Daily globe., 1883-11-03
SATAN.

ofAsnosticism-Whati is Gained by Self
Control.
George R. Vending, the platform ora
tor, lectured to fair-sized audience at
Market hall last night on the sub ject of
ssSatan."
In commencing the lecturer said that
the devil was the bugbear of
modern rationalism. 1t had been said that
man could not know anything about the
devil; that the subject was beyond the
reach of human reason and enlighten-
ment. The speaker had grown weary of
the know nothing tendency of the age; he
protested against the emasculating spirit
of doubt which prevailed in some of the
pulpits and aired itself in the news
papers and magazines; this tenden-
ly WAS towards dead level.
Next to death the greatest enemy to man
kind was universal doubt; community of
people with no positive convictions was
an Intellectual graveyard. The speaker
was in favor of believing something; he
was in favor of pinning faith to
one thing and sticking to it
until something better offered
He believed in man being Democrat or
q Republican and the man who was Meth
or the one nor the other was a nonentity.
A passing rebuke was then paid TO the
deadsning spirit of sgnosticism, which he
said was intellectual paralysis.
The motto of agnosticism was, "we give
it up" The speaker was in favor Of be-
Iieving in religion and politics; he be-
Iieved in the man who clung to his theory
in every province Of thought and action.
Hes then spoke of the vast, all
pervading spirit of evil, and he
predicted the time when a food of light
would be thrown upon the great problems
of the world. He believed, he said, in an
evil personality; in a moral agency
of darkness and sn; the man with
out some evil was a football and
pipe for the agencies of sin to play upon.
1t was a remarkable fact that the tradition
of tempter was gray with age; it pre-
vailed when Plato was a pupil of Aristotle;
it was familiar story with the Peruvians
of South America; it was venerable story
in the age of Confucias; it was
told at the foot of the
pyramids, and among thee haldeans; it
was an old story in Asia and Egypt, and
go where we will the tradition of ). temp
ter was found to be dominant. Of all
creatures man alone with his God-like en-
what paradox he presented.
The story of the fall was told when hu-
manity was young and it has been repeat
ed in evsry succeeding age. Allusion was
made to the personality of Satan before
the Christian era and during the
PAST two thousand years. SO far
as the old Bible was concerned
no especial reference was made to Satan;
C tt. 4
times and then it was not made synony-
nous with the devil Extended allusion
was then made to the doctrine of Zoroaster
as set forth in the Zend Auester, and the
speaker outlined the great doctrines of re-
ligion and virtue as taught in Persia 600
years before the new era.
The tendency of the ancients to person
ify the physical ant moral forces of nature
was then adyerted to, and after speaking
of this characteristic at length, he spoke
of the idea of a personal evil, which he
said first permeated the thought of man at
the commencement of the new era.
The superstions surrounding the Satanic
idea were alluded to at some length,
which the speaker said were as the logic of
the kings jester. In the middle age the
belief in q devil rested like a night mare;
of this fatal belief, which eliminated
in the terrible heresy of witchcraft;
this in the sixteenth century, destroyed
thousands of innocents; even the great
Luther, Wesley and the wonderful Shakes
peare believed in witchcraft, and Bacon
and Oopely were among the lawmakers of
England when the laws were passed which
condemned the unhappy victims to death.
hrvh Ind Iofr
porticos that intellectual enlightenment
would Danish the spirit of evil, and yet
when witchcraft was at its very height q
galaxy of intellectual lights were making
the most brilliant era of literature the
world had ever seen. Rationalism had not
eradicated the satanic idea.
For fifteen centuries the humble law of
the Nazariue had been numbered with for
mulas and rituals, and yet the law of the
love to our neiKhbor shone radiantly be-
human slavery was abandoned,
women were exalted at last
and children were worshiped,
hospitals and asYlums were built and it
became after u while that not one single
act of cruelty could be committed in civil
ization but that of war, and the time was
to-day would see the questions
of war decided by peaceful arbitration.
A glowing tribute was then paid to the
spirit of unseliishness, which was charac-
terized as the great factor of human pro-
gress. Love for humanity, social comfy,
neighborly respect and regard for
the welfare of the race were
spoken OF as the apostles of all good as
taught 10y the Nazsrine. In speaking Of
the entioements to evil and crime, the
speaker said that Shakespeare, the master
mind of all literature, had taught
that evil came from without.
numerous quotations being cited
from the writings of the immortal bard TO
prove the theory. The several theories of
Satan as incsrnated in the works of MI
ton, Byron, Bradlaugh, Burns and Goethe
were outlined, the characteristics of Faust
by the latter being analysed at
great length. One worl at a
time, said Faust, and so said
all the Ingersolls- The dramatic power
of Faust as shown in the downfull of the
gentle and beautiful Marguerite, and the
great lessons of morality conveyed there
by, was pictured in eloquent and majestic
language. The question of controversial
theology was then adverted
to, and in this connection
ka 10 ,--..