\ngusto, and never fails to solicit the indorsement of all denominations.\n\"Be good and do good\" is the _multum in parvo_ of present day\nrighteousness.\n\nWho but a chronic faultfinder could object to this upward move, so obvious\nnow in all directions? The world is getting kinder, more sympathetic, more\ncharitable; creed lines are dissolving like snow under an April sun;\nsectarian prejudice is dying under the withering frown of new ideals. Does\nthis not indicate a gradual leavening of the \"whole lump\"? The spirit of\nChrist, they tell us, is being adopted everywhere. He is mounting the\nthrone of universal empire, and the time surely is not far distant when\nthe social, political, commercial and domestic life will be regenerated by\nHis influence. Yes--it would appear so to be; much that is done bears a\nChristian label; it comes in the name of Christ; but, says a writer, \"it\nis the Christ of Bethlehem and not the Christ of the Cross.\" It is the\nhuman Christ and not the sacrificial--the exponent of a blood Atonement.\n\nThe righteousness that has the full swing of modern religionists makes\nmuch of Christ's \"example,\" His beautiful character and\nself-abandonment--\"He went about doing good.\" Much attention is given to\nstudying His leadership, His pedagogy, His art of public address, His\nhumanity. His example and not His sacrifice saves the world; step by step\nthe human Christ has displaced the Christ of Calvary; His atonement was\nmisguided zeal. This propaganda, on the surface, is reasonable and\npopular; but close scrutiny will reveal a poison as dangerous as it is\nsubtle. It leaves out the Blood; it is a glorification of Man. \"Count the\nnumber of the beast, for it is the number of man.\"\n\nThis issue is an old one; it became an entering wedge in the religious\nlife when the first services were held after the Fall. Cain and Abel made\naltars; Cain piled his high with beautiful, luscious fruits of the field.\nNo festal board ever looked more tempting, loaded with sweet smelling\nfruit, having variegated colours, than the altar which Cain presented to\nGod. They were the results of his own sweat and toil; he offered them as\nthe \"first fruits.\" But God rejected the offering; somehow the very beauty\nand attractiveness of it all insulted Him.\n\nAbel's altar was smeared with blood; on top lay a limp, bleeding lamb.\nNothing attractive about this picture; our esthetic nature recoils at the\ngore and cruelty of such an offering. Yet God graciously accepted this\nbloody, unsightly offering; and no doubt rained fire upon it--anyhow, Abel\nwas justified. Why did God reject the one and accept the other? Cain and\nAbel alike had been taught from their infancy that \"without the shedding\nof blood there shall be no remission of sin.\" By transgression man stood\nas an alien before God; he had forfeited divine favour. Notwithstanding,\nCain boldly brought before God a bloodless sacrifice, and presumes to\nforce Him to accept it. Through all the millenniums before Christ every\napproach to God must contain in the sacrifices and offerings an element\nwhich reminded God of the coming Atonement. He declared: \"For the life of\nthe flesh is the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make\nan atonement for your soul. For it is the blood that maketh an atonement\nfor the soul\" (Lev. xvii. 11).\n\nComing directly to the point: all this new notion of things, touching\nMan's religion, fast becoming prevalent is the \"way of Cain,\" with a\ntwentieth century touch and terminology. What is the essence of this new\nrighteousness? what does it do? Observe, it sets aside God's estimate of\nman, and ignores the plan of redemption He established at the beginning in\ntypes and shadows, then consummated in the atoning death of His Son on the\nCross. The righteousness of to-day has much in it to commend; but it\nutterly disregards the only feature upon which God places emphasis. The\nBlood and the Cross, as of old, is an offense; they have found a more\nexcellent way, but it is the \"way of Cain.\" It is offering\nself-righteousness rather than seeking the righteousness of God. The\nbloody offering of Abel suggested suffering, punishment, death,\njudgment--but it honoured God. Modern righteousness scoffs at the Abel\nofferings by hanging a wreath of flowers on the Cross, bearing a perfumed\ntag, \"With sympathy.\" It is Cain setting up business in town once more. A\nsacrificial propitiation for sin is unnecessary when we have \"inherent\ngoodness.\" The modern righteousness contends that each man has\nself-redemptive qualities; all he needs is a chance. Salvation is not\ninternal, but external.\n\nThe Cainites are filling the earth; they are preaching the popular\nsermons, writing the magazine articles, the poetry, the fiction; they\noccupy the chief synagogue seats of seminaries; they are conspicuous at\nall chatauquas and baccalaureate occasions.\n\nIt is a well-known psychological fact that evil cannot exist apart from\nPersonality--whether it be bad laws, bad books, bad town, or a bad house.\nWhence comes all this audacious, undermining insult to the whole sweep of\nGod's plan for saving the world? Whence comes all this preaching about\nrighteousness which places the crown on man, and robs the Cross of its\nglory? The righteousness being sounded in double diapason and angelus keys\nis _the righteousness of the Devil_. Bear in mind it is _Righteousness_,\nand a high type of it, he demands; he wants the offering of Cain to cover\nup all the needs of the soul--cheat the blood of its merit--insult God,\nand lead the race through a bowery of flowers, fruits, and music on to its\nruin. Anything to cheat the depositum of the Gospel--that which gives a\ntitle to heaven--the precious Blood. The righteousness that leaves out the\nBlood is the \"way of Cain\"--\"the righteousness of the Devil.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVIII\n\nTHE WORLD'S TEMPTER\n\n    \"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and\n    showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and\n    sayeth unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall\n    down and worship me.\"--_Matthew iv. 8-9._\n\n\nTemptation is a seduction: meaning to allure or entice one to evil. It is\nsubmitting a proposition which carries with it inducements of pleasure or\ngain. The mind that accedes readily and willingly to an act is not\ntempted. A temptation is a clash of wills, one being superior to the other\nif the contest results in a yielding. The word embodies the idea of an\nelastic--\"stretched to the snapping point.\" If there is no response, no\nstruggle against desire--it is not a temptation. The Master was very man\nas well as very God; yet strange as it may seem--_He was really tempted_,\nand just as we are.\n\nOur purpose in this discussion is not to analyze the different phases of\nour Lord's temptation--the tests to which He was subjected,--but we wish\nto emphasize one thing: He was _tempted_. The appeals came from His old\ntime enemy; His rival for supremacy. He was not taken unawares; the facts\nwere clearly before Him, just who and what it all meant--yet He was\ntempted. The diabolical assault did not cease until His threefold nature\nwas \"stretched to the snapping point.\" It came from an inferior being, and\nfor sake of illustration, had the scheme succeeded, the Sun of\nrighteousness would have gone down forever. Not only would the great plan\nof human redemption have proved abortive, but Satan would have snatched\nthe sceptre from the hand of the Anointed One and shouted his victory in\nthe face of God. We are amazed to think of the only Begotten being near\nthe yielding point in the presence of the fallen Lucifer, but the Book\nsays He was tempted.\n\nSome may contend that He could not have yielded; all the while He was\nconscious of divine security. This conclusion forces another untenable\nproposition: If He could not have yielded, His humanity was not real, but\nveiled in His divinity; the temptation was only a shadow. We insist that\nas a man Jesus was tempted; He could have called to His aid supernatural\nintervention, but He did not. The issue was met as every man must meet it;\nit was manhood that conquered. Had He yielded, both manhood and divinity\nwould have become subservient to the enemy. \"Fall down and worship me\" was\nthe proposition.\n\nNow we wish to make a few deductions from our Lord's temptation. Whatever\nincludes the greater includes the lesser--_a fortiori_. Natural man\nreached his highest expression in Jesus of Nazareth; He was God's exponent\nof human perfection. There were no weaknesses, no lack of pose or\nsymmetry; His penetration and judgment of others were absolutely accurate.\nFrom the beginning He had known the Evil One who faced Him. Now, with all\nthose perfect endowments, the record says _He was tempted_. The ingenuity\nof Satan was sufficient to bring out all the resources of the Son of God.\nHere was the greatest, wisest, purest and strongest man that ever walked\nupon the earth--susceptible, influenced, strained to the \"snapping point,\"\nwhen attacked by the Tempter. What will be the inevitable fate of you and\nme, dear reader, whenever he selects us as his victims?\n\nThe unmistakable teachings of the Word are that every temptation to which\nman is or ever has been subjected came fresh from the seething caldron of\nthe pit. The student of human conduct has observed universal adaptability\nof all temptation. A great sagacious intelligence seems to be managing\npersonally, through his cohorts, this campaign of promising propositions.\nThere are some who can be incited to commit horrible crimes, such as\nmurder, incendiary, born perhaps with vicious tendencies, but this class\nis comparatively small; others are susceptible to deeds of milder\ncharacter. It would matter little to an army approaching a fortification\nwhere or how the attack should be made if the walls at every point were\nweak and crumbling. No time is spent in reconnoitre and playing for\nposition; but if the battlements be strong, a faulty place must be located\nif there be one. Satan rarely ever blunders in laying his temptations; he\nis a most skillful strategist. As the world's tempter he reveals an\ningenuity that is truly astounding; it should cause the bravest heart to\nshudder once the eyes are opened to the source. Knowledge of his\napproaches, marches, countermarches, advancings, and retreats--all with a\nspecific object--ought to be a great breakwater.\n\nA writer gives us a striking word picture of Satan's methods: \"As the\nenemy who lays siege to a city finds out the weakest portion of the wall,\nor the best spot to batter it, or the lowest and safest place to scale it,\nor where the intervening obstacle may be easiest overcome, or where an\nadvantage may be taken, or where an entrance may be effected, or when is\nthe best time, or what is the best means to secure the desired end, so the\narch-deceiver and destroyer of souls goes about, watchful, intent upon\nruin, scanning all the powers of the mind, inspecting all the avenues to\nthe heart and assailing every unguarded spot. Sometimes he attacks our\nunderstanding by injecting erroneous doctrine; sometimes our affections by\nexcessive devotion to things we love; sometimes our wills by strengthening\nthem in wrong directions; sometimes our imaginations by vain, foolish,\ntrifling thoughts; and sometimes our feelings by too high or too low\nexcitation.\"\n\nSome one has called Satan and his subordinates not omnipresent, but\n\"shifting imps.\" They swarm the air, invisible, because they are spirit,\nwatching for opportunities to edge their way into the hearts of mankind.\nThey are shifting position, always to a point of least resistance. Like a\ncurrent of electricity, always flowing from a point of higher potential\npressure to one of lower, if points are connected by a conductor. The\nmetallic substances from which the current starts and towards which it\nflows are called \"electrodes,\" and are always of different potentiality.\nThe current passes from the one of higher to the lower. Man in his own\nstrength is the lower, and unprotected by the Spirit of God cannot resist\nthe evil currents flowing from Satan continually.\n\n\n\n\nXIX\n\nTHE CONFIDENCE MAN\n\n    \"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which\n    believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is\n    the image of God, should shine unto them.\"--_2 Corinthians iv. 4._\n\n\nHistory is one long, tragic recital of human sorrow and suffering; but\nthere is far more unwritten history than has ever been recorded on the\nprinted page. Along the march of civilization all that has come down to us\nare the lives and doings of great men; we know little of the heart agonies\nof the race--such as cannot be recorded--language is inadequate. Most of\nhistory is a record of man's inhumanity to man, but historians deal with\nthese dark pages only on the higher levels. The greatest suffering, the\nbitterest cries of anguish, the deepest wails of despair are in the\nlowlands of human life: down where its pathos can never be known. The\ndarkest tragedies of war are lost by the gallant heroism of some officer;\nthe blood and carnage are overshadowed and forgotten by the heralds of\nvictory. The real pathos of war remains unnoticed by the chroniclers and\ncorrespondents; it is found in the heart suffering of the dying in the\ntrenches; the black pall that settles over the homes made desolate by the\nnews from the front.\n\nThe saddest stories of life will never be told; they are the voiceless\nagonies and smothered sobs from victims of human treachery and deceit.\nMillions are shambling on their weary way, waiting for the end, whose\nhearts are dead and buried in graves of misplaced confidence. More\ndomestic lights have been extinguished, more love dreams turned from a\nsweet phantasy to an horrid nightmare, more bodies fished from the river,\nmore shocking tragedies have resulted directly from this cause--misplaced\nand wrecked confidence--than from all other causes of human wretchedness.\n\nAn illustration from actual life will serve to bring the caption of this\nchapter--the Confidence Man--out in bold relief. An honest old farmer,\nwhose horizon had not extended beyond the obscure Indiana neighbourhood,\nsold his little home and started for Kansas, hoping to enlarge his\npossessions and give his sons and daughters a larger sphere of\nopportunity. That they might see the wonders of a great city, arrangements\nwere secured for a three days' stop-over at St. Louis. The Confidence Man\nsaw them pass through the iron gate into the lobby. He first noted the\ntrain on which they had come to the city. With great enthusiasm he greeted\nthe old gentleman, introduced himself, extending a business card of his\n\"firm.\" With cunning palaver, and the guilelessness of the farmer--item\nafter item of information as to name and where they came from were\nobtained. The man who said he thought he recognized the old gentleman soon\nbecame satisfied of it--having an uncle living in the same county--and \"I\nhave often heard him speak of you, etc., etc.\"\n\nIt required only a short time to not only gain the confidence of the\nwhole family, but also to get all the facts concerning their business\naffairs: how much the little farm brought, and how much they had left to\nbegin life in the west, and actual cash on hand. There was not a hitch in\nthe scheme; the new friend (?) loaded them with kindnesses and courtesies,\npaid all the bills at lunch and theatre--took the young people into the\nmysteries of the great wonderland--all so new and strange.\n\nIt was the last afternoon; father and Mr. Confidence Man were returning\nfrom a tour of sightseeing. They met a man walking in great haste; looking\nup he saw the two men, and suddenly laid violent hands on the \"farmer's\nfriend,\" demanding the payment of a note three days overdue. They\nquarrelled; all manner of apologies were made, that he was \"entertaining\nan old friend, etc.,\" all of which caused the Shylock to grow more enraged\nand unreasonable; they almost came to blows.\n\nFinally the old man's benefactor asked to see him for a moment alone. Then\nmeekly humble, and with many regrets, asked for a loan of enough to pay\nthe note. \"We will go right down to my office, and I will reimburse you\nwith big interest for the kindness.\" The honest old man was only too glad\nfor an opportunity of returning, by such a little act, the kindness that\nhad been shown him. The note was almost one thousand dollars; when the\nbills were counted out, less than ten dollars remained in his purse--the\nsavings of a lifetime.\n\nProceeding on their way until they reached the first saloon, \"It is my\ntreat, uncle,\" said the man. After the drinks were served, he asked to be\nexcused for a moment, and stepped into a back room from the bar--he was\nseen no more. After a long time, the barkeeper informed the old man that\nhis _friend_ was one of the worst crooks in St. Louis. With less than ten\ndollars he staggered out of the saloon, wandered over the city dazed and\nhalf insane. On the following day he was found down on the wharf crying\nlike a child. What had happened? He had been in the hands of a Confidence\nMan.\n\nThere are being formed in all walks of life--high and low--associations\nand alliances, spurred on and incited by extravagant promises--the hook\nbaited according to the fish--which culminates in certain disaster. The\npathway of life is strewn with victims of Confidence friends--instead of\nfriends. As in all these subtle and dangerous diversions we believe every\ntrap and scheme are under the direct control and supervision of\nSatan--playing the r\u00f4le of Confidence Man. Many with a natural impulse for\npleasure knock, and at once arms are wide open to receive them; lust\nbeckons, and the Broad Way becomes choked with her votaries; covetousness\nshouts her promises, and the love of money soon burns out every high and\nholy aspiration. Fame holds the chaplet in full view, and men are ready to\nexchange heaven in order to have it pressed upon their brow.\n\nBut alas, in the end--in the end--\"it biteth like a serpent and stingeth\nlike an adder.\" When the curtain falls, too late to recover, we shall be\nfound on eternity's shore, shipwrecked, robbed, ruined--victims of the\ngreat seducer. No one but an incarnate devil could stoop to the low plane\nof Confidence Man in business and social life; but think of what it means:\nby flattering promises, smiles, and kindness force an entrance into the\nheart life, and when once in possession, desecrate, prostitute, and\ndestroy. We insist that it takes a devil-possessed man to operate in this\nparticular field, and the world is full of such. We therefore conclude he\nis the god of this planet, blinding the eyes of his unnumbered victims.\n\n\n\n\nXX\n\nTHE TRAPPER\n\n    \"And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,\n    who are taken captive by him at his will.\"--_2 Timothy ii. 26._\n\n    \"Surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.\"--_Psalm\n    xci. 3._\n\n\nTo be a trapper requires something more than setting traps and baiting\nthem. The old trapper returns from a season spent among mountains, rivers,\nand forests--ladened with valuable furs of every kind: beaver, bear,\notter, fox, mink, wildcat, coon, opossum, etc. Remember the animal kingdom\nis infinite in variety; no two alike. A trap that will catch a beaver will\nnot answer as a bear trap; a coon and a mink are as far removed from each\nother as a polished American and a native of Madagascar. A coon will not\ngo within a rod of a chain, but have little if any keenness of scent for\nprotection. A rat will not go near an object if the smell of human hands\nis on it.\n\nVolumes of natural history would be inadequate to give the details of\ndifferentiation of the animal kingdom. The old trapper in his log cabin\nhas never read a page of zo\u00f6logy, but is far more familiar with the ways\nof the furry folk than the scientists who write our books on natural\nhistory. The trapper is a graduate from the school of Association; he has\nstudied the traits and pranks of the forest inhabitants by observation at\nclose range. He knows just where the mink can be caught, and just how the\ntrap must be baited and concealed; he has the same information about all\nthe rest, and can apply it. Once when a child, we were enraptured until\nlate bedtime by the stories of an old trapper: telling about \"the\ndifferent varmints.\" Without drawing on his imagination, he could have\nadded many chapters to the tales of \"Uncle Remus.\" The facts about our\nfurry friends are far more interesting than fiction; the trapper knows\nabout these facts.\n\nThe Psalmist calls Satan a fowler; one who sets traps for old and young as\nthe fowler sets traps for fowls. How is it done? Leaves and weeds are\ncarefully cleared away, and the trap is skillfully set by a trigger, so\nthat the slightest touch will spring it. The ground is also cleared for\nseveral rods leading off in front of the trap; suitable food is scattered\nunder the trap and all along the clean strip of ground. The birds\nexcitedly follow the line of \"food\"--walking under the trap where it is\nscattered in abundance. In the scuffle, the trigger is soon touched;\nbehold the trap falls, and they are caught; oh, how they beat their heads\nagainst the prison bars until they are covered with blood, but all is\nover. They are caught in the snare of the fowler.\n\nEvery animal and fowl will flee from the approach of danger; the trap must\nbe hid, or in some way made to appear as something harmless; nature has\nendowed them to seek always self-preservation. With nothing but instinct\nto guide, they are easily caught by the skill and cunning of man, but\nnever caught in the open; some, however, are more easily caught than\nothers, but they must be trapped.\n\nThe Bible teaches that the Devil is a trapper; his snares are set\neverywhere--they are man traps; no spider ever spun a web more accurately\nfor the moth than Satan's traps to catch men. It requires certain bait and\ncertain traps for each particular animal and bird, but the snares for men\nare legion. Man has a threefold nature: body, mind, and spirit; each of\nthese have many avenues of approach. As the trapper gains his knowledge of\nthe furry tribe by association, so the Trapper of men, by the application\nof supernatural powers, in close contact and intimate association through\nthe past millenniums, has become intimately acquainted with man.\n\nThere are no facts touching his habitat, food, passions, ambitions,\nweaknesses, yearnings, etc.--whether in the realm of body, mind or\nspirit--but the cunning trapper of the pit is more minutely acquainted\nthan man is acquainted with himself.\n\nIf guileless and unsuspecting men and women were the only victims, the\nsituation would not be so serious; not that one soul is of more value than\nanother, but the facts are: _no one_ seems to be capable of discovering\nhis hidden snares. The greatest and wisest--Alexanders, Anthonys,\nNapoleons, kings, sages and philosophers--have been captured by him at his\nwill. What a shudder would go over the race if it could penetrate the veil\nof mystery and see the traps towards which we are moving; moving on to\ncertain capture, but for Providential oversight and guidance. Domestic\ntraps, political traps, social traps, business traps, religious traps;\nthe location and bait are suited to individual likes and dislikes.\n\n  \"My soul be on thy guard; ten thousand foes arise.\"\n\nOur country is just beginning to awake to a system of trapping now being\ncarried on in every city and town, so gigantic and heinous that we are\ndazed and frightened at its boldness. The great White Slave Traffic is\ncarried on by traps, pure and simple; as carefully planned and skillfully\nexecuted as the methods of an old trapper who remains in the primeval\nforest to supply the fur market. The feelers and tentacles of this human\ndevil-fish are running out in the highways and hedges: the factories,\nmills, department stores. But the traffic is not confined to the poor,\nuneducated girls at the ribbon counter or waist factory; girls of culture\nand experience are caught, but the bait used is very different. When once\ncaught, not one in ten thousand ever escapes.\n\nA being less than a fallen archangel could never have instituted the White\nSlave Traffic. A man or woman not incarnated by the Devil or some of his\nminions could never promulgate a system so vile, so inhuman, so hellish,\nas the traffic of innocent flesh and blood, to be offered and burned on\nthe altars of lust for gain. Compared with the White Slave Traffic, as it\nis prosecuted by the panderers and procurers, negro slavery, at its worst,\nthe extermination of which the bloodiest war ever fought on this planet\nwas waged, is like the vilest ribaldry ever sung in a den of vice to a Te\nDeum. Lest we forget--Satan is an expert trapper--the king of trappers.\n\n\n\n\nXXI\n\nTHE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER\n\n    \"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.... Stand therefore,\n    having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate\n    of righteousness.... Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith\n    ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the\n    wicked.\"--_Ephesians vi. 13, 14, 16._\n\n\nWhen traps, tricks, seductions, and quackery, temptations, etc., fail,\nSatan adds victims to his long list by destroying them at long range.\nWhile in a mountain peak vision of inspiration Paul sees the enemy as a\nwrestler, a trickster, a schemer, and even a more dangerous r\u00f4le than\neither: a skilled marksman. By keeping close to God, and keeping ourselves\nunspotted from the world, we may stay his blighting touch from personal\ncontact; but there seems to be no absolute safety until we are shielded by\nthe \"whole armour of God.\"\n\nThere are \"evil days,\" days of visitation and distress, over which no one\nhas control; at such times we may not be conscious of any satanic\npresence; yet confusion, doubt, fear and anxiety have complete control\nover mind and heart. These days, and their depressing effect, can only be\nwarded off by the protection of the \"whole armour\"; for emphasis, Paul\nmentions it twice in the same paragraph. An armour is a coat of mail\ncovering the body, made so as to be impenetrable to the missile of death.\nThe Apostle does not stop with a partial equipment; the head and feet\nalso must be properly covered. Especially does he emphasize the\n_shield_--that great polished, concave steel disk, strapped to the left\narm, so that a thrust from sword, arrow, or spear can be easily deflected.\nAs it is carried on the arm it can be raised or lowered so as to protect\nthe whole body.\n\nThis arrow-protecting shield must be wrought in faith, that mysterious\nrelation which unites the soul with God. The antithesis of Paul's language\nimplies that when Satan makes certain efforts to wound the soul, the\nshield of faith alone can save. The fight is not ended when we come out\nvictor in a hand to hand conflict, but must next prepare to meet a shower\nof \"fiery darts.\" A dart is an arrow shot from a bow; a fiery dart is a\nflaming torch attached to the arrow.\n\nIn all ages, until the days of powder and firearms, soldiers were equipped\nwith bow and arrows. Arrowheads were made of steel, and as keen as\nneedles. The battle-axe and broadsword were used when the lines met, but\nshowers of arrows would fall upon the enemy with as much fatality as a\nround of grape and canister. Often the arrows would be freshly dipped in a\ndeadly poison, and in that case the slightest wound would result in\ncertain death. When a fort or city was being besieged, the arrows would\ncarry a ball of tow, having been saturated in oil; hundreds of these\nflaming darts would fall on the inside of the fortification and start a\ngeneral conflagration.\n\nThis method was practiced by the American Indians when they could not\nreach a fort, blockhouse, or stockade because of the white man's gun;\nthese flaming torches, falling in great number, were more to be dreaded\nthan the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savages.\n\nSatan shoots \"fiery darts\"--arrows--at us; he may come, as he did to the\nMaster, and find nothing in us; our hearts may be clean. But from a source\nentirely unexpected--here comes a flaming arrow--burning its way into the\nheart, igniting with hatred and misunderstanding friends and enemies in a\nmanner never dreamed of before. How often the blow comes from the one\nplace least expected, and for that reason all the more deadly. We are\nguarded in some directions, but over the walls of our stockade the Devil\nsends his fiery darts, and we are swept away in a satanic conflagration.\nIt requires the \"whole armour\"--and the shield of faith to quench the\nflaming arrows from his quiver. He is the world's incomparable archer;\nwhen all other methods fail, he shoots us with poisoned, fiery darts.\n\nThe mother of Achilles baptized him in the river Styx, making him\ninvulnerable to the weapons of the enemy; she held him by the heel during\nthe baptismal ceremony; the heel only remained untouched by the protecting\nwaters of the fabulous Styx. One of the gods became acquainted with this\nfact, and shot him to death in the heel, the one vulnerable spot. Again,\nwe repeat, we are not safe without the \"whole armour of God,\" and the\n\"shield of faith.\" Bear in mind, also, the Incomparable Archer takes a\nmore deliberate aim if it is a shining mark, and exults most when he can\nlay low in the dust, wounded and disabled, one dowered with unusual\ncapacity for noble service.\n\n\n\n\nXXII\n\nTHE FATHER OF LIARS\n\n    \"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will\n    do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,\n    because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh\n    of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.\"--_John viii. 44._\n\n    \"Sin has many tools, but a lie is a handle which fits them all.\"--_O.\n    W. Holmes._\n\n\nSatan opened his propaganda with a slanderous lie; this lie was believed\nby the innocent parents of the race. Simple and modest as this lie seemed\nto be, it opened a crevice in the moral government of God. Confidence,\nfellowship, and filial relations were destroyed by the breach. The nature\nand character of a lie may best be understood, and we can get the estimate\nGod places on it, by carefully studying the damages it wrought. Eden was\nlost, God's favour lost, peace and plenty lost, innocence lost;\nhumiliation, fear, banishment, toil, sweat, suffering and death took the\nplace of Eden's pristine glories.\n\nNothing so reveals the depths to which Lucifer had fallen--and his great\nintelligence, losing none of its acumen, exercised in a way fitting to his\ndepravity of character, as the launching of a lie. He has done nothing\nsince--which more clearly exemplifies the Being our Bible teaches that he\nis. An egg was laid and a lie was hatched; this lie has gone out\nspreading at a geometrical progression until the infinitude of God's\nfootstool has felt the discordant jar.\n\nA lie, and the Father of it; think of this tremendous statement. The\nthought will overwhelm our intelligence. Suppose all the peoples that have\nlived on the earth were lined up: to simplify matters--consider the\nbillion and a half supposed to be living on the earth to-day; just a small\npart of the number belongs to civilized, christianized nations. What is\nthe situation? Under all the light of education and moral standards,\njustice, full and untrammelled, can scarcely be had, because of false\nswearing. An eminent authority says nine-tenths of the race has a price;\nthis means that only one-tenth will rigidly adhere to the whole truth. How\nfew will swear to their own hurt and change not.\n\nLet us study this gigantic proposition from another view-point: every\nunregenerated heart is full of deceit. In every unregenerated heart there\nis a germ of all the sins of the Decalogue; lying is one of the \"shall\nnots.\" A close student of men will agree with the Apostle Paul, when he\nsaid: \"I have no confidence in the flesh.\" Carnality will not swear\nagainst its own interests; the status of civilization, whether in religion\nor morals, does not seem to control this matter. When we consider the\nfalsehood and false swearing which obtain among the _best_ people,\nsocially, financially, and so often religiously, then think of the\nmillions living without moral standards, we can begin to appreciate the\namount of lying carried on in this world.\n\nAs lying is one of the outputs of carnality, and human selfishness is the\ntap root of carnality, and selfishness dominates the entire race, with\nrare exceptions here and there, we can understand how easily and naturally\nprevarication and lying become efficient tools to further personal\ninterests. We once attended a celebrated criminal case in court; scores of\nwitnesses were summoned on both sides; a bar of attorneys fought\ndesperately every inch of ground. The prosecution covered the case beyond\nany question to the perfect satisfaction of the jury. And the witnesses\nwere, in the main, both respectable and intelligent.\n\nBut behold, when the defense produced their side of the case, the\nwitnesses equally honest looking and intelligent, every point of evidence\nmade by the prosecution was absolutely refuted. A new story was told; a\nnew case from the one just stated. Think of it--on both sides there were\neye-witnesses; then every witness on one side or the other perjured\nthemselves--and perhaps all of them on both sides.\n\nSo completely has the father of liars woven the spirit of falsehood into\nthe moral fibre of men that a sense of its fearful character is almost\nobliterated. Men make fortunes, secure positions, are elected to office,\ndestroy rivals, win unsuspecting love, seduce innocence, and subdue\nkingdoms, by being an obedient offspring of their father, inheriting his\ndisposition and ability to breathe out falsehood. Liars are children of\nthe Devil.\n\nThink of the almost infinite resources for evil: \"father of liars\" does\nnot fully justify the situation. While it is true he originated the first\nlie, and the lying spirit has ever widened through the stream of racial\npropagation; but the clearer interpretation signifies that he is the\nfather of _lies_. \"See,\" he whispers, \"the advantages to be gained--don't\nbe white livered--tell it; get the hush money--make the promise--swear you\ndid not see it--tell her how devotedly you love her, etc.\" Who has not met\nthese insidious pulls on the conscience?\n\nYes, but he is only acting now as a tempter. Quite true; but when the will\ngives away, the oath, the promise, the false statement is made under a\nfurious lashing of the conscience. The lie belongs to him; he\noriginated--suggested--formulated it; then literally drew it out with\nquite as much pain as is felt during the extraction of a tooth by a\ndentist.\n\nIt has been said: \"The Devil will leave his own brat on your door-step,\nthen accuse you of being its father.\" This is an inelegant, though a\nstriking statement of a great truth. When he is unable to bring\nforth--deliver, etc.--his own conception, he at once charges us of being\nguilty of the thing conceived: the lie, vile imagination, or whatever it\nmay be, quoting Scripture to prove it: \"As a man thinketh in his heart, so\nis he.\" \"Now,\" he declares, \"you are guilty anyhow; why not enjoy the\nbenefits?\" Father of lies; millions of them spawned every day and hour:\nbig lies, little lies, business lies, social lies, political lies, and not\na few--religious lies, black lies, white lies, church lies.\n\n\n\n\nXXIII\n\nKINGSHIP OF SATAN\n\n    \"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the prince of the power\n    of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of\n    disobedience.\"--_Ephesians ii. 2._\n\n    \"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against\n    principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of\n    this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.\"--_Ephesians\n    vi. 12._\n\n\nIn a former chapter we discussed the origin of Satan, he being an\narchangel--Lucifer--a great shining leader of the heavenly hosts; now in\nhis fallen estate he is no less a leader. A writer has said: \"He seems to\nhave been the rightful prince of this earth, but he has become the\ntraitor-prince through being untrue to the trust; and the usurper-prince\nthrough seeking to retain control of the earth as his own dominion,\nthrough deceiving man, to whom the earth's dominion was given, into\nobeying him, and in utter defiance of God.\" The angels which kept not\ntheir first estate, but went down with his insurrection, are his subjects.\n\nHe is superior in all villainies, but the Scriptures call him a King\nruling his cohorts, and is the \"angel of the bottomless pit.\" As angel he\nretains his old title, but as _king_, his relations stand out\nsignificantly. As chief Devil--archdemon--the title would imply rather\n_Primus inter pares_; as commander-in-chief, a general of the highest\nrank. He is all these things: he gives special oversight to field\noperations, conducts personally great campaigns, retreats here, advances\nthere, charges yonder--but his real aim is to get this world back under\nhis own control; he would put himself in God's place--drive Him out,\ndethrone Him, kill Him off, that he might take it all to himself, and rule\nsupremely.\n\nHowever, he is _king_, and as such he is raised above the rank of\nleadership and commander. We are already familiar with his rank, but the\npurpose of this chapter is to show, specifically, that as a king his\nkingship has a much wider range than the bottomless pit. It is threefold.\nFirst, as angel of the bottomless pit, he is king of the _underworld_, the\nland of shadows, gloom, utter darkness; the land of eternal despair. We\nmust depend upon the _Infernos_, evolved from a burning imagination, in\norder to get any conception of that region. Fearful as the scenes are, a\nclose reading of the Scriptures will reveal a condition of things so\nterrible that the things seen by Dante and Virgil are not overdrawn. Over\nthis land of woe and suffering Satan is the unlimited monarch.\n\nSecond, he is king of the _upper world_. This statement sounds very\nstrange; it would appear that God is entirely ruled out of His creation.\nBut observe the language: \"prince of the power of the air.\" Just what this\nmeans in its fullness no one should dare to be dogmatic, but certainly the\nlanguage cannot be meaningless words. We can but conclude that Satan, in\nsome measure, controls the forces of the physical world: storms, cyclones,\ncloud bursts, tidal waves, lightning bolts, earthquakes, etc. Certainly,\nas a _destroyer_, he uses the agencies of destruction; his business is to\nfill the world with doubt, fear, distress and suffering.\n\nA man has a little child killed by lightning, and he curses God. Does this\nnot look as if a diabolical schemer was manipulating the affair some way?\nWe must admit his power is permitted, and that proposition forces another\nto the front. Why does God allow or permit his ravages? We have no answer;\nthe ravages go on. We might ask with just as much reason: \"Why doesn't God\nkill the Devil?\" He certainly is able to do it, or at least stop his\nprogress. But He does not; Satan is evidently running at large, filling\nthe world with broken hearts and all the accompanying evils which,\notherwise, would not occur.\n\nThat we may be able to strengthen our opinion as to the prerogatives of\nthis \"prince of the power of the air,\" let us remember the circumstances\nof Job's calamities. This case is undoubtedly authentic, and the record\nsays that Satan actually controlled the powers of the air. The servant of\nJob thought God rained fire on the sheep and burned them, but the whole\naffair had been turned over to the tormentor. The visitations sent on the\nfaithful man of Uz were not from the hand of God; they were manipulated by\nhis satanic lordship--the Devil. Then a great wind came--possibly a\ntornado or cyclone--and blew the house down wherein Job's children were\nenjoying themselves.\n\nConcerning Satan's relation--controlling and directing the forces of\nnature--we shall not conture a dogmatic position. The definite statements\nand incidents from the inspired record are significant indeed. Strange\nthings occur: a great vessel loaded with Sunday revellers goes down with\nscarcely a moment's warning; a tidal wave destroys thousands; an\nearthquake leaves a city in ruins with fearful loss of life. Does the\nloving, compassionate Father send these calamities? Would it not be a\nterrible indictment? But the Bible gives incidents where He did send\ndeath-dealing visitations upon the people. Certainly. Many believe that\nGod uses Satan, in his vicious administration, to visit His wrath upon\nplaces and people. However, God has given him the title of \"prince of the\npower of the air\"--the \"wickedness in high places.\"\n\nThe third realm of his kingship is terrestrial; in this he is given a\nstronger title than prince or king; \"The god of this world.\" Besides, he\nis the \"prince of darkness,\" and the \"prince of this world.\" So real are\nhis presence and power manifested here that Paul declares the contest is\nlike a wrestling boute. This figure, examined closely, will open up a\ngreat continent of truth concerning our enemy, of whom we must meet in\nhand to hand conflict. See the wrestlers writhe and strain; agony is\ndepicted on their faces; the muscles contract into hard knots,\nperspiration bursting from every pore. All the strength of every nerve and\nmuscle, wrought up to their full capacity, is exerted. \"We wrestle,\" he\ndeclares, and not with flesh and blood; but \"against principalities and\nagainst powers,\" \"rulers of the darkness of this world.\"\n\nThe great religious reformers since Paul's day have left a similar\ntestimony concerning this terrestrial enemy; his personality has never\nbeen questioned by men who were positive powers in the realm of spiritual\nwarfare. After Martin Luther had produced a nation-wide reformation,\nhaving been delivered from the bondage of a Benedictine monk by a\nrevelation to his own soul that the \"just shall live by faith,\" he\ndeclared: \"Satan semper mehi dixit falsum dogma.\" Shall we deny the oft\ntold story that Luther threw his inkstand at them (demons) when they\nactually appeared unto him in person? Is it unreasonable? They were\nalarmed at his triumphs, and wanted to terrify him. The kingship of Satan\nin the under world and upper world are Bible statements; his kingship in\nthe world about us is a Bible fact confirmed by human testimony.\n\n\n\n\nXXIV\n\nTHE DEVIL'S HANDMAIDEN\n\n    \"Be not drunk on wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the\n    Spirit.\"--_Ephesians v. 18._\n\n    \"No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.\"--_1 Corinthians vi.\n    10._\n\n\nThe fallen Lucifer knew from the beginning that his work must necessarily\nbe in competition with the Son of God; therefore he has invested his\ngenius to originate a duplicate for all that Christ has done for us.\nKnowing that the letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive, he seeks to\nfurnish all the appearances, and as far as possible duplicate experiences:\nReformation without repentance; conviction without conversion; conversion\nwithout regeneration; membership without adoption; baptism with water\nwithout the baptism of the Holy Ghost; physical and emotional pleasure\nwithout the \"joy of salvation.\"\n\nThe prophet Isaiah exhorts the people to say: \"Praise the Lord,\" and,\n\"with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation,\" and, \"Cry out and\nshout, thou inhabitant of Zion, etc.\" The Psalmist, also, gives out a\ncontinuous stream of joyous praise. In all ages people have at sundry\ntimes and places shouted out the joy of the Lord. This emotional\nexpression is by no means the only test of experimental salvation, as\nnothing honours God so much as simple, unemotional faith; but there are\ntimes of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. This contrast of\nemotional experience we wish to examine.\n\nWe must keep in mind the bitter rivalry between the Prince of light, and\nthe Prince of darkness. The heart of a contest of this character is the\nexpulsive power of the one over against the other. Satan studies\nassiduously every experience, every angle of advancement of Christ's\nkingdom, and proceeds to furnish a duplicate. He knows that the followers\nof Jesus often rejoice with a fullness of joy--unspeakable, as it were; to\nmeet this, he soon discovered that the exhilaration of drunkenness\nproduced a splendid expulsive power. He proposes and promises his\nfollowers all the joys furnished by his rival; however pleasant they are\nalways shams, and \"at last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an\nadder.\"\n\nA beverage that would produce drunkenness has been a curse from the\nearliest history. We call attention to two events, each one of which was\nso great that it left a blight sufficient to turn the course of human\nhistory into darker and bloodier channels. The first followed closely upon\nthe remarkable deliverance from the Flood. The Ark had settled; life began\nits routine, fresh from the awful calamity. Noah built an altar and\nworshipped God; but before the perfume of the holy incense evaporated,\nthat faithful servant of the Most High became _beastly drunk_, and his son\nHam looked upon his nakedness and shame. The children of Ham must carry\nthe curse until the end. The other followed closely upon a deliverance\nfrom fire. Lot was a citizen of Sodom, but he had not defiled himself;\nthe iniquity of the place came up before God, and He destroyed it; not,\nhowever, until His angel led this righteous man to a place of safety.\nThrough the entreaties of his designing daughters, as they were resting in\nthe mountains, Lot became intoxicated unto idiocy. We must draw a veil\nover the shameful scene that occurred during his debauch; but the tribes\nof Moab and Ammon, war-like savages of the desert unto this day, was the\nterrible resultant. They are the incorrigible followers of the Crescent\nrather than the Cross.\n\nWherever drunkenness has touched humanity it has blighted and withered\nlike a Sirocco from Sahara. No one but a fallen archangel could have\ninvented such a beverage. Yet the character of liquors used by the race in\nits infancy for carnival pleasures, compared with the output of the modern\ndistillery and brewery, are as moonshine to the blistering heat of the\nsummer sun. Satan profits by experience; he has not been idle during the\ncenturies. Solomon warned against \"looking upon the wine when it was red,\nand turneth itself in the cup\"--fermentation. If fermented grape juice\nshould, at that time, bring forth such an inspired warning, what language\nwould be necessary to depict the character of the low grade, adulterated\nfire-water sold in the saloons and dives of America and Europe?\n\nThe true spirit and character of liquor cannot be understood if viewed as\na stimulating beverage, satisfying and inflaming human passions. Its\nAuthor soon discovered that such an unmixed evil must answer at the bar of\nan outraged individual and public conscience. He saw that if liquor\nsucceeded in all he had planned, it must send its roots deeper down than\ntaste and appetite. Hence this handmaiden of the Devil has now become one\nof the most gigantic trusts on earth, blooming out into commercial,\npolitical, and industrial proportions. The whole business lives and moves\nand has its being on misery and bloodshed on one side of the counter; loot\nand plunder, coupled with an insane lust for gold, on the other side of\nthe counter.\n\nIt has not one redeeming feature; but so carefully has it sheltered itself\nby a devil-fish organization that it stands like a Gibraltar. It has\nbecome so great that the actual investments in the business aggregate\nbillions; an army larger than the combined forces, North and South, at any\none time during the Civil War are being supported; over one hundred\nmillions go annually into the national exchequer. China has been called a\nsleeping giant; woe to the nations once she is awakened. In the liquor\ntraffic we have a giant that never sleeps. Twenty-four hours each\nday--like Giant Despair--he enslaves and imprisons the multitudes. So\ntremendous has this organization grown that its work does not stop with\nsocial demoralization, but with little difficulty can dictate governmental\npolicies, throttle legislation, and bribe juries.\n\nAgain, we cannot judge or estimate the liquor traffic until we follow it\ndown through its labyrinth of social, financial, and moral declension. Not\nuntil we see it face to face, glaring and defiant, in the haunts where\nfinished products are on exhibition. The \"Scarlet Annex,\" temples of\nlust, and the White Slaver's headquarters are united in the place where\nlabour troubles are hatched, mob violence gathers fuel, and feud hatred is\ncrystallized into bloodshed. Where gamblers, thugs, yeggmen, murderers,\nanarchists, jail-birds, and burglars hold high carnival. We must see the\nbloated faces, the bleeding Magdalenas, human beasts, and wife beaters, as\nthey wallow in filth and obscenity, before the perspective is correct.\n\nThe inauguration of liquor as a duplicate for God's greatest manifestation\nof Himself--the infilling of the Holy Spirit--was a master stroke. In a\nwild, reckless debauch it supplements man's every need and hunger. In the\ncrazed brain there is a vision of wealth, power, revenge, joy. The\ndrunkard is clay in the liquor-demon's hand; if a coward, liquor makes him\nbold; if sympathetic, liquor deadens his heart; if honest, liquor makes\nhim a thief; if a loving father or son, liquor makes him a brute. Behold\nthe Handmaiden of the Devil--King Alcohol: the most efficient ally of the\n\"angel of the bottomless pit.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXV\n\nTHE ASTUTE AUTHOR\n\n    \"Till I come give heed to reading.\"--_1 Timothy iv. 13._\n\n    \"Of the making of books there is no end.\"--_Ecclesiastes xii. 12._\n\n\nWhen we remember the crude methods of book making in the days of Solomon,\ncompared with the facilities of modern publishing houses, his statement\nhas in it a touch of humour. To-day manuscripts are turned over to\nprinters and binders, and in two weeks an edition of from five to fifty\nthousand copies are ready for the market. There are three million volumes\nin our libraries; and, a writer has said, enough new books come from the\npress annually to build a pyramid as large as St. Paul's Cathedral,\nLondon. Mr. Carnegie is planting his libraries in every town and city in\nAmerica.\n\nEvening and morning papers are laid at our doors with flaming head-lines\nof all that has happened the world over in the last twenty-four hours.\nDetailed descriptions of murders, scandals, elopements, court scenes,\nbetrayals, etc. Magazines, representing every phase of life and industry,\nare multiplying continually. The literature of a nation is potentially its\nfood for character building, morally and spiritually.\n\nNow what are we reading? Editors are calling for \"stuff\" with \"human\ninterest.\" The manuscript with \"preaching\" gets a return slip instead of a\ncheck; writers are governing themselves by this canon. The most popular\nwriters of fiction a decade ago, who wrote books with high moral and\nspiritual tone, have step by step eliminated _religion_, and now deal with\nSocialistic questions and New Thought problems.\n\nThe most popular novels are teaching false standards of life, and some of\nthe \"best sellers\" are base libels on religion and the Church. This is the\nsituation, and a close observation of the output of the high-class,\nreputable publishers will confirm it. Why is this the status of our book\nmakers? Book writing and publishing, like all other branches of human\nendeavour, have become commercialized; writers and publishers are\npandering to a vitiated taste for revenue only. It is not literature\neditors are seeking, but stories that will sell.\n\nA librarian of one of our large cities told the writer that seventy-five\nper cent. of the books called for and read were positively harmful to the\nhighest ideals. If such is true on this plane of literature, what can be\nsaid of the publishing houses which produce nothing but books utterly vile\nand immoral? It is said there are two thousand publishing concerns in New\nYork City issuing just such literature, circulated secretly in many\ninstances. An army of writers are employed to furnish so many \"thrillers\"\nmonthly. These \"stories\" deal with the lowest, vilest passions of\nhumanity. What is true of New York is also true of Chicago and other\ncities.\n\nEnough stories have been written of the James Boys, Wild Bill, Buffalo\nBill, and other border heroes (?), could they have lived to take the\nleast part in so many situations, to have required a century to pass\nthrough them all. As much blood as was shed actually at Shiloh has been\nshed by the writers of border outlawry during the past twenty-five years.\nThe indirect influence of the books of the James Boys have caused more\nbloodshed than those Missouri bandits spilt by their unerring\nmarksmanship.\n\nA penniless orphan boy was adopted by his well-to-do uncle, who gave him\nall the comforts and opportunities of an actual son. Early in his teens he\nbecame a novel fiend--the lowest and vilest type; reading several each\nweek. When scarcely fifteen years old, he armed himself with his uncle's\npistol, took from the barn the finest horse, and left in the early\nmorning. The gentleman, suspecting the truth concerning the missing horse\nand boy, called a neighbour, and the two gave chase to the young ingrate.\nThey came upon him late in the day, and as the uncle seized the bridle\nrein, the nephew shot him through the heart, and wounded the neighbour\nbefore he could be pulled from the horse and overpowered.\n\nA beautiful girl was found dead in Central Park, New York. Her face, form,\nand the fabric of her clothing showed plainly that she belonged to a home\nof wealth and culture. In one hand was an empty vial labelled deadly\npoison; in the other hand, gripped in the paroxysms of her last struggle,\nwas a paperback novel. The explanation was simple: the heroine had a\ndownfall, and rather than face her shame, committed suicide.\n\nIf you will observe the throng of factory girls, overworked, underpaid,\nheart-hungry from which the White Slaver reaps a rich harvest, they will\nbe reading the class of book mentioned. They enter into the sacred\nrelation of married life with false, distorted ideals, the end of which is\noften ruin: infidelity to marriage vows, abandonment, and divorce court.\n\nThere is another department of literature, written with but one purpose in\nview: the overthrow of orthodox faith. A thousand questions are raised\nwhich the common people cannot answer. Why is it the unchurched masses are\ncontinually drifting farther and farther from the Church and what it\nstands for? Labour unions have almost repudiated religion; class hatred\nwas never more pronounced than to-day, notwithstanding the loud\nproclamation of human brotherhood. Say what you will as to causes, this\ncondition is not an accident; we must go far up the turbid stream to find\nthe source of these defiling waters. When we find the source, it will be\nfound that behind all these insidious influences stands the inspiring\nAuthor.\n\nWhy is there such an incessant effort to divert the minds of the best\npeople from personal relationship of Jesus through faith in His blood?\nWhere is the author, the editor--even religious editors--who stand\nfour-square for the Bible of our fathers and mothers? We are glad to say\nthere are a few exceptions; but the drift of writers and editors is away\nfrom fundamentals. Satan boldly and thievishly appropriates every\navailable avenue to the soul; wherever his cold, clammy hand touches, it\nleaves a chill of death. Beyond a question more writers than we ever\ndreamed are only amanuenses of the Astute Author.\n\n\n\n\nXXVI\n\nTHE HYPNOTIST\n\n    \"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power\n    and signs and lying wonders.\"--_2 Thessalonians ii. 9._\n\n    \"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those\n    miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the\n    beast.\"--_Revelation xiii. 14._\n\n    \"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.\"--_Ephesians v.\n    14._\n\n\nJust where the natural and the supernatural exists is a most difficult\npsychological problem. Many marvellous doings and strange apparitions,\nfrom the beginning, were attributed to the supernatural. These same\nwonders are now known to be the application of physical and psychological\nlaws. The \"enchanters,\" \"soothsayers,\" \"diviners,\" \"magicians,\" and\n\"fortune tellers\" have awed the simple-minded and superstitious in all\nages. A clear understanding of Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Telepathy, Odylic\nForce, Psychological Phenomena, Clairvoyance, Black Art, and Spiritism,\nwill throw light on many of these supposed supernatural mysteries. Under\nwhatever name demonstrations may be known, they are all various phases of\ncertain well-established laws touching our physical, mental, and psychical\nbeing.\n\nOne of the most common, and best understood, of these mystery workings is\nHypnotism which, defined, is \"an artificial trance, or an artificially\ninduced state, in which the mind becomes passive.\" The subject, however,\nacts readily upon suggestion or direction; and upon regaining normal\nconsciousness, retains little or no recollection of the actions or ideas\ndominant during this condition. Hypnotism is purely mental and physical;\nbut this strange power which one can exercise over another strikingly\nillustrates the influence which Satan exercises over millions of blinded\nsubjects. We shall avoid any attempt to discuss the science and philosophy\nof Hypnotism; this phase of the subject is not germane to our discussion.\n\nAll these subtle laws of mind, acting in relation to the body, only now\nbeing understood by scholars, are undoubtedly familiar to our common\nEnemy. We believe that centuries before man knew anything about psychic\nlaws, as understood to-day, strange, unaccountable influences were\noperating on the wills and consciences of men. Hypnotism is a form of\nsleep; but during the time the subject can receive and obey instructions.\nThey are absolutely under the control of the hypnotist.\n\nPaul caught an extraordinary vision of sin when he exclaimed to the\nEphesians: \"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.\" Here is a\nfearful figure of sin: that it is sleep--semi-consciousness--\nunconsciousness; yet they think, act, move about, enjoy, love, hate, etc.,\netc., and they are as one asleep. Observe this state is, if allowed to\nremain _in articulo mortis_, Hypnotism, conducted by the Master of Black\nArt; and they obey his will, over against observation, warning, wisdom,\nexperience of others, even of themselves. Voices may call loud and long,\nbut do not awaken the soul under the satanic spell.\n\nThere are many freaks of hypnotic influence which illustrate vividly the\npower of sin--and back of the sin, the sin Personality. We have seen\nsubjects placed under hypnotic sleep, and they would remain in this\ncondition for twenty-four hours. The demonstration was made in a large\ndepartment store, facing a stone-paved street, which roared day and night\nwith cars and heavy traffic. Hundreds of people swarmed about the sleeping\nman, laughing and talking loudly. Not until the hypnotist came and touched\nthe subject did he arouse from the heavy slumber.\n\nA still more remarkable demonstration is reported to have been\naccomplished in an Eastern city. We give as authority the _Associated\nPress_. After the subject was placed under the hypnotic trance, he was\ndressed like one being prepared for burial, then put in a coffin, hauled\nto the cemetery in a hearse. The \"corpse\" was then lowered in a grave of\nthe proper depth, the grave filled to the ground level. The air tube from\nthe coffin to the top was large enough to enable a light to be reflected\non the face of the sleeper. \"Buried alive,\" said the report. He was left\nin the grave several hours.\n\nIf superior mind force can accomplish such marvellous feats on human will,\nwhat may we expect from supernatural mind force with a burning ambition to\nsubdue? The columns of our _dailies_ are filled with reports of the doings\nof men and women that cannot be explained on any other hypothesis. Think\nof the insane, unreasonable, illogical risk in all manner of sin--for\nwhat? A momentary taste of some \"forbidden fruit.\" We hear that\nself-preservation is the first law of our being; but how often this law is\nutterly ignored for sensuous gratification. Those who do these things are\nunable to understand their insane conduct until it is all over. \"Oh, I can\nsee it all now,\" is the despairing cry so often heard. Of course, the\nhypnotic spell is removed. How easy it is to sit and philosophize on the\nactions of people. \"Why would any sane person do such a thing?\" A sane\nperson would not; the why of all these human twists is very simple when we\nare willing to admit the literal teaching of God's book concerning our\nindefatigable Enemy. \"The apostate angel and his followers by pride and\nblasphemy against God and malice against men became liars and murderers by\ntempting men to do sins\" (Jude 6, R. V.).\n\nWhy did the Prodigal Son do such an insane, sinful act? Why? Well, he came\nto himself, but not until the harm was wrought. Why have ten thousand\nprodigals since that day been guilty of the same insane conduct? The\nanswer is obvious. Why did Judas sell his Lord?--He who had been so highly\nhonoured: chosen, ordained, sent out? \"Satan entered into Judas;\" there\nyou have the whole truth. By and by, Judas came to himself; then remorse\nand despair not only caused him to return the money, but destroy himself.\n\nIn a subsequent chapter we shall discuss more particularly the suicide\nproblem; but we are satisfied Judas was a victim of two satanic schemes:\nthe hypnotic spell deadened his reason and judgment to do the deed; then,\nafter the Crucifixion, despair gripped him like a vice. Who would say that\nJudas was excluded from the Saviour's dying prayer: \"Father forgive them\"?\nPeter denied Christ, then lied and blasphemed about it. He was restored;\nbut Satan's power over Judas was not broken. His end was Satan's finished\nwork. What he did to Judas he purposes to do with every \"subject\"--utter\ndestruction.\n\nWe once saw a snake charm a bird; the serpent's head was lifted several\ninches--eyes blazing, and red tongue flashing. The bird fluttered, gave a\npiteous wail, but was helplessly walking into the jaws of death. Now the\nquestion arises: what about the freedom of the will? Do we ever cease to\nbe free agents? Certainly we do not; the hypnotic subject exercises free\nchoice; that is never destroyed, but he acts under a compelling _vis\nuturga_--power behind.\n\n\n\n\nXXVII\n\nDEVIL POSSESSION\n\n    \"As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed\n    with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb\n    spake.\"--_Matthew ix. 32-33._\n\n    \"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good\n    things?\"--_Matthew xii. 34._\n\n\nOne characteristic, which has been prominent in the varied manifestations\nof Satan studied so far, is adaptability. Methods that were available in\nthe days of our Lord cannot be used successfully now. By some secret\nunknown to us the Devil enters into the souls of men. This is a mystery;\nso is, also, the filling of the Holy Spirit a mystery. The Devil possessed\nKing Saul, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, and many are the instances\nrecorded in the ministry of the Saviour. Devil possession, it seemed, was\nvery common; Christ was continually casting them out, and He also gave His\nApostles power likewise to cast them out.\n\nWe do not believe the Enemy has abandoned his old profession: an evil\nspirit despises a disembodied state; if people are fortified and shielded\nagainst his entrance--then the swine. As cold air whistles and roars about\nevery crack and cranny, entering in from all directions, so evil\nspirits--Devil and demons--press their entrance into the soul. If it is\ntrue they cannot enter except by permission,--they pry and pound until\nresistance is impossible, unless divine reinforcement comes to the rescue.\n\nThere are maniacs, violent, desperate, incurable, to-day as truly demon\npossessed as was the man who lived among the tombs. This, however, is not\nhis modern _modus operandi_; desperate maniacs could then terrorize a\nwhole community. Our great asylums have solved this problem; even the\nimmediate family is relieved of the burden and fear. Those who do not\naccept the theory of demon possession should explain a case at present in\none of our institutions. It is a boy, at the time it attracted attention,\nonly twelve years of age, thin, emaciated, and by no means abnormal in any\nparticular. This child would remain quiet for days; during this time he\npossessed no strength beyond one of his age. At unexpected moments he\nwould be seized with violent contortions, frothing at the mouth, and\nsnapping like a mad dog; and a continuous flow of the most obscene\nlanguage and blasphemy while the spell lasted. This is not the strangest\npart: he had the strength of a giant; it required four or five men to\noverpower him. One man was helpless in his hands; he would literally hurl\nthem to the floor. Compare this story with the one in the fifth chapter of\nMark: \"And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out\nof the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the\ntombs; and no man could bind him, no not with chains, because that he had\nbeen often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked\nasunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man\ntame him.\"\n\nIn countries where the gospel light has not yet shown full-orbed, demon\npossession with manifestations similar to those of Bible times are known\nto be common. F. B. Meyer relates numerous cases in Russia; many by prayer\nwere cast out in the name of Jesus Christ. \"I confess,\" he says, \"these\nincidents have greatly impressed me. I wonder how far it would be right to\ndeal with certain forms of drunkenness and impurity as cases of\ndemon-possession. It may be there is more of this demon work among us than\nwe know, and especially in cases of mania.\" Dr. Howard Taylor, of the\nChina Island Mission, it is said, was accustomed to diagnose the symptoms\nof demon-possession in the same way as of any other disease. Dr. Nevins,\nof the Presbyterian Mission Board, tells of hundreds of cases, witnessed\nby himself, where by faith in the Son of God the demons were cast out, and\nthe victims were clothed and in their right mind.\n\nCotton Mather says of Salem witchcraft: \"Those persons said to be\nbewitched would swoon, froth at the mouth, their bodies would cramp into\nirregular shapes; meanwhile they would utter accusations against good\npeople who, they said, had bewitched them. This excited sympathy of the\ncourt. As soon as the court rendered judgment, those bewitched victims\nwould be relieved of their physical cramps and mental torture.\" Salem\nwitchcraft was real cases of demon-possession, but the court blundered in\nthat the demons were located in the wrong persons.\n\nSir Walter Scott says that similar manifestations of Satan as were\nwitnessed at the time of the Salem witchcraft occurred simultaneously in\nevery country on earth. He writes again: \"Anna Cole, living at Hartford,\nwas taken with strange fits which caused her to express strange things\nunknown to herself, her tongue being guided by a demon. She confessed to\nthe minister that she had been familiar with a devil.\" Pages could be\nfilled with modern examples which coincide so exactly with New Testament\nrecords that we have no doubt the causes are the same.\n\nProfessor Webster, late of Wheaton College, said in a lecture before the\nstudents: \"I once knew a man possessed of a demon. He became so vicious\nthat he had to be confined in a cell in jail. When he heard any one swear\nor blaspheme, he would go into convulsions of laughter. When any one used\nthe name of God or Christ, he would curse everything good, and foam at the\nmouth. He possessed superhuman strength, like the man living among the\ntombs.\"\n\nThe soul is God's masterpiece, created to be the habitat of the Paraclete,\nbut may, as truly, become the habitat of a demon. We believe that Diabolus\nhas so organized his forces that his minions represent various sins; they\nare specialists--skilled labourers: drink demons, lust demons, lying\ndemons, anger demons, theft demons, pride, blasphemy, etc. Demon\npossession to-day expresses itself in sins we try to control by means of\ncourts, education, etc. Homes become a miniature hell because of drink,\npride, lust, or lying demons.\n\nOur penitentiaries are crowded with men who were controlled by a demon,\nforced them into drink, anger, or theft, until the deed was committed. We\nmay feel thankful that there are so few Scriptural cases of demon\npossession about us--the old time possession. The wise Enemy has shifted,\nbut at the same time has greatly enlarged his field of operation. There\nare no witch victims to-day: the courts would not punish the witches, but\nthe bewitched would be safely cared for in an asylum. But observe, there\nare ten thousand other insidious ways in which he possesses men and women,\nenlarging his kingdom daily; his victims multiply, but not among the\ntombs. The name of Jesus continues to be the only remedy.\n\n\n\n\nXXVIII\n\nDEVIL OPPRESSION\n\n    \"So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with\n    sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown.\"--_Job ii. 7._\n\n    \"Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the\n    devil.\"--_Acts x. 38._\n\n\nA necessary concomitant of demon possession is its influence upon the\nindividual's moral faculties; an entirely new type of moral tastes are\ndeveloped: tempers, sympathies, and, especially, doctrines which are\ndiametrically opposed to genuine spiritual religion and revelation. Demon\npossession bitterly and persistently rejects, whether by a nominal\nprofessor or unbeliever, the doctrines of repentance, new birth, etc.,\nthrough a blood atonement.\n\nIn demon possession the fight is on the inside; in demon oppression the\nfight is on the outside. In the one, Satan controls the man: body, mind\nand soul; in the other, he depresses, afflicts the man: body, mind, and\nsoul. In the one, the victim is the incarnation of evil; in the other the\nvictim is generally the purest and holiest of men and women.\n\nThe Devil or demons may be ejected by the power of the Holy Ghost, but the\nhellish enterprise is never given up; all the engineering of the pit is\nutilized to keep ransomed souls out of the kingdom. Once a choice is made,\nall hell is aroused unto wrath and riot to torment, nag, and finally drag\nthe discouraged pilgrim back into sin and apostasy. This is often\naccomplished successfully through an afflicted body. Who knows but that\nthe drama enacted in the land of Uz has been repeated many, many times\nsince Job sat on his ash pile?\n\n\"But,\" says the objector, \"sickness and disease come as a result of\nexposure, natural laws violated, inoculation by infection and contagion.\"\nTrue, but remember he is the \"prince of the power of the air.\" What he did\nonce he can do again, and more efficiently. Think of the strenuous war\nbeing waged on germs, microbes, and bacilli; we have diseases more violent\nthan ever before. Yet when the race of life was less complicated and\nsimple, none of the modern precautions were thought of; flies swarmed\nabout everything placed on the table, and their mission thought to be one\nof beneficence. There are many actual and implied statements in the Bible\nwhich teach that disease and sickness are often the result of demon\noppression; a large part of our Lord's ministry was relieving those who\nwere oppressed of the Devil and demons.\n\nThen his work is just as effective in the realm of the mind; the mental\nfaculties, filled with confusion and doubt, are incapable of exercising\ntheir normal functions. Multitudes are able, because of their\nintelligence, to guard the approaches through the physical organism, or to\nthe extent of subjection at least; but are as completely oppressed in mind\nas others are in body. We do not claim that any are entirely immune from\nhis attacks; but he is wise and sagacious enough to select such victims\nfor specific oppression as will best satisfy and gratify his diabolical\npleasure in seeing the followers of his rival suffer. He oppresses only\nsuch as he is unable to possess. Many have been so troubled mentally that\nChristian living becomes a life and death struggle. Here we find another\nexample of \"wrestling not with flesh and blood.\"\n\nBut some of Satan's greatest victories and rejoicings come from soul\noppression. We believe this to be the real secret of our Lord's agony in\nthe garden; it was the Devil's last opportunity to thwart the great plan\nof salvation. Oh, to cheat Calvary; put our \"Lamb slain from the\nfoundation of the world\" in such physical, mental, and soul burdened agony\nHe would refuse at the last moment to do all the will of His Father. How\nnear he came to accomplishing the diabolical scheme we learn from the\nstory as given by inspiration. We remember His piteous remark as they left\nthe Paschal room: \"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death\";\nthen He cries out in anguish: \"If it is possible, let this cup pass from\nMe.\" Never was He nearer the great Father heart, and never was He more a\nman than at this time; and as a man, perhaps during the terrible crisis,\nHe did not analyze His sufferings and emotions. All the powers of hell\nwere combined to crush Him at the hour for which He came into the world.\n\nEvery student of soul tragedy can appreciate, in a limited degree, the\nexperiences of Gethsemane. Paul had this exact experience in mind when he\nwrote of the \"evil days\" in which we had to \"wrestle.\" What are evil\ndays? Days when the heavens are brass, and the fountains of prayer are\ndried up; a cold, sinking sensation clutches the heart. The mind is in a\njumble, plans are thwarted, the mail brings a message of some deception or\nbetrayal, the hand slips, fires go out, trains missed, pressing duties\nremain undone; nervous anxiety and evil forebodings chill the soul. The\nmind and heart are filled with dread; cold perspiration swells into beads\nupon the brow. Evil days! Oh, how we stumble and blunder; we cannot even\nthink of advancement. Paul says we can only stand still, and having done\nall, stand. Many who are not familiar with the nature of such \"days\" will\ncast away their faith, believing that their \"feelings\" are the index to\nthe state of grace in the heart.\n\nBut, thank God, a crushing defeat came to this traitor-prince in that the\nfull programme leading up to the world's great Atonement was carried out\nto the letter. It was not the physical fear of death which caused the\nblood-sweating agony of our Lord; if so, thousands have met the martyr's\nend far more triumphantly than did He. Some believe it was the weight of\nthe world's sin breaking His heart. Both the physical dread of death and\nsin burden may have entered into the garden tragedy; but it was, we repeat\nwith emphasis, the myrmidons of hell taking the advantage of His humanity\nat the crisis of His life: _It was Devil Oppression_.\n\nDevil oppression does not always come in a diseased body, a confused mind,\nor in days of soul depression. But sometimes they are new, instantaneous,\nfierce, overwhelming, and always from different angles and approaches. A\nvile suggestion, a remembered sin, long ago under the blood, a strong\ninclination to commit revolting deeds. An eminent, and deeply-pious divine\nof the South tells in his autobiography that while alone in his study, in\nmeditation and prayer, he was strangely assaulted by the Devil. For more\nthan an hour the inclination to blaspheme was almost beyond his control;\nit seemed that vile oaths would well up in his mouth and almost leap from\nhis tongue. So terrible was the attack that deliverance came only after a\nlong struggle on his face crying out audibly to God. Then the dark cloud\nof bat-winged vampires, almost visible, left as mysteriously as they came.\nIt was Devil Oppression.\n\n\n\n\nXXIX\n\nDEVIL ABDUCTION\n\n    \"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some\n    shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits.\"--_1\n    Timothy iv. 1._\n\n    \"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of\n    light.\"--_2 Corinthians xi. 14._\n\n\nWe used the above Scriptures in a former chapter, but with special\nreference to \"doctrines\"; the part we wish to emphasize now, \"giving heed\nto seducing spirits\": that is to say, be led away or abducted by the Devil\nor demon. There are four classes of people who may be subjected to the\nseductive influence of evil spirits. We should keep in mind that the\n\"prince of this world\" and his emissaries were once angels, and of course,\nwhen necessary, can bring their angelic attributes into seductive\nusefulness.\n\nOne of the problems facing the Church and all religious workers is to keep\nthe converts or communicants in line; steady them in the presence of\ndeflecting influences. The Church is suffering from the inroads of every\nconceivable brand: isms, cults, fads, worldliness, etc., which always\nmean, not only usefulness paralyzed, but the loss of Church and Bible\nideals. How many among us who once ran well, but are now tilted,\nside-tracked, derailed, and ditched. We are encompassed about with ten\nthousand plausible, seductive tenets, arguments and theories, which if\nyielded to will result in utter religious ruin.\n\nThere are four classes of possible victims, all sincere and\nconscientious, none of which are basely wicked. First: the unregenerate\nwho are blindly seeking the light, but following the inner voice and\npromptings, rather than the Word of God. These become easy victims to the\ncharms (?) of Christian Science, Theosophy, Spiritualism, Mormonism, etc.\nOnce inducted, there follows a mental refreshing, and a carnal peace,\nwhich bring the \"soul rest\" and \"assurance\" they eagerly sought. These\ncults are lauded and believed as modern \"revelations,\" but they are only\n_new clothes_ stretched over the dried mental mummies which lived and\nmoved in the early centuries and dead civilizations. Various shades and\ndeductions from old Hindoo philosophy, Egyptian magic, Gnosticism,\nStoicism, \u00c6stheticism, Asceticism are paraded so as to catch the cultured,\ntwentieth century devotee. In whatever form it may come, the beauty\nworshippers of \u00c6stheticism, the mental anesthetics of Christian Science,\nor the debasing sensuality of Mormonism, it is \"led away by the Devil or a\ndemon.\"\n\nA writer on modern Spirits says: \"Extraordinary spiritism of to-day is but\nthe continuation of the worship of the old idol Tammuz, as worshipped by\nthe corrupt Israelites and Canaanites, and the Adonis, as worshipped by\nthe Greeks. The indecent practices of these mediums made it necessary to\nseek darkness to cover their vileness.\" Ezekiel, in the eighth chapter,\nspeaks of it; the Delphic Oracle practiced the same iniquity: the\npersonification of lust.\n\nThe second class of possible victims is the regenerated believer or\nnominal professor of religion. It is the belief of the writer that no\ngreater havoc is being wrought anywhere in the realm of religious\naspiration than is being done to-day among professing church-members,\nsane, perchance--who once knew the secrets of saving faith. To this class\nthere seems to be two horns in the dilemma of abduction. As an eminent\nauthor says: \"If we give the preponderant attention to the providences\nwhich appertain to the body, there is danger of becoming deistical and\nmaterialistic in our views. If we study the word alone, without due\nappreciation of the Spirit and providence, there is danger of drifting\naway into dead formality, drying up, becoming creedistic, theoretical, and\nunspiritual.\"\n\nWhat can check the materialistic trend of the times? What can save the\nChurch from reflex influences of modern materialism? Somehow, we have\nreached the place where things must appeal to the senses: we must taste,\nhandle, smell, see, etc.; things in the Church, as well as out, have\njostled down to a metallic basis: something for so much. In the same\ndegree, deny it as we will, our religion ceases to be a religion of faith.\nThen, on the other hand, the history of Christendom from the beginning,\nwithout an exception, proves the second horn to the dilemma: as we lose\nthe spiritual afflatus, we become ceremonial. Upon this reef of rocks our\nChurch is crashing to-day. We see only the material; we have a mania for\nstatistics, figures. Our Sunday-schools seek organization, grades,\nbanners, honour rolls, numbers. Great schools are pushed with enthusiasm\nby unconverted officers and teachers. About ninety per cent. swarm out\nand away from the Church and rarely if ever remain for the preaching of\nthe Word. In fearful, glaring reality we can see in all this ceremonialism\nand dress parade Demoniacal Abduction.\n\nThe third class is much smaller; they are the select few who live in the\ninner circle of things. Having been brought from darkness unto light they\nseek to walk in all the light, and to live continually in the good,\nacceptable, and perfect will of God. This class are the sworn,\nuncompromising enemies of Satan's kingdom; but often their zeal is without\nknowledge. Perchance, many are weak and unlearned. Satan will leave the\nmultitude of mystery workers and formalists to make havoc among these\nsaintly ones. All that he accomplishes here cuts like a two-edged sword:\nthe individual ruin, and the deadening, paralyzing influence to the cause\nof truth. By what method does he gain access? Abduction is only possible\nhere where preponderant emphasis is placed on the leadership of the Spirit\nwithout careful, diligent adhesion to the Word. The Word is the Spirit's\nweapon; without it he is handicapped. What is the result? Fanaticism,\ndreams, visions, wild-fire, extreme positions on dress, food, domestic\nrelations, etc., until they are \"led away by a demon beyond recall.\"\nShipwrecked, \"affinities,\" free love, infidelity, are inevitable. Wherever\nsocieties, communities, or churches become inoculated with the virus of\nany of these phases of fanaticism--untold harm surely follows. The Devil\nis responsible for the religious \"craze,\" and will then exaggerate by lies\nand misrepresentation before the unbelievers.\n\nThe fourth class are, of all, the most to be pitied, and no work of the\n\"angel of the pit\" is so hellish as his operation and strategy upon an\nawakened soul. Those who are in religious work are grieved continually at\nseeing the process chilled and defeated at a point which would soon result\nin deliverance from the bondage of evil. Satan actually assumes the person\nof the Holy Ghost. Strange and amazing as this sounds, it is nevertheless\ntrue. As soon as the soul is awakened he assumes a general godfather sort\nof relation to the penitent one. Advice and suggestions flood his mind:\nhis pride, clothes, reputation, business, and all are used as arguments.\n\"You should be a Christian--join the church--it is your duty; but when you\nmake a start, _be sure_ you have a genuine experience. You are\nconscientious--anything but a hypocrite with you. Now this is not an\nopportune time, etc., etc.,\" on and on, until the penitent refuses to\narise and go to his Father's house. Procrastination; Satan literally drags\nhim away from the mercy seat.\n\nHow can he do this? Where is the Holy Ghost all this time? Why does He not\nprotect His identity? So long as a man is in sin he has a nature that is\nnot subject to the law of God, and cannot be: carnal mind, old man. On\nthis territory Satan has right of way; under the guise of one seeking to\nhelp them in their confusion and sorrow, he manipulates until prevenient\ngrace is grieved away. The poor deluded soul has been \"led away by a\ndemon.\" It is Devil Abduction.\n\n\n\n\nXXX\n\nTHE RATIONALE OF SUICIDE\n\n    \"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and went and\n    hanged himself.\"--_Matthew xxvii. 5._\n\n    \"He drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that\n    the prisoners had been fled.\"--_Acts xvi. 27._\n\n\nThe Devil was a murderer from the beginning of human history; his first\nbloodshed was fratricide--growing out of religious jealousy. He is the\nfather of murder and murderers. This crime, provoked or unprovoked, is\nmonstrous; the passions that incite it were born in the pit. Then what may\nbe said of self-murder: suicide? It is the most fearful, unnatural,\nabnormal of all forms of demise. Every impulse of reason and judgment\nrevolts at the thought. The Master Himself drew back from death; the Book\nsays death is an enemy.\n\nVarious and satisfactory explanations always follow the news of suicide,\n\"financial reverses,\" \"ill health,\" \"public exposure,\" \"domestic\ntroubles,\" \"melancholia,\" etc., etc. These explanations will not stand\nunder the light of close scrutiny; reverses and misfortunes are generally\ncontributing causes, but not sufficient to answer fully the horrors of\nsuicide.\n\nWe hesitate to discuss this gruesome subject, but the character study of\nthese pages would not be complete without it. We speak not with any degree\nof dogmatism or claim of superior insight to hidden truth, but in the\nfear of God we are persuaded that not a single case of suicide, since the\nrace took up its painful march, came about from natural causes. Satan, the\nembodiment of monstrosities, is responsible.\n\nSuicide is numbered among our vexing problems; reckoned on the basis of\npopulation, suicide has increased one hundred and fifty per cent. in two\ndecades. Scientists are tremendously interested; thoughtful people are\nalarmed. Psychological and sociological authorities tell us that\n_poverty_, _disappointed affection_, and _dissipation_ are the chief\ncauses. The problem can never be solved by social and scientific\nspeculation. We must cross over the borderland into the supernatural\nbefore all the angles of the problem are met and satisfied.\n\nThere is some strange history connected with suicide. Greek philosophers\nwrote about it; whether among heathen or civilized peoples, it was\nconsidered a disgrace. The Greeks buried them at night--on the public\nhighways, and without religious ceremonies; and their goods were\nconfiscated for the Crown.\n\nWe wish to emphasize a former statement: suicide is _unnatural_; it sets\naside her first law. The law of self-preservation holds good in every walk\nof life; when we cease to love life, the deepest principle of our being is\nout of balance. The body is holy, and when it is destroyed, the highest\n_felo de se_ is committed; not only so, it is assuming the prerogative\nwhich belongs alone to God. \"It is appointed unto man once to die.\" Life\nis a sacred gift.\n\nThere are two kinds of suicide: the responsible and irresponsible. The\nfirst often appears to have been deliberately planned, the act of a sane,\nrational mind. However, the best alienists say some phase of insanity\nalways accompanies this rash act. The second are mentally deranged, for\nwhich there are many causes. Two classes, also, as to character are found\namong the unfortunates: the religious and irreligious. What then may we\nconclude from the most mysterious tragedy on earth?\n\nSatan always scores a victory when a neighbourhood is shocked by the news\nof a suicide; the victory is direct and indirect. If the victim is\nprepared or unprepared, sane or insane, the crime can somehow never be\nforgiven. A strange demoralizing influence is always felt; a feeling of\nhorror and depression. If the victim is pious, and many, many are the most\ndevout in the church, do they forfeit their salvation by the _felo de se_?\nNot necessarily. Now we wish to say here, with every word underscored: _no\nsane, devout person will destroy themselves_. Where, then, is the motive\nand victory of Satan? Much, every way. The whole church or community will\nbe religiously paralyzed. It is generally believed that no self-murderer\ncan be saved. But behold a sainted mother in Israel found hanging in the\nbarn: we have in mind just such an incident, and remember also the gloom,\nthe depression, the silent whispers, the downcast look on the faces of all\nwho knew her. Satan may know that he has nothing directly to gain, but,\nindirectly, doubt and discouragement prevail. Anything to get the world to\ndoubt God.\n\nA very devout man, writing of a personal experience, says: \"There seemed\nto be some designing spirit near me for days that constantly whispered in\nmy ear, and sometimes it seemed almost audible, \"Go kill thyself; you have\ndisgraced your Redeemer and you are not fit to live.\" Scores of such\ntestimonies are on record.\n\nThink of the logical traps used by the Designer to incite the deed: if\npoverty, \"My family will be cared for better than I can.\" If a suffering\nbody, \"This will cure me of my pain.\" If fear of exposure, \"That will end\nit--charity will forgive me then.\" If hopeless over some sin, \"Better die\nthan face the disgrace. It will solve all the problems,\" says the Tempter.\nIt is often remarked concerning some one: \"How cowardly;\" but it is not\ncowardice; it is inability to answer the Devil's logic to commit suicide.\n\nAgain, gruesome as it is, and here is more strange evidence in favour of\nthe satanic explanation: It is fearfully contagious. Professor Bailey, of\nYale, said that the report of a suicide by any special method will be\nfollowed by others in the same manner. Morbid, despondent people hear of\nit and follow the example. That which should be revolting in the extreme\npossesses a strange charm. Ingersol toured the country at one time\nadvocating suicide as the best way out of life's difficulties. Many took\nhis advice and a fearful epidemic followed. One young man in a rural\ncommunity of Illinois committed suicide; three others, all associates,\nfollowed in a few weeks. No special motive could be given for either. We\nare forced to place the blame where it belongs, and sympathize with the\nvictims.\n\n\n\n\nXXXI\n\nDEVIL WORSHIP\n\n    \"Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of\n    his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with\n    abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils,\n    not to God; to gods whom they knew not.\"--_Deuteronomy xxxii. 15-17._\n\n    \"But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed\n    to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have\n    fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the\n    cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and the\n    table of devils.\"--_1 Corinthians x. 20-21._\n\n\nSatan's consuming passion is thirst for power. He is the \"prince of\ndarkness,\" but also the \"god of this world,\" and this long period of\nsatanic rule is called _night_. God's glorious Sabbath of rest was\nsuperseded by the black intervention of toil and suffering. Satan's\nscheming fight has been for the rulership of this world. He succeeded in\nwinning the entire antediluvian world, which to save the coming\ngenerations necessitated the Flood. He began adroitly with the only\nremaining family; swept the postdiluvian peoples into midnight heathenism.\nTo-day, nearly one billion descendants of Noah worship not God--but\n_demonian_--demons, just what the Greeks and Romans worshipped in\nApostolic times. No less than two hundred and fifty million are devil\nworshippers by name.\n\nSatan began his fight of opposition by assuming the form or incarnating\nhimself in the body of a snake. Therefore it is not an accident, growing\nout of mythological tradition, that serpent worship has been the chief\nreligion of many peoples. The Egyptians worshipped Set, which personified\nall evil--enemy of all good--they called Typhon, a monstrous serpent-like\nanimal. To this god human sacrifices were offered on great religious\nholidays. It is no accident that the millions who know not the true God\nnevertheless, some way, learned to worship the Devil, and generally in the\nform of a serpent. The Egyptians had a serpent-god in Typhon; the\nCanaanites worshipped a snake in the days of Abraham; the Babylonians\nworshipped Python, which is a specie of the most deadly reptile on earth,\nand another name for Typhon. On the monuments and tablets of many dead\ncivilizations the engravings of serpents show their particular customs of\ndevil worship. The American Indians were snake worshippers; in Ohio an\naltar more than a half mile in length remains in good preservation. This\naltar is one of the wonders, being a perfect outline of a gigantic snake.\nWe readily see that tribal association and tradition have had nothing to\ndo with the customs of our own aborigines; the same being who inspired the\npeoples of the Old Orient, millenniums ago, to worship the snake-devil\ninspired our red men in his primeval forest.\n\nDavid speaks of demon worship: \"Yea they sacrificed their sons and\ndaughters unto _Shadim_.\" Jereboam built places to worship evil spirits;\nthe ordained priests to serve the altars of \"Satyrs,\" and children were\noffered. The Molech of the Canaanites was also devil worship; when the\nIsraelites forgot God, they \"caused their children to pass through the\nfire unto Molech,\" an evil god. The damsel whom Paul delivered possessed\nthe spirit of Python--the snake. The priestesses of the Delphic oracles\nprophesied by the spirit of Python; this was the dominant religion\nthroughout Greece. The Aztec war god of the Montezumas, where two hundred\nand fifty thousand human skulls were found in the temple, was a bloody\nsystem of devil worship. The Yezidis of Persia, descendants of the early\nPython worshippers, worship the Devil to-day, and are known as such.\n\nWe are not confined to heathenism, ancient or modern, to find the same\nreligion of \"divinations.\" The best authorities of Spiritualism believe\nthat the supernatural, occult demonstrations, as produced in their\ns\u00e9ances, are from demon agencies. The whole system of mythology grew out\nof what is to-day the work of mediums. The Old Testament is filled with\nstatements concerning \"familiar spirits\"; they heard voices, received\nmessages, saw physical disturbances--just as may be witnessed at any\nspiritual s\u00e9ance. The most reliable of mediums do not deny that evil\nspirits (damned demons) come to them at times. One fact is noteworthy:\nwhen men and women become spiritists, they discard all the essentials of\nthe Christian faith. They are modern types of demon possession. It is no\nunusual thing during a s\u00e9ance to hear a regular clash of voices:\nblasphemy, oaths, vulgar, obscene language, terrible threats, etc.\n\nWhat connection do we find between Devil worship and modern Spiritualism?\nFirst, the moral condition among the spiritists is exactly as it was among\nthe ancient priests and priestesses in the temples of Devil worship; they\nliterally worshipped the Devil in their corrupt, degrading practices. Now,\namong the votaries of Spiritualism, every iniquity, crime, and indecency\nknown among men and women are daily carried on. Such is the testimony of\none of their travelling lecturers. One of their noted mediums when under\ncontrol delivered this message: \"Curse the marriage institution; cursed be\nthe relation of husband and wife; cursed be all who sustain the legal\nmarriage.\" From what source could we expect such a vile deliverance?\n\nSecond, their mediums actually pray to Satan. One of their advocates at\nthe opening of a debate with a Christian minister at San Jose, Cal.,\nprayed in the following language: \"O Devil, Prince of Demons in the\nChristian's Hell; oh, thou Monarch of the bottomless pit; thou King of\nScorpions, I beseech thee to hear my prayer. Thou seest the terrible\nstraits in which I am placed, matched in debate with a big gun of\nChristianity. Remember, O Prince of Brimstone, that when thou stretchest\nforth thine arm the Christian God cannot stand before thee for a moment.\nBless thy servant in his labours for thee; fill his mouth with wisdom;\nenable him to defend thee from the false charges of thy sulphurous\nMajesty, so that this audience may know and realize that thou art a prayer\nhearing and a prayer answering devil\" (abbreviated). Similar prayers are\nfrequently published in the _Banner of Light_, the organ of this cult;\nprayers formulated in the same language as prayers offered to the God of\nheaven.\n\nIt cannot be doubted that Pagan religion and modern Spiritualism are Devil\nworship, shifting under various forms and ceremonies in different ages and\nplaces. Rev. B. Clough, missionary in Ceylon, says: \"I now state, and I\nwish it to be heard in every corner of the Christian world, that the devil\nis regularly, systematically, and ceremoniously worshipped by a large\nmajority of the inhabitants of the Island of Ceylon.\" We repeat: his\nconsuming passion is to be worshipped.\n\n\n\n\nXXXII\n\nVICTORY THROUGH THE VICTOR\n\n    \"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is\n    he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ\n    is the Son of God?\"--_1 John v. 4-5._\n\n    \"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because\n    greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.\"--_1 John\n    iv. 4._\n\n\nOne of the grave dangers of to-day is that Satan is no longer regarded as\na Personality. Even among those whose faith is founded on the word of God,\nthe idea of an orthodox devil smacks of superstition and an exploded hoax\nfrom the Dark Ages. \"Let us hear the love side of the gospel; away with\nthis devil and hell business--it's too dreadful,\" they declare. His real\nexistence and personality are ridiculed in many pulpits and lecture\nplatforms. When these ideas become common among the people who think, a\nwide open field remains for him to work unmolested.\n\nWe can also go to the other extreme: that is, to think him a greater being\nthan the Son of God. Those who have followed us through these chapter\nstudies will, we fear, come to some such conclusion. Who can be equal for\nsuch a mighty Prince? Now this biography was undertaken that we might have\na full, life-sized photo of our Enemy. In this we cannot exaggerate the\ntrue status of the case; any less conception of Satan than we have\nportrayed will put us at a serious disadvantage in the life struggle. He\nis a real foe, and we must meet him in the open, under cover, and\ninvisibly. Let it be written in black-faced caps, and heavily underscored:\nSatan is all we can find out about him--plus, with emphasis on the plus.\nWe want to keep in mind clearly the Enemy, the battle-ground, and the\nbattle; we can never match swords with him; to ignore him--big, cunning,\nsupernatural, eternally at it--will be the most dangerous folly.\n\nBut--there is victory, complete, overwhelming victory for every one who\nfights; but bear in mind it must be a fighter. There is one Name which\nnever fails to reverberate from the Throne of God to the cavernous pits of\ndarkness; this Name shakes loose the grip, untangles the web of all the\nallied powers of the Prince of Night. Satan is mighty, Jesus is almighty;\nhe met his Waterloo. Jesus was never defeated. His first defeat was when\nhe was an archangel; he was overthrown and cast out of heaven. Jesus said:\n\"I was present when Satan fell like lightning from heaven.\" He was also\ndefeated in the wilderness; again in the Garden, and at Calvary. In fact,\non every battle-field where he met the Lord Christ the defeat was\nstunning, humiliating. Now we are in mortal combat with him, and we must\nnot forget--he has been many times defeated. A writer says: \"We have the\nadvantage of fighting a defeated foe.\" Standing alone, we are doomed to\nutter defeat, capture, ruin; but if our fight is coupled with the Name of\nJesus, our triumph is as certain as our defeat will be without Him.\n\nSo long as we muster in as munitions of war our intellect,\nself-sufficiency, egotism, etc., the cohorts will laugh at our delusion.\nThere is but One who can out-general his maneuvres, silence his\nthunderings, checkmate his diabolical acumen, know his oily, snaky\napproaches, penetrate his angelic beneficence, understand his insidious\nschemes: that One knew him from the beginning, and--outranked him in\nheaven and conquered him on earth.\n\nThis question arises: If Satan has been conquered, and Jesus is yet\ncontending with him for world-wide supremacy--why the almost universal\ntriumph of evil? Why is true righteousness at such a discount? Why are the\nfighters failing and falling all around us? If these questions cannot be\nanswered with a degree of sound reasoning, the whole problem of life,\nBible, God, Atonement, Gospel are in a hopeless tangle. A Chinese puzzle\ndoes not compare with a riddle of everything worth while, visible and\ninvisible.\n\nSatan undoubtedly controls the machinery of this world. Then wherein is\nthe \"victory that overcometh the world\"? Let us keep in mind the power,\nresources, opportunities, organization, and management of Satan; also the\nblindness and bondage of sin, and--the Free Agency of Man. So long as man\nremains carnally-minded and free, the Enemy has undisputed right of way;\nwhile the heart is carnal, impure, unsanctified, the controlling motive\npower of man's life \"is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can\nbe.\" He has in his own bosom a traitor, an alien to the government of God.\n\"To be carnally minded is death,\" says Paul. The \"old leaven must be\npurged out\"; we must \"put off the old man (carnal mind) and his deeds, and\nput on the new man, etc.\" This putting off is absolutely necessary.\n\nJesus cannot only defeat Satan, but He can destroy the \"works of the\ndevil\"--one of which is the alien principle of our nature. \"For this\npurpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of\nthe Devil.\" The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus--the God-Man--is an\neverlasting Atonement and a propitiation for sin. Sin is the Rubicon of\nour battle; once we solve, in all its fullness, the problem of sin, we rob\nSatan of his fulcrum power. He came to Jesus and found nothing: no\navailability, no sin, no yielding, no fellowship. He was tempted, but\n_without sin_.\n\nOur victory must be twofold: first, through the merits of the Everlasting\nBlood Covenant we may be saved from sin unto salvation--reconciliation,\nforgiveness. Then by the fuller benefits of the Atonement we may \"enter\ninto the holiest by the Blood.\" Only the pure in heart can stand the\napproaches of Satan by way of our natural appetites. The triumphs of\nmodern surgery are only possible by means of sterilized instruments.\nPlease observe--with all the meaning that can be couched in language: the\nsinful, unregenerated heart is not only in danger of being overcome, but\nis already in blind bondage to Satan. The power of sin, both actual and\noriginal, must be broken by the pardoning grace of God through faith in\nthe Atoning Blood; and the heart cleansed and empowered by the Baptism of\nthe Holy Ghost.\n\nThe second inevitable concomitant of victory is copartnership with Jesus,\nthe Captain of our salvation--\"looking unto Jesus the author and finisher\nof our faith.\" Diabolus and his minions cannot stand before this Name. His\nfinal overthrow was when Jesus cried out on the Cross: \"It is finished.\"\nNow at the sight of Jesus, the Cross, or the Blood, the phalanx of\ndarkness slinks away. Let us lay hold of eternal life by an unfaltering\nfaith in the Blood that cleanseth, and \"The Name high over all: in earth,\nin heaven, in hell.\" \"And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb,\nand the word of their testimony.\" Amen and Amen.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIII\n\nTHE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT\n\n    \"For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he\n    knoweth that he hath but a short time.\"--_Revelation xii. 12._\n\n    \"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the\n    bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the\n    dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him\n    a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him\n    up, and set a seal upon him.\"--_Revelation xx. 1-3._\n\n\nThe fact of a possible victory through the Name of our great Conqueror\ndoes not alone satisfy all the items of the indictment. If such were the\nonly background to the picture, great as it is, the human drama is not\nonly a fierce tragedy, but a miserable farce. Thank God, personal victory\nis not all; there is a rift in the dark satanic cloud which has hung over\nthe world for so many millenniums. Satan is in great wrath, and his power\nand influence grow steadily stronger; more and more his iron grip fastens\nabout the throat of the world. The Apostasy of which Christ and His\nApostles wrote is becoming a reality.\n\nSatan will score one more gigantic victory; then is our \"blessed hope of\nHis glorious appearing,\" when He shall come and catch away His Bride--the\nChurch, both dead and alive; that part of His following who are united to\nHim and are earnestly yearning for His coming. This event is called by\ndevout scholars \"The Rapture.\" Just where, how, when, or how long, we have\nonly a vague prophetic conjecture. \"Where, Lord?\" they ask. \"And He said\nunto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered\ntogether.\"\n\nWhen the Rapture shall have taken place, Satan will have undisputed\ndominion; then shall the \"Man of Sin\" appear, setting himself up as\nGod--to be worshipped. His reign will be the Great Tribulation; all the\ninfluences of righteousness will, for the time, be removed--the earth will\nreek in corruption and bloodshed. It is implied that, so terrible will be\nthis time, divine intervention must necessarily shorten the Tribulation,\nelse no flesh will be left on the earth. The Great Tribulation will be the\nclimax of the Devil's rule on earth. It seems that he will incarnate\nhimself in a Man, giving him supernatural knowledge and power.\n\nHowever, something spectacular and sensational will soon occur. When the\nleader of a gang of thugs or desperadoes is arrested, his followers are\nfilled with fear and consternation; then think of the excitement. An Angel\nofficer will break in on the scene--yes, that is exactly what the Book\ntells us: the High Sheriff of Heaven will suddenly step down from\nheadquarters, and will lay hold--arrest the Old\nDragon--Satan--Devil--Serpent (observe all his names are mentioned).\nWhatever his titles and distinctions of the past have been, they will not\nsave him in that hour. The Apocalyptic Vision is unmistakable.\n\nSome can see in this wonderful language only an allegory: the good\ninfluences are to gradually bind the influences of evil, and to expect\nsuch an event as the literal arrest of the Devil is a wild, irrational,\nunscientific, unreasonable dream. Our Lord said, speaking of the time of\nthe end, that the same social conditions as prevailed in the days of Noah\nwere to be repeated: wicked ones waxing worse and worse; scarcely any\nliving in the fear of God. To expect to see a gradual regeneration of\nsociety, politics, commerce, and the Church--until evil will be overruled,\nchained as it were--seems to be a gigantic travesty on language and the\nteaching of the Bible.\n\nWe prefer to stand by the Book rather than human interpretation--fixed up\nto justify the methods and results of modern religious propaganda. An\nangel appears--evidently an archangel: one belonging to the rank of which\nthe fallen Prince formerly belonged. This Sheriff of the skies is equipped\nfor his undertaking; Officers carry handcuffs with which to bind\nprisoners--the angel has a great chain in his hand; he lays hold--arrests\nthe old skulking, hateful, murderous Devil. This angel-officer has also a\nkey, and it is the key which locks the door of the bottomless pit. This\ndoor has been wide open; Satan and his emissaries could go and come at\npleasure. Just as an officer arrests a desperado and leads him off to\nprison--so will the archangel arrest the Devil and lock him up in the pit\nof darkness and despair. What will be done with his millions of cohorts?\nWe can judge only by inference. We want to stay close to the inspired\nrecord; of one thing, however, we are confident: the footstool of God\nwill be absolutely cleared of Devil and demons; \"that they shall deceive\nthe nations no more.\"\n\nThe prophetic picture of the divine court proceedings is very specific: we\nhave the exact length of the prison sentence--_one thousand years_. When\nwe remember the crimes, unnumbered crimes, the sentence seems to be an\nexample of court leniency. But this is only a \"binding over,\" as it were,\nto the real trial and judgment yet to come. This will be temporary\nimprisonment; but oh, it will be such a glad, happy day. The vision of\nIsaiah, thirty-fifth chapter, will be literally fulfilled. The sceptre so\nlong in the hand of a traitor--usurper--will pass into the hand of the\nPrince of Peace. Yes, we will strengthen our weak hands and confirm our\nfeeble knees--Satan at last locked up. We shall witness with joy\nunspeakable and full of glory--\"the Restoration of All Things.\" \"And the\nearth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the\nwaters cover the sea.\" Thank God forever.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIV\n\nTHE FINAL CONSUMMATION\n\n    \"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and\n    brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be\n    tormented day and night forever and ever.\"--_Revelation xx. 10._\n\n\nAfter the long term of imprisonment shall have ended, we are told that\nSatan shall be loosed out of his prison for a season. This is difficult to\nexplain; but we do not presume to question the administration of God's\ngovernment: \"Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?\" Satan, like\nmany other confirmed, apostate criminals, immediately on being released,\nplunges more deeply into crime than before. The long term of imprisonment\nand punishment hardens and, if possible, more nearly consumes him with\nwrath.\n\nAt once he launches another world-wide campaign of deception, gathering,\nrallying, mustering, and drilling his forces: those who by an exercise of\nfree choice, notwithstanding the glorious millennium reign, actually fall\naway and enlist under the black pirate flag once more. He encompasses the\nwhole face of the earth; like a deposed crown prince, he leads an\naggressive warfare to regain the honours and influence which he so long\nenjoyed on the earth.\n\nNow if the binding of Satan is only a figure of the leavening power of\nrighteousness overpowering the evil--what is the _thing_ which shall be\nunchained and loosened? Such a contention is as unanswerable as it is\nuntenable. We will repeat once more, with each word underscored: _Good or\nEvil cannot exist except in a Personality_. The same school of theologians\nwho deny the personality of Satan, many of them, see nothing in the Person\nof Christ except a _Christ spirit_, inherent good, etc.; all of which is\nunadulterated infidelity. Just another method of \"blasting at the Rock of\nAges.\"\n\nSatan shall be locked in a prison for one thousand years--then he shall be\nloosed, and every moment of his freedom will be occupied in preparation\nfor the last Armageddon. He does not foresee future events, and it is\npossible he does not understand this to be his final struggle; otherwise\nhe would be unable to inspire such a following. As we read this brief but\nvivid picture of the Gog and Magog engagement, the marshalling and\nshifting for position of Napoleon and Wellington, preparatory to their\ndecisive battle, in comparison to this gathering, will be like a cadet\nsham engagement. It seems that the lines of fortification will reach out\nover the entire earth, mobilizing around the Holy City. The saints, also,\nare gathered into encampment; whether for preparation to meet the forces\nof Satan, or for protection, the prophecy does not state; but all the\npowers of light and darkness are brought face to face.\n\nThe battle never reaches a real encounter; the impudence and rebellion of\nthe deposed prince and ex-convict arouses the wrath of God as never\nbefore. The cup of His indignation is full to the overflowing, and He\nbrings the fearful conflict to a spectacular ending. The destruction of\nSodom and Gomorrah was a microscopic event compared with the rain of fire\nthat shall fall in consuming vengeance upon the Devil and his followers,\nboth men and demons. The saints shall be delivered in that awful hour, and\nthis is the last shifting of the scene; the bell will ring, as it were,\nand the curtain will fall, closing out the long tragic history of the old\nworld.\n\nWe are not dogmatic as to the chronological order of these mighty events,\nbut as closely as we can gather them from the Word, the next move of these\nwonders in heaven and in earth will be the ushering in of the Last\nJudgment. The _Deis Ira_ breaks in upon the universe; the Great White\nThrone will swing into view. During the vision of millennial vision, its\nreign--John saw \"thrones\"; Christ and His Church ruling jointly the\nkingdoms of earth; He then is the Chief Shepherd, the King of kings and\nLord of lords--holding the sceptre of universal empire. But now when the\n_Deis Ira_ dawns, there will be just One Throne, and God Himself will sit\nupon it.\n\nIf the reader wishes a detailed description of this Last Day, it can be\nfound in the sixth chapter of Revelation, where the whole programme is\nthrown into a composite picture: \"The Opening of the Seven Seals.\" Each\nseal is a separate prophecy or act of events from Alpha to Omega of\nthings. Language breaks all bounds of rhetoric, poetry, and definition:\n\"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a\ngreat earthquake, and the sun became as black as the sackcloth of hair,\nand the moon became as blood, and the stars of the heaven fell unto the\nearth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of\na mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled\ntogether; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.\"\n\nNote the effect this marvellous demonstration will have upon the followers\nof the traitor-prince: \"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and\nthe rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every\nbondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks\nof the mountains; and said to the rocks and the mountains, fall on us, and\nhide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the\nwrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath has come; and who shall\nbe able to stand.\"\n\nAll the souls that have lived on the earth, good and bad, saints and\nsinners, Devil and demons, will stand before the Throne and be judged. The\nwords, thoughts, and deeds of men and devils shall be made known. The\nfinal doom of the Devil and his angels will be shown up in detail before\nan assembled universe: the Godhead, angels, archangels, cherubim and\nseraphim, and all that have lived upon this planet. Hence, the last and\nfinal scene of the Epilogue: \"And the devil that deceived them was cast\ninto the lake of fire and brimstone ... and shall be tormented day and\nnight forever and ever.\" Amen and Amen.\n\n\n\n\nXXXV\n\nSATANIC SYMBOL IN NATURE\n\n    \"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are\n    clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.\"--_Romans\n    i. 20._\n\n\nThe evolution of Christian scholarship, during the recent decades, has\nwrought wonders in bringing about absolute harmony of science and\nreligion. Under the microscope, and through the telescope, men whose\nhearts are trained as well as their brains, the great book of Nature is\nfound to be a commentator and expositor of the Book of Revelation. They\nhave not only studied and theorized about the science of religion; but by\nlaws of induction and deduction have discovered a \"Religion of Science,\"\nand when properly understood and applied is not out of harmony with the\nmost orthodox faith.\n\nJust as chemistry, geology, zo\u00f6logy, botany, astronomy, etc., whether seen\nin the protozoa or the highest type of man; the animalculi (creatures\nwhich propagate their specie by millions in a day) or the elephant; the\nelectrons or Polarius (our North Star which is one hundred times brighter,\nlarger, and hotter than the sun)--all demonstrate laws, systems, design,\npurpose, and beneficence from the hand of a wise Father-Creator: so also\nare there other things in the physical world discovered by the student of\nnature which suggest an opposite being.\n\nWe remember that even the ground was cursed when sin entered with its\ndefiling touch; where flowers and fruits did once abound has come forth a\ncrop of vile weeds, thorns, and poisonous vines. These occupy and will\nconquer in any soil on the earth--the Poe or Mississippi valleys, without\nthe diligent, unceasing, systematic toil of man. There must be a\ncontinuous fight against these omnipresent enemies--in garden, in\nvineyard, on farm. Clean out every weed, allow none to produce seed of its\nkind; then leave the land for one year untouched, and it will be a ragged\nwilderness. Fruits, grains, and vegetables left to fight with these\nenemies of the soil, and, without a single exception anywhere, they are\nsoon choked out and will die. Unaided by the skill of the gardener, the\nend is inevitable.\n\nBut, observe again, fighting the soil demons and conquering them is only\nhalf the battle. There is not a tree, plant, shrub, vegetable, fruit, nor\nflower, in any latitude or zone, but that must contend with pests,\nparasites, and insects of all kinds. The herbivorous enemies are not\nlimited to insects and creeping things, but actual diseases. Several of\nthe choicest fruits have cancer; various blights have destroyed whole\ncrops of cereals. Trees and vegetables have diseases that must be\ndiagnosed and doctored as carefully as the family physician treats\npneumonia or typhoid fevers.\n\nBut this is not all: whole orchards are killed by the caterpillar; the\nboll-weevil has been known to devastate great sections in the wheat belt.\nThe grub kills the corn as soon as it sprouts; the potato bug, the\ntobacco worm, the army worm, the Gypsy moth, celery worm, California\nscale, etc., on and on, until we find that every fruit, grain or vegetable\nis beset by some vermin destroyer which, if not removed or poisoned, will\nsting to death, or gnaw at the vitals until they wither and die. The\nhorticultural kingdom must contend with imps of death until garnered\nsafely in the harvest.\n\nWhen we examine the animal kingdom we find the same conditions obtain;\nevery animal from the bug to the buzzard, from the ant to the elephant,\nfrom mice to monkeys, have a bitter struggle for existence. A\ndistinguished German professor has this to say, addressing the Fishery\nAssociation of Berlin: \"War is the watchword of the whole of organic\nnature; there is a constant war of all organisms against outward\nunfavourable circumstances, and there is a constant war among the\ndifferent individuals. The seed grain which falls into the ground, the\nworm crawling on the earth, the butterfly hovering over the flower, the\neagle soaring high among the clouds--all have their enemies; outward\nenemies threatening their existence, and enemies eating their life and\nstrength.\" Following these remarks he gave a long list of fish parasites\nsufficient to destroy the whole finny kingdom.\n\nAnother eminent naturalist, speaking of the perils of insect life, said:\n\"With such savage murderers prowling among the shadows, life among our\nsinging meadows is anything but a round of pleasure. The warfare is\nbroadcast. Not even the fluttering butterfly is safe, but is pounced upon\nin mid-air, its wings torn off in mockery, and is then lugged off to some\ndark hole in the ground. And the bee returning to its hive is waylaid on\nthe wing, and its body is torn open for the sake of the morsel of a\nhoney-bag within.\"\n\nStill another scientist tells us: \"The microscope shows that these\nmurderous imps appear to have been made to inflict the most excruciating\ntorture upon their victims.\" He makes special mention of the sand hornet:\n\"He is the greatest villain that flies, and is built for a professional\nmurderer. He carries two keen scimitars, besides a deadly poisoned\nponiard, and is armed throughout with a coat of mail. He lives a life of\ntyranny and feeds on blood.\"\n\nEvery drop of water is swarming with hideous creatures which, if\nsufficiently magnified, would be frightful beyond description; the air we\nbreathe is surcharged with death: infecting organisms which, if the system\nin the slightest degree becomes unable to eliminate them, bring on\ndreadful diseases. We must fight for our physical life daily. But for the\nimmunity provisions of Providence, our bodies may be a charnal house, at\nany moment, of billions of bacilli hastening our end. These are stern\nfacts which face every student of biology or natural history.\n\nAs a professor has well said, \"He, therefore, who objects to the teaching\nof the sacred Scriptures concerning Satan and demons, and appeals to the\nC\u00e6sar of the natural world, can get no help, for that C\u00e6sar echoes back\nwith thunder tones that there are myriads of living, malignant and\ndestructive organisms in every realm of nature, so far as is known, or so\nfar as one can reason from analogy, that, like Satan and demons, trouble\nand torment the innocent as well as the guilty; that in some instances\nthese malignant organisms appear to inflict suffering for the sheer\ndelight of doing it.\"\n\nWhat is the conclusion of the whole matter: The existence of Diabolus and\ndemonia is a fact of Revelation verified by both science and philosophy.\n\n\n_Printed in the United States of America_","title":"Is the Devil a Myth?","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":37331}