Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-07 18:37:18HEADmain

1 files changed, 4009 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/43205-0.txt b/43205-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..baf31ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/43205-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4009 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43205 ***
+
+  Is the Devil a Myth?
+
+
+  By C. F. WIMBERLY
+  _Author of "The Vulture's Claw," "New Clothes for
+  the Old Man," "The Cry in the Night," "The
+  Winepress," "The Lost Legacy," Etc., Etc._
+
+
+  NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
+  Fleming H. Revell Company
+  LONDON AND EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1913, by
+  FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+
+  New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
+  Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
+  London: 21 Paternoster Square
+  Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
+
+
+
+
+  _With the fondest recollections and
+  appreciation of one, "in age and
+  feebleness extreme," who taught me
+  the first lessons about the Being of
+  these studies; one who contributed
+  her all to the rearing of noble ideals,
+  MARTHA M. WIMBERLY,
+  My Mother,
+  this book is lovingly dedicated by
+  the Author_
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+It is the writer's firm conviction, in these days when the most
+enthusiastic "bookworm" cannot even keep up with the titles of the book
+output, that an earnest, sensible reason should be given for adding
+another to the already endless list of books. We have enough books to-day,
+"good, bad, indifferent," with which, if they were collected, to build
+another Cyclops pyramid. The sage of the Old Testament declared in his
+day, concerning the endless making of books; such a statement, compared
+with modern writing and publishing of books, sounds amusing.
+
+Every possible subject, vagary, or ism, for which a book could be written,
+is overworked. Bible themes of all grades, from orthodoxy to ultra higher
+criticism, have flooded the land. Especially is the iconoclast in much
+evidence; he is free lance, and shows no quarters. Cardinal tenets of
+Bible faith, so long unquestioned, are being smitten with a merciless
+hand. Disintegration is the most obvious fact among us; nothing is too
+sacred for the crucible of what is termed "scholarship."
+
+But why this book? Let us take a little survey. Over against the modern
+idea, that the race is endowed with all the inherent elements of goodness
+necessary to its regeneration, there is a correspondent belief that _evil_
+is only an error. When the race by social and mental evolution succeeds
+in eliminating all the superstitions and false dogmas, the body politic
+will be self-curative, like the physical body, restoring itself by means
+of inspiration, respiration, exercise, sleep, food, etc., once the causes
+of disease are eliminated from the system.
+
+For several decades we have been approaching the doctrine which denies all
+Personalism--either good or bad. When we repudiate the Bible teaching,
+that the source of all evil emanates from a great Personality, the Bible
+teaching of the Incarnation suffers in the same proportion.
+
+The title of this book is a question, and one by no means strained, if
+considered from the view-point of modern thought. We have undertaken an
+answer. If by reason and revelation we can arrive at a satisfactory
+conclusion, the gain thereby cannot be overestimated. If the personality
+of Satan can be successfully consigned to the religious junk pile, our
+Bible is at once thrown into a jumble of contradictions and
+inconsistencies. The result will be even worse than our enemies claim for
+it now. One of the late recognized writers on the Old Testament says: "The
+Old Testament is no longer considered valuable among scholars as a sacred
+oracle, but it is valuable in that it is the history of a people." _If the
+Devil is a Myth, our Bible can be nothing better than historical chaos._
+
+In the preparation of these pages, we wish to acknowledge with deep
+gratitude the assistance of Mr. S. D. Gordon, author of "Quiet Talks"; Dr.
+I. M. Haldeman, author and preacher; Dr. Gross Alexander, editor, author,
+and preacher; Dr. W. B. Godbey, an author of great learning and extensive
+travel; Dr. B. Carradine, evangelist and author; Dr. H. C. Morrison,
+college president, editor, author, and evangelist; Prof. L. T. Townsend,
+and Hon. Philip Mauro.
+
+If the reading of this book shall bring to any struggling soul helpful
+information concerning our common Enemy, we shall be doubly repaid for the
+labour of its preparation. We send it forth saturated with prayer.
+
+C. F. W.
+
+_Madisonville, Ky._
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+       I. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL                         11
+
+      II. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL                          16
+
+     III. LUCIFER                                     20
+
+      IV. DEVIL--SATAN--SERPENT--DRAGON               24
+
+       V. DIABOLUS--DEMONIA--ABADDON-APOLLYON         28
+
+      VI. THE DEVIL A "BLOCKADE"                      31
+
+     VII. THE GREAT MAGICIAN                          34
+
+    VIII. THE ROARING LION                            37
+
+      IX. AN ANGEL OF LIGHT                           41
+
+       X. THE SOWER OF TARES                          46
+
+      XI. THE ARCH SLANDERER                          50
+
+     XII. THE DOUBLE ACCUSER                          54
+
+    XIII. SATAN A SPY                                 58
+
+     XIV. THE QUACK DOCTOR                            62
+
+      XV. THE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN                      66
+
+     XVI. THE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN (_Continued_)        71
+
+    XVII. THE DEVIL'S RIGHTEOUSNESS                   75
+
+   XVIII. THE WORLD'S TEMPTER                         80
+
+     XIX. THE CONFIDENCE MAN                          84
+
+      XX. THE TRAPPER                                 89
+
+     XXI. THE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER                     93
+
+    XXII. THE FATHER OF LIARS                         96
+
+   XXIII. THE KINGSHIP OF SATAN                      100
+
+    XXIV. THE DEVIL'S HANDMAIDEN                     105
+
+     XXV. THE ASTUTE AUTHOR                          110
+
+    XXVI. THE HYPNOTIST                              114
+
+   XXVII. DEVIL POSSESSION                           119
+
+  XXVIII. DEVIL OPPRESSION                           124
+
+    XXIX. DEVIL ABDUCTION                            129
+
+     XXX. THE RATIONALE OF SUICIDE                   134
+
+    XXXI. DEVIL WORSHIP                              138
+
+   XXXII. VICTORY THROUGH THE VICTOR                 143
+
+  XXXIII. THE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT                148
+
+   XXXIV. THE FINAL CONSUMMATION                     152
+
+    XXXV. SATANIC SYMBOL IN NATURE                   156
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
+
+    "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
+    that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
+    continually."--_Genesis vi. 5._
+
+
+That we may appreciate this discussion, removed as far as possible from
+theological terminology and theories, and get a concrete view-point, the
+following head-lines from a single issue of a metropolitan daily will
+suffice: "War Clouds Hanging Low;" "Men Higher Up Involved;" "Eighty-seven
+Divorces On Docket;" "Blood Flows In the Streets;" "Gaunt Hunger Among
+Strikers;" "Arrested For Forgery;" "A White Slave Victim;" "Attempted
+Train Robbery;" "Kills Wife and Ends Own Life;" "Two Men Bite Dust;"
+"Investigate Bribery."
+
+This fearful list may be duplicated almost every day in the year. Our land
+is deluged with crime, without respect to person or place; its blight
+touches all circles from the slum to the four hundred. Wealth and poverty,
+culture and ignorance, fame and obscurity, suffer alike from this Pandora
+Box scourge. The march of history--the pilgrimage of the race, has enjoyed
+but little respite from tears and blood. Those who strive to maintain a
+standard of purity, righteousness, and honour, are beset by strange,
+powerful, intangible influences, from the cradle to the grave. The child
+in swaddling clothes has a predisposition to willfullness, deception, and
+disobedience; paroxysms of passion and anger are manifested with the
+slightest provocation.
+
+Notwithstanding the barriers thrown up by the home and society; the
+incentives and assurances for noble, industrious living, the dykes are
+continually giving way, so that police power and the frowning walls of
+penal institutions are insufficient to check the overflow. The Church of
+God, with its open Book, ringing out messages of life and hope at every
+corner; the object lessons on the "wages of sin," sweeping in full view
+before us, like the reel-film of a motion picture--do not seem to lessen
+the harvest of moral shipwreck.
+
+According to some recent police records and statistics, only about
+one-half of the country's criminals are apprehended; if this is true of
+those who violate the law, a much smaller per cent. of those who break the
+perfect moral law, as related to domestic and religious life, are ever
+exposed. When these facts are considered, the perspective for the reign of
+righteousness is lurid and hopeless. The country has been amazed,
+recently, at the revelations of how municipal and national treasuries are
+being looted by extortion, extravagance, and misrule, on the part of men
+holding positions as a sacred trust. Civilization fosters and maintains a
+traffic which has not one redeeming feature; besides killing directly and
+indirectly more men daily than were blown up in the battle-ship _Maine_.
+
+Let us view the problem of evil from another angle: a writer on the
+subject of food supplies says the earth each year furnishes an abundant
+quantity of fruits, meats, cereals, and vegetables to feed all her
+peoples; yet gaunt famine is never entirely removed. Even in America a
+surprising per cent. of our people are underfed and underclothed. "Fifty
+thousand go to bed hungry every night in New York City," declares a
+professor of economics. The same ratio obtains in other large cities of
+our land. Scenes of pinching poverty occur within a few blocks of the most
+wanton luxury and extravagance. One lady spends fifty thousand
+dollars--enough to satisfy all the hungry--on one evening's entertainment.
+Oranges rot on the Pacific coast by car-loads, when the children of the
+Ghetto scarcely taste them.
+
+Nature fills her storehouses, and tries to scatter with a prodigal hand,
+but her resources are cornered and controlled by a criminal system which
+revolves around the "almighty dollar"--the root of all evil.
+
+Are we to conclude that man's free agency is responsible for this moral
+monstrosity? Or, to be theologically particular, shall we say, free agency
+dominated by an innate disposition to evil: human depravity, original sin,
+the carnal mind? Allowing the fullest latitude to the free moral agency of
+the race; allowing the evil nature, like the foul soil producing a
+continuous crop of vile weeds, to produce an inexorable bent, or
+predisposition to sin, operating on man's free agency--have we a full and
+sufficient explanation of the presence and power of Evil?
+
+The carnal mind is enmity with God, not subject to His laws; but the
+carnal mind is in competition with a _human_ nature, wherein are found
+emotions and sentiments that are far from being all sinful: sympathy,
+tenderness, benevolence, paternal and filial love, sex-love, and honesty.
+Again, we rarely find environment as an unmixed evil. Notwithstanding
+these hindrances the press almost daily has details and delineations of
+crimes so fearful and shocking that no trace of the human appears.
+Frequently we hear of a man, who has committed some dreadful outrage,
+personified as "beast," "fiend," "inhuman," etc. A young man in his teens,
+wishing to marry, but being under age and without sufficient means,
+decided that if he could dispose of his father, mother, brother, and
+sister--the farm and property would all be his, then, unmolested, could
+consummate his matrimonial plans. Whereupon, armed with an axe, at the
+midnight hour, he executes his "fiendish" plot. Another man, with a young
+and beautiful wife, and the father of two bright children, becomes
+infatuated with a young woman in a distant state; he woos and wins her
+affections; he returns home to arrange "some business matters" on the day
+preceding the wedding. This business matter was to dispose of his wife and
+children, which he did; on the following night, led to the marriage altar
+an innocent, unsuspecting girl. A young minister commits double murder,
+and on the following day enters his pulpit and preaches from the text:
+"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable
+in Thy sight, O Lord."
+
+These cases are actual occurrences, mentioned for emphasis only, that the
+problem of evil may be studied from life. These examples prove
+conclusively that the problem goes deeper than human depravity or free
+agency; both are accessories--conditions, binding cords, as it were, but
+the jarring stroke comes from a mightier hand.
+
+The unregenerated heart has been called a "playground," and a "coaling
+station" for the headmaster of all villainies. It was more than wounded
+pride and vanity that propagated the scheme of Haman, whereby a whole
+nation was to be destroyed at a single stroke. Vengeance and hate are
+terrible passions, but only as they are fanned by the breath of an
+inhabitant of the Inferno can they go to such extremes. It was more than a
+desire to crush out heresy that could instigate a "St. Bartholomew's Day,"
+then sing the Te Deum after the bloody deed was accomplished.
+
+We shall endeavour in the subsequent pages to throw a few rays of light,
+in obscure corners, on the problem of evil through its multiform phases
+and ramifications.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+    "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the
+    Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out
+    into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."--_Revelation
+    xii. 9._
+
+
+It requires but a casual survey of this problem to reach a conclusion that
+its hideousness cannot be explained by any other hypothesis than the power
+of an invisible Personality. When we scrutinize the footprints of the
+race, it will be found that progress has been along a dark, slimy trail;
+the infidels and philosophers who are loud in their boastings of inherent
+goodness will have difficulty in reconciling this fact. All who think are
+confronted with an ever-recurring question--yea, exclamations: why do such
+things happen? What meaneth these barbarities, ravages, cruelties? Why so
+much domestic discord, ending in ruin--so many suicides? Why do men and
+women hurl themselves over the precipice of vice and deadly
+indulgences--when even a novice might easily see the inevitable?
+
+For a parallel we are reminded of an incident in war: log-chains were used
+when the cannon-ball supply was exhausted; lanes the width of the chain
+length were mowed through the ranks of the opposing army. These chasms of
+death were closed up each time, only to be cut down again by the next
+discharge. The pathway of ruin is thronged--the "broad road" is easy;
+however, there is something stranger than this utter blindness: the
+victims laugh and shout on this highway, paved as it is by the macadam of
+crushed humanity.
+
+Now, can there be found a rationale for this dreadful twist in human
+affairs--this seeming unfathomable conundrum? We cannot believe that God
+would create a "footstool" in which sin, suffering, and misery were to
+abound; no such provision could have been in the divine plan. In the Word
+of God alone we find the explanation of it all. The Word gives an
+unmistakable account of an insurrection in heaven: "Michael and his angels
+fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and
+prevailed not." This strange warfare was inaugurated by the great
+archangelic leader.
+
+This "war in heaven" could have but one ending: the complete overthrow of
+the disturber and his followers. They were cast out, and are, beyond a
+doubt, swarming around this sin-blinded planet--invisible, yet personal
+and all but omnipresent. When we remember that one-third of the angelic
+population of heaven cast their lot with this chieftain, his strength and
+personality can be somewhat understood. It is written: "The tail
+(influence) of the dragon drew the third part of the stars (angels) of
+heaven, and cast them down to the earth." In their relation to heaven, the
+dragon and his angels met with irremediable ruin; now, defeated,
+humiliated, maddened, doomed, this fallen archangel and his innumerable
+myrmidons are filling the whole earth with every curse that can be
+conjured up by their superior, supernatural intelligence. There can be no
+room to doubt the truth of this hellish propaganda, as he is called the
+"god of this world."
+
+It must be kept clearly in mind that the powers of darkness can, in no
+sense, mean an ethereal, impersonal spirit of evil--or perverseness of
+weak human nature; but rather a Being who rules and commands legions upon
+legions of subjects--_demons_, each of them endowed with all the powers
+and gifts possessed when they were ministering emissaries of God. They are
+now "the angels which kept not their first estate."
+
+We have no way to estimate the size of this satanic army, marshalled for
+the destruction of the race and the overthrow of Christ's kingdom.
+However, we read in the tenth chapter of Revelation that two hundred
+million were turned loose in the earth at one time. Ten thousand were in
+the country of the Gadarenes when the Master entered there; no wonder the
+entire land was kept in terror, even though their incarnation seemed to
+have been limited to one man living in a graveyard. Seven demons were cast
+out of one woman.
+
+We should keep in mind the distinction between "the devil" and demons;
+there is but one _Devil_, but the demons are swarming the length and
+breadth of the whole earth. Just as God directs His angels in ministeries
+of righteousness, so this god of darkness directs his angels to do his
+nefarious will. There are feats so daring and important that the Devil, it
+seems, will not trust to his underlings. He engineered in person the
+temptations of the Master; he entered the heart of Judas, and caused him
+to sell his Lord, then commit suicide.
+
+The Bible undoubtedly teaches that Satan and his cohorts, having access to
+our fallen natures (which became so through his contribution of "forbidden
+fruit"--his great triumph in the Garden), are inciting this world to all
+the crimes known to our criminal dockets. Think of the train wreckers,
+rapists, incendiaries, white slavers, riots, strikes, grafters, gamblers,
+etc.; and as Paul has catalogued them: "unrighteousness, fornication,
+wickedness, maliciousness, envy, deceit, malignity, whisperers,
+backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil
+things, disobedient to parents, covenant breakers, without natural
+affection, implacable, unmerciful."
+
+No one can consider this long, gruesome list of iniquities without a
+feeling that they originated, somehow, in the realm of supernatural
+darkness. The worst things that can be said of fallen humanity is its
+availability and susceptibility to the machinations of this past master of
+the Pit, whose only ambition is to rob the blood of its purchase
+possessions by wrecking the souls for whom Christ died. Our sinful nature
+responds to his touch; the wonderful gamut of the soul is capable of being
+swept its entire length by his skill. A master player on God's greatest
+instrument--His masterpiece. All the fearful deeds committed seem to be
+acts of volition, and they are; but in the dark background lurks another
+superior will responsible for the initiative.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+LUCIFER
+
+    "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How
+    art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the
+    nations!"--_Isaiah xiv. 12._
+
+    "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven,
+    burning as it were a lamp."--_Revelation viii. 10._
+
+    "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto
+    the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless
+    pit."--_Revelation ix. 1._
+
+
+It is reasonable to believe that all intelligent beings are morally free;
+and if free, are on probation. Intelligence, will-power, free agency, and
+probation are logically inseparable, regardless of place or environment.
+Without question, in the natural world this is true, and therefore must be
+true in the spiritual world. That men, angels, archangels, and redeemed
+spirits never attain a state of character beyond the possibility of free
+choice is a most fearful responsibility.
+
+But for the imperialism of intelligent will, the _fall of angels_ is
+unreasonable, improbable, impossible. Just how temptation can assail the
+inhabitants of heaven--the land, we are told, "where the wicked cease from
+troubling and the weary are at rest"--is beyond all human comprehension.
+Startling as this truth appears to be, the Bible teaches it in
+unmistakable language.
+
+"Lucifer, son of the morning," an archangel, a great being, created in
+holiness, standing near the Throne of God. His name means "light bearer,"
+indicative of his glorious office. We can scarcely imagine such honour,
+such power, such distinction. Just what the high-calling of "light bearer"
+was, as it was performed under the highest commission in the universe, the
+Book fails to tell us; but the office of Lucifer was surely the peer of
+Michael or Gabriel, if not above them in rank. Brilliancy and splendour
+radiated from his person.
+
+May we dare, not altogether by the imagination, to venture into that
+remote, prehistoric time when the Second Person of the Trinity--the
+Anointed One--the Logos, a being of perfection, made in the image of the
+invisible God, became a Manifestation. That One of whom "the whole family
+in heaven and earth is named"; sharing the glory and honour equally with
+the Father, on a throne in the heavenlies. Milton and others believe that
+the presence of this Manifestation aroused in Lucifer a consuming spirit
+of ambition and envy; he at once aspired to the place and power which God
+reserved for His only begotten Son.
+
+We get still another side-light on the personality of Lucifer, when we
+consider his gigantic scheme. Aaron Burr planned the overthrow of his
+country, and dreamed of rulership; such a vision were impossible in the
+mind of any but a master of assemblies--an empire builder. Lucifer saw
+himself a ruler above that of a Creator, as "all things were made by Him."
+No wonder the inspired exclamation concerning him: "How art thou fallen,
+O Lucifer." When the climax of his overthrow came, he "fell like lightning
+out of heaven." The honourable cognomen is now lost forever; the glory of
+holiness has given place to the dishonour of despair. In the language of
+the poet, he "preferred to rule in hell rather than serve in heaven." This
+light bearer of Paradise is still a prince, but in the dark regions of
+endless woe; "ruler of the darkness of this world."
+
+This archangel who felt himself capable of heavenly authority finds an
+easier task here below. Speaking to the Master, hear his presumption and
+audacity, "all these things (the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
+them) will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." What was
+the condition named? The restoration of what he had lost: that the Son of
+God pay him homage and obeisance. Baffled in this crowning stroke, he
+slunk away only to study the vantage more discreetly, reinforce, and
+reassert.
+
+Let us keep in mind that intelligence and personality are not affected by
+the status of character; magnetic power and influence over others are not
+lost when the life is wholly given over to evil. Piety and holiness may be
+displaced by treachery and hate, but the force of personality remains. If
+any change takes place, the individual becomes more subtle and more
+insidious in schemes to further selfish interests. If a righteous man,
+endowed with unusual powers, fall into a life of sin, he carries over into
+his wickedness all his former gifts and faculties--nothing is lost.
+
+This proposition enables us to further appreciate the marvellous
+capabilities of the fallen Lucifer. Besides the Trinity, there are none
+superior in the universe. God allows His enemies, both men and devils, to
+continue a proprietary control of their talents, whether they be one or
+ten. There will be no devestments until the last shifting of the scene.
+When we remember all the attributes, previous advantages, and present
+opportunities of the greatest of all apostates, the conundrum of human
+actions, individually and nationally, begins slowly to unravel. The fight
+is not alone with men in sin, but with the "prince of the powers of the
+air."
+
+When Lucifer rebelled and met the just rebuke of God's wrath, all his
+glory, power, and brilliancy became demonized. Then, through all the
+millenniums there has been not one hour of relaxation; no armistice for
+the invisible warfare. Just as saints grow in faith, vision, and divine
+illumination, devils sink lower and lower; but at the same time develop in
+skill and efficiency by a continual application of their debased energies.
+
+It is therefore reasonable to believe that our "common Enemy" is far more
+formidable than the day he was cast into the earth. Our ability to
+encounter him successfully becomes a more hopeless struggle with the
+passing days. If, in the days of Paul, it were expedient to have on the
+"whole armour of God" to meet him, nothing short of "all the fullness of
+God" is the paramount need to-day.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+DEVIL--SATAN--SERPENT--DRAGON
+
+    "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against
+    the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not;
+    neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon
+    was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
+    deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his
+    angels were cast out with him."--_Revelation xii. 7-9._
+
+
+Names were significant in Bible times; they are given to-day at random,
+but then names were indicative of character. When character changed, the
+name changed: Jacob to Israel; Saul to Paul, etc. While the subject of
+these pages remained the holy, shining light bearer of heaven, he was
+Lucifer, but that name was lost to him forever. So varied were his
+passions, characteristics, and powers that must be known by appropriate
+names, and each, as given, designates some phase of his multiform
+personality.
+
+_Devil._ Not only did Lucifer lose name and character; he exchanged a
+brilliant, glorious external appearance (to eyes that penetrate the
+invisible) for one ugly, loathsome, beastly. If language can be
+interpreted literally, the eye of inspiration and revelation sees him a
+_Devil--sair_ in the Hebrew, "hairy one," "he goat," etc. The he goat, in
+the Bible, stands for all that is low and base. Those who partake of the
+_sair_ nature, in the Last Day, are called _goats_. He divided the sheep
+from the goats. God teaches us spiritual lessons in all nature, especially
+by the animal kingdom, and as the goat is a synonym for the lowest
+instincts of the animal; we find a being created in the highest realm of
+spiritual life sinking to the lowest level of brute life. If no further
+delineation were given--no other name than Devil--the fall was from one
+extreme to the other.
+
+This cognomen carried further has a second meaning: _spoiler_, one whose
+touch soils and besmirches, rearranges; bright spots are smeared with
+black soot; flowers with sweet odour, after his blight passes over them,
+send out a stench; hearts of purity are defiled and debauched; faces of
+beauty become marred and ugly. Whenever and wherever it serves his
+purpose, cosmos becomes chaos. He is a spoiler.
+
+_Satan._ In this familiar title we see him in the character rôle which
+dominates all his actions. As Satan he is the _hater_. Of all the evil
+passions of the soul, hate is the most terrible. As manifested in human
+relationships, the hater is a murderer. Somehow hate seems to be a
+resultant of wrath, malice, envy, jealousy, and revenge. Hatred in the
+bosom of the weak or cowardly affects only its possessor; but hatred
+burning in the soul of one who is strong and courageous, nothing belonging
+to the object of his hatred is secure: life, personal property, or
+reputation.
+
+We want carefully to note the full significance of hatred; then place
+beside it the one who hates--yes, as no other being in all the universe
+can hate. He is the father of haters; the tragedies of all kinds, filling
+the world with terror, because of murders, bomb explosions, incendiaries,
+poisonings, are but the scattered rays reflected and deflected from this
+full orb of hate as he revolves in his sphere of darkness.
+
+Satan hates God, hates the Holy Ghost, but the full force of his hate, of
+necessity, is directed towards the _Son_ of God, his rival for place and
+power. The supreme work of the Son was the Atonement; now, the interest
+and anxiety of heaven has been transferred to this planet. The supreme
+triumph of the Second Person of the Trinity was accomplished on the Cross
+where He paid the price of human redemption. His energies are now directed
+to the breaking down of all that was accomplished on the Cross. Every
+movement, every motive, every virtue, coming directly or indirectly from
+the merits of the Atonement, become at once the object of satanic hatred.
+Therefore every inch of territory conquered by the gospel propaganda was
+and is a victory over his hateful protest.
+
+_Serpent._ At the very suggestion of this title our nature recoils. The
+"nachash," and "zachal," mean "_fearful_"--"_creeper_," therefore a
+fearful creeper. The snake is the most repulsive and dangerous of all
+reptiles. There is a strange antipathy about a snake; his nature is so
+still, so sneaking, so oily; the appearance of one produces an involuntary
+shudder. Who has not felt the disgust at seeing men and
+women--"charmers"--take a number of the sleek, slimy monsters from a cage,
+and wind them around arms, neck, and body? The horror felt towards the
+snake is not an accident; it was in the guise of a serpent the downfall of
+the race was accomplished.
+
+Men and women who are subtle, smooth, deceitful, treacherous, secretive
+are called "snakes in the grass." Their plans and movements are under
+cover; they strike or sting from an hidden covert. The serpent is
+synonymous with the hiss, the blazing eye, the forked tongue, the poison;
+once it catches the eye of a bird the poor thing may wail and flutter, but
+it is powerless to escape. The bird is drawn into the jaws of death by a
+strange magnetism.
+
+This enemy of God and race is a serpent, slipping cautiously, noiselessly
+through all the dark, tangled mysteries about us. No one can fathom or
+interpret his cunning movements; we are stung, poisoned, charmed, fastened
+in the slimy coils, and yet do not know it. We have most to fear from the
+enemy who operates in the dark. This fallen archangel is never so
+dangerous as when acting in the personification of a serpent.
+
+_Dragon._ In the Hebrew it is "tannoth," _howler_--_jackal_; making a
+noise like the howling jackal in the wilderness. Again we are appalled at
+this title. The dragon is represented as a monstrous animal having the
+form of a serpent, with crested head, wings, and tremendous claws;
+ferocious and dangerous. The Scriptures have appropriated this fabulous
+monster--believed to have existed in days of mythology as the most dreaded
+creature on land or sea--to enforce and emphasize the danger of him who
+seeks our destruction. He is called the "great red dragon"--or fiery
+dragon, howling like a vicious jackal.
+
+It was in this peculiar manifestation that he stood before the woman and
+sought to destroy the Man Child as soon as He was born; then cast a flood
+after her as she fled from his presence. The dragon incarnates himself,
+and King Herod at once seeks to destroy the infant Jesus (Matt. ii.; Rev.
+xii. 1-5).
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+DIABOLUS--DEMONIA--ABADDON-APOLLYON
+
+    "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
+    cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
+    angels."--_Matthew xxv. 41._
+
+    "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless
+    pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek
+    tongue hath his name Apollyon."--_Revelation ix. 11._
+
+
+We now desire to analyze more minutely the Greek names Diabolus and
+Demonia; reference was made to this distinction in a former chapter. In
+the Authorized Version the two names are often translated or rather _used_
+interchangeably; devil for demon, and vice versa. We read of a "legion of
+devils," "seven devils," "cast out devils," "possessed with devils," etc.
+Technically--literally translated, these statements are incorrect. Demonia
+should never read devil--but _demon_; diabolus always means, not a devil,
+but _the Devil_.
+
+_Diabolus._ This name designates him more as to his ruling and authority
+than to the elements of his character. We have noticed already the meaning
+of Devil, but from the original word we get more explicit meaning as to
+his rank of authority. As Lucifer we do not know his ruling rank, but in
+his lost estate he ranks as Commander-in-chief. Whatever we may say of
+him, the prefix, "arch," designating his angel rank, can be logically
+attached: archspoiler--arch-deceiver--archaccuser--archslanderer, etc.
+
+However, if accurately defined, diabolus means
+_Calumniator_--archcalumniator; a propagator of calumny. Acting in the
+capacity of calumniator, he seeks out and defames the innocent. He sends
+out a million rumours daily which would be, if tangible, cases for libel
+in any court.
+
+_Demonia._ A demon--a fallen angel--evil spirit, an imp. Literally, a
+_shade_--a dark spot, moving as noiselessly and rapidly as a shadow. The
+many references in the New Testament to "devil," and "devils," should
+always be _demons_; the great multitude, so often found in one place, come
+from the innumerable concourse which constitute the "powers of darkness."
+Shadow spirits, men and women who are controlled by these dark, shadowy
+imps, "love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." The
+transformation, as we learned, which took place with Lucifer was just as
+great and radical with his angel followers; the difference was only that
+of degree of rank.
+
+_Abaddon-Apollyon._ We have coupled the Hebrew and Greek names together,
+as each means exactly the same. We call the attention of the reader to the
+variety of names, all of which are so nearly alike, but convey a
+significant difference. Abaddon-Apollyon means _destroyer_. He has been
+discussed as a "spoiler," but one who destroys carries the work farther
+than the spoiler. As Abaddon or Apollyon he is the king of the abyss, or
+"Bottomless Pit," and when he appears it is with purpose and equipment for
+destruction. Just as God sent the "Destroying Angel" throughout Egypt,
+bringing a curse upon Pharaoh for his hardness of heart, this mighty
+messenger of the Abyss visits his destruction wherever and whenever he
+finds, not the absence of the typical blood upon the door, but when he
+finds it, or any evidence of allegiance to the One whose sacrificial blood
+he seeks to destroy.
+
+As Abaddon-Apollyon he assumes the part of Finisher of his task; when we
+see him a _destroyer_, we have a full-sized photograph--leaving out not a
+single line of countenance, or a single character or attribute of his
+composite nature. He may soil, spoil, deceive, traduce, accuse, slander,
+wound, etc., but the ultimate aim is destruction. "When sin is finished it
+bringeth forth death." We see how the two great Rivals stand over against
+each other in their respective spheres: "For this cause the Son of God was
+manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." With the same
+degree of purpose, the Devil seeks to destroy the work of the Son of God.
+
+The Devil seeks to destroy truth, righteousness, virtue, religion, hope,
+faith, visions of God, power of the Blood, thoughts of eternity and
+heaven. Every beautiful, holy thing on earth he would destroy, leaving
+behind only black, charred cinders where once were the flowers of Eden.
+Just as he destroyed the earthly Paradise in the long ago, so he would
+blot from our hopes and aspirations the Paradise of the soul. His ambition
+and supreme joy would be to turn this world over to God blighted and
+wrecked by his finishing touches, while hell echoed with triumphant
+shouts--an infernal jubilee. Abaddon-Apollyon: archdestroyer.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE DEVIL A "BLOCKADE"
+
+    "Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again;
+    but Satan hindered us."--_1 Thessalonians ii. 18._
+
+    "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty
+    days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help
+    me."--_Daniel x. 13._
+
+
+We find another striking interpretation couched in the title of devil. The
+Church in its organization is called _militant_, because it is engaged in
+a moral and religious warfare. The writings of Paul bristle with military
+terms, as two mighty armies are contending and contesting for dominion.
+Each army is fighting under a leader; the surging campaign has changed its
+base of operation--the battle-field has been transferred from heaven to
+this planet. The rivalry between Christ and Satan has, many times, changed
+_modus operandi_, but the spirit of the contest and the end--all for which
+they contend--change not.
+
+The title-word of this chapter is not a Bible term; we appropriate and
+accommodate it because of its military meaning. Strictly in keeping with
+the use of terms, the "blockade" belongs to naval operations; but any
+movement, reconnoitre, or countermarch, which interferes, hinders, or
+hedges up the way of progress, is a blockade. A campaign ends in failure
+because of obstructions thrown up, access to base of supplies cut off,
+reinforcements thwarted in reaching the scene of activities, etc., convey
+the idea set forth in the key Scriptures used giving emphasis to the
+chapter heading.
+
+The Apostle Paul had all the advantages of equipment; his intellectual
+attainments the very best; he was a recognized leader of men, a chosen
+vessel of the Lord, and full of the Holy Ghost. No man besides the Master
+was more able to withstand the opposition of the "prince of darkness." Yet
+Satan actually prevents him from going to Thessalonica to comfort and
+strengthen the struggling church at that place--literally hedges up the
+way.
+
+A careful examination of the tenth chapter of Daniel gives us a
+conversation between the prophet and a "voice,"--a "vision"--having an
+appearance "like the similitude of the sons of men"; evidently an angel of
+high rank, whose mission was to encourage Daniel, but he also acknowledges
+that the "prince of Persia" hindered him from coming twenty days. This
+mighty angel, it seems, was helpless trying to reach Daniel, until Michael
+came upon the scene. It was Michael who led the triumphant battle against
+him when he was overthrown in heaven. He alone was able to meet the
+"prince of Persia," the _Devil_.
+
+We can, therefore, understand how successfully Satan can hinder--blockade
+the progress of righteousness wherever he chooses to concentrate his
+depraved energies. Volumes would be required to record the worthy
+enterprises in the Church of God which went down in failure, yet with no
+tangible explanation. Sudden reverses, turning the whole current of
+affairs, are daily happenings; revival efforts to reach certain
+communities, certain individuals, find insurmountable hindrances. It is
+the work of the "blockade."
+
+Such occurrences are generally regarded as "unfortunate coincidents"
+rather than a resultant of some deep-laid plans--invisible and impersonal.
+A baby cries at a critical moment, a dog creates an uproar, the fire-bell
+rings, the engine becomes disabled; landslides, swollen streams, sudden
+illness, and many others similar, which are never credited to the proper
+source or cause. The Bible concedes to Satan the dignity of being the god
+of this world; therefore he must of necessity control, to some extent, the
+physical phenomena, directing them to an advantage. We do not venture a
+dogmatic position as to what extent the hindrances in the physical world
+are due to his power; but the Bible most clearly teaches that he is an
+obstructionist.
+
+There are hundreds of ways and places where moral and religious blockades
+obtain. It would seem that in the blaze of the last century of
+civilization war would be impossible. Why could not our Civil War have
+been averted? In the retrospect, we can see how easily it might have been
+settled without such horror and bloodshed. The Hague with its millions of
+endowment is grinding away on international troubles, yet arbitration
+fails more often than it succeeds. But war continues, and all efforts in
+that direction generally meet a "stone wall of opposition."
+
+Must we conclude that all these lapses, coming in direct conflict with
+human weal and happiness, are just "happen-sos"? Unthinkable! "Satan
+hindered," declares the great apostle. "The prince of Persia withstood me
+twenty and one days," says the angel.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE GREAT MAGICIAN
+
+    "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against
+    the wiles of the devil."--_Ephesians vi. 11._
+
+    "For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth
+    unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world."--_Revelation xvi.
+    14._
+
+
+From the earliest records of history men have lived who seemed to possess
+strange, occult powers. Magicians--performing miracles, setting aside,
+apparently, well-known physical laws. Moses met the sorcerers and
+magicians of Egypt in close competition. There are men to-day, on lecture
+platforms, performing feats which are miracles; there seems to be no
+visible explanation.
+
+"The hand is quicker than the eye," it is said; watches are pounded to
+pieces before your eyes, the fragments crammed into a gun; the gun is
+discharged, and the watch will be hanging on a hook, running as if nothing
+had happened. We once saw a man sewed up in a tarpaulin, placed in a huge
+trunk, and the trunk strapped securely. In less than five minutes the man
+came out from an enclosure where the trunk was placed; not one buckle
+loosened, and not one stitch in the tarpaulin broken. Cannonballs are
+taken from hats; live ducks, rabbits, and a dozen tin vessels are drawn
+from one hat in rapid succession. Cards are made to jump out of the deck
+when called by name. One magician laid his assistant on a table, cut off
+his head with a large knife, lifted the gory head by the hair and placed
+it on another table; then carried on a conversation with the severed head
+in the presence of the astonished audience.
+
+Every one knows these wonderful feats are done by some kind of magic, but
+for all we can see they are done; the most astute observer cannot detect
+the secret. The Apostle exhorts the believers to put on the whole armour
+of God, to be able to stand (not to be swept away or captured) against the
+wiles of the Devil. Then the Devil is a trickster--a sleight-of-hand
+performer--a magician. One of his many methods to accomplish his purpose,
+we find, is delusion: practicing sleights, tricks, and works of magic on
+the gullibility of his victims.
+
+How many unsophisticated men and boys have been robbed in daylight on a
+street corner by some little "game," or trick, by a sharper. Farms have
+been deeded away for nothing in return. Now, if we were to catalogue all
+the tricks of all the conjurers of all ages, we have in this evil
+chieftain a consummation, an embodiment of them all; he is not only a
+magician, but the chief of them. He incessantly seeks victims more
+astutely than the crook seeks the ignorant with a purpose of robbery.
+Observe the text says, "wiles of the devil"; not one, but many; while we
+are penetrating and avoiding one of his "wiles," behold, we are in the
+meshes of another. Human intellect cannot fathom the feats of magic
+performed in friendly entertainment, where every opportunity is given to
+examine--then how much more are we at the mercy of séances concocted, not
+to entertain, but to delude and capture.
+
+The astrologers, soothsayers, and magicians; the clairvoyants, ancient and
+modern, are insignificant compared with this great magician. Is he not
+superior and supernatural, possessed with unearthly powers? Are there any
+combinations and hidden laws of which he is unacquainted? Besides, no one
+is more familiar with the weaknesses and susceptibility of human nature
+than he. So astute and cunning are his "wiles"--tricks of magic--Paul
+seems to feel that only the girdings and enduements of God, giving
+spiritual illumination to the things invisible, can withstand them. The
+antithesis of the Apostle's exhortation leaves no doubt in our mind as to
+his meaning: if we strive and contend in our own wisdom, deception and
+defeat are inevitable.
+
+To be explicit, does it not look as if multitudes are under a
+delusion--seeing things through distorted and false lenses--when words and
+actions, by the best and truest people on earth, are seen as blatant
+hypocrisy? Does it not look as if a sleight-of-hand expert were
+manipulating the ideals of this pleasure-mad generation; hiding the true
+character and dangers which lurk in every indulgence and excess? "Presto,
+veto--change;" there you are, safe, satisfied, happy. "Spirits of devils,"
+declares the seer of Patmos, "working miracles, going to the kings, and to
+the whole world." The arena wherein he practices his deadly delusions is
+the whole world. No places exempt; no peoples immune. The whole armour of
+God is the only sure protection.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE ROARING LION
+
+    "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
+    lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."--_1 Peter v. 8._
+
+
+Thus far we have studied Diabolus under various titles and cognomens which
+deal almost exclusively with the secret side of his nature: the propaganda
+of hidden arts. The caption of this chapter will indicate quite a
+different proposition. This title swings him into full view, stripped of
+all deception and legerdemain. The lion walks up and down the earth,
+showing no quarters, making no apologies for his presence. When he roams
+in the forests, he is king; he allows no beast to interfere or question
+his rights, and none dare to do it. He kills, tears to pieces, and devours
+whatever he can catch; his roar strikes terror to all the forest dwellers.
+
+The lion, therefore, is noisy; his approach is with loud demonstration.
+There is something in noise that weakens and frightens; the keen clap of
+thunder, the shout of an approaching army, the blast of ram's horns, the
+loud proclaiming of the sword of the Lord and Gideon are historical
+examples of victories by noise. The lion is also powerful; no other beast
+has a chance in a match with him. One stroke with his mighty paw is death.
+He walks about conscious of his strength; an ox or a buffalo are no more
+his equal than a mouse contending with a cat. The lion is vicious; his
+going forth has one definite object--"seeking to devour."
+
+The lion presupposes that all the earth belongs to him; deer, antelopes,
+panthers, buffaloes, horses, cattle, etc., have no rights or possessions
+of which he feels under the slightest obligation to respect. The Devil
+does not come out _in person_: hoofs, horns, claws, bushy mane--the
+make-up of a lion, building up his kingdom by tearing down and destroying
+men and institutions opposed to him. He does these things, as a lion, by
+incarnating himself in men, evil combines, corrupt politics, vicious
+society, the liquor traffic, the White Slave system, etc. As he
+appropriates and embodies these institutions by entering in and possessing
+the men who are leaders, he no longer acts as a conjurer or snake, but a
+_Lion_. The fullness of the earth, and they that dwell therein, belong to
+him, to use, desecrate, prostitute, kill, devour, or destroy, just so he
+may best serve and satisfy his insatiable appetite. Cities are to be
+officered and governed, not for the peaceful protection of their citizens,
+but for plunder, boodle, and graft. Men who desire to be public servants
+in deed and in truth must fight "a roaring lion." The man who steps to the
+front with a desire to question and curtail the exploitations of the
+"officials," the "traffic," the "gang," places his life at once in
+imminent peril. Threats, black hand letters, pistols, poison, bombs, and
+torches are the instruments boldly used to destroy the man or men who do
+not believe that these human lions should be allowed to filch and devour
+the privileges and possessions of others.
+
+We find our "adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about,
+seeking whom he may devour," has three methods which he uses according to
+the exigencies of the case. It is first a "roar," a bluff, or bulldoze:
+the threat of the "boss," whether he be a political boss, an
+ecclesiastical boss, or a liquor boss, accomplishes wonders in coercion;
+it frightens and cowers the weak-kneed and backboneless. The crack of the
+slave-driver's whip brought the obstreperous negro into humble submission.
+Men in office, in pulpits, in editorial rooms, have been awed into silence
+by the roar of men "higher up." Then truth, righteousness, justice, and
+conscience are crucified; and behind the scene leering devils hold a
+jubilee of triumph.
+
+However, the bluff and bulldoze will not always succeed; and when these
+loud, but mild methods fail, the boycott is ordered. Those who can stand
+undaunted in the presence of roaring threats will quail before the
+prospects of financial ruin. Employees are discharged, patronage cut off,
+positions given to others, preachers asked to resign. Somehow evil is so
+compactly organized, wires of connection are so completely in touch with
+every nook and corner, that the "boss" sits quietly at the switchboard and
+issues orders. The "big stick" and boycott have carried many elections;
+municipal, state, and national; they have made merchandise of sovereignty,
+and bargain counters of conscience. "Your clerk must take his name off
+that petition, or we will withdraw our patronage;" "His wife is an active
+worker in the W. C. T. U.--you must discharge him," were the identical
+words overheard in a private office. Business and public men dread the
+boycott. Behind the boycott is our "adversary, the Devil."
+
+But the bluff and boycott by no means mark the limit when the self-assumed
+rights and privileges of the lion are questioned. Few can rise above the
+threat and intimidation; but the roaring activities of the boss will not
+always suffice. The lion in corrupt politics, in evil traffics, in
+priestly bigotry and intolerance, will not hesitate to stab, shoot, or
+burn to get rid of an offensive opposer. It is not necessary to discuss
+facts so well known as these; but we are investigating the sources; we
+want to locate the bacilli rather than examine the pustule.
+
+We wish to reiterate a previous statement; the "roaring lion" is never
+heard if the still fight, the oily snake methods serve to a better
+advantage. The Apostle's exhortation is timely: "Be vigilant, be
+sober"--be on the alert constantly, and be at your best, as an "adversary"
+who knows no boundary lines in his work of subjugation and destruction has
+declared war to the end.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+AN ANGEL OF LIGHT
+
+    "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
+    themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan
+    himself is transformed into an angel of light."--_2 Corinthians xi.
+    13-14._
+
+
+The Devil is a person, with a great personality; but like human beings, he
+is not equally endowed in all the attributes of his nature. However, the
+Book gives us no information as to his weaknesses. He is all superlative
+strength; but if at any point there is a special endowed faculty that
+would seem to overshadow the others, it is surely manifested when Satan is
+transformed into an _angel of light_. The reason for this is obvious; it
+is a return to his old office of "light bearer." When he can effectively
+serve his purpose by this startling transformation--darkness to light--he
+is at once in a realm where he is familiar with every inch of the
+territory.
+
+A close observation of the signs of the times--the happenings in social
+and religious circles--will reveal the fact that _light_ is not only his
+most familiar rôle, but his favourite rôle. The world is attracted by
+things that are bright, beautiful, cheerful; anything that hides the
+sombre side of life, throws a mystic veil over its realities, and helps us
+to forget--whether it be books, music, lectures, or the nonentities of
+society--outweigh all else in the casting of accounts and in forming
+comparative estimates.
+
+If Satan were allowed to pose for a full sized picture of himself, just as
+he wishes to be seen by the children of this generation, no portrait
+painter could produce a specimen of rarer beauty; it would grace the walls
+of the most exclusive parlour, and attract special attention in any great
+art gallery of the world. There would be no sharp angles, no coarse,
+sensuous lines, no out-of-date adornment--the traditional fiery-red would
+not appear, but rather the most delicate tints and shades of colour. The
+features would be the most graceful and artistic combination of curves and
+circles. The "hairy one," the jackal, the snake, the lion, the shadow, the
+spoiler at once become as "beautiful as a dream." Amazing transformation!
+
+"The devil of to-day" is not only an apostle of sunshine, but of beauty.
+This world is full of beauty; and why should we not forever keep the ugly
+and distorted in the background? The development of the beautiful should
+be one of the fine arts. Think only of beauty; speak only of beauty; see
+only the _beautiful_; then the sinful and unlovely will disappear. An
+angel of light--how suggestive!
+
+As an apostle of sunshine his mission is to flood the world with light,
+and he does it; but observe--it is _his_ light; it neither warms nor
+illuminates, but for spectacular purposes it answers every demand. It
+reveals new standards of duty; proves the wrathful things in the Word of
+God to be spurious, and the old plan of salvation obsolete and unsuited to
+the present day needs. Such words as self-denial, crucifixion, dead to
+sin, judgment day, cross bearing, etc., so prominent in the New Testament,
+must not be given a literal interpretation. Such truths cast an
+unnecessary gloom over the souls of otherwise happy people.
+
+"The devil of to-day" believes that ethical culture should be the slogan,
+the watchword, the shibboleth of every pulpit and rostrum. Religion
+without refinement is absurd; the esthetic taste should be looked after
+more than belief in some abstract Bible doctrine; then the race would be
+free from the bondage of creed and fear. True religion is nothing more
+than a just appreciation of art, literature, science, philosophy, and
+nature. God is in all these things rather than some musty, stereotyped
+statement of faith.
+
+He further believes it is a waste of energy for women to be organizing
+into societies to study and help conditions among the slums or heathen
+lands, and urging upon the hard worked people to pay a tenth of their
+income to support missionaries who are better fed and housed than
+themselves. Far better devote the time to social clubs, book circles,
+euchre and bridge parties, and dressing properly.
+
+We want to call attention again to a truth often overlooked: the Devil and
+demons are never satisfied in a disembodied state; when they cannot enter
+the souls of men, they seek something else. They will enter a swine when
+there is nothing better available. We believe "the prince of the air" can
+wield a powerful influence, unincarnated, _in the air_, but he schemes
+and works best when he can possess and direct intelligent flesh and blood.
+
+Just now the machinery of the Church and all the auxiliaries are devoting
+their energies to various branches of social service; this is good,
+Christlike, and necessary; the point we raise, germane to this subject, is
+not the work, but the abuse of the idea: social service and
+humanitarianism are not religion. They are the fruits of the Good
+Samaritan spirit in the world, but they cannot take the place of personal
+relationship to God. "Though I give my body to be burned, and all my goods
+to feed the poor," says Paul, "it profiteth me nothing" without
+love--divine love. The angel-of-light gospel places the emphasis on works
+without faith. Love the world, enjoy its lusts and allurements, disregard
+all Puritanic ideals of life, be a part of all worldliness--but be kind,
+cheerful, optimistic, generous, benevolent: help humanity. "Pay the
+fiddler," then dance as you please. Do penance when your conscience lashes
+you; but buy indulgences by works of supererogation. "On with the dance,
+let joy be unconfined."
+
+A concrete example will illustrate the proposition before us, and also
+reveal the power of polished, cultured emissary of "sunshine and smiles."
+The little city had a population of about fifteen hundred people; there
+were four churches of nearly equal strength. Each congregation had a large
+flourishing organization of young people. Scarcely any worldliness
+obtained--dancing and card playing rarely ever. The pious, consecrated
+young people attracted no little attention. Finally there came to the
+place a young woman fresh from college and conservatory as teacher of
+music and delsarte. She was an adept at all the niceties of modern
+society; things took on new colour at once. The work began with a literary
+club, then cards, then the dance. She was beautiful and magnetic; in six
+months the "stupid meetin's" of the League and Christian Endeavour were
+abandoned for things more exhilarating. The religious foundation which had
+been crystallizing for years among the simple hearted boys and girls gave
+place to the gayeties imported from the classic circles of city and
+college life. She moved among them "an angel of light."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE SOWER OF TARES
+
+    "The kingdom of heaven is like a man that sowed good seed in his
+    field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the
+    wheat and went away."--_Matthew xiii. 24-25._
+
+    "The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the
+    kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy
+    that sowed them is the devil."--_Matthew xiii. 38-39._
+
+
+The parable of the Sower is one of common-sense appeal; the sensible
+farmer sows only good seed. The growing of tares among the wheat is not in
+the original plan. Good seed were sown, but behold the tares! Whence came
+they? While the servants slept an Enemy came and sowed them. The Master
+gives us His own interpretation: He is the sower--the good seed are the
+children of the kingdom, men and women into whose hearts the Truth has
+entered--the converted part of the Church. The sleeping of the servants is
+the unwatchfulness of the Church: coldness, indifference, backslidden. The
+Enemy seizes the opportunity--the carelessness of Christ's servants--and
+sows _bad seed_. The enemy is the Devil--the Wicked One; the bad seed are
+the children of the Devil. Growing side by side in this world-field are
+the children of God and the children of the Devil.
+
+The tare, or cheat, in appearance resembles the wheat; it grows exactly
+the same height, and viewed casually, or at a distance, cannot be
+detected from the genuine. Only the threshing and sifting bring out the
+difference. These tares are the propaganda of the Devil, but a perfect
+imitation of the children of the kingdom. They make a profession, adhere
+to the same rules and regulations, profess and maintain, outwardly, a
+standard of morality, wear all the regalia--even particular about details.
+We observe another striking resemblance: strange as it may seem, these
+tares--children of the Devil--seek as their guide no books of heathen
+philosophy, or twentieth century atheism; they make great capital of the
+Bible; the ceremonies and ordinances are carried out to the letter. On a
+day of dress parade and review they meekly grade A 1.
+
+Such an inconsistency is so glaring as to be almost unthinkable; but the
+parable teaches it beyond a doubt. The Devil sows into the Church his
+children: _a corrupt profession of Jesus Christ_. In a former chapter we
+studied the Devil as a _destroyer_; and it will be remembered that in a
+preceding parable he came as a vulture devouring the seed; now he seeks to
+further weaken and hinder by adulteration. While continuing the
+battering-ram process from without, a reversed method is used; he scales
+the ramparts and places his cohorts on the inside, and, wherever possible,
+assumes leadership in a campaign of self-destruction. We are amazed at
+such audacity, but the Master, who is a rival in the field, has
+illuminated the parable for us.
+
+There is a note of optimism ringing out in the land to the effect that the
+day of triumph is at hand; doors are opening, walls are crumbling,
+conservative nations are studying our religion, municipalities are being
+renovated, higher standards in public life are demanded, the Church is
+lifting the race out of superstition and prejudice--we are about to see a
+"nation born in a day." What does it mean? It means that Satan is being
+chained--defeated, etc. This sounds good and plausible; but a closer
+inspection will reveal, not a retreat, not an armistice, not a victory,
+but a _change of base_.
+
+Twenty years ago a leading teacher said: "Unless the signs of the times
+fail, the true Church of Christ is about to enter upon the most serious
+struggle of her history. She is no longer called merely to fight an open
+foe without, but as Dr. Green, of Princeton, says, 'the battle rages
+around the citadel,' and she is forced to fight the traitors within. The
+real enemy is to be found on the inside." If such a condition were true
+then, what is it to-day, since the last two decades have been the most
+revolutionary in the history of the Church on the line of skepticism and
+advanced thought?
+
+The _Free Thinkers' Magazine_ recently had this to say: "Tom Paine's work
+is now carried on by the descendants of his persecutors; all he said about
+the Bible is being said in substance by orthodox divines, and from chairs
+of theology." Another writer observes: "No need of Bridlaughs and
+Ingersols wasting time preaching against the early chapters of Genesis,
+sneering at the story of temptation, cavilling at the record of long
+lives, denying the confusion of tongues, doubting if not denying the
+deluge, when Christian ministers, on account of their official position,
+are doing the same work more effectually."
+
+"Freedom of thought in religion," said an orthodox preacher at Tom Paine's
+one hundredth anniversary, "just what he stood for, is what most of us
+have come to. In his own day vilified as an atheist--to-day he is looked
+upon as a defender of just principles of faith." There is a wide range of
+opinions found in the growing crop of tares: some are literalists,
+touching Biblical interpretation, getting the minutia of husks, but
+rejecting the kernel--the envelope, but missing the message; others remain
+in the Church, preach a gospel shelter under her roof--eat her bread, but
+deny the supernatural _in toto_. Few, if any, are honest enough to step
+out.
+
+The Devil prefers his _cheat_ to grow in the same soil prepared for the
+wheat. No place is so wholesome and convenient for the children of the
+Devil as inside the Church of God. Why is not the wrath of God poured out
+on the children of the Devil who have assumed place and power in His
+Church? The same processes used for the removal of the tares would injure
+and uproot some of the wheat. There is now no remedy; at an unguarded
+moment the harm was done. The Enemy continues to enter every available
+door, sowing, sowing, sowing--beside all waters. Not until the angelic
+reapers thrust in their sickles for the harvest will the children of the
+Devil cease to occupy, influence, and control.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE ARCH SLANDERER
+
+    "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
+    shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
+    evil."--_Genesis iii. 5._
+
+    "But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath, and he will
+    curse thee to thy face."--_Job i. 11._
+
+
+It is the first scene of the human drama; the staging is in an earthly
+Paradise; perfection is written on everything animate and inanimate. With
+but one restriction man roams through Edenic beauties, a being "good and
+very good," happy and holy. His communion with God is unbroken; fountains
+of love are opened in his heart as he beholds the beautiful mate at his
+side. Our wildest imaginations cannot estimate the glories of that
+life-morning; but behold the Serpent. He utters his first words in the
+scheme of ruin, and it is a slander against God. "Aha, He knows if you eat
+you will be like He is--knowing all things, be as gods; He is not treating
+you fairly; the case is misrepresented. You will not die, but you will be
+wise. Why does He keep back such privileges from you?" As a result of this
+slander, the Paradise is lost. Flowers, fruits, peace and plenty are
+exchanged for weeds, briers, toil, sweat, suffering, death.
+
+Again we find his impudent presence on the day Job is offering sacrifices.
+Reading between the lines, we can imagine a conversation like this: "You
+here? You are looking for some pretense to discount My people; you say
+none are good--all hypocrites. What do you think of My servant Job? What
+have you to say about him?"
+
+"Oh, of course," says the slanderer, "you have him hedged around--blessing
+him continually. It pays Job to be good; just take away your special care
+of his material welfare and see--he will curse Thee to Thy face."
+
+An artist once painted a picture of the human tongue in a way to represent
+his conception of how the "tongue of slander" should appear. It was long,
+coiled like a serpent, tapering at the end into a barbed spear point; from
+each of the papilla, scarcely visible, was a needle point, from which
+oozed a green, slimy poison. The slandering tongue is "a fire, a world of
+iniquity--it defileth the whole body--it is set on fire of hell."
+
+The slanderer is no respecter of persons; he rakes and scrapes the
+uttermost parts of the earth for victims: king and peasant, rich and poor,
+priest and prophet; living or dead suffer alike when once this vile,
+inhuman spirit touches them. Bacon said: "Calumny crosses oceans, scales
+mountains, and traverses deserts with greater ease than the Scythian
+Abaris, and, like him, rides on a poisoned arrow." The winds of the
+Arabian desert not only produce death, but rapid decomposition of the
+body; so doth slander destroy every virtue of human character. The
+cloven-hoof slanderer, like the filthy worm, leaves behind a trail of
+offal and stench though his pathway wind through a bower of earth's
+sweetest flowers. A writer has said: "So deep does the slanderer sink in
+the murky waters of degradation and infamy that, could an angel apply an
+Archimedian moral lever to him, with heaven as a fulcrum, he could not in
+a thousand years raise him to the grade of a convict felon."
+
+  "Whose edge is sharper than a sword; whose tongue
+   Out-venoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
+   Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
+   All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states,
+   Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
+   This viperous slander enter."
+
+Iago is said to be the greatest villain in fiction or history; the
+revolting crimes of Herod--slaughtering the innocent--does not compare
+with Iago. Herod saw in the Man Child a possible rival, and blinded by
+jealousy and ambition, he becomes the most heartless murderer--of all
+times. But what was the crime of Iago? Slander! With no object in view, no
+advantage to gain, and too much of a coward to make an open charge, he
+slanders by insinuation the beautiful Desdemona until the enraged Othello
+strangles her to death.
+
+How can we reconcile this base passion in human character, as slander has
+no other avenue of expression? It is unnatural, inhuman, and hellish. The
+wolf and tiger devour to satisfy hunger; the vulture eats and fattens on
+rotting carcases, but the slanderer does neither. With the blood cruelty
+of a savage beast, the degraded appetite of the scavenger, the destroyed
+victims of fiendish passion only intensify and burn, but never satisfy the
+slanderer. This spirit was never born among men; its origin is the region
+of the damned, where hunger gnaws, thirst fires, lust arouses, revenge
+consumes--but satisfaction is unknown. The hot breath of slander comes
+from a bourne where dead hopes spring up eternal.
+
+The caption of the chapter denominates the Devil as the arch slanderer; we
+use it because there is no word of sufficient strength to convey the idea;
+"arch" fails to convey the whole truth in this case. Archangel is an
+intelligible term, as there are many of high order; there is, however, but
+One slanderer. Just as he is the "father of liars"--propagating all
+lies--his relation to liars does not admit of comparison. He slandered
+from the day of his fall; he is the father of slanderers. Whether it be
+circulated in the "submerged world," the quiet circles of church life, or
+among the "Four Hundred" of fashion--it is a deflected arrow from the one
+great quiver.
+
+No being--holy men, angels, or the Son of God--can escape the tongues
+dripping the venom of slander through the subtle incarnation of that
+fountainhead of every evil suggestion or insinuation. Whatever destroys
+happiness, creates doubt and suspicion among the people, ending in
+litigation, divorces, and murders, fulfills the mission of slander. The
+caldron from which exudes this vile stench--filling all the earth--is
+seething and boiling in the Bottomless Pit, or wherever the throne of his
+majesty--the Devil--is located. The society of earth will never be free
+from the poison of evil-speaking until the Archslanderer is arrested,
+chained, and located in the penitentiary prepared for him from the
+foundation of the world.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE DOUBLE ACCUSER
+
+    "Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about
+    all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his
+    hands, and his substance is increased in the land."--_Job i. 10._
+
+    "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and
+    the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,
+    which accused them before our God day and night."--_Revelation xii.
+    10._
+
+
+When we consider the Diabolus character--his strength and opportunity,
+whereby he visits his vengeance upon a weak, susceptible race, we can
+readily understand that his make-up would be far from complete without a
+continuous outflow of slander. But his courage and audacity stand out in
+glaring relief when we find him an Accuser. It does not require large
+intelligence or bravery to be a slanderer--only baseness of character--but
+to be an accuser, face to face with false charges, especially in the
+presence of One who has power over all things, reveals an impudent bravery
+that dazes the judgment.
+
+When questioned of God about his presence among devout spirits--as they
+were assembled for worship--he answered in the manner of a guilty boy:
+"Just going to and fro in the earth." Peter tells us that his mission of
+going to and fro is of seeking and devouring. He is then reminded of Job's
+character--how that this saint is perfect and just; Satan's blighting
+influence has not been able to touch and overthrow the aged Job. In his
+shrewd rejoinder Satan accuses God of two sins: _partiality and
+falsehood_.
+
+Translated into its literal meaning, the language would be about as
+follows: "I deny that Job is perfect; but for the protection you have
+thrown around him he would be as other men. His pretended piety is
+hypocrisy; he serves you because you have blest him with abundance; he has
+not fallen into sin because you have hedged him about. If you treated Job
+as you treat others, his holiness would soon be about as genuine as mine."
+
+Satan accuses God of protecting His servant and blessing him in material
+things in a special and partial manner, viz: "a respecter of persons." But
+the fiercest accusation is hidden in his reply to God's question, also put
+in the form of a question, and finished by an emphatic declaration: Job is
+not the man God said he was; "but put forth Thine hand and touch all that
+he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face." A being who can stand before
+the Lord God, of whom the hosts of heaven sing and shout--he, himself,
+once among the number--saying: "Holy, Holy, Holy," and accuse Him of being
+guilty of partiality and falsehood--what may _we_ expect from him? The
+Word says he accuses the saints day and night.
+
+Observe that he accuses the _saints_, those who are striving in
+righteousness. The man who lies, cheats in business, accumulates a
+fortune, and lives all the vices without apology is not an object of
+malicious accusation. The scandals in select circles cause only a ripple,
+even though the offenses occupy much space of the associated press. The
+principles of such affairs are often staged as heroes and heroines for the
+entertainment of a morbid public taste. Satan accuses the saints; the
+presumption is shouted from the housetops: "There is none that doeth good,
+no not one."
+
+The saints--every good man and woman--must at some time face charges
+against their moral or religious character. This hellish machination goes
+on day and night. It is reasonable to conclude that much of the unrest,
+depression, and backslidings among the people of God may be traced to this
+cause; innocent men and women have not only cast away their hope through
+rumoured accusations, but have been driven to desperation and suicide.
+
+The reader must keep in mind the suggestion made in a former chapter: that
+while Satan has the power by his presence of himself, or his minions, to
+create an atmosphere, unfathomable, impenetrable, yet surcharged with
+horror and dread; but his activities are seldom apart from human
+instrumentalities. Just as he is the arch slanderer, through the word of
+mouth, so is he the accuser, both of God and saints, through human
+personalities under his control.
+
+A flood sweeps away, or lightning destroys a man's possessions; he looks
+up, curses and accuses God of cruelty and injustice. Death enters the
+home; the mourners charge God falsely. His accusations are confined to no
+particular method; the one most suited to the case is used, whether
+self-condemnation or from another. Self-reproach, through memory and
+meditation, is a most powerful agency in carrying on this work. Once we
+begin to think on our ways--seeking to turn our steps unto the testimony
+of God--we face a life of sins and blunders mountain high and
+unsurmountable. But when faith takes wings and lifts the agonizing soul
+"out of the mire and clay," an everlasting reminder of the _past_ clings
+to us, often robbing us of peace and joy. How many Christians have grown
+weary and given up because of memories blackened by consequences of past
+sins--sins which God said, if we confess and forsake, He would "remember
+them against us no more forever."
+
+If the truth, which can never be revealed until the Judgment Day, could be
+known! Our asylums are swarming with unfortunates who have lost mental
+balance because of remorse and condemnation, resulting from an accusing
+memory. Wherever Satan is unable to lure the saints into actual
+transgression their life and usefulness are often destroyed by tormenting
+spirits accusing them day and night The Book holds out no deliverance from
+this scourge until the Accuser is forever cast down by the wrath of God at
+the final shifting of the scene.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+SATAN A SPY
+
+    "And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered
+    the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from
+    walking up and down in it."--_Job i. 7._
+
+
+The spy is the most dangerous man in the army; more is he to be feared
+than the genius of a Napoleon or a Lee. The sphere in which he operates
+has no duplicate in military activities; his bravery, boldness, and daring
+are unexcelled. Whether he be called from the ranks, or from among the
+commissioned officers, his counsel and suggestions get a hearing in the
+highest commandery of the army.
+
+The movements of a spy are unknown even to his own corps, much less to the
+enemy. After receiving authority for such a perilous undertaking he is a
+free lance, going and coming at will. Not only does he go beyond the
+enemy's line, but mingles freely with them in the camp. There is nothing
+in his appearance to indicate who or what he is. To-day he is a civilian
+peddling fruits among the soldiers, or innocently driving a yoke of steers
+along the street or country road; to-morrow he is within the camp, dressed
+in their gay uniform, familiar with passwords and countersigns. Then he
+appears as a decrepit old woman, seeking a son who "run away to jine the
+solgers." In a few hours he is quietly resting or joking with the boys of
+his own regiment.
+
+When a spy is captured all military courtesies are set aside; he is not
+even allowed the honour of a court-martial; but without trial he is
+executed at once.
+
+It is of special interest, in view of the application to our subject, to
+notice the particular business of a spy. Just as his movements are
+unknown, so is his mission unknown. He hurries to and fro, gathering up
+such bits of information here and there as he deems important for the
+cause he represents. If he belongs to the Federal forces he appears
+clothed in the "butternut gray"; then by tactics of bravery and nerve he
+enters the Confederate gray lines. The slightest blunder is certain death.
+He takes a mental inventory of the whole situation, but in such a way as
+to attract the attention of no one. The strength of the fortifications,
+the size and number of the batteries, the commissary department, and the
+chances and probabilities of reinforcements. In a moment, under the cover
+of night, he fades out into the darkness and is gone. The budget of
+information is placed at the earliest possible moment into the war
+councils of his own army.
+
+Satan plays the rôle of a crafty spy; he has access, by some mysterious
+power, to the heart life of men. At no point of the game for immortal
+trophies is he so dangerous as when he can take advantage because of his
+secret knowledge of men's weaknesses and sins. Only a vicious degenerate
+can be tempted into all the crimes known to the docket of the Bible; few
+beings on this planet but are fortified at some point of character. They
+may be weak in many ways--but early training or environment have helped
+them to become strong in some particulars.
+
+The spy seeks to know when and where a blow may be struck in the enemy's
+lines, at a place of least resistance. The soul battles are exactly the
+same; we have no special battles where we are strong; things that might
+overcome another will mean nothing to us. Our battles are ever fought
+around the points of weak fortification; the enemy rarely, if ever, has
+the pleasure of shouting over our downfall from the best that is in us.
+
+The victories of athletic games--the pugilistic bouts in the sporting
+arena, the mortal duel with rapiers, the battle-fields where thousands
+fell--have been lost and won by the application of this principle. The
+general with his field-glass sees a weakening in the enemy's line and
+orders a charge; the duelist observes a shortening of breath or an awkward
+movement and seizes the opportunity. It is the weak link in the chain of
+life that breaks; sins of the lower nature--sensuality--might not appeal
+to some who fall an easy victim to pride, ambition, or covetousness;
+others who are liberal, honest to the cent, unassuming, are helpless when
+tempted in the realm of lower passions. We are at an incalculable
+disadvantage when our enemy is familiar with our vulnerable points.
+
+So long as the heart is unregenerated and unpurified by the cleansing
+power of the Holy Ghost, Satan has access to every nook and corner of our
+heart life. He enters and discovers every vulnerable and invulnerable
+section of the soul's fortification. The tempted and fallen are often
+unable to tell how it was done. "Why did you go there?" or, "Why did you
+do it?" Oh, so many, many times do we hear the answer: "I do not know." A
+friend once showed me a little iron safe in which he kept his valuable
+papers. This safe had a very ingenious lock; the combinations were such,
+and the mechanism so wonderful, that it was capable of _three hundred
+thousand combinations_.
+
+Why and how are sane men and women overcome? They were met at a certain
+place, under peculiar circumstances; met by several--a word, a smile, an
+argument, a pressure of the hand. How was it done? They do not know.
+Somehow the attack came in a way which rendered them helpless to resist.
+One effort failed--a dozen failed; but as often as it failed the Expert
+changed the _combination_, until the door yielded, and an entrance into
+the citadel of Mansoul was effected. _Three hundred thousand
+combinations._
+
+The spy has information from within; and, therefore, the most dangerous
+man in the army. Satan, by his supernatural powers directing his practice
+and experience for several millenniums, is a crafty, sagacious spy,
+acquainted with all the weaknesses and emotions of the human heart. Who is
+equal to such an enemy? Contending alone, _no one_ on this sin-burdened
+footstool.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE QUACK DOCTOR
+
+    "Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from
+    such turn away."--_2 Timothy iii. 5._
+
+
+We do not agree with some late views of the nature of sin--that it is a
+physical and mental disorder: the resultant of heredity, food, soil,
+climate and social environment. If the root of the difficulty springs from
+these primary causes, the whole problem of evil could be wiped out in one
+generation by the application of sanitary laws and social betterment. In
+the Bible sin is known by several disease terms, but always such diseases
+as were incurable by any treatment known in those days: leprosy, born
+blind, deadly poison, paralytic, etc. Sin is a disease, and the whole man,
+body, mind, and spirit, is more or less affected therefrom; but it is, in
+particular, a soul malady, going deeper than human remedies can reach,
+whether social or medicinal.
+
+To cure this soul disease the race has sought eagerly from the day Cain
+and Abel built their altars. All the ramifications of civilization have
+had one all-absorbing desire: a readjustment of something fundamentally
+wrong within. This fight for an atonement with the Creator has been a
+long, heart-sore pilgrimage; it has painted the blackest pages of history
+and committed the bloodiest crimes. This human drama has been enacted in
+tragedy and tears. Why is it so? Because deeper than any other heart-throb
+is the consciousness of personal uncleanness, and the bitter anguish it
+has caused.
+
+The dead civilizations, on their monuments and mausoleums, have left
+behind, carved indelibly, one story--whether on the banks of the Nile, the
+Areopagus of Greece, or the land of the Montezumas--it is the story of
+feeling in the dark after God. They had the disease and sought for a
+remedy. From the days of the astrologers and soothsayers, anxious souls
+have been victimized by every fad, fake and fanaticism in their search for
+relief. The venders of pulverized snake skins and lizard tongues, in their
+day, found as willing a patronage as the cultured proprietors of
+sanitariums to-day. The long-haired man on a goods box can do a
+flourishing business, if he has the gift of gab to convince the crowd his
+stuff will _cure_.
+
+The quack doctor does not handle a variety of medicine; he knows just
+enough of anatomy and materia medica to make his speech sound
+scholarly--but his remedy, costing less than the price of one visit from a
+physician, will cure all the ills of the human body. Like De Soto, we are
+seeking the fountain of perennial youth--the elixir of life.
+
+Just as the disease of the body and a passion to live open wide the door
+to charlatans, fakirs, and "healers" claiming powers direct from Gabriel
+to Beelzebub, so the disease of the soul, and a hunger for eternal
+life--"deep calling unto deep"--has opened the door of the heart to the
+religious doctor with his cure-all prescriptions. Out from unknown depths
+comes the yearning for readjustment and reconciliation with God.
+
+No being, beside the Godhead, is more familiar with the secret hopes and
+impulses of the soul--than Satan. The long-haired quack on the street,
+bawling his "junk," is not half so anxious to defraud the crowd as Satan
+is to prescribe remedies that will not cure. His chief aspiration is to
+flood the land with bogus treatments which not only fail to cure, but they
+preempt the disease-infected spots so as to prevent the introduction of
+the genuine remedy.
+
+The quack doctor is, no doubt, pleased when an imaginary cure has been
+wrought by his wares; but Satan is filled with wrath if some of his
+formulas strike deeper than he anticipated, and a soul emerges from
+darkness unto light. This, however, does not often occur; he is too
+cunning to advertise to a hungry, sin-sick world that which will bring
+permanent relief.
+
+The beating of tom-toms by an upper Congo medicine man to drive away evil
+spirits has about the same efficacy as much that may be found in the
+esthetic circles of the world's religiosity. "A form of godliness," be it
+ever so beautiful and orderly, which does not seek and obtain the inner
+power is just another way of beating tom-toms.
+
+We look with compassion upon the poor benighted heathen woman who trots
+around the temple of her god one hundred times on a moonlight night; but
+how much improvement over her plan of salvation do we find in the blaze of
+twentieth century Christian enlightenment, if our religion consists of
+just "doing something," rather than having _faith_ in a power that saves
+through the impartation of the Holy Ghost? At no time in the history of
+the Church have we done so many things as we are doing now--all good; but
+observe: the Church and the world go hand in hand. It is a rare exception
+when an essential difference can be seen in the life and business methods
+of the professor and non-professor. "They will have a form of godliness,"
+says Paul, "but deny the power."
+
+It was not a dream or hallucination which took the rich and poor, in the
+long ago, out from the world and caused them to give up even their lives
+cheerfully; it was an application of the power. They had tested the
+"fountain opened in the house of David for sin and uncleanness."
+
+  "Oh, that fountain deep and wide,
+   Flowing from the wounded side,
+   That was pierced for our redemption, long ago;
+   In thy ever cleansing wave, there is found all power to save;
+   It's the power that healed the nations long ago."
+
+In the multitude of pretenses, makeshifts: forms, ceremonies, chantings,
+genuflections, ordinances, will worship, self-righteousness, "wondrous
+works,"--"form of godliness"--who is responsible? It is the great Quack
+Doctor that is deceiving the world; those who will not be dragged into sin
+and ruin he surfeits their lives with a "form of godliness, but deny the
+power" plan of salvation.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN
+
+    "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
+    shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
+    doctrines of devils."--_1 Timothy iv. 1._
+
+
+Theology is defined as "the science which treats of God, His existence,
+character, government, and doctrines," or the science of religion--a
+system of truth derived from the Scriptures. The caption of this
+article--The Devil a Theologian--jars our spiritual nerve centres. There
+are three things necessary to produce a theologian: experience,
+information, ability. From every possible view-point the Devil is
+preëminently qualified to formulate a system of doctrinal statements
+having all the earmarks of genuineness and credentials of authenticity.
+
+In our discussion of the Devil's theology we shall not, at the present,
+touch upon the theories and vile imaginations of demon-possessed men, but
+the finer phases of truth, beautifully presented by his apostles with a
+show of orthodox reasonableness. By the term Devil's
+theology--doctrines--we do not mean his beliefs--get the distinction--but
+what he wants us to believe. He is every whit orthodox; he believes the
+Old Book; he does not indorse the _new theology_, or the so-called higher
+learning, only as it may be turned to his advantage. The Word of God is a
+mighty reality to him; he has met its blazing truths, and has been burned
+by its power. He has millions of skeptics and doubters blindly following
+his delusions, but he is a believer in the "old school"; he "believes and
+trembles."
+
+We call attention to the term "doctrines"--therefore religious beliefs:
+reasonable, plausible, satisfying beliefs. What are they? First: Ritualism
+is Religion; when we have gone through a certain proscribed
+programme--whether it be a chant, reading prayers, or burning a dim
+light--there you are. How do we know we are religious? We have gone the
+rounds, said the required number of Ave Maries, counted the rosary, etc.,
+etc., therefore the work is done. It sounds harsh to place these beautiful
+ceremonies, which have doubtless comforted so many hearts, in the enemy's
+catalogue; but the Pharisees were rigid ritualists, yet Christ denounced
+them as miserable hypocrites--"whited sepulchres." Anything he can get us
+to adopt, having a semblance of reality, yet does not save--does not deal
+directly with the sin question, he shouts over our delusion. He
+appropriates Ritualism for Religion and it becomes his doctrine.
+
+A second doctrine: Good Resolution for Regeneration. There has never been
+as much strenuous evangelism, of a certain quality, as we are having
+to-day. Great cities unite in stupendous revival effort; no expense is
+spared; the leading masters of assemblies are called as workers. The zeal
+and motives of it all are commendable; but the bane of such evangelism is
+this: the work stops at the resolution period. Men are brought under
+conviction, and the Devil at once proposes his compromise. Not until the
+"big meeting" closes do the convicted multitudes discover the deception.
+Herein is the explanation of the lethargy, depression, and utter
+indifference which so often obtain after a "sweeping revival." Faith is
+then shaken, and sometimes permanently, in the truth of a conscious,
+know-so salvation. If the Prodigal Son had stopped after passing a good
+resolution with himself he would have died at the swine pen without the
+knowledge of the father's love, the kiss, the robe, the ring, and the
+fatted calf. A sinner must not only "quit his meanness" but straighten out
+his meanness. Regeneration is not by the will of the flesh, the will of
+man, not of blood; but it is to be born of God--born from above--a new
+creature. Doctrines floating under the banner of evangelism which do not
+get believers into the kingdom must be listed with the enemy.
+
+A third doctrine: Sentiment is Salvation. We are a sentimental people;
+esthetic and humanitarian developments of recent years have done much to
+soften our barbarian instincts. If sentiment were salvation, this land
+would be redeemed. Many think we are rapidly becoming a saved nation;
+those who enjoy such reflections should stand at the entrance of any
+theatre on Sunday, or a pleasure garden, or a ball park; then hurry around
+to the entrance of the finest, best equipped church in the city for
+comparison. Sentiment is educated emotion. Rome used to shout over the
+bloody scenes in the amphitheatre; now we can weep over the unfortunate
+girl who goes down in spectacular glory behind the footlights. Sentiment
+makes us rejoice with those who do rejoice, and weep with those who weep;
+it moves us to deeds of charity. Satan then has no difficulty in
+persuading us that we are religious--spiritually redeemed; if we weep over
+our loved ones, our emotions are very religious. The most grief we ever
+witnessed at a funeral was in the home of a saloon-keeper; the dead wife
+and mother, a depraved opium and morphine eater; the home was utterly
+irreligious, but the grief was hysterical, explosive. The sacrifices of
+God are a broken and a contrite heart--over sins committed, producing a
+godly sorrow, and not a sentiment.
+
+Again, the Devil takes great delight in telling the unsaved and unchurched
+masses that religion is all selfishness; the poor are made to feel that
+the Church is the rich man's institution. Notwithstanding the efforts of
+God's people to reach and help the lost they are represented as mean and
+selfish, pretending a pious fraud, with no bread for the hungry and no
+helping hand for the needy. We build stately temples of worship to gratify
+our pride and vanity with money earned by the sweat and toil of the poor
+man; money that ought to be given to the poor. Judas protested against
+breaking the alabaster box. The church is a place for dress parade; the
+humble and meanly clad are not wanted. All such is malicious slander
+against God, His Church and His people; but as stereotyped as this may
+sound, it is being used effectually everywhere. If a church preaches
+salvation from sin, it is the poor man's best friend; but reference to the
+church and the preacher is often hissed in gatherings of toiling men.
+Unless there shall come to this land the establishment of the
+righteousness of Christ, as taught in His Gospel, we shall see another
+reign of terror; the fires of restlessness, hate, and discontent are
+smouldering in every shop, factory, and mine. "The Golden Age will never
+come until it is brought in by the Golden Rule of Christ." The Devil is
+busy keeping these facts from becoming known. The doctrine stated: we are
+in it to serve a selfish end; take away our hope of advantages, and our
+faith becomes religious junk.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE DEVIL A THEOLOGIAN (_Continued_)
+
+
+One of the Devil's tactics is to make much ado about nothing. It is
+astonishing how sane people can be deluded over childish non-essentials.
+Think of the doctrine of Abstinence; at certain seasons be holy with a
+vengeance. It is a mortal sin to let down during certain days and moons;
+no meats, no riotous gormandizing, no wine, no dancing, no theatre going,
+when the season is holy. But are we not so commanded concerning the
+Sabbath day? The Sabbath day must be kept holy, but if our moral standard
+and relationship fall below during the week what we are supposed to make
+them on Sabbath, our piety is a farce.
+
+An incident will illustrate. It was a steamboat excursion; drinking and
+dancing were freely indulged in by the hilarious passengers. A _parson_
+was among them; he danced not, neither did he look upon the wine that was
+red. He looked sad--_it was Lent_. One week later we beheld this same
+_parson_ in full evening dress gracefully waltzing with one of the lambs
+of his flock. Amazing spectacle! Robes of holiness to-day, with fastings
+and prayers; to-morrow, broadcloth, perfume, patent leathers, and arms
+encircling a maiden in the dizzy whirl of the dance. Paul saw such times
+coming and warned against them.
+
+There are many more, but we shall mention only one more: the gigantic
+system of saints' worship. What does this mean? Anything that diverts and
+absorbs the attention away from things fundamental is surely of evil
+origin. His fall began when he conceived hatred and jealousy of Jesus; now
+if he can get people to pay a part or all of their homage to Mary, or any
+one of the many "saints," just so the Son of God is robbed of His glory
+and neglected, his devilish malice is somewhat gratified. There is a long
+list of dead worthies who are reverenced and supplicated unto daily; but
+high over all is the "Virgin Mother of God." After the birth of the
+Saviour Mary was the wife of Joseph, and bore children as a natural
+mother--she was not a virgin. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me;"
+"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images--thou shalt not bow down
+to them." "Doctrines of Devils."
+
+Spiritual minded students of the Bible and human conduct are forced to the
+conclusion that the Devil is not only a wise theologian, but he is a great
+_preacher_; and, as we have learned, he has a mighty gospel which he
+preaches with effectiveness and power. He has clearly defined doctrines
+which he promulgates at such times and places as will best meet the
+desired end. But with cunning craftiness he preaches his dogmas and tenets
+everywhere: housetops, society parlours, centres of business,
+legislatures, court rooms, barrooms, and bawdy houses, as well as in
+pulpits. This sounds like a strange mixture: "the sacred desk" associated
+with such an array of evil--_ad absurdum_. If the pulpit is immune, why
+Paul's exhortation? Doctrines presuppose a preacher, and also an effort to
+gain an audience whenever and wherever possible.
+
+Yes, the Devil preaches, and if doors are barred he forces an entrance:
+home and foreign missions, slums, emigrants, aristocrats and sports. He
+has access to scores of avenues where the Gospel of Christ never enters;
+but under the cover of human interests he takes the field with our Lord
+Jesus and His ministers, offering a more beautiful, excellent, easier and
+successful way. As God's method of saving the world is by the foolishness
+of preaching, what better agency of opposition could be launched than
+_preaching_? Nothing. Far stronger is the expulsive than the opposing
+power. The most dangerous poison in the world is the kind that hides its
+death in a cup of sweetness; a child eats a sugar-coated pill and never
+recovers. Hell is peopled by the multitudes who have drunk at the Devil's
+fountain of soothing, satisfying poison. He keeps his deluded patrons from
+the fountain of cleansing by an easier way to delectable fountains, the
+waters of which paralyze with the chill of death.
+
+We note another very remarkable fact concerning the Devil's doctrines and
+his style of preaching. Christ's ministers often fail because of a lack of
+adaptability; "he overshot his crowd" is the comment often heard. The
+genius of this subject does not make this mistake; he is a past-master at
+adaptability; to those who have a feeble, fluttering conscience for
+spiritual things he has the sincere milk of the word that soothes and
+sustains; but for his robust followers, whom he has bound in chains
+stronger than those which bound Prometheus, he gives the meat of
+diabolism, prepared and seasoned by a skill of six thousand years'
+practice.
+
+Place your ear at the keyhole where his children are conducting a "revival
+meeting"--high carnival of sin--and hear the ideas of God, salvation,
+preachers, the Church, and the hereafter. This is the strong gospel
+referred to; the gospel that fires the masses with hate and prejudice
+against the only means of human redemption. Yes, he preaches, preaches,
+preaches, and from every nook and corner; ten messengers to one preaching
+the Christ; his preachers support themselves, and touch the highways and
+byways; his lines are gone out into all the earth, circumscribing sea and
+land. The Devil gets an intelligent hearing. He has a long catalogue of
+doctrines, but he does not believe a single one of them. We should be wise
+enough to eliminate them from our creed also.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+THE DEVIL'S RIGHTEOUSNESS
+
+    "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain."--_Jude 11._
+
+    "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
+    establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
+    the righteousness of God."--_Romans x. 3._
+
+
+We are becoming, according to the canons of this world, a righteous
+nation; the standard of civic and commercial righteousness is elevated as
+never before. Sleuth-hounds are scenting every indication of misrule and
+running to earth evil-doers, high and low. Our cities are keeping tab
+rigidly on sewerage, cesspools, and outhouses; a persistent war is being
+waged on flies, mosquitoes, and germs of all kinds. Private citizens are
+everywhere organizing to coöperate with officials for public welfare.
+Corporation and municipal rings must answer at the bar of an outraged
+public conscience.
+
+Righteousness is in the air; it resounds from the pulpit, platform and
+press. Chautauqua specialists who have discovered some deflection in the
+political and social woof and warp declare, amid salutes of fluttering
+handkerchiefs, the righteousness of twentieth century standards. Preaching
+on the cardinal doctrines of the Bible has been displaced by rhetorical
+messages on altruism: light, ethics, mercy, cleanness, goodness. "The
+fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man," with a flavour of
+intellectualism, is the gospel that is now being emphasized with much
+gusto, and never fails to solicit the indorsement of all denominations.
+"Be good and do good" is the _multum in parvo_ of present day
+righteousness.
+
+Who but a chronic faultfinder could object to this upward move, so obvious
+now in all directions? The world is getting kinder, more sympathetic, more
+charitable; creed lines are dissolving like snow under an April sun;
+sectarian prejudice is dying under the withering frown of new ideals. Does
+this not indicate a gradual leavening of the "whole lump"? The spirit of
+Christ, they tell us, is being adopted everywhere. He is mounting the
+throne of universal empire, and the time surely is not far distant when
+the social, political, commercial and domestic life will be regenerated by
+His influence. Yes--it would appear so to be; much that is done bears a
+Christian label; it comes in the name of Christ; but, says a writer, "it
+is the Christ of Bethlehem and not the Christ of the Cross." It is the
+human Christ and not the sacrificial--the exponent of a blood Atonement.
+
+The righteousness that has the full swing of modern religionists makes
+much of Christ's "example," His beautiful character and
+self-abandonment--"He went about doing good." Much attention is given to
+studying His leadership, His pedagogy, His art of public address, His
+humanity. His example and not His sacrifice saves the world; step by step
+the human Christ has displaced the Christ of Calvary; His atonement was
+misguided zeal. This propaganda, on the surface, is reasonable and
+popular; but close scrutiny will reveal a poison as dangerous as it is
+subtle. It leaves out the Blood; it is a glorification of Man. "Count the
+number of the beast, for it is the number of man."
+
+This issue is an old one; it became an entering wedge in the religious
+life when the first services were held after the Fall. Cain and Abel made
+altars; Cain piled his high with beautiful, luscious fruits of the field.
+No festal board ever looked more tempting, loaded with sweet smelling
+fruit, having variegated colours, than the altar which Cain presented to
+God. They were the results of his own sweat and toil; he offered them as
+the "first fruits." But God rejected the offering; somehow the very beauty
+and attractiveness of it all insulted Him.
+
+Abel's altar was smeared with blood; on top lay a limp, bleeding lamb.
+Nothing attractive about this picture; our esthetic nature recoils at the
+gore and cruelty of such an offering. Yet God graciously accepted this
+bloody, unsightly offering; and no doubt rained fire upon it--anyhow, Abel
+was justified. Why did God reject the one and accept the other? Cain and
+Abel alike had been taught from their infancy that "without the shedding
+of blood there shall be no remission of sin." By transgression man stood
+as an alien before God; he had forfeited divine favour. Notwithstanding,
+Cain boldly brought before God a bloodless sacrifice, and presumes to
+force Him to accept it. Through all the millenniums before Christ every
+approach to God must contain in the sacrifices and offerings an element
+which reminded God of the coming Atonement. He declared: "For the life of
+the flesh is the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
+an atonement for your soul. For it is the blood that maketh an atonement
+for the soul" (Lev. xvii. 11).
+
+Coming directly to the point: all this new notion of things, touching
+Man's religion, fast becoming prevalent is the "way of Cain," with a
+twentieth century touch and terminology. What is the essence of this new
+righteousness? what does it do? Observe, it sets aside God's estimate of
+man, and ignores the plan of redemption He established at the beginning in
+types and shadows, then consummated in the atoning death of His Son on the
+Cross. The righteousness of to-day has much in it to commend; but it
+utterly disregards the only feature upon which God places emphasis. The
+Blood and the Cross, as of old, is an offense; they have found a more
+excellent way, but it is the "way of Cain." It is offering
+self-righteousness rather than seeking the righteousness of God. The
+bloody offering of Abel suggested suffering, punishment, death,
+judgment--but it honoured God. Modern righteousness scoffs at the Abel
+offerings by hanging a wreath of flowers on the Cross, bearing a perfumed
+tag, "With sympathy." It is Cain setting up business in town once more. A
+sacrificial propitiation for sin is unnecessary when we have "inherent
+goodness." The modern righteousness contends that each man has
+self-redemptive qualities; all he needs is a chance. Salvation is not
+internal, but external.
+
+The Cainites are filling the earth; they are preaching the popular
+sermons, writing the magazine articles, the poetry, the fiction; they
+occupy the chief synagogue seats of seminaries; they are conspicuous at
+all chatauquas and baccalaureate occasions.
+
+It is a well-known psychological fact that evil cannot exist apart from
+Personality--whether it be bad laws, bad books, bad town, or a bad house.
+Whence comes all this audacious, undermining insult to the whole sweep of
+God's plan for saving the world? Whence comes all this preaching about
+righteousness which places the crown on man, and robs the Cross of its
+glory? The righteousness being sounded in double diapason and angelus keys
+is _the righteousness of the Devil_. Bear in mind it is _Righteousness_,
+and a high type of it, he demands; he wants the offering of Cain to cover
+up all the needs of the soul--cheat the blood of its merit--insult God,
+and lead the race through a bowery of flowers, fruits, and music on to its
+ruin. Anything to cheat the depositum of the Gospel--that which gives a
+title to heaven--the precious Blood. The righteousness that leaves out the
+Blood is the "way of Cain"--"the righteousness of the Devil."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+THE WORLD'S TEMPTER
+
+    "Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and
+    showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and
+    sayeth unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
+    down and worship me."--_Matthew iv. 8-9._
+
+
+Temptation is a seduction: meaning to allure or entice one to evil. It is
+submitting a proposition which carries with it inducements of pleasure or
+gain. The mind that accedes readily and willingly to an act is not
+tempted. A temptation is a clash of wills, one being superior to the other
+if the contest results in a yielding. The word embodies the idea of an
+elastic--"stretched to the snapping point." If there is no response, no
+struggle against desire--it is not a temptation. The Master was very man
+as well as very God; yet strange as it may seem--_He was really tempted_,
+and just as we are.
+
+Our purpose in this discussion is not to analyze the different phases of
+our Lord's temptation--the tests to which He was subjected,--but we wish
+to emphasize one thing: He was _tempted_. The appeals came from His old
+time enemy; His rival for supremacy. He was not taken unawares; the facts
+were clearly before Him, just who and what it all meant--yet He was
+tempted. The diabolical assault did not cease until His threefold nature
+was "stretched to the snapping point." It came from an inferior being, and
+for sake of illustration, had the scheme succeeded, the Sun of
+righteousness would have gone down forever. Not only would the great plan
+of human redemption have proved abortive, but Satan would have snatched
+the sceptre from the hand of the Anointed One and shouted his victory in
+the face of God. We are amazed to think of the only Begotten being near
+the yielding point in the presence of the fallen Lucifer, but the Book
+says He was tempted.
+
+Some may contend that He could not have yielded; all the while He was
+conscious of divine security. This conclusion forces another untenable
+proposition: If He could not have yielded, His humanity was not real, but
+veiled in His divinity; the temptation was only a shadow. We insist that
+as a man Jesus was tempted; He could have called to His aid supernatural
+intervention, but He did not. The issue was met as every man must meet it;
+it was manhood that conquered. Had He yielded, both manhood and divinity
+would have become subservient to the enemy. "Fall down and worship me" was
+the proposition.
+
+Now we wish to make a few deductions from our Lord's temptation. Whatever
+includes the greater includes the lesser--_a fortiori_. Natural man
+reached his highest expression in Jesus of Nazareth; He was God's exponent
+of human perfection. There were no weaknesses, no lack of pose or
+symmetry; His penetration and judgment of others were absolutely accurate.
+From the beginning He had known the Evil One who faced Him. Now, with all
+those perfect endowments, the record says _He was tempted_. The ingenuity
+of Satan was sufficient to bring out all the resources of the Son of God.
+Here was the greatest, wisest, purest and strongest man that ever walked
+upon the earth--susceptible, influenced, strained to the "snapping point,"
+when attacked by the Tempter. What will be the inevitable fate of you and
+me, dear reader, whenever he selects us as his victims?
+
+The unmistakable teachings of the Word are that every temptation to which
+man is or ever has been subjected came fresh from the seething caldron of
+the pit. The student of human conduct has observed universal adaptability
+of all temptation. A great sagacious intelligence seems to be managing
+personally, through his cohorts, this campaign of promising propositions.
+There are some who can be incited to commit horrible crimes, such as
+murder, incendiary, born perhaps with vicious tendencies, but this class
+is comparatively small; others are susceptible to deeds of milder
+character. It would matter little to an army approaching a fortification
+where or how the attack should be made if the walls at every point were
+weak and crumbling. No time is spent in reconnoitre and playing for
+position; but if the battlements be strong, a faulty place must be located
+if there be one. Satan rarely ever blunders in laying his temptations; he
+is a most skillful strategist. As the world's tempter he reveals an
+ingenuity that is truly astounding; it should cause the bravest heart to
+shudder once the eyes are opened to the source. Knowledge of his
+approaches, marches, countermarches, advancings, and retreats--all with a
+specific object--ought to be a great breakwater.
+
+A writer gives us a striking word picture of Satan's methods: "As the
+enemy who lays siege to a city finds out the weakest portion of the wall,
+or the best spot to batter it, or the lowest and safest place to scale it,
+or where the intervening obstacle may be easiest overcome, or where an
+advantage may be taken, or where an entrance may be effected, or when is
+the best time, or what is the best means to secure the desired end, so the
+arch-deceiver and destroyer of souls goes about, watchful, intent upon
+ruin, scanning all the powers of the mind, inspecting all the avenues to
+the heart and assailing every unguarded spot. Sometimes he attacks our
+understanding by injecting erroneous doctrine; sometimes our affections by
+excessive devotion to things we love; sometimes our wills by strengthening
+them in wrong directions; sometimes our imaginations by vain, foolish,
+trifling thoughts; and sometimes our feelings by too high or too low
+excitation."
+
+Some one has called Satan and his subordinates not omnipresent, but
+"shifting imps." They swarm the air, invisible, because they are spirit,
+watching for opportunities to edge their way into the hearts of mankind.
+They are shifting position, always to a point of least resistance. Like a
+current of electricity, always flowing from a point of higher potential
+pressure to one of lower, if points are connected by a conductor. The
+metallic substances from which the current starts and towards which it
+flows are called "electrodes," and are always of different potentiality.
+The current passes from the one of higher to the lower. Man in his own
+strength is the lower, and unprotected by the Spirit of God cannot resist
+the evil currents flowing from Satan continually.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE CONFIDENCE MAN
+
+    "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
+    believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is
+    the image of God, should shine unto them."--_2 Corinthians iv. 4._
+
+
+History is one long, tragic recital of human sorrow and suffering; but
+there is far more unwritten history than has ever been recorded on the
+printed page. Along the march of civilization all that has come down to us
+are the lives and doings of great men; we know little of the heart agonies
+of the race--such as cannot be recorded--language is inadequate. Most of
+history is a record of man's inhumanity to man, but historians deal with
+these dark pages only on the higher levels. The greatest suffering, the
+bitterest cries of anguish, the deepest wails of despair are in the
+lowlands of human life: down where its pathos can never be known. The
+darkest tragedies of war are lost by the gallant heroism of some officer;
+the blood and carnage are overshadowed and forgotten by the heralds of
+victory. The real pathos of war remains unnoticed by the chroniclers and
+correspondents; it is found in the heart suffering of the dying in the
+trenches; the black pall that settles over the homes made desolate by the
+news from the front.
+
+The saddest stories of life will never be told; they are the voiceless
+agonies and smothered sobs from victims of human treachery and deceit.
+Millions are shambling on their weary way, waiting for the end, whose
+hearts are dead and buried in graves of misplaced confidence. More
+domestic lights have been extinguished, more love dreams turned from a
+sweet phantasy to an horrid nightmare, more bodies fished from the river,
+more shocking tragedies have resulted directly from this cause--misplaced
+and wrecked confidence--than from all other causes of human wretchedness.
+
+An illustration from actual life will serve to bring the caption of this
+chapter--the Confidence Man--out in bold relief. An honest old farmer,
+whose horizon had not extended beyond the obscure Indiana neighbourhood,
+sold his little home and started for Kansas, hoping to enlarge his
+possessions and give his sons and daughters a larger sphere of
+opportunity. That they might see the wonders of a great city, arrangements
+were secured for a three days' stop-over at St. Louis. The Confidence Man
+saw them pass through the iron gate into the lobby. He first noted the
+train on which they had come to the city. With great enthusiasm he greeted
+the old gentleman, introduced himself, extending a business card of his
+"firm." With cunning palaver, and the guilelessness of the farmer--item
+after item of information as to name and where they came from were
+obtained. The man who said he thought he recognized the old gentleman soon
+became satisfied of it--having an uncle living in the same county--and "I
+have often heard him speak of you, etc., etc."
+
+It required only a short time to not only gain the confidence of the
+whole family, but also to get all the facts concerning their business
+affairs: how much the little farm brought, and how much they had left to
+begin life in the west, and actual cash on hand. There was not a hitch in
+the scheme; the new friend (?) loaded them with kindnesses and courtesies,
+paid all the bills at lunch and theatre--took the young people into the
+mysteries of the great wonderland--all so new and strange.
+
+It was the last afternoon; father and Mr. Confidence Man were returning
+from a tour of sightseeing. They met a man walking in great haste; looking
+up he saw the two men, and suddenly laid violent hands on the "farmer's
+friend," demanding the payment of a note three days overdue. They
+quarrelled; all manner of apologies were made, that he was "entertaining
+an old friend, etc.," all of which caused the Shylock to grow more enraged
+and unreasonable; they almost came to blows.
+
+Finally the old man's benefactor asked to see him for a moment alone. Then
+meekly humble, and with many regrets, asked for a loan of enough to pay
+the note. "We will go right down to my office, and I will reimburse you
+with big interest for the kindness." The honest old man was only too glad
+for an opportunity of returning, by such a little act, the kindness that
+had been shown him. The note was almost one thousand dollars; when the
+bills were counted out, less than ten dollars remained in his purse--the
+savings of a lifetime.
+
+Proceeding on their way until they reached the first saloon, "It is my
+treat, uncle," said the man. After the drinks were served, he asked to be
+excused for a moment, and stepped into a back room from the bar--he was
+seen no more. After a long time, the barkeeper informed the old man that
+his _friend_ was one of the worst crooks in St. Louis. With less than ten
+dollars he staggered out of the saloon, wandered over the city dazed and
+half insane. On the following day he was found down on the wharf crying
+like a child. What had happened? He had been in the hands of a Confidence
+Man.
+
+There are being formed in all walks of life--high and low--associations
+and alliances, spurred on and incited by extravagant promises--the hook
+baited according to the fish--which culminates in certain disaster. The
+pathway of life is strewn with victims of Confidence friends--instead of
+friends. As in all these subtle and dangerous diversions we believe every
+trap and scheme are under the direct control and supervision of
+Satan--playing the rôle of Confidence Man. Many with a natural impulse for
+pleasure knock, and at once arms are wide open to receive them; lust
+beckons, and the Broad Way becomes choked with her votaries; covetousness
+shouts her promises, and the love of money soon burns out every high and
+holy aspiration. Fame holds the chaplet in full view, and men are ready to
+exchange heaven in order to have it pressed upon their brow.
+
+But alas, in the end--in the end--"it biteth like a serpent and stingeth
+like an adder." When the curtain falls, too late to recover, we shall be
+found on eternity's shore, shipwrecked, robbed, ruined--victims of the
+great seducer. No one but an incarnate devil could stoop to the low plane
+of Confidence Man in business and social life; but think of what it means:
+by flattering promises, smiles, and kindness force an entrance into the
+heart life, and when once in possession, desecrate, prostitute, and
+destroy. We insist that it takes a devil-possessed man to operate in this
+particular field, and the world is full of such. We therefore conclude he
+is the god of this planet, blinding the eyes of his unnumbered victims.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+THE TRAPPER
+
+    "And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
+    who are taken captive by him at his will."--_2 Timothy ii. 26._
+
+    "Surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler."--_Psalm
+    xci. 3._
+
+
+To be a trapper requires something more than setting traps and baiting
+them. The old trapper returns from a season spent among mountains, rivers,
+and forests--ladened with valuable furs of every kind: beaver, bear,
+otter, fox, mink, wildcat, coon, opossum, etc. Remember the animal kingdom
+is infinite in variety; no two alike. A trap that will catch a beaver will
+not answer as a bear trap; a coon and a mink are as far removed from each
+other as a polished American and a native of Madagascar. A coon will not
+go within a rod of a chain, but have little if any keenness of scent for
+protection. A rat will not go near an object if the smell of human hands
+is on it.
+
+Volumes of natural history would be inadequate to give the details of
+differentiation of the animal kingdom. The old trapper in his log cabin
+has never read a page of zoölogy, but is far more familiar with the ways
+of the furry folk than the scientists who write our books on natural
+history. The trapper is a graduate from the school of Association; he has
+studied the traits and pranks of the forest inhabitants by observation at
+close range. He knows just where the mink can be caught, and just how the
+trap must be baited and concealed; he has the same information about all
+the rest, and can apply it. Once when a child, we were enraptured until
+late bedtime by the stories of an old trapper: telling about "the
+different varmints." Without drawing on his imagination, he could have
+added many chapters to the tales of "Uncle Remus." The facts about our
+furry friends are far more interesting than fiction; the trapper knows
+about these facts.
+
+The Psalmist calls Satan a fowler; one who sets traps for old and young as
+the fowler sets traps for fowls. How is it done? Leaves and weeds are
+carefully cleared away, and the trap is skillfully set by a trigger, so
+that the slightest touch will spring it. The ground is also cleared for
+several rods leading off in front of the trap; suitable food is scattered
+under the trap and all along the clean strip of ground. The birds
+excitedly follow the line of "food"--walking under the trap where it is
+scattered in abundance. In the scuffle, the trigger is soon touched;
+behold the trap falls, and they are caught; oh, how they beat their heads
+against the prison bars until they are covered with blood, but all is
+over. They are caught in the snare of the fowler.
+
+Every animal and fowl will flee from the approach of danger; the trap must
+be hid, or in some way made to appear as something harmless; nature has
+endowed them to seek always self-preservation. With nothing but instinct
+to guide, they are easily caught by the skill and cunning of man, but
+never caught in the open; some, however, are more easily caught than
+others, but they must be trapped.
+
+The Bible teaches that the Devil is a trapper; his snares are set
+everywhere--they are man traps; no spider ever spun a web more accurately
+for the moth than Satan's traps to catch men. It requires certain bait and
+certain traps for each particular animal and bird, but the snares for men
+are legion. Man has a threefold nature: body, mind, and spirit; each of
+these have many avenues of approach. As the trapper gains his knowledge of
+the furry tribe by association, so the Trapper of men, by the application
+of supernatural powers, in close contact and intimate association through
+the past millenniums, has become intimately acquainted with man.
+
+There are no facts touching his habitat, food, passions, ambitions,
+weaknesses, yearnings, etc.--whether in the realm of body, mind or
+spirit--but the cunning trapper of the pit is more minutely acquainted
+than man is acquainted with himself.
+
+If guileless and unsuspecting men and women were the only victims, the
+situation would not be so serious; not that one soul is of more value than
+another, but the facts are: _no one_ seems to be capable of discovering
+his hidden snares. The greatest and wisest--Alexanders, Anthonys,
+Napoleons, kings, sages and philosophers--have been captured by him at his
+will. What a shudder would go over the race if it could penetrate the veil
+of mystery and see the traps towards which we are moving; moving on to
+certain capture, but for Providential oversight and guidance. Domestic
+traps, political traps, social traps, business traps, religious traps;
+the location and bait are suited to individual likes and dislikes.
+
+  "My soul be on thy guard; ten thousand foes arise."
+
+Our country is just beginning to awake to a system of trapping now being
+carried on in every city and town, so gigantic and heinous that we are
+dazed and frightened at its boldness. The great White Slave Traffic is
+carried on by traps, pure and simple; as carefully planned and skillfully
+executed as the methods of an old trapper who remains in the primeval
+forest to supply the fur market. The feelers and tentacles of this human
+devil-fish are running out in the highways and hedges: the factories,
+mills, department stores. But the traffic is not confined to the poor,
+uneducated girls at the ribbon counter or waist factory; girls of culture
+and experience are caught, but the bait used is very different. When once
+caught, not one in ten thousand ever escapes.
+
+A being less than a fallen archangel could never have instituted the White
+Slave Traffic. A man or woman not incarnated by the Devil or some of his
+minions could never promulgate a system so vile, so inhuman, so hellish,
+as the traffic of innocent flesh and blood, to be offered and burned on
+the altars of lust for gain. Compared with the White Slave Traffic, as it
+is prosecuted by the panderers and procurers, negro slavery, at its worst,
+the extermination of which the bloodiest war ever fought on this planet
+was waged, is like the vilest ribaldry ever sung in a den of vice to a Te
+Deum. Lest we forget--Satan is an expert trapper--the king of trappers.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+THE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER
+
+    "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.... Stand therefore,
+    having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
+    of righteousness.... Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith
+    ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
+    wicked."--_Ephesians vi. 13, 14, 16._
+
+
+When traps, tricks, seductions, and quackery, temptations, etc., fail,
+Satan adds victims to his long list by destroying them at long range.
+While in a mountain peak vision of inspiration Paul sees the enemy as a
+wrestler, a trickster, a schemer, and even a more dangerous rôle than
+either: a skilled marksman. By keeping close to God, and keeping ourselves
+unspotted from the world, we may stay his blighting touch from personal
+contact; but there seems to be no absolute safety until we are shielded by
+the "whole armour of God."
+
+There are "evil days," days of visitation and distress, over which no one
+has control; at such times we may not be conscious of any satanic
+presence; yet confusion, doubt, fear and anxiety have complete control
+over mind and heart. These days, and their depressing effect, can only be
+warded off by the protection of the "whole armour"; for emphasis, Paul
+mentions it twice in the same paragraph. An armour is a coat of mail
+covering the body, made so as to be impenetrable to the missile of death.
+The Apostle does not stop with a partial equipment; the head and feet
+also must be properly covered. Especially does he emphasize the
+_shield_--that great polished, concave steel disk, strapped to the left
+arm, so that a thrust from sword, arrow, or spear can be easily deflected.
+As it is carried on the arm it can be raised or lowered so as to protect
+the whole body.
+
+This arrow-protecting shield must be wrought in faith, that mysterious
+relation which unites the soul with God. The antithesis of Paul's language
+implies that when Satan makes certain efforts to wound the soul, the
+shield of faith alone can save. The fight is not ended when we come out
+victor in a hand to hand conflict, but must next prepare to meet a shower
+of "fiery darts." A dart is an arrow shot from a bow; a fiery dart is a
+flaming torch attached to the arrow.
+
+In all ages, until the days of powder and firearms, soldiers were equipped
+with bow and arrows. Arrowheads were made of steel, and as keen as
+needles. The battle-axe and broadsword were used when the lines met, but
+showers of arrows would fall upon the enemy with as much fatality as a
+round of grape and canister. Often the arrows would be freshly dipped in a
+deadly poison, and in that case the slightest wound would result in
+certain death. When a fort or city was being besieged, the arrows would
+carry a ball of tow, having been saturated in oil; hundreds of these
+flaming darts would fall on the inside of the fortification and start a
+general conflagration.
+
+This method was practiced by the American Indians when they could not
+reach a fort, blockhouse, or stockade because of the white man's gun;
+these flaming torches, falling in great number, were more to be dreaded
+than the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savages.
+
+Satan shoots "fiery darts"--arrows--at us; he may come, as he did to the
+Master, and find nothing in us; our hearts may be clean. But from a source
+entirely unexpected--here comes a flaming arrow--burning its way into the
+heart, igniting with hatred and misunderstanding friends and enemies in a
+manner never dreamed of before. How often the blow comes from the one
+place least expected, and for that reason all the more deadly. We are
+guarded in some directions, but over the walls of our stockade the Devil
+sends his fiery darts, and we are swept away in a satanic conflagration.
+It requires the "whole armour"--and the shield of faith to quench the
+flaming arrows from his quiver. He is the world's incomparable archer;
+when all other methods fail, he shoots us with poisoned, fiery darts.
+
+The mother of Achilles baptized him in the river Styx, making him
+invulnerable to the weapons of the enemy; she held him by the heel during
+the baptismal ceremony; the heel only remained untouched by the protecting
+waters of the fabulous Styx. One of the gods became acquainted with this
+fact, and shot him to death in the heel, the one vulnerable spot. Again,
+we repeat, we are not safe without the "whole armour of God," and the
+"shield of faith." Bear in mind, also, the Incomparable Archer takes a
+more deliberate aim if it is a shining mark, and exults most when he can
+lay low in the dust, wounded and disabled, one dowered with unusual
+capacity for noble service.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE FATHER OF LIARS
+
+    "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
+    do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
+    because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
+    of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."--_John viii. 44._
+
+    "Sin has many tools, but a lie is a handle which fits them all."--_O.
+    W. Holmes._
+
+
+Satan opened his propaganda with a slanderous lie; this lie was believed
+by the innocent parents of the race. Simple and modest as this lie seemed
+to be, it opened a crevice in the moral government of God. Confidence,
+fellowship, and filial relations were destroyed by the breach. The nature
+and character of a lie may best be understood, and we can get the estimate
+God places on it, by carefully studying the damages it wrought. Eden was
+lost, God's favour lost, peace and plenty lost, innocence lost;
+humiliation, fear, banishment, toil, sweat, suffering and death took the
+place of Eden's pristine glories.
+
+Nothing so reveals the depths to which Lucifer had fallen--and his great
+intelligence, losing none of its acumen, exercised in a way fitting to his
+depravity of character, as the launching of a lie. He has done nothing
+since--which more clearly exemplifies the Being our Bible teaches that he
+is. An egg was laid and a lie was hatched; this lie has gone out
+spreading at a geometrical progression until the infinitude of God's
+footstool has felt the discordant jar.
+
+A lie, and the Father of it; think of this tremendous statement. The
+thought will overwhelm our intelligence. Suppose all the peoples that have
+lived on the earth were lined up: to simplify matters--consider the
+billion and a half supposed to be living on the earth to-day; just a small
+part of the number belongs to civilized, christianized nations. What is
+the situation? Under all the light of education and moral standards,
+justice, full and untrammelled, can scarcely be had, because of false
+swearing. An eminent authority says nine-tenths of the race has a price;
+this means that only one-tenth will rigidly adhere to the whole truth. How
+few will swear to their own hurt and change not.
+
+Let us study this gigantic proposition from another view-point: every
+unregenerated heart is full of deceit. In every unregenerated heart there
+is a germ of all the sins of the Decalogue; lying is one of the "shall
+nots." A close student of men will agree with the Apostle Paul, when he
+said: "I have no confidence in the flesh." Carnality will not swear
+against its own interests; the status of civilization, whether in religion
+or morals, does not seem to control this matter. When we consider the
+falsehood and false swearing which obtain among the _best_ people,
+socially, financially, and so often religiously, then think of the
+millions living without moral standards, we can begin to appreciate the
+amount of lying carried on in this world.
+
+As lying is one of the outputs of carnality, and human selfishness is the
+tap root of carnality, and selfishness dominates the entire race, with
+rare exceptions here and there, we can understand how easily and naturally
+prevarication and lying become efficient tools to further personal
+interests. We once attended a celebrated criminal case in court; scores of
+witnesses were summoned on both sides; a bar of attorneys fought
+desperately every inch of ground. The prosecution covered the case beyond
+any question to the perfect satisfaction of the jury. And the witnesses
+were, in the main, both respectable and intelligent.
+
+But behold, when the defense produced their side of the case, the
+witnesses equally honest looking and intelligent, every point of evidence
+made by the prosecution was absolutely refuted. A new story was told; a
+new case from the one just stated. Think of it--on both sides there were
+eye-witnesses; then every witness on one side or the other perjured
+themselves--and perhaps all of them on both sides.
+
+So completely has the father of liars woven the spirit of falsehood into
+the moral fibre of men that a sense of its fearful character is almost
+obliterated. Men make fortunes, secure positions, are elected to office,
+destroy rivals, win unsuspecting love, seduce innocence, and subdue
+kingdoms, by being an obedient offspring of their father, inheriting his
+disposition and ability to breathe out falsehood. Liars are children of
+the Devil.
+
+Think of the almost infinite resources for evil: "father of liars" does
+not fully justify the situation. While it is true he originated the first
+lie, and the lying spirit has ever widened through the stream of racial
+propagation; but the clearer interpretation signifies that he is the
+father of _lies_. "See," he whispers, "the advantages to be gained--don't
+be white livered--tell it; get the hush money--make the promise--swear you
+did not see it--tell her how devotedly you love her, etc." Who has not met
+these insidious pulls on the conscience?
+
+Yes, but he is only acting now as a tempter. Quite true; but when the will
+gives away, the oath, the promise, the false statement is made under a
+furious lashing of the conscience. The lie belongs to him; he
+originated--suggested--formulated it; then literally drew it out with
+quite as much pain as is felt during the extraction of a tooth by a
+dentist.
+
+It has been said: "The Devil will leave his own brat on your door-step,
+then accuse you of being its father." This is an inelegant, though a
+striking statement of a great truth. When he is unable to bring
+forth--deliver, etc.--his own conception, he at once charges us of being
+guilty of the thing conceived: the lie, vile imagination, or whatever it
+may be, quoting Scripture to prove it: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so
+is he." "Now," he declares, "you are guilty anyhow; why not enjoy the
+benefits?" Father of lies; millions of them spawned every day and hour:
+big lies, little lies, business lies, social lies, political lies, and not
+a few--religious lies, black lies, white lies, church lies.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+KINGSHIP OF SATAN
+
+    "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the prince of the power
+    of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
+    disobedience."--_Ephesians ii. 2._
+
+    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
+    principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
+    this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."--_Ephesians
+    vi. 12._
+
+
+In a former chapter we discussed the origin of Satan, he being an
+archangel--Lucifer--a great shining leader of the heavenly hosts; now in
+his fallen estate he is no less a leader. A writer has said: "He seems to
+have been the rightful prince of this earth, but he has become the
+traitor-prince through being untrue to the trust; and the usurper-prince
+through seeking to retain control of the earth as his own dominion,
+through deceiving man, to whom the earth's dominion was given, into
+obeying him, and in utter defiance of God." The angels which kept not
+their first estate, but went down with his insurrection, are his subjects.
+
+He is superior in all villainies, but the Scriptures call him a King
+ruling his cohorts, and is the "angel of the bottomless pit." As angel he
+retains his old title, but as _king_, his relations stand out
+significantly. As chief Devil--archdemon--the title would imply rather
+_Primus inter pares_; as commander-in-chief, a general of the highest
+rank. He is all these things: he gives special oversight to field
+operations, conducts personally great campaigns, retreats here, advances
+there, charges yonder--but his real aim is to get this world back under
+his own control; he would put himself in God's place--drive Him out,
+dethrone Him, kill Him off, that he might take it all to himself, and rule
+supremely.
+
+However, he is _king_, and as such he is raised above the rank of
+leadership and commander. We are already familiar with his rank, but the
+purpose of this chapter is to show, specifically, that as a king his
+kingship has a much wider range than the bottomless pit. It is threefold.
+First, as angel of the bottomless pit, he is king of the _underworld_, the
+land of shadows, gloom, utter darkness; the land of eternal despair. We
+must depend upon the _Infernos_, evolved from a burning imagination, in
+order to get any conception of that region. Fearful as the scenes are, a
+close reading of the Scriptures will reveal a condition of things so
+terrible that the things seen by Dante and Virgil are not overdrawn. Over
+this land of woe and suffering Satan is the unlimited monarch.
+
+Second, he is king of the _upper world_. This statement sounds very
+strange; it would appear that God is entirely ruled out of His creation.
+But observe the language: "prince of the power of the air." Just what this
+means in its fullness no one should dare to be dogmatic, but certainly the
+language cannot be meaningless words. We can but conclude that Satan, in
+some measure, controls the forces of the physical world: storms, cyclones,
+cloud bursts, tidal waves, lightning bolts, earthquakes, etc. Certainly,
+as a _destroyer_, he uses the agencies of destruction; his business is to
+fill the world with doubt, fear, distress and suffering.
+
+A man has a little child killed by lightning, and he curses God. Does this
+not look as if a diabolical schemer was manipulating the affair some way?
+We must admit his power is permitted, and that proposition forces another
+to the front. Why does God allow or permit his ravages? We have no answer;
+the ravages go on. We might ask with just as much reason: "Why doesn't God
+kill the Devil?" He certainly is able to do it, or at least stop his
+progress. But He does not; Satan is evidently running at large, filling
+the world with broken hearts and all the accompanying evils which,
+otherwise, would not occur.
+
+That we may be able to strengthen our opinion as to the prerogatives of
+this "prince of the power of the air," let us remember the circumstances
+of Job's calamities. This case is undoubtedly authentic, and the record
+says that Satan actually controlled the powers of the air. The servant of
+Job thought God rained fire on the sheep and burned them, but the whole
+affair had been turned over to the tormentor. The visitations sent on the
+faithful man of Uz were not from the hand of God; they were manipulated by
+his satanic lordship--the Devil. Then a great wind came--possibly a
+tornado or cyclone--and blew the house down wherein Job's children were
+enjoying themselves.
+
+Concerning Satan's relation--controlling and directing the forces of
+nature--we shall not conture a dogmatic position. The definite statements
+and incidents from the inspired record are significant indeed. Strange
+things occur: a great vessel loaded with Sunday revellers goes down with
+scarcely a moment's warning; a tidal wave destroys thousands; an
+earthquake leaves a city in ruins with fearful loss of life. Does the
+loving, compassionate Father send these calamities? Would it not be a
+terrible indictment? But the Bible gives incidents where He did send
+death-dealing visitations upon the people. Certainly. Many believe that
+God uses Satan, in his vicious administration, to visit His wrath upon
+places and people. However, God has given him the title of "prince of the
+power of the air"--the "wickedness in high places."
+
+The third realm of his kingship is terrestrial; in this he is given a
+stronger title than prince or king; "The god of this world." Besides, he
+is the "prince of darkness," and the "prince of this world." So real are
+his presence and power manifested here that Paul declares the contest is
+like a wrestling boute. This figure, examined closely, will open up a
+great continent of truth concerning our enemy, of whom we must meet in
+hand to hand conflict. See the wrestlers writhe and strain; agony is
+depicted on their faces; the muscles contract into hard knots,
+perspiration bursting from every pore. All the strength of every nerve and
+muscle, wrought up to their full capacity, is exerted. "We wrestle," he
+declares, and not with flesh and blood; but "against principalities and
+against powers," "rulers of the darkness of this world."
+
+The great religious reformers since Paul's day have left a similar
+testimony concerning this terrestrial enemy; his personality has never
+been questioned by men who were positive powers in the realm of spiritual
+warfare. After Martin Luther had produced a nation-wide reformation,
+having been delivered from the bondage of a Benedictine monk by a
+revelation to his own soul that the "just shall live by faith," he
+declared: "Satan semper mehi dixit falsum dogma." Shall we deny the oft
+told story that Luther threw his inkstand at them (demons) when they
+actually appeared unto him in person? Is it unreasonable? They were
+alarmed at his triumphs, and wanted to terrify him. The kingship of Satan
+in the under world and upper world are Bible statements; his kingship in
+the world about us is a Bible fact confirmed by human testimony.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE DEVIL'S HANDMAIDEN
+
+    "Be not drunk on wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the
+    Spirit."--_Ephesians v. 18._
+
+    "No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God."--_1 Corinthians vi.
+    10._
+
+
+The fallen Lucifer knew from the beginning that his work must necessarily
+be in competition with the Son of God; therefore he has invested his
+genius to originate a duplicate for all that Christ has done for us.
+Knowing that the letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive, he seeks to
+furnish all the appearances, and as far as possible duplicate experiences:
+Reformation without repentance; conviction without conversion; conversion
+without regeneration; membership without adoption; baptism with water
+without the baptism of the Holy Ghost; physical and emotional pleasure
+without the "joy of salvation."
+
+The prophet Isaiah exhorts the people to say: "Praise the Lord," and,
+"with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation," and, "Cry out and
+shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, etc." The Psalmist, also, gives out a
+continuous stream of joyous praise. In all ages people have at sundry
+times and places shouted out the joy of the Lord. This emotional
+expression is by no means the only test of experimental salvation, as
+nothing honours God so much as simple, unemotional faith; but there are
+times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. This contrast of
+emotional experience we wish to examine.
+
+We must keep in mind the bitter rivalry between the Prince of light, and
+the Prince of darkness. The heart of a contest of this character is the
+expulsive power of the one over against the other. Satan studies
+assiduously every experience, every angle of advancement of Christ's
+kingdom, and proceeds to furnish a duplicate. He knows that the followers
+of Jesus often rejoice with a fullness of joy--unspeakable, as it were; to
+meet this, he soon discovered that the exhilaration of drunkenness
+produced a splendid expulsive power. He proposes and promises his
+followers all the joys furnished by his rival; however pleasant they are
+always shams, and "at last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an
+adder."
+
+A beverage that would produce drunkenness has been a curse from the
+earliest history. We call attention to two events, each one of which was
+so great that it left a blight sufficient to turn the course of human
+history into darker and bloodier channels. The first followed closely upon
+the remarkable deliverance from the Flood. The Ark had settled; life began
+its routine, fresh from the awful calamity. Noah built an altar and
+worshipped God; but before the perfume of the holy incense evaporated,
+that faithful servant of the Most High became _beastly drunk_, and his son
+Ham looked upon his nakedness and shame. The children of Ham must carry
+the curse until the end. The other followed closely upon a deliverance
+from fire. Lot was a citizen of Sodom, but he had not defiled himself;
+the iniquity of the place came up before God, and He destroyed it; not,
+however, until His angel led this righteous man to a place of safety.
+Through the entreaties of his designing daughters, as they were resting in
+the mountains, Lot became intoxicated unto idiocy. We must draw a veil
+over the shameful scene that occurred during his debauch; but the tribes
+of Moab and Ammon, war-like savages of the desert unto this day, was the
+terrible resultant. They are the incorrigible followers of the Crescent
+rather than the Cross.
+
+Wherever drunkenness has touched humanity it has blighted and withered
+like a Sirocco from Sahara. No one but a fallen archangel could have
+invented such a beverage. Yet the character of liquors used by the race in
+its infancy for carnival pleasures, compared with the output of the modern
+distillery and brewery, are as moonshine to the blistering heat of the
+summer sun. Satan profits by experience; he has not been idle during the
+centuries. Solomon warned against "looking upon the wine when it was red,
+and turneth itself in the cup"--fermentation. If fermented grape juice
+should, at that time, bring forth such an inspired warning, what language
+would be necessary to depict the character of the low grade, adulterated
+fire-water sold in the saloons and dives of America and Europe?
+
+The true spirit and character of liquor cannot be understood if viewed as
+a stimulating beverage, satisfying and inflaming human passions. Its
+Author soon discovered that such an unmixed evil must answer at the bar of
+an outraged individual and public conscience. He saw that if liquor
+succeeded in all he had planned, it must send its roots deeper down than
+taste and appetite. Hence this handmaiden of the Devil has now become one
+of the most gigantic trusts on earth, blooming out into commercial,
+political, and industrial proportions. The whole business lives and moves
+and has its being on misery and bloodshed on one side of the counter; loot
+and plunder, coupled with an insane lust for gold, on the other side of
+the counter.
+
+It has not one redeeming feature; but so carefully has it sheltered itself
+by a devil-fish organization that it stands like a Gibraltar. It has
+become so great that the actual investments in the business aggregate
+billions; an army larger than the combined forces, North and South, at any
+one time during the Civil War are being supported; over one hundred
+millions go annually into the national exchequer. China has been called a
+sleeping giant; woe to the nations once she is awakened. In the liquor
+traffic we have a giant that never sleeps. Twenty-four hours each
+day--like Giant Despair--he enslaves and imprisons the multitudes. So
+tremendous has this organization grown that its work does not stop with
+social demoralization, but with little difficulty can dictate governmental
+policies, throttle legislation, and bribe juries.
+
+Again, we cannot judge or estimate the liquor traffic until we follow it
+down through its labyrinth of social, financial, and moral declension. Not
+until we see it face to face, glaring and defiant, in the haunts where
+finished products are on exhibition. The "Scarlet Annex," temples of
+lust, and the White Slaver's headquarters are united in the place where
+labour troubles are hatched, mob violence gathers fuel, and feud hatred is
+crystallized into bloodshed. Where gamblers, thugs, yeggmen, murderers,
+anarchists, jail-birds, and burglars hold high carnival. We must see the
+bloated faces, the bleeding Magdalenas, human beasts, and wife beaters, as
+they wallow in filth and obscenity, before the perspective is correct.
+
+The inauguration of liquor as a duplicate for God's greatest manifestation
+of Himself--the infilling of the Holy Spirit--was a master stroke. In a
+wild, reckless debauch it supplements man's every need and hunger. In the
+crazed brain there is a vision of wealth, power, revenge, joy. The
+drunkard is clay in the liquor-demon's hand; if a coward, liquor makes him
+bold; if sympathetic, liquor deadens his heart; if honest, liquor makes
+him a thief; if a loving father or son, liquor makes him a brute. Behold
+the Handmaiden of the Devil--King Alcohol: the most efficient ally of the
+"angel of the bottomless pit."
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+THE ASTUTE AUTHOR
+
+    "Till I come give heed to reading."--_1 Timothy iv. 13._
+
+    "Of the making of books there is no end."--_Ecclesiastes xii. 12._
+
+
+When we remember the crude methods of book making in the days of Solomon,
+compared with the facilities of modern publishing houses, his statement
+has in it a touch of humour. To-day manuscripts are turned over to
+printers and binders, and in two weeks an edition of from five to fifty
+thousand copies are ready for the market. There are three million volumes
+in our libraries; and, a writer has said, enough new books come from the
+press annually to build a pyramid as large as St. Paul's Cathedral,
+London. Mr. Carnegie is planting his libraries in every town and city in
+America.
+
+Evening and morning papers are laid at our doors with flaming head-lines
+of all that has happened the world over in the last twenty-four hours.
+Detailed descriptions of murders, scandals, elopements, court scenes,
+betrayals, etc. Magazines, representing every phase of life and industry,
+are multiplying continually. The literature of a nation is potentially its
+food for character building, morally and spiritually.
+
+Now what are we reading? Editors are calling for "stuff" with "human
+interest." The manuscript with "preaching" gets a return slip instead of a
+check; writers are governing themselves by this canon. The most popular
+writers of fiction a decade ago, who wrote books with high moral and
+spiritual tone, have step by step eliminated _religion_, and now deal with
+Socialistic questions and New Thought problems.
+
+The most popular novels are teaching false standards of life, and some of
+the "best sellers" are base libels on religion and the Church. This is the
+situation, and a close observation of the output of the high-class,
+reputable publishers will confirm it. Why is this the status of our book
+makers? Book writing and publishing, like all other branches of human
+endeavour, have become commercialized; writers and publishers are
+pandering to a vitiated taste for revenue only. It is not literature
+editors are seeking, but stories that will sell.
+
+A librarian of one of our large cities told the writer that seventy-five
+per cent. of the books called for and read were positively harmful to the
+highest ideals. If such is true on this plane of literature, what can be
+said of the publishing houses which produce nothing but books utterly vile
+and immoral? It is said there are two thousand publishing concerns in New
+York City issuing just such literature, circulated secretly in many
+instances. An army of writers are employed to furnish so many "thrillers"
+monthly. These "stories" deal with the lowest, vilest passions of
+humanity. What is true of New York is also true of Chicago and other
+cities.
+
+Enough stories have been written of the James Boys, Wild Bill, Buffalo
+Bill, and other border heroes (?), could they have lived to take the
+least part in so many situations, to have required a century to pass
+through them all. As much blood as was shed actually at Shiloh has been
+shed by the writers of border outlawry during the past twenty-five years.
+The indirect influence of the books of the James Boys have caused more
+bloodshed than those Missouri bandits spilt by their unerring
+marksmanship.
+
+A penniless orphan boy was adopted by his well-to-do uncle, who gave him
+all the comforts and opportunities of an actual son. Early in his teens he
+became a novel fiend--the lowest and vilest type; reading several each
+week. When scarcely fifteen years old, he armed himself with his uncle's
+pistol, took from the barn the finest horse, and left in the early
+morning. The gentleman, suspecting the truth concerning the missing horse
+and boy, called a neighbour, and the two gave chase to the young ingrate.
+They came upon him late in the day, and as the uncle seized the bridle
+rein, the nephew shot him through the heart, and wounded the neighbour
+before he could be pulled from the horse and overpowered.
+
+A beautiful girl was found dead in Central Park, New York. Her face, form,
+and the fabric of her clothing showed plainly that she belonged to a home
+of wealth and culture. In one hand was an empty vial labelled deadly
+poison; in the other hand, gripped in the paroxysms of her last struggle,
+was a paperback novel. The explanation was simple: the heroine had a
+downfall, and rather than face her shame, committed suicide.
+
+If you will observe the throng of factory girls, overworked, underpaid,
+heart-hungry from which the White Slaver reaps a rich harvest, they will
+be reading the class of book mentioned. They enter into the sacred
+relation of married life with false, distorted ideals, the end of which is
+often ruin: infidelity to marriage vows, abandonment, and divorce court.
+
+There is another department of literature, written with but one purpose in
+view: the overthrow of orthodox faith. A thousand questions are raised
+which the common people cannot answer. Why is it the unchurched masses are
+continually drifting farther and farther from the Church and what it
+stands for? Labour unions have almost repudiated religion; class hatred
+was never more pronounced than to-day, notwithstanding the loud
+proclamation of human brotherhood. Say what you will as to causes, this
+condition is not an accident; we must go far up the turbid stream to find
+the source of these defiling waters. When we find the source, it will be
+found that behind all these insidious influences stands the inspiring
+Author.
+
+Why is there such an incessant effort to divert the minds of the best
+people from personal relationship of Jesus through faith in His blood?
+Where is the author, the editor--even religious editors--who stand
+four-square for the Bible of our fathers and mothers? We are glad to say
+there are a few exceptions; but the drift of writers and editors is away
+from fundamentals. Satan boldly and thievishly appropriates every
+available avenue to the soul; wherever his cold, clammy hand touches, it
+leaves a chill of death. Beyond a question more writers than we ever
+dreamed are only amanuenses of the Astute Author.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+THE HYPNOTIST
+
+    "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
+    and signs and lying wonders."--_2 Thessalonians ii. 9._
+
+    "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
+    miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the
+    beast."--_Revelation xiii. 14._
+
+    "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead."--_Ephesians v.
+    14._
+
+
+Just where the natural and the supernatural exists is a most difficult
+psychological problem. Many marvellous doings and strange apparitions,
+from the beginning, were attributed to the supernatural. These same
+wonders are now known to be the application of physical and psychological
+laws. The "enchanters," "soothsayers," "diviners," "magicians," and
+"fortune tellers" have awed the simple-minded and superstitious in all
+ages. A clear understanding of Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Telepathy, Odylic
+Force, Psychological Phenomena, Clairvoyance, Black Art, and Spiritism,
+will throw light on many of these supposed supernatural mysteries. Under
+whatever name demonstrations may be known, they are all various phases of
+certain well-established laws touching our physical, mental, and psychical
+being.
+
+One of the most common, and best understood, of these mystery workings is
+Hypnotism which, defined, is "an artificial trance, or an artificially
+induced state, in which the mind becomes passive." The subject, however,
+acts readily upon suggestion or direction; and upon regaining normal
+consciousness, retains little or no recollection of the actions or ideas
+dominant during this condition. Hypnotism is purely mental and physical;
+but this strange power which one can exercise over another strikingly
+illustrates the influence which Satan exercises over millions of blinded
+subjects. We shall avoid any attempt to discuss the science and philosophy
+of Hypnotism; this phase of the subject is not germane to our discussion.
+
+All these subtle laws of mind, acting in relation to the body, only now
+being understood by scholars, are undoubtedly familiar to our common
+Enemy. We believe that centuries before man knew anything about psychic
+laws, as understood to-day, strange, unaccountable influences were
+operating on the wills and consciences of men. Hypnotism is a form of
+sleep; but during the time the subject can receive and obey instructions.
+They are absolutely under the control of the hypnotist.
+
+Paul caught an extraordinary vision of sin when he exclaimed to the
+Ephesians: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." Here is a
+fearful figure of sin: that it is sleep--semi-consciousness--
+unconsciousness; yet they think, act, move about, enjoy, love, hate, etc.,
+etc., and they are as one asleep. Observe this state is, if allowed to
+remain _in articulo mortis_, Hypnotism, conducted by the Master of Black
+Art; and they obey his will, over against observation, warning, wisdom,
+experience of others, even of themselves. Voices may call loud and long,
+but do not awaken the soul under the satanic spell.
+
+There are many freaks of hypnotic influence which illustrate vividly the
+power of sin--and back of the sin, the sin Personality. We have seen
+subjects placed under hypnotic sleep, and they would remain in this
+condition for twenty-four hours. The demonstration was made in a large
+department store, facing a stone-paved street, which roared day and night
+with cars and heavy traffic. Hundreds of people swarmed about the sleeping
+man, laughing and talking loudly. Not until the hypnotist came and touched
+the subject did he arouse from the heavy slumber.
+
+A still more remarkable demonstration is reported to have been
+accomplished in an Eastern city. We give as authority the _Associated
+Press_. After the subject was placed under the hypnotic trance, he was
+dressed like one being prepared for burial, then put in a coffin, hauled
+to the cemetery in a hearse. The "corpse" was then lowered in a grave of
+the proper depth, the grave filled to the ground level. The air tube from
+the coffin to the top was large enough to enable a light to be reflected
+on the face of the sleeper. "Buried alive," said the report. He was left
+in the grave several hours.
+
+If superior mind force can accomplish such marvellous feats on human will,
+what may we expect from supernatural mind force with a burning ambition to
+subdue? The columns of our _dailies_ are filled with reports of the doings
+of men and women that cannot be explained on any other hypothesis. Think
+of the insane, unreasonable, illogical risk in all manner of sin--for
+what? A momentary taste of some "forbidden fruit." We hear that
+self-preservation is the first law of our being; but how often this law is
+utterly ignored for sensuous gratification. Those who do these things are
+unable to understand their insane conduct until it is all over. "Oh, I can
+see it all now," is the despairing cry so often heard. Of course, the
+hypnotic spell is removed. How easy it is to sit and philosophize on the
+actions of people. "Why would any sane person do such a thing?" A sane
+person would not; the why of all these human twists is very simple when we
+are willing to admit the literal teaching of God's book concerning our
+indefatigable Enemy. "The apostate angel and his followers by pride and
+blasphemy against God and malice against men became liars and murderers by
+tempting men to do sins" (Jude 6, R. V.).
+
+Why did the Prodigal Son do such an insane, sinful act? Why? Well, he came
+to himself, but not until the harm was wrought. Why have ten thousand
+prodigals since that day been guilty of the same insane conduct? The
+answer is obvious. Why did Judas sell his Lord?--He who had been so highly
+honoured: chosen, ordained, sent out? "Satan entered into Judas;" there
+you have the whole truth. By and by, Judas came to himself; then remorse
+and despair not only caused him to return the money, but destroy himself.
+
+In a subsequent chapter we shall discuss more particularly the suicide
+problem; but we are satisfied Judas was a victim of two satanic schemes:
+the hypnotic spell deadened his reason and judgment to do the deed; then,
+after the Crucifixion, despair gripped him like a vice. Who would say that
+Judas was excluded from the Saviour's dying prayer: "Father forgive them"?
+Peter denied Christ, then lied and blasphemed about it. He was restored;
+but Satan's power over Judas was not broken. His end was Satan's finished
+work. What he did to Judas he purposes to do with every "subject"--utter
+destruction.
+
+We once saw a snake charm a bird; the serpent's head was lifted several
+inches--eyes blazing, and red tongue flashing. The bird fluttered, gave a
+piteous wail, but was helplessly walking into the jaws of death. Now the
+question arises: what about the freedom of the will? Do we ever cease to
+be free agents? Certainly we do not; the hypnotic subject exercises free
+choice; that is never destroyed, but he acts under a compelling _vis
+uturga_--power behind.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+DEVIL POSSESSION
+
+    "As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed
+    with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb
+    spake."--_Matthew ix. 32-33._
+
+    "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good
+    things?"--_Matthew xii. 34._
+
+
+One characteristic, which has been prominent in the varied manifestations
+of Satan studied so far, is adaptability. Methods that were available in
+the days of our Lord cannot be used successfully now. By some secret
+unknown to us the Devil enters into the souls of men. This is a mystery;
+so is, also, the filling of the Holy Spirit a mystery. The Devil possessed
+King Saul, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, and many are the instances
+recorded in the ministry of the Saviour. Devil possession, it seemed, was
+very common; Christ was continually casting them out, and He also gave His
+Apostles power likewise to cast them out.
+
+We do not believe the Enemy has abandoned his old profession: an evil
+spirit despises a disembodied state; if people are fortified and shielded
+against his entrance--then the swine. As cold air whistles and roars about
+every crack and cranny, entering in from all directions, so evil
+spirits--Devil and demons--press their entrance into the soul. If it is
+true they cannot enter except by permission,--they pry and pound until
+resistance is impossible, unless divine reinforcement comes to the rescue.
+
+There are maniacs, violent, desperate, incurable, to-day as truly demon
+possessed as was the man who lived among the tombs. This, however, is not
+his modern _modus operandi_; desperate maniacs could then terrorize a
+whole community. Our great asylums have solved this problem; even the
+immediate family is relieved of the burden and fear. Those who do not
+accept the theory of demon possession should explain a case at present in
+one of our institutions. It is a boy, at the time it attracted attention,
+only twelve years of age, thin, emaciated, and by no means abnormal in any
+particular. This child would remain quiet for days; during this time he
+possessed no strength beyond one of his age. At unexpected moments he
+would be seized with violent contortions, frothing at the mouth, and
+snapping like a mad dog; and a continuous flow of the most obscene
+language and blasphemy while the spell lasted. This is not the strangest
+part: he had the strength of a giant; it required four or five men to
+overpower him. One man was helpless in his hands; he would literally hurl
+them to the floor. Compare this story with the one in the fifth chapter of
+Mark: "And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out
+of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the
+tombs; and no man could bind him, no not with chains, because that he had
+been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
+asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man
+tame him."
+
+In countries where the gospel light has not yet shown full-orbed, demon
+possession with manifestations similar to those of Bible times are known
+to be common. F. B. Meyer relates numerous cases in Russia; many by prayer
+were cast out in the name of Jesus Christ. "I confess," he says, "these
+incidents have greatly impressed me. I wonder how far it would be right to
+deal with certain forms of drunkenness and impurity as cases of
+demon-possession. It may be there is more of this demon work among us than
+we know, and especially in cases of mania." Dr. Howard Taylor, of the
+China Island Mission, it is said, was accustomed to diagnose the symptoms
+of demon-possession in the same way as of any other disease. Dr. Nevins,
+of the Presbyterian Mission Board, tells of hundreds of cases, witnessed
+by himself, where by faith in the Son of God the demons were cast out, and
+the victims were clothed and in their right mind.
+
+Cotton Mather says of Salem witchcraft: "Those persons said to be
+bewitched would swoon, froth at the mouth, their bodies would cramp into
+irregular shapes; meanwhile they would utter accusations against good
+people who, they said, had bewitched them. This excited sympathy of the
+court. As soon as the court rendered judgment, those bewitched victims
+would be relieved of their physical cramps and mental torture." Salem
+witchcraft was real cases of demon-possession, but the court blundered in
+that the demons were located in the wrong persons.
+
+Sir Walter Scott says that similar manifestations of Satan as were
+witnessed at the time of the Salem witchcraft occurred simultaneously in
+every country on earth. He writes again: "Anna Cole, living at Hartford,
+was taken with strange fits which caused her to express strange things
+unknown to herself, her tongue being guided by a demon. She confessed to
+the minister that she had been familiar with a devil." Pages could be
+filled with modern examples which coincide so exactly with New Testament
+records that we have no doubt the causes are the same.
+
+Professor Webster, late of Wheaton College, said in a lecture before the
+students: "I once knew a man possessed of a demon. He became so vicious
+that he had to be confined in a cell in jail. When he heard any one swear
+or blaspheme, he would go into convulsions of laughter. When any one used
+the name of God or Christ, he would curse everything good, and foam at the
+mouth. He possessed superhuman strength, like the man living among the
+tombs."
+
+The soul is God's masterpiece, created to be the habitat of the Paraclete,
+but may, as truly, become the habitat of a demon. We believe that Diabolus
+has so organized his forces that his minions represent various sins; they
+are specialists--skilled labourers: drink demons, lust demons, lying
+demons, anger demons, theft demons, pride, blasphemy, etc. Demon
+possession to-day expresses itself in sins we try to control by means of
+courts, education, etc. Homes become a miniature hell because of drink,
+pride, lust, or lying demons.
+
+Our penitentiaries are crowded with men who were controlled by a demon,
+forced them into drink, anger, or theft, until the deed was committed. We
+may feel thankful that there are so few Scriptural cases of demon
+possession about us--the old time possession. The wise Enemy has shifted,
+but at the same time has greatly enlarged his field of operation. There
+are no witch victims to-day: the courts would not punish the witches, but
+the bewitched would be safely cared for in an asylum. But observe, there
+are ten thousand other insidious ways in which he possesses men and women,
+enlarging his kingdom daily; his victims multiply, but not among the
+tombs. The name of Jesus continues to be the only remedy.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+DEVIL OPPRESSION
+
+    "So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with
+    sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown."--_Job ii. 7._
+
+    "Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the
+    devil."--_Acts x. 38._
+
+
+A necessary concomitant of demon possession is its influence upon the
+individual's moral faculties; an entirely new type of moral tastes are
+developed: tempers, sympathies, and, especially, doctrines which are
+diametrically opposed to genuine spiritual religion and revelation. Demon
+possession bitterly and persistently rejects, whether by a nominal
+professor or unbeliever, the doctrines of repentance, new birth, etc.,
+through a blood atonement.
+
+In demon possession the fight is on the inside; in demon oppression the
+fight is on the outside. In the one, Satan controls the man: body, mind
+and soul; in the other, he depresses, afflicts the man: body, mind, and
+soul. In the one, the victim is the incarnation of evil; in the other the
+victim is generally the purest and holiest of men and women.
+
+The Devil or demons may be ejected by the power of the Holy Ghost, but the
+hellish enterprise is never given up; all the engineering of the pit is
+utilized to keep ransomed souls out of the kingdom. Once a choice is made,
+all hell is aroused unto wrath and riot to torment, nag, and finally drag
+the discouraged pilgrim back into sin and apostasy. This is often
+accomplished successfully through an afflicted body. Who knows but that
+the drama enacted in the land of Uz has been repeated many, many times
+since Job sat on his ash pile?
+
+"But," says the objector, "sickness and disease come as a result of
+exposure, natural laws violated, inoculation by infection and contagion."
+True, but remember he is the "prince of the power of the air." What he did
+once he can do again, and more efficiently. Think of the strenuous war
+being waged on germs, microbes, and bacilli; we have diseases more violent
+than ever before. Yet when the race of life was less complicated and
+simple, none of the modern precautions were thought of; flies swarmed
+about everything placed on the table, and their mission thought to be one
+of beneficence. There are many actual and implied statements in the Bible
+which teach that disease and sickness are often the result of demon
+oppression; a large part of our Lord's ministry was relieving those who
+were oppressed of the Devil and demons.
+
+Then his work is just as effective in the realm of the mind; the mental
+faculties, filled with confusion and doubt, are incapable of exercising
+their normal functions. Multitudes are able, because of their
+intelligence, to guard the approaches through the physical organism, or to
+the extent of subjection at least; but are as completely oppressed in mind
+as others are in body. We do not claim that any are entirely immune from
+his attacks; but he is wise and sagacious enough to select such victims
+for specific oppression as will best satisfy and gratify his diabolical
+pleasure in seeing the followers of his rival suffer. He oppresses only
+such as he is unable to possess. Many have been so troubled mentally that
+Christian living becomes a life and death struggle. Here we find another
+example of "wrestling not with flesh and blood."
+
+But some of Satan's greatest victories and rejoicings come from soul
+oppression. We believe this to be the real secret of our Lord's agony in
+the garden; it was the Devil's last opportunity to thwart the great plan
+of salvation. Oh, to cheat Calvary; put our "Lamb slain from the
+foundation of the world" in such physical, mental, and soul burdened agony
+He would refuse at the last moment to do all the will of His Father. How
+near he came to accomplishing the diabolical scheme we learn from the
+story as given by inspiration. We remember His piteous remark as they left
+the Paschal room: "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death";
+then He cries out in anguish: "If it is possible, let this cup pass from
+Me." Never was He nearer the great Father heart, and never was He more a
+man than at this time; and as a man, perhaps during the terrible crisis,
+He did not analyze His sufferings and emotions. All the powers of hell
+were combined to crush Him at the hour for which He came into the world.
+
+Every student of soul tragedy can appreciate, in a limited degree, the
+experiences of Gethsemane. Paul had this exact experience in mind when he
+wrote of the "evil days" in which we had to "wrestle." What are evil
+days? Days when the heavens are brass, and the fountains of prayer are
+dried up; a cold, sinking sensation clutches the heart. The mind is in a
+jumble, plans are thwarted, the mail brings a message of some deception or
+betrayal, the hand slips, fires go out, trains missed, pressing duties
+remain undone; nervous anxiety and evil forebodings chill the soul. The
+mind and heart are filled with dread; cold perspiration swells into beads
+upon the brow. Evil days! Oh, how we stumble and blunder; we cannot even
+think of advancement. Paul says we can only stand still, and having done
+all, stand. Many who are not familiar with the nature of such "days" will
+cast away their faith, believing that their "feelings" are the index to
+the state of grace in the heart.
+
+But, thank God, a crushing defeat came to this traitor-prince in that the
+full programme leading up to the world's great Atonement was carried out
+to the letter. It was not the physical fear of death which caused the
+blood-sweating agony of our Lord; if so, thousands have met the martyr's
+end far more triumphantly than did He. Some believe it was the weight of
+the world's sin breaking His heart. Both the physical dread of death and
+sin burden may have entered into the garden tragedy; but it was, we repeat
+with emphasis, the myrmidons of hell taking the advantage of His humanity
+at the crisis of His life: _It was Devil Oppression_.
+
+Devil oppression does not always come in a diseased body, a confused mind,
+or in days of soul depression. But sometimes they are new, instantaneous,
+fierce, overwhelming, and always from different angles and approaches. A
+vile suggestion, a remembered sin, long ago under the blood, a strong
+inclination to commit revolting deeds. An eminent, and deeply-pious divine
+of the South tells in his autobiography that while alone in his study, in
+meditation and prayer, he was strangely assaulted by the Devil. For more
+than an hour the inclination to blaspheme was almost beyond his control;
+it seemed that vile oaths would well up in his mouth and almost leap from
+his tongue. So terrible was the attack that deliverance came only after a
+long struggle on his face crying out audibly to God. Then the dark cloud
+of bat-winged vampires, almost visible, left as mysteriously as they came.
+It was Devil Oppression.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+DEVIL ABDUCTION
+
+    "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
+    shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits."--_1
+    Timothy iv. 1._
+
+    "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
+    light."--_2 Corinthians xi. 14._
+
+
+We used the above Scriptures in a former chapter, but with special
+reference to "doctrines"; the part we wish to emphasize now, "giving heed
+to seducing spirits": that is to say, be led away or abducted by the Devil
+or demon. There are four classes of people who may be subjected to the
+seductive influence of evil spirits. We should keep in mind that the
+"prince of this world" and his emissaries were once angels, and of course,
+when necessary, can bring their angelic attributes into seductive
+usefulness.
+
+One of the problems facing the Church and all religious workers is to keep
+the converts or communicants in line; steady them in the presence of
+deflecting influences. The Church is suffering from the inroads of every
+conceivable brand: isms, cults, fads, worldliness, etc., which always
+mean, not only usefulness paralyzed, but the loss of Church and Bible
+ideals. How many among us who once ran well, but are now tilted,
+side-tracked, derailed, and ditched. We are encompassed about with ten
+thousand plausible, seductive tenets, arguments and theories, which if
+yielded to will result in utter religious ruin.
+
+There are four classes of possible victims, all sincere and
+conscientious, none of which are basely wicked. First: the unregenerate
+who are blindly seeking the light, but following the inner voice and
+promptings, rather than the Word of God. These become easy victims to the
+charms (?) of Christian Science, Theosophy, Spiritualism, Mormonism, etc.
+Once inducted, there follows a mental refreshing, and a carnal peace,
+which bring the "soul rest" and "assurance" they eagerly sought. These
+cults are lauded and believed as modern "revelations," but they are only
+_new clothes_ stretched over the dried mental mummies which lived and
+moved in the early centuries and dead civilizations. Various shades and
+deductions from old Hindoo philosophy, Egyptian magic, Gnosticism,
+Stoicism, Æstheticism, Asceticism are paraded so as to catch the cultured,
+twentieth century devotee. In whatever form it may come, the beauty
+worshippers of Æstheticism, the mental anesthetics of Christian Science,
+or the debasing sensuality of Mormonism, it is "led away by the Devil or a
+demon."
+
+A writer on modern Spirits says: "Extraordinary spiritism of to-day is but
+the continuation of the worship of the old idol Tammuz, as worshipped by
+the corrupt Israelites and Canaanites, and the Adonis, as worshipped by
+the Greeks. The indecent practices of these mediums made it necessary to
+seek darkness to cover their vileness." Ezekiel, in the eighth chapter,
+speaks of it; the Delphic Oracle practiced the same iniquity: the
+personification of lust.
+
+The second class of possible victims is the regenerated believer or
+nominal professor of religion. It is the belief of the writer that no
+greater havoc is being wrought anywhere in the realm of religious
+aspiration than is being done to-day among professing church-members,
+sane, perchance--who once knew the secrets of saving faith. To this class
+there seems to be two horns in the dilemma of abduction. As an eminent
+author says: "If we give the preponderant attention to the providences
+which appertain to the body, there is danger of becoming deistical and
+materialistic in our views. If we study the word alone, without due
+appreciation of the Spirit and providence, there is danger of drifting
+away into dead formality, drying up, becoming creedistic, theoretical, and
+unspiritual."
+
+What can check the materialistic trend of the times? What can save the
+Church from reflex influences of modern materialism? Somehow, we have
+reached the place where things must appeal to the senses: we must taste,
+handle, smell, see, etc.; things in the Church, as well as out, have
+jostled down to a metallic basis: something for so much. In the same
+degree, deny it as we will, our religion ceases to be a religion of faith.
+Then, on the other hand, the history of Christendom from the beginning,
+without an exception, proves the second horn to the dilemma: as we lose
+the spiritual afflatus, we become ceremonial. Upon this reef of rocks our
+Church is crashing to-day. We see only the material; we have a mania for
+statistics, figures. Our Sunday-schools seek organization, grades,
+banners, honour rolls, numbers. Great schools are pushed with enthusiasm
+by unconverted officers and teachers. About ninety per cent. swarm out
+and away from the Church and rarely if ever remain for the preaching of
+the Word. In fearful, glaring reality we can see in all this ceremonialism
+and dress parade Demoniacal Abduction.
+
+The third class is much smaller; they are the select few who live in the
+inner circle of things. Having been brought from darkness unto light they
+seek to walk in all the light, and to live continually in the good,
+acceptable, and perfect will of God. This class are the sworn,
+uncompromising enemies of Satan's kingdom; but often their zeal is without
+knowledge. Perchance, many are weak and unlearned. Satan will leave the
+multitude of mystery workers and formalists to make havoc among these
+saintly ones. All that he accomplishes here cuts like a two-edged sword:
+the individual ruin, and the deadening, paralyzing influence to the cause
+of truth. By what method does he gain access? Abduction is only possible
+here where preponderant emphasis is placed on the leadership of the Spirit
+without careful, diligent adhesion to the Word. The Word is the Spirit's
+weapon; without it he is handicapped. What is the result? Fanaticism,
+dreams, visions, wild-fire, extreme positions on dress, food, domestic
+relations, etc., until they are "led away by a demon beyond recall."
+Shipwrecked, "affinities," free love, infidelity, are inevitable. Wherever
+societies, communities, or churches become inoculated with the virus of
+any of these phases of fanaticism--untold harm surely follows. The Devil
+is responsible for the religious "craze," and will then exaggerate by lies
+and misrepresentation before the unbelievers.
+
+The fourth class are, of all, the most to be pitied, and no work of the
+"angel of the pit" is so hellish as his operation and strategy upon an
+awakened soul. Those who are in religious work are grieved continually at
+seeing the process chilled and defeated at a point which would soon result
+in deliverance from the bondage of evil. Satan actually assumes the person
+of the Holy Ghost. Strange and amazing as this sounds, it is nevertheless
+true. As soon as the soul is awakened he assumes a general godfather sort
+of relation to the penitent one. Advice and suggestions flood his mind:
+his pride, clothes, reputation, business, and all are used as arguments.
+"You should be a Christian--join the church--it is your duty; but when you
+make a start, _be sure_ you have a genuine experience. You are
+conscientious--anything but a hypocrite with you. Now this is not an
+opportune time, etc., etc.," on and on, until the penitent refuses to
+arise and go to his Father's house. Procrastination; Satan literally drags
+him away from the mercy seat.
+
+How can he do this? Where is the Holy Ghost all this time? Why does He not
+protect His identity? So long as a man is in sin he has a nature that is
+not subject to the law of God, and cannot be: carnal mind, old man. On
+this territory Satan has right of way; under the guise of one seeking to
+help them in their confusion and sorrow, he manipulates until prevenient
+grace is grieved away. The poor deluded soul has been "led away by a
+demon." It is Devil Abduction.
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+THE RATIONALE OF SUICIDE
+
+    "And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and went and
+    hanged himself."--_Matthew xxvii. 5._
+
+    "He drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that
+    the prisoners had been fled."--_Acts xvi. 27._
+
+
+The Devil was a murderer from the beginning of human history; his first
+bloodshed was fratricide--growing out of religious jealousy. He is the
+father of murder and murderers. This crime, provoked or unprovoked, is
+monstrous; the passions that incite it were born in the pit. Then what may
+be said of self-murder: suicide? It is the most fearful, unnatural,
+abnormal of all forms of demise. Every impulse of reason and judgment
+revolts at the thought. The Master Himself drew back from death; the Book
+says death is an enemy.
+
+Various and satisfactory explanations always follow the news of suicide,
+"financial reverses," "ill health," "public exposure," "domestic
+troubles," "melancholia," etc., etc. These explanations will not stand
+under the light of close scrutiny; reverses and misfortunes are generally
+contributing causes, but not sufficient to answer fully the horrors of
+suicide.
+
+We hesitate to discuss this gruesome subject, but the character study of
+these pages would not be complete without it. We speak not with any degree
+of dogmatism or claim of superior insight to hidden truth, but in the
+fear of God we are persuaded that not a single case of suicide, since the
+race took up its painful march, came about from natural causes. Satan, the
+embodiment of monstrosities, is responsible.
+
+Suicide is numbered among our vexing problems; reckoned on the basis of
+population, suicide has increased one hundred and fifty per cent. in two
+decades. Scientists are tremendously interested; thoughtful people are
+alarmed. Psychological and sociological authorities tell us that
+_poverty_, _disappointed affection_, and _dissipation_ are the chief
+causes. The problem can never be solved by social and scientific
+speculation. We must cross over the borderland into the supernatural
+before all the angles of the problem are met and satisfied.
+
+There is some strange history connected with suicide. Greek philosophers
+wrote about it; whether among heathen or civilized peoples, it was
+considered a disgrace. The Greeks buried them at night--on the public
+highways, and without religious ceremonies; and their goods were
+confiscated for the Crown.
+
+We wish to emphasize a former statement: suicide is _unnatural_; it sets
+aside her first law. The law of self-preservation holds good in every walk
+of life; when we cease to love life, the deepest principle of our being is
+out of balance. The body is holy, and when it is destroyed, the highest
+_felo de se_ is committed; not only so, it is assuming the prerogative
+which belongs alone to God. "It is appointed unto man once to die." Life
+is a sacred gift.
+
+There are two kinds of suicide: the responsible and irresponsible. The
+first often appears to have been deliberately planned, the act of a sane,
+rational mind. However, the best alienists say some phase of insanity
+always accompanies this rash act. The second are mentally deranged, for
+which there are many causes. Two classes, also, as to character are found
+among the unfortunates: the religious and irreligious. What then may we
+conclude from the most mysterious tragedy on earth?
+
+Satan always scores a victory when a neighbourhood is shocked by the news
+of a suicide; the victory is direct and indirect. If the victim is
+prepared or unprepared, sane or insane, the crime can somehow never be
+forgiven. A strange demoralizing influence is always felt; a feeling of
+horror and depression. If the victim is pious, and many, many are the most
+devout in the church, do they forfeit their salvation by the _felo de se_?
+Not necessarily. Now we wish to say here, with every word underscored: _no
+sane, devout person will destroy themselves_. Where, then, is the motive
+and victory of Satan? Much, every way. The whole church or community will
+be religiously paralyzed. It is generally believed that no self-murderer
+can be saved. But behold a sainted mother in Israel found hanging in the
+barn: we have in mind just such an incident, and remember also the gloom,
+the depression, the silent whispers, the downcast look on the faces of all
+who knew her. Satan may know that he has nothing directly to gain, but,
+indirectly, doubt and discouragement prevail. Anything to get the world to
+doubt God.
+
+A very devout man, writing of a personal experience, says: "There seemed
+to be some designing spirit near me for days that constantly whispered in
+my ear, and sometimes it seemed almost audible, "Go kill thyself; you have
+disgraced your Redeemer and you are not fit to live." Scores of such
+testimonies are on record.
+
+Think of the logical traps used by the Designer to incite the deed: if
+poverty, "My family will be cared for better than I can." If a suffering
+body, "This will cure me of my pain." If fear of exposure, "That will end
+it--charity will forgive me then." If hopeless over some sin, "Better die
+than face the disgrace. It will solve all the problems," says the Tempter.
+It is often remarked concerning some one: "How cowardly;" but it is not
+cowardice; it is inability to answer the Devil's logic to commit suicide.
+
+Again, gruesome as it is, and here is more strange evidence in favour of
+the satanic explanation: It is fearfully contagious. Professor Bailey, of
+Yale, said that the report of a suicide by any special method will be
+followed by others in the same manner. Morbid, despondent people hear of
+it and follow the example. That which should be revolting in the extreme
+possesses a strange charm. Ingersol toured the country at one time
+advocating suicide as the best way out of life's difficulties. Many took
+his advice and a fearful epidemic followed. One young man in a rural
+community of Illinois committed suicide; three others, all associates,
+followed in a few weeks. No special motive could be given for either. We
+are forced to place the blame where it belongs, and sympathize with the
+victims.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+DEVIL WORSHIP
+
+    "Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of
+    his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with
+    abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils,
+    not to God; to gods whom they knew not."--_Deuteronomy xxxii. 15-17._
+
+    "But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed
+    to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have
+    fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the
+    cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and the
+    table of devils."--_1 Corinthians x. 20-21._
+
+
+Satan's consuming passion is thirst for power. He is the "prince of
+darkness," but also the "god of this world," and this long period of
+satanic rule is called _night_. God's glorious Sabbath of rest was
+superseded by the black intervention of toil and suffering. Satan's
+scheming fight has been for the rulership of this world. He succeeded in
+winning the entire antediluvian world, which to save the coming
+generations necessitated the Flood. He began adroitly with the only
+remaining family; swept the postdiluvian peoples into midnight heathenism.
+To-day, nearly one billion descendants of Noah worship not God--but
+_demonian_--demons, just what the Greeks and Romans worshipped in
+Apostolic times. No less than two hundred and fifty million are devil
+worshippers by name.
+
+Satan began his fight of opposition by assuming the form or incarnating
+himself in the body of a snake. Therefore it is not an accident, growing
+out of mythological tradition, that serpent worship has been the chief
+religion of many peoples. The Egyptians worshipped Set, which personified
+all evil--enemy of all good--they called Typhon, a monstrous serpent-like
+animal. To this god human sacrifices were offered on great religious
+holidays. It is no accident that the millions who know not the true God
+nevertheless, some way, learned to worship the Devil, and generally in the
+form of a serpent. The Egyptians had a serpent-god in Typhon; the
+Canaanites worshipped a snake in the days of Abraham; the Babylonians
+worshipped Python, which is a specie of the most deadly reptile on earth,
+and another name for Typhon. On the monuments and tablets of many dead
+civilizations the engravings of serpents show their particular customs of
+devil worship. The American Indians were snake worshippers; in Ohio an
+altar more than a half mile in length remains in good preservation. This
+altar is one of the wonders, being a perfect outline of a gigantic snake.
+We readily see that tribal association and tradition have had nothing to
+do with the customs of our own aborigines; the same being who inspired the
+peoples of the Old Orient, millenniums ago, to worship the snake-devil
+inspired our red men in his primeval forest.
+
+David speaks of demon worship: "Yea they sacrificed their sons and
+daughters unto _Shadim_." Jereboam built places to worship evil spirits;
+the ordained priests to serve the altars of "Satyrs," and children were
+offered. The Molech of the Canaanites was also devil worship; when the
+Israelites forgot God, they "caused their children to pass through the
+fire unto Molech," an evil god. The damsel whom Paul delivered possessed
+the spirit of Python--the snake. The priestesses of the Delphic oracles
+prophesied by the spirit of Python; this was the dominant religion
+throughout Greece. The Aztec war god of the Montezumas, where two hundred
+and fifty thousand human skulls were found in the temple, was a bloody
+system of devil worship. The Yezidis of Persia, descendants of the early
+Python worshippers, worship the Devil to-day, and are known as such.
+
+We are not confined to heathenism, ancient or modern, to find the same
+religion of "divinations." The best authorities of Spiritualism believe
+that the supernatural, occult demonstrations, as produced in their
+séances, are from demon agencies. The whole system of mythology grew out
+of what is to-day the work of mediums. The Old Testament is filled with
+statements concerning "familiar spirits"; they heard voices, received
+messages, saw physical disturbances--just as may be witnessed at any
+spiritual séance. The most reliable of mediums do not deny that evil
+spirits (damned demons) come to them at times. One fact is noteworthy:
+when men and women become spiritists, they discard all the essentials of
+the Christian faith. They are modern types of demon possession. It is no
+unusual thing during a séance to hear a regular clash of voices:
+blasphemy, oaths, vulgar, obscene language, terrible threats, etc.
+
+What connection do we find between Devil worship and modern Spiritualism?
+First, the moral condition among the spiritists is exactly as it was among
+the ancient priests and priestesses in the temples of Devil worship; they
+literally worshipped the Devil in their corrupt, degrading practices. Now,
+among the votaries of Spiritualism, every iniquity, crime, and indecency
+known among men and women are daily carried on. Such is the testimony of
+one of their travelling lecturers. One of their noted mediums when under
+control delivered this message: "Curse the marriage institution; cursed be
+the relation of husband and wife; cursed be all who sustain the legal
+marriage." From what source could we expect such a vile deliverance?
+
+Second, their mediums actually pray to Satan. One of their advocates at
+the opening of a debate with a Christian minister at San Jose, Cal.,
+prayed in the following language: "O Devil, Prince of Demons in the
+Christian's Hell; oh, thou Monarch of the bottomless pit; thou King of
+Scorpions, I beseech thee to hear my prayer. Thou seest the terrible
+straits in which I am placed, matched in debate with a big gun of
+Christianity. Remember, O Prince of Brimstone, that when thou stretchest
+forth thine arm the Christian God cannot stand before thee for a moment.
+Bless thy servant in his labours for thee; fill his mouth with wisdom;
+enable him to defend thee from the false charges of thy sulphurous
+Majesty, so that this audience may know and realize that thou art a prayer
+hearing and a prayer answering devil" (abbreviated). Similar prayers are
+frequently published in the _Banner of Light_, the organ of this cult;
+prayers formulated in the same language as prayers offered to the God of
+heaven.
+
+It cannot be doubted that Pagan religion and modern Spiritualism are Devil
+worship, shifting under various forms and ceremonies in different ages and
+places. Rev. B. Clough, missionary in Ceylon, says: "I now state, and I
+wish it to be heard in every corner of the Christian world, that the devil
+is regularly, systematically, and ceremoniously worshipped by a large
+majority of the inhabitants of the Island of Ceylon." We repeat: his
+consuming passion is to be worshipped.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+VICTORY THROUGH THE VICTOR
+
+    "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is
+    he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ
+    is the Son of God?"--_1 John v. 4-5._
+
+    "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because
+    greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."--_1 John
+    iv. 4._
+
+
+One of the grave dangers of to-day is that Satan is no longer regarded as
+a Personality. Even among those whose faith is founded on the word of God,
+the idea of an orthodox devil smacks of superstition and an exploded hoax
+from the Dark Ages. "Let us hear the love side of the gospel; away with
+this devil and hell business--it's too dreadful," they declare. His real
+existence and personality are ridiculed in many pulpits and lecture
+platforms. When these ideas become common among the people who think, a
+wide open field remains for him to work unmolested.
+
+We can also go to the other extreme: that is, to think him a greater being
+than the Son of God. Those who have followed us through these chapter
+studies will, we fear, come to some such conclusion. Who can be equal for
+such a mighty Prince? Now this biography was undertaken that we might have
+a full, life-sized photo of our Enemy. In this we cannot exaggerate the
+true status of the case; any less conception of Satan than we have
+portrayed will put us at a serious disadvantage in the life struggle. He
+is a real foe, and we must meet him in the open, under cover, and
+invisibly. Let it be written in black-faced caps, and heavily underscored:
+Satan is all we can find out about him--plus, with emphasis on the plus.
+We want to keep in mind clearly the Enemy, the battle-ground, and the
+battle; we can never match swords with him; to ignore him--big, cunning,
+supernatural, eternally at it--will be the most dangerous folly.
+
+But--there is victory, complete, overwhelming victory for every one who
+fights; but bear in mind it must be a fighter. There is one Name which
+never fails to reverberate from the Throne of God to the cavernous pits of
+darkness; this Name shakes loose the grip, untangles the web of all the
+allied powers of the Prince of Night. Satan is mighty, Jesus is almighty;
+he met his Waterloo. Jesus was never defeated. His first defeat was when
+he was an archangel; he was overthrown and cast out of heaven. Jesus said:
+"I was present when Satan fell like lightning from heaven." He was also
+defeated in the wilderness; again in the Garden, and at Calvary. In fact,
+on every battle-field where he met the Lord Christ the defeat was
+stunning, humiliating. Now we are in mortal combat with him, and we must
+not forget--he has been many times defeated. A writer says: "We have the
+advantage of fighting a defeated foe." Standing alone, we are doomed to
+utter defeat, capture, ruin; but if our fight is coupled with the Name of
+Jesus, our triumph is as certain as our defeat will be without Him.
+
+So long as we muster in as munitions of war our intellect,
+self-sufficiency, egotism, etc., the cohorts will laugh at our delusion.
+There is but One who can out-general his maneuvres, silence his
+thunderings, checkmate his diabolical acumen, know his oily, snaky
+approaches, penetrate his angelic beneficence, understand his insidious
+schemes: that One knew him from the beginning, and--outranked him in
+heaven and conquered him on earth.
+
+This question arises: If Satan has been conquered, and Jesus is yet
+contending with him for world-wide supremacy--why the almost universal
+triumph of evil? Why is true righteousness at such a discount? Why are the
+fighters failing and falling all around us? If these questions cannot be
+answered with a degree of sound reasoning, the whole problem of life,
+Bible, God, Atonement, Gospel are in a hopeless tangle. A Chinese puzzle
+does not compare with a riddle of everything worth while, visible and
+invisible.
+
+Satan undoubtedly controls the machinery of this world. Then wherein is
+the "victory that overcometh the world"? Let us keep in mind the power,
+resources, opportunities, organization, and management of Satan; also the
+blindness and bondage of sin, and--the Free Agency of Man. So long as man
+remains carnally-minded and free, the Enemy has undisputed right of way;
+while the heart is carnal, impure, unsanctified, the controlling motive
+power of man's life "is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
+be." He has in his own bosom a traitor, an alien to the government of God.
+"To be carnally minded is death," says Paul. The "old leaven must be
+purged out"; we must "put off the old man (carnal mind) and his deeds, and
+put on the new man, etc." This putting off is absolutely necessary.
+
+Jesus cannot only defeat Satan, but He can destroy the "works of the
+devil"--one of which is the alien principle of our nature. "For this
+purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of
+the Devil." The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus--the God-Man--is an
+everlasting Atonement and a propitiation for sin. Sin is the Rubicon of
+our battle; once we solve, in all its fullness, the problem of sin, we rob
+Satan of his fulcrum power. He came to Jesus and found nothing: no
+availability, no sin, no yielding, no fellowship. He was tempted, but
+_without sin_.
+
+Our victory must be twofold: first, through the merits of the Everlasting
+Blood Covenant we may be saved from sin unto salvation--reconciliation,
+forgiveness. Then by the fuller benefits of the Atonement we may "enter
+into the holiest by the Blood." Only the pure in heart can stand the
+approaches of Satan by way of our natural appetites. The triumphs of
+modern surgery are only possible by means of sterilized instruments.
+Please observe--with all the meaning that can be couched in language: the
+sinful, unregenerated heart is not only in danger of being overcome, but
+is already in blind bondage to Satan. The power of sin, both actual and
+original, must be broken by the pardoning grace of God through faith in
+the Atoning Blood; and the heart cleansed and empowered by the Baptism of
+the Holy Ghost.
+
+The second inevitable concomitant of victory is copartnership with Jesus,
+the Captain of our salvation--"looking unto Jesus the author and finisher
+of our faith." Diabolus and his minions cannot stand before this Name. His
+final overthrow was when Jesus cried out on the Cross: "It is finished."
+Now at the sight of Jesus, the Cross, or the Blood, the phalanx of
+darkness slinks away. Let us lay hold of eternal life by an unfaltering
+faith in the Blood that cleanseth, and "The Name high over all: in earth,
+in heaven, in hell." "And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb,
+and the word of their testimony." Amen and Amen.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+THE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT
+
+    "For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he
+    knoweth that he hath but a short time."--_Revelation xii. 12._
+
+    "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the
+    bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
+    dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him
+    a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him
+    up, and set a seal upon him."--_Revelation xx. 1-3._
+
+
+The fact of a possible victory through the Name of our great Conqueror
+does not alone satisfy all the items of the indictment. If such were the
+only background to the picture, great as it is, the human drama is not
+only a fierce tragedy, but a miserable farce. Thank God, personal victory
+is not all; there is a rift in the dark satanic cloud which has hung over
+the world for so many millenniums. Satan is in great wrath, and his power
+and influence grow steadily stronger; more and more his iron grip fastens
+about the throat of the world. The Apostasy of which Christ and His
+Apostles wrote is becoming a reality.
+
+Satan will score one more gigantic victory; then is our "blessed hope of
+His glorious appearing," when He shall come and catch away His Bride--the
+Church, both dead and alive; that part of His following who are united to
+Him and are earnestly yearning for His coming. This event is called by
+devout scholars "The Rapture." Just where, how, when, or how long, we have
+only a vague prophetic conjecture. "Where, Lord?" they ask. "And He said
+unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered
+together."
+
+When the Rapture shall have taken place, Satan will have undisputed
+dominion; then shall the "Man of Sin" appear, setting himself up as
+God--to be worshipped. His reign will be the Great Tribulation; all the
+influences of righteousness will, for the time, be removed--the earth will
+reek in corruption and bloodshed. It is implied that, so terrible will be
+this time, divine intervention must necessarily shorten the Tribulation,
+else no flesh will be left on the earth. The Great Tribulation will be the
+climax of the Devil's rule on earth. It seems that he will incarnate
+himself in a Man, giving him supernatural knowledge and power.
+
+However, something spectacular and sensational will soon occur. When the
+leader of a gang of thugs or desperadoes is arrested, his followers are
+filled with fear and consternation; then think of the excitement. An Angel
+officer will break in on the scene--yes, that is exactly what the Book
+tells us: the High Sheriff of Heaven will suddenly step down from
+headquarters, and will lay hold--arrest the Old
+Dragon--Satan--Devil--Serpent (observe all his names are mentioned).
+Whatever his titles and distinctions of the past have been, they will not
+save him in that hour. The Apocalyptic Vision is unmistakable.
+
+Some can see in this wonderful language only an allegory: the good
+influences are to gradually bind the influences of evil, and to expect
+such an event as the literal arrest of the Devil is a wild, irrational,
+unscientific, unreasonable dream. Our Lord said, speaking of the time of
+the end, that the same social conditions as prevailed in the days of Noah
+were to be repeated: wicked ones waxing worse and worse; scarcely any
+living in the fear of God. To expect to see a gradual regeneration of
+society, politics, commerce, and the Church--until evil will be overruled,
+chained as it were--seems to be a gigantic travesty on language and the
+teaching of the Bible.
+
+We prefer to stand by the Book rather than human interpretation--fixed up
+to justify the methods and results of modern religious propaganda. An
+angel appears--evidently an archangel: one belonging to the rank of which
+the fallen Prince formerly belonged. This Sheriff of the skies is equipped
+for his undertaking; Officers carry handcuffs with which to bind
+prisoners--the angel has a great chain in his hand; he lays hold--arrests
+the old skulking, hateful, murderous Devil. This angel-officer has also a
+key, and it is the key which locks the door of the bottomless pit. This
+door has been wide open; Satan and his emissaries could go and come at
+pleasure. Just as an officer arrests a desperado and leads him off to
+prison--so will the archangel arrest the Devil and lock him up in the pit
+of darkness and despair. What will be done with his millions of cohorts?
+We can judge only by inference. We want to stay close to the inspired
+record; of one thing, however, we are confident: the footstool of God
+will be absolutely cleared of Devil and demons; "that they shall deceive
+the nations no more."
+
+The prophetic picture of the divine court proceedings is very specific: we
+have the exact length of the prison sentence--_one thousand years_. When
+we remember the crimes, unnumbered crimes, the sentence seems to be an
+example of court leniency. But this is only a "binding over," as it were,
+to the real trial and judgment yet to come. This will be temporary
+imprisonment; but oh, it will be such a glad, happy day. The vision of
+Isaiah, thirty-fifth chapter, will be literally fulfilled. The sceptre so
+long in the hand of a traitor--usurper--will pass into the hand of the
+Prince of Peace. Yes, we will strengthen our weak hands and confirm our
+feeble knees--Satan at last locked up. We shall witness with joy
+unspeakable and full of glory--"the Restoration of All Things." "And the
+earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the
+waters cover the sea." Thank God forever.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+THE FINAL CONSUMMATION
+
+    "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and
+    brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be
+    tormented day and night forever and ever."--_Revelation xx. 10._
+
+
+After the long term of imprisonment shall have ended, we are told that
+Satan shall be loosed out of his prison for a season. This is difficult to
+explain; but we do not presume to question the administration of God's
+government: "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Satan, like
+many other confirmed, apostate criminals, immediately on being released,
+plunges more deeply into crime than before. The long term of imprisonment
+and punishment hardens and, if possible, more nearly consumes him with
+wrath.
+
+At once he launches another world-wide campaign of deception, gathering,
+rallying, mustering, and drilling his forces: those who by an exercise of
+free choice, notwithstanding the glorious millennium reign, actually fall
+away and enlist under the black pirate flag once more. He encompasses the
+whole face of the earth; like a deposed crown prince, he leads an
+aggressive warfare to regain the honours and influence which he so long
+enjoyed on the earth.
+
+Now if the binding of Satan is only a figure of the leavening power of
+righteousness overpowering the evil--what is the _thing_ which shall be
+unchained and loosened? Such a contention is as unanswerable as it is
+untenable. We will repeat once more, with each word underscored: _Good or
+Evil cannot exist except in a Personality_. The same school of theologians
+who deny the personality of Satan, many of them, see nothing in the Person
+of Christ except a _Christ spirit_, inherent good, etc.; all of which is
+unadulterated infidelity. Just another method of "blasting at the Rock of
+Ages."
+
+Satan shall be locked in a prison for one thousand years--then he shall be
+loosed, and every moment of his freedom will be occupied in preparation
+for the last Armageddon. He does not foresee future events, and it is
+possible he does not understand this to be his final struggle; otherwise
+he would be unable to inspire such a following. As we read this brief but
+vivid picture of the Gog and Magog engagement, the marshalling and
+shifting for position of Napoleon and Wellington, preparatory to their
+decisive battle, in comparison to this gathering, will be like a cadet
+sham engagement. It seems that the lines of fortification will reach out
+over the entire earth, mobilizing around the Holy City. The saints, also,
+are gathered into encampment; whether for preparation to meet the forces
+of Satan, or for protection, the prophecy does not state; but all the
+powers of light and darkness are brought face to face.
+
+The battle never reaches a real encounter; the impudence and rebellion of
+the deposed prince and ex-convict arouses the wrath of God as never
+before. The cup of His indignation is full to the overflowing, and He
+brings the fearful conflict to a spectacular ending. The destruction of
+Sodom and Gomorrah was a microscopic event compared with the rain of fire
+that shall fall in consuming vengeance upon the Devil and his followers,
+both men and demons. The saints shall be delivered in that awful hour, and
+this is the last shifting of the scene; the bell will ring, as it were,
+and the curtain will fall, closing out the long tragic history of the old
+world.
+
+We are not dogmatic as to the chronological order of these mighty events,
+but as closely as we can gather them from the Word, the next move of these
+wonders in heaven and in earth will be the ushering in of the Last
+Judgment. The _Deis Ira_ breaks in upon the universe; the Great White
+Throne will swing into view. During the vision of millennial vision, its
+reign--John saw "thrones"; Christ and His Church ruling jointly the
+kingdoms of earth; He then is the Chief Shepherd, the King of kings and
+Lord of lords--holding the sceptre of universal empire. But now when the
+_Deis Ira_ dawns, there will be just One Throne, and God Himself will sit
+upon it.
+
+If the reader wishes a detailed description of this Last Day, it can be
+found in the sixth chapter of Revelation, where the whole programme is
+thrown into a composite picture: "The Opening of the Seven Seals." Each
+seal is a separate prophecy or act of events from Alpha to Omega of
+things. Language breaks all bounds of rhetoric, poetry, and definition:
+"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a
+great earthquake, and the sun became as black as the sackcloth of hair,
+and the moon became as blood, and the stars of the heaven fell unto the
+earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of
+a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled
+together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places."
+
+Note the effect this marvellous demonstration will have upon the followers
+of the traitor-prince: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and
+the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
+bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks
+of the mountains; and said to the rocks and the mountains, fall on us, and
+hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the
+wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath has come; and who shall
+be able to stand."
+
+All the souls that have lived on the earth, good and bad, saints and
+sinners, Devil and demons, will stand before the Throne and be judged. The
+words, thoughts, and deeds of men and devils shall be made known. The
+final doom of the Devil and his angels will be shown up in detail before
+an assembled universe: the Godhead, angels, archangels, cherubim and
+seraphim, and all that have lived upon this planet. Hence, the last and
+final scene of the Epilogue: "And the devil that deceived them was cast
+into the lake of fire and brimstone ... and shall be tormented day and
+night forever and ever." Amen and Amen.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+SATANIC SYMBOL IN NATURE
+
+    "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
+    clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made."--_Romans
+    i. 20._
+
+
+The evolution of Christian scholarship, during the recent decades, has
+wrought wonders in bringing about absolute harmony of science and
+religion. Under the microscope, and through the telescope, men whose
+hearts are trained as well as their brains, the great book of Nature is
+found to be a commentator and expositor of the Book of Revelation. They
+have not only studied and theorized about the science of religion; but by
+laws of induction and deduction have discovered a "Religion of Science,"
+and when properly understood and applied is not out of harmony with the
+most orthodox faith.
+
+Just as chemistry, geology, zoölogy, botany, astronomy, etc., whether seen
+in the protozoa or the highest type of man; the animalculi (creatures
+which propagate their specie by millions in a day) or the elephant; the
+electrons or Polarius (our North Star which is one hundred times brighter,
+larger, and hotter than the sun)--all demonstrate laws, systems, design,
+purpose, and beneficence from the hand of a wise Father-Creator: so also
+are there other things in the physical world discovered by the student of
+nature which suggest an opposite being.
+
+We remember that even the ground was cursed when sin entered with its
+defiling touch; where flowers and fruits did once abound has come forth a
+crop of vile weeds, thorns, and poisonous vines. These occupy and will
+conquer in any soil on the earth--the Poe or Mississippi valleys, without
+the diligent, unceasing, systematic toil of man. There must be a
+continuous fight against these omnipresent enemies--in garden, in
+vineyard, on farm. Clean out every weed, allow none to produce seed of its
+kind; then leave the land for one year untouched, and it will be a ragged
+wilderness. Fruits, grains, and vegetables left to fight with these
+enemies of the soil, and, without a single exception anywhere, they are
+soon choked out and will die. Unaided by the skill of the gardener, the
+end is inevitable.
+
+But, observe again, fighting the soil demons and conquering them is only
+half the battle. There is not a tree, plant, shrub, vegetable, fruit, nor
+flower, in any latitude or zone, but that must contend with pests,
+parasites, and insects of all kinds. The herbivorous enemies are not
+limited to insects and creeping things, but actual diseases. Several of
+the choicest fruits have cancer; various blights have destroyed whole
+crops of cereals. Trees and vegetables have diseases that must be
+diagnosed and doctored as carefully as the family physician treats
+pneumonia or typhoid fevers.
+
+But this is not all: whole orchards are killed by the caterpillar; the
+boll-weevil has been known to devastate great sections in the wheat belt.
+The grub kills the corn as soon as it sprouts; the potato bug, the
+tobacco worm, the army worm, the Gypsy moth, celery worm, California
+scale, etc., on and on, until we find that every fruit, grain or vegetable
+is beset by some vermin destroyer which, if not removed or poisoned, will
+sting to death, or gnaw at the vitals until they wither and die. The
+horticultural kingdom must contend with imps of death until garnered
+safely in the harvest.
+
+When we examine the animal kingdom we find the same conditions obtain;
+every animal from the bug to the buzzard, from the ant to the elephant,
+from mice to monkeys, have a bitter struggle for existence. A
+distinguished German professor has this to say, addressing the Fishery
+Association of Berlin: "War is the watchword of the whole of organic
+nature; there is a constant war of all organisms against outward
+unfavourable circumstances, and there is a constant war among the
+different individuals. The seed grain which falls into the ground, the
+worm crawling on the earth, the butterfly hovering over the flower, the
+eagle soaring high among the clouds--all have their enemies; outward
+enemies threatening their existence, and enemies eating their life and
+strength." Following these remarks he gave a long list of fish parasites
+sufficient to destroy the whole finny kingdom.
+
+Another eminent naturalist, speaking of the perils of insect life, said:
+"With such savage murderers prowling among the shadows, life among our
+singing meadows is anything but a round of pleasure. The warfare is
+broadcast. Not even the fluttering butterfly is safe, but is pounced upon
+in mid-air, its wings torn off in mockery, and is then lugged off to some
+dark hole in the ground. And the bee returning to its hive is waylaid on
+the wing, and its body is torn open for the sake of the morsel of a
+honey-bag within."
+
+Still another scientist tells us: "The microscope shows that these
+murderous imps appear to have been made to inflict the most excruciating
+torture upon their victims." He makes special mention of the sand hornet:
+"He is the greatest villain that flies, and is built for a professional
+murderer. He carries two keen scimitars, besides a deadly poisoned
+poniard, and is armed throughout with a coat of mail. He lives a life of
+tyranny and feeds on blood."
+
+Every drop of water is swarming with hideous creatures which, if
+sufficiently magnified, would be frightful beyond description; the air we
+breathe is surcharged with death: infecting organisms which, if the system
+in the slightest degree becomes unable to eliminate them, bring on
+dreadful diseases. We must fight for our physical life daily. But for the
+immunity provisions of Providence, our bodies may be a charnal house, at
+any moment, of billions of bacilli hastening our end. These are stern
+facts which face every student of biology or natural history.
+
+As a professor has well said, "He, therefore, who objects to the teaching
+of the sacred Scriptures concerning Satan and demons, and appeals to the
+Cæsar of the natural world, can get no help, for that Cæsar echoes back
+with thunder tones that there are myriads of living, malignant and
+destructive organisms in every realm of nature, so far as is known, or so
+far as one can reason from analogy, that, like Satan and demons, trouble
+and torment the innocent as well as the guilty; that in some instances
+these malignant organisms appear to inflict suffering for the sheer
+delight of doing it."
+
+What is the conclusion of the whole matter: The existence of Diabolus and
+demonia is a fact of Revelation verified by both science and philosophy.
+
+
+_Printed in the United States of America_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Is the Devil a Myth?, by C. F. Wimberly
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43205 ***