Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-10-12
RULE & TARWATER.
Henrr Mnrd Reecher on the Deril.

l know that there are many who disbe-
lieve in spirit-agency. 1T is inconsistent
with their conception of benevolent God,
that he should permit a devil to exist. I
wonder what such people do with their
eyes. | wonder what they have been liv-
ing about, and in, and for. Did you ever
think that on every side there are just eX-
actly that kind ofspirits in the flesh which
YOU disbclievc to exist out of the Iicsh, aud
that it is not, in point Of fact inconsistent
with the existence of a benevolent God, in
whom YOU believe, that there should be
men who do, or attempt to do, ali that
which Is ascribcd to the great master Spirit
of evil Are there not men whom you
may see on every corner, almost, that Will
deliberately, and for the sake Of pitiful
pelf lead men To drink up their property
to destroy their reputation, to utterly ruin
their households, yea, and ut last, yield
up their loathsome lives: Arc not men
going through this process and are not
pearls dissolved in liquor before their eyes
every day? And God spares them, and
lets others come when they die and the
world j. never without them. Look upon
these men who live by the destruction of
their fellow men, and who may be said in
some sense to drink blood for their sus-
tenance-look upon them, and say, if you
can. 81 do not believe benevolent God
would permit devil to exist it Is incOn-
sistcut with Divine henevOlence! What
will YOU do with those facts Look upon
. men that lie in wait al along the ports Of
out country. If there be one creature that
might be supposed TO touch with pity the
/ heart Of tie most ObdUrate, its the seasick,
/ weary oyerSpent emiTTaut. Whe has left
! his home and all his associations behind
| him-li- country and l1i- life, as il were
and j. cast upon now shore, and comes
needing whatever there may be Of kind
4 ucss and forhcaFauCe and gentlencss; and
vet there are men who set their trap- for
| that game! As there are hunters for the
! beaver and fur-heariug animals, 50 all
! along our ports there are hunters for these
miserable, pitiful, suffering emigrants.
They skin them alive, and they eat them
! bodily; and they DO If Knowing that they
| turn them out into pain, into suffering,
| into untold agOnics. Women are plunged
| almort of necessity into the very cauldTon
of mems lusts, and men are driven to be
paupers and to become criminals; ana
these men confederatcd, Turk and lie in
wait 10 destTy aud dcYour; and you look
on that scene, and know it to be existing,
and know that il is being enacted inWhole,
! sale and in retail, ana do not believe that
"a benevolent God could let devil live?
Why, society il knce-deep with men who
have no other function ia life but To de-
stroy their fellow men. There is a large
class, an army OF men, the whole power OF
whose brain il directed to wasting sub
stance, to pervertng principle, to de-
strOying good habits. They study mems
weaknesses as robbers study the weak
point Of a house where they would com
nit burglary. Men there are who are
trained 10 wickedness, who are profess
sionally wicked, whOarc scoundrels scien
tifcally And 80 they live; and society
is perpetually gnawed and rated with these
very men. And men say they do not be-
lieve a benevolent God would ever let q
devil live. They say, II is not consis-
tent with his attributes. Oh be ashamed
Of Yourself, if YOU have ever reasoned SOL
Never hang out your own folly again on
such reasoning a. that. If there Is "a devil
incorporeal, if there IL a mighty spirit that
does mischief and loves mischief, it l. only
the same thing ia the spirit-wOrld that you
see in the bodily world, that you know &c
exist whose mischiefs are manifold, intri-
cate, continuous, widespread, Scli-pro'
pagating, and about which there can he NJ
contradiction God suffers these thing,
here and where is the presumption thai
he does not, for reasons which we do moi
know, but which will seem infinitely wise
doubtless, when we shall know them, per
init spirits Of evil elsewhere?