The Brookhaven leader., 1888-11-22
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Talks Of
i'Satan On His Travels!''
The Many Forms In which the Arch
Te,npter Is Met in His Going To
and Fro on Earth-How
to Crush Him.

fte-. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of a recent sermon In the Rrook4
lvn Tabernacle "Satau on His Travels"
His text was:
Erd tbe ford said rnte aataui Whence
cOmest thou! Then Satan answered tic Tcrd
and said: From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it.-Job /, T.
In 1872 was printed the largest book
ever published, namely, two huge vol
tirhes 5f r6af ffe ttopssud pages, IN
Small type, the author, Joseph Carytr Vt
gas commentary on this Book Of Job.
Nhst it took year. for the journey from
England to India, the son 5f tie a'ithor
of this commentary started for India,
leaving his father writing on his book,
aud was gone for years, and when he
came back to England still found his
father writing on 1t, ! never saw the
commentary, but 1 do not wonder at Its
size becatise there is no end to the inters
eht OF the BOOB OF Job. an; not SUR;
prised that Goethe, the ttnbelievet, TOOK
from this wonderful book the opening of
his arania Faust and tho Mephistopheles
Of the great Gertfian was only the, Satan
OF Job. 1t seems that one day In Heaven
God was on His throne and angels end
messengers came 10 report on their diff
ferent missions. l suppose one angel
said. ~ was out among tho stars
and I saw tne II them burn
down." Another angel, 1 ithaginei
said 81 was off on a steller ex-
cursion and was present at the birth of
new world" Another angel, l think,
said: 81 was journeyiug five hundred
million miles in the wilderness of i'm
mensity and / saw meteor run down
planet" Another angeli II was of and
helped at the inauguration OF new ra1e
Of beings amid the mountains aud vali
1eys Of that mighty world In the s6uth-
cast part. of the heavens" But while
these good and great spirits were making
their reports d ghastly. grizzly, hideous
monster, from some miry, sulphurous,
filthy world, came into the palace with
out wiping his feet, and God asked him
where and how he had been occupying
himself, and this greatest scoundrel of
the universe made reply with blazing ef-
frontery. and instead cf acknowledge
any of the mischief he had been doing,
said he had been an earthly pedestrian,
and had lived sort Of circumam bulatory,
peripatetic life. "And the Lord said un-
to Satan: Whence contest thou? Then
Satan answered the Lord, and said:
From going to and fro in the earth and
from walking up and down in it"
In my text we have Satan on his travels,
and am going to tell you soma of the
routes he is apt to take. On his way
down from the palace where he reported
himself in answer to the questions:
"Whence com est thou?" the first range
of mischief he may be expected to
take is the air. 1t was not witticis m or
a slip OF the pen when Paul in his letter
to the Epheslans called Satan the "Prince
of the Power of the Air" l think it
means that Satan works through condi-
tions of the atmosphere. The west wind
is full of angels; the east wind is full Of
devils. Satan spreads abroad his black
wings, and hurricanes and euroclylons
and Caribbean whirlwinds aud eduinocs
tials are Matched out. He takes the nitas-
mas that float up from swamps and
matches them into typhoid fever. He
takes the cold blasts and matches them
into pneumonia and rheumatisms and
consumptions. Not only has he power in
the upper air whero highest clouds float,
but power over the lower air which we
breathe, and as We breathe nineteen
times minute and take in three hundred
and fifty cubic feet of air in every twenty
four hours, and much OF this air aft ects
the arterial circulation, you sea what
opportunities the Prince of the Air has
of communicating and despoilinS and de.
moralizing a man. Through atm spheric
influence he clouls thu disposition and
rasps the nerves and covers the best of
people with religious despondencv, as in
the case of Edward Payson aud William
Cowper, and that beloved apostle of
evangelism James w. Alexander. His
great delight is to have the air of
churches vitiated, aud in that way dulls
the preacher and stupeies the people,
and sees to it that the atmo sphere of not
more than one out of a hundred churches
is fit to breathe, and whole congrega-
tions Sabbath by Sabbath are asphyxi-
ated. Yes, he is worthy of the title ST.
Paul gave him: "Priuce of the Power of
the Air."
Another route he Is apt to take is
throuy Oh domestic lire. There is no great
er sport for him than conjugal quarrel.
It does not make any difference how long
the marriage ring has been on the finger
of the right hand, he will try to pull off
the signet. He says to the husband:
"What a plain wife you have compared
with what she once was! Don't you see
that the color has gone out of her cheek
and there are several wrinkles about her
temples and a sprinkling of frost on her
locks. Besides that you have advanced
in intelligence while she has stood still or
gone back. How hard it is that You
should be chained to such dullness and
imbecility!" Then he turns and says to
the wife: "That man neglects you; you
have right to be jealous. Hs likes his
cigar and his club and auy thing and
every thing better than you. Why not
a divorce! Marriage is only civil con-
tract anyhow aud not Divine alliance.
Let me have that ring. 1t means nothing
and you might as we'll give it to me-" The
ring is handed over to Satan and he
tosses 1t up and down like a plaything
over the mouth of perdition and says:
81 will hand it back, only let me have
1t a little WHILE" Aud he keeps
tossing that ring with all its sa-
cred memories higher up and further
out tossing and catching, tossing and
catching it until one day you clutch for
it, crying: "Give me back my ring!" but
10. it has dropped into the yawning gulf,
and you suddenly find who has been
pitching and catching the ring, and you
cry out: "Whence comest thou?" and he
answered: From going to and fro in the
domestic life of the city and from walk
ing up and down in it; that is ALL" There
are thousands of marriage relations
strained almost to the breaking, and l
recommend to all men and womsn who
are restless in the present marriage state
that they resume the old-time com tship D
and take as much pains to make them
selves agreeable as they did five, or ten,
A..