The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-11-22

4 tUtiu- DNt hH Bays O+FS
the young man, especially L
he be bright and generous and
social" He sees that young men
have for good or bad been the might est
influence in this world. Heru ando Cortes
conquered Mexico at thirty-two. Gus
| tavus Adolphus became immortal in his
tory so early that he died at thirty eight
Raphael, the most famous Of painters,
died at thirty-seyen. William Pitt was
Prime Minister of England at twenty
| four. Jesus Christ completed his earthly
| life at thirty-three. Five years OF e
young mans life are OF more power for
good or evil than the last fifteen Of an old
mans If G. So Satan is especial greedy
for young men, and in going to and fro in
the earth he has especial temptation for
them.
Another route that Satan on his active
travels is apt to take is for the despoiling
| Of the peoples souls. IL does not pay
him merely to destroy the bodies OF men
| and women. Those bodies would soon be
done any how; but great treasures are
| involved in this Satanic excursion. On
| this route he meets man who is aroused
| by something he has seen in the Bible,
and Satan says: ''Now | can settle all
that, the Bible is an imposition; It has
I DtBn uHiuuluE tHc WOElh lOE tcAluEAc5S
do not let il deluded you. 1t has no more
authority than the Koran OF the Moham-
medan or the Shaster OF the Hindoo, or
| the Zonda-Vesta of the Persianp He
meets another man who is fastening to-
ward the kingdom of God, and says:
''Why all this precipitation? Religion Is
right, but any time within the next ten
years will be soon enough for you. A
man with stout chest like yours
and such useular development
need not be bothering himself about
the next world" But Satan says nothing
TO him about the fact that the professor
| who gave his whole life to the study of
| health and could lift more pounds than
/ any American, died at about forty, and
that another learned man who proved
| conclusively that if we observed all the
laws of health we need never die, ex-
| pired before he got his book on that sub
| ject published. Satan meets another
man who has gone through q long course
of prohigacy and is beginning to pray
God for forgiveness, and Satan says to
the man: ''You are too late; the Lord
will not help such q wretch as you; you
mi ght as we'll brace up and fight your
own way through" And SO with spite
| and an acuteness and velocity that have
been gaining for six thousand years, he
ranges up and down battling, dis appoint
ing, defeating, affecting, destroying the
h human race.
| Through his own hand or delegated in
fernalism he has pursued and hurt us all,
| and cursed every heart, and cursed every
home, and cursed every nation, and
| cursed every continent He has rejoiced
in every pestilence. He has started
every groan. He has pressed out every
sigh. He has hurled every shipwreok.
Lazarettoes, insane asylums, CONNER
cial panics, plaques, destroying angels,
continental earthquakes and world wide
disasters are to him a perfect glee. Can
you look upon the Communism and the
| Mormonism and the Mohammedanism
and the wide sweep of drunkenness and
fraud and Hber tinism the Franco Ger
man war aud Crimean war, the North and
South United States war, and rivers Of
blood flowing across continents of misery
into oceans of wretchedness, without
realizinglthe power of the Evil One who
reported to the Lord Almighty, and when
asked: Whence CONTEST thou? answered:
From going to and fro in the earth and
from going up and down in it"
But blessed be Godl 1 may substitute
Chorus for the Dead March in Saul. The
New Testament says: 'The Son of God
was manifested that He might destroy the
works of the devil" 1t prophesied that
an angel would come down from Heaven
with key and chain and incarcerate and
shut up the old dragon. 1t says that
Christ came to destroy him that had the
power of the devil" And from the way
Christ drove the devil out Of those pos :
sessed by him until he was glad to hide
under the bristles of the swine OF
Gadara and from other violent
ejectments, we know that there
is In existence power a million
fold mightier than the diabolic. The old
lion Of death shall go down under the
stroke and roar OF the 'Iion of Judah's
tribe" Yea, my text shows that Satan
was compelled to report to the Almighty
and give account of himself. When God
said to him: fWhence CONTEST thou?," he
was forced to answer. What means that
Scripture which says that Christ shall
bruise the serpsnPs headp If you have
ever killed snake the passage ought to
be plain to you. You see this old serpent
| the devil, has crawled across the nations,
poisoning whole generations and leaving
its trail on every thing; but after
awhile it will be oornered, and Kissing
and writhing in rage and with crest lifted
and forked tongue shot out it will make
final attack on Christ and Christ will adj
vance upon it, and lifting his omnipotent
| foot, that foot strong enough to crush Q
| world, lifting that foot right over the
head Of the reptile, will put down his
heel with crushing power that shall
leave the monster bleeding and mashed,
never to hiss again or bite again or shake
his own rattle again.
If we do not see the full contamination
our children will see it, In the time of
the French revolution a great procession
OF boys carried through the streets BAN
ner with the inscription; "Tremble
| tyrants; we shall grow upp Though we
may fail to do our duty there is a rising
| generation being gospelized, and coming
by the hundreds Of thousands from our
Sabbath schools and Christian homes,
who might properly have on their BAN
ners: 'Tremble. we powers of darkness
and sin, for we are growing upW We may
not amount to much in ourselves, but II
we put ourselves in the right place we
can do great exploits. Two put under
two make only four; but placed beside
two make twenty two. Yet what you
and ! most need is power TO drive
back this Apollyon, this Asmodeus, this
Ahrimanes from our hearts and lives
And we can do il not by our own strength,
but by Divine power afforded, for here Is
passage embrazoned with encourage
ment, which says: "Resist the devil and
he will fee from you" r emember, 1t is
no sin at all to be tempted. The best and
the mightiest have been tempted. Mil
ton describes a toad squat at the ear o.
Eve. The sin is In surrendering. Do no
feel so secure in yourself as to think you
can not be overthrow. How do you ac-
count for the fact that there are 30 many
men in Sing Sing and Auburn and tn,
othef penitentiaries serving out then
protracted sentences for frauds com
mitted in mid life or advance