St. Paul daily globe., 1888-07-09
THE DEVIL.
His Works Are Always Opposed to
Anything Good.


At the First Unitarian church yester-
day morning Rev. DIR. Simmons
preached this interesting sermon:
The apostle Peter put himself in op-
position to the plans of Christ. Imme-
diately Christ characterized his conduct
by the word ''satan," for he said: ''ThOu
savorest not the things that be of God,
but the things that be of men," ChriSt's
face was toward the cross. He planned
to save the world by loyalty to love and
truth and God, and by Self-sacrlfice for
man. The apostles had their worldly
schemes of king with his trappings of
thrones and crowns and scepters and
statecraft and armies and battles and
victories. Christ's way was above their
way as high as the heavens are above
the earth. Theirs was the old, worldly,
satanic way; His was the new, divine,
heavenly highway. What opposes the
divine is satanic, and SO Jesus said,
"Get thee behind me Satan."
Carlyle once grumbled at preachers
for having lost their point. He wished
they could find it again, find some
real, live, modern devil to fight,
instead of fighting the old, alb
stract, dead devils of long ago.
Surely the preacher need be at no loss
for present-day devils. He has but to
look around him, or perhaps within
himself, to see them by the legion.
Satans enough, in the ''peace policy
for instance, of Europe. with its honest
industry taxed to support 100000 men
in martial idleness, and Bismarck call
ing for more means and more men to
scare the rest of Europe. Even the
United States thinks she must Increase
her navy for fear New York may some
time or other be bombarded. If we be-
have ourselves we will probably be let
alone: if we don't, we deserve to suffer.
Why do the nations live like dogs among
each other, growing and Swapping,
with bristles on end? The brave
man walks up and down the
world unarmed: the coward carries a
gun. The siSterhoOd of nations is yet
an ideal. Instead, we have the cruelty
of an armed peace. 1t is satanic, and
Christianized society will not always
endure it. There are Satans enough in
our own politics; what truculent. tur-
bulent. bad smelling campaign we had
four years ago. This year there are
three chief parties in the field. All
have right to be there and do their
best. So far as heard from the
candidates are all morally pure. We
hope, therefore, to be spared the
unsavory personal abuse of the last
campaign. Yet if the parties forsake
their principles, forget their patriotism
and descend to mere policy and parti-
sanship, to abuse, bribery corruption
and fraud, we will have, instead of
dignified, manly contest, three-cOr-
nered fight among devils. AS in the
days of Job, so in our politics.; the sons
of God come together, but Satan comes
also among them. We need the con-
stituency OF Christian manhood to rise
up and say: "This country can live
without party, but it can not live with
out principle. We must cast out the
Satin of mere partisan politics.
The saloon Satan is against the home.
The sectarian Satan is against the
church. The monopolistic Satan is
against the honest producer and the
hungry consumer. The dynamite satan
OF atheism, nihilism and communism is
against such law and order and social
security as we possess. Even where
the angle of Self-Sacrifice comes to
weave the social fabric of peace among
men there comes also the Satan of
selfshness to mar it with jealousy
cruelty. Tennyson wonders THAT
the whole weak race of venomous
worms that sting each other here in the
dust" But the principle of self-sacri-
flee for the good of others is abroad,
and Christ is its champion. He sue
ceeded that way and so may we. There
is indeed much that "SavOrs of men,"
but the world is constantly growing big
ger with that (which SavorS OF God"