Chapter III: Part 3

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.