The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-12


a paradise for the home of our sinless au-
cestors, Satan comes into the garden Of
Eden, not through the gate Of foliage and
upright in posture, but crawls in under the
bushes snake, and having despoiled our
first parents, goes to work TO ruin paradise,
and does the work so thoroughly that one
who recently visited the site # the ancient
garden, between the rivers Tigris and Eu-
pirates, says the place is a desert; not
flower, and the ground so poor that nothing
but some date trees grow there, and the
miserable villagers from near by are not so
well covered up with their rags as Adam
and Eve were covered up with their innO-
cence. So you see the father of lies r once
told the truth when the Lord said unto him:
Whence contest thou? and Satan answered
the Lord and said: From going to and fro
In the earth, and from walking up and
down in itn
In my text we have Satan on his travels,
and / am going to tell you some of the
routes he is apt to take. On his way down
from the palace where he reported himsef
in answer to the question: Whence CONTEST
thou? the first range of mischief he may DO
expected to take is the air. 1t was not
witticism or slip Of the pen when Paul in
his letter to the Ephesians called Satan the
"Prince of the Power of the Air" | think
1t means that Satan works through condi-
tons of the atmosphere. The west wind IS
full of angels, the east wind is full Of devils.
Satan spreads abroad his black winds. and
hurricanes and euroclydons and Caribbean
whirlwinds and equinoctials are ha ched
out. he takes the miasnas that
float up from swamps and hatches them
into typhoid fevers. He takes the cold
blasts and matches them into pneumonia
and rheumatsms and c1nsumpions. Not
only has he power in the u per air, where
highest clouds float, but power over the
lower air which we breathe, and as we
t,T-oo fho min 70 aY,Hf OBJ
in three hundred and fifty cubic feet of air
in every twenty-four hours, and much of
this air affects the arterial circulation, you
see what opportunities the Prince of the Air
has of COMMUNICATING and despolling and
demoralizinga man. Through atmospheric
influence he clouds the disposition and rasps
the nerves and covers the best of people
with religious dependency, as IN the case
of Edward Payson and William Cowper,
and that beloved apostle of Evangelism
James w. Alexander. His great delight is
TO have the air of churches vitiated, and in
that way duils the preacher and stupeies
the people and sees to it that the atmos-
phere of not more than one cut of hundred
churches is fit to breathe, and whole congre-
cations Sabbath by Saba b are asphyxi-
ated. Yes, he is worthy of the title St
Paul gave him: prince of the Power of
the Air"
Another route he is apt to take is through
domestic life There is no greater sport
for him than conjugal quarrel 1t does not
make any difference how long the marriage
ring has been on the finger of the left
hand, he will try to pull of the signet. H
says to the husband: what 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 sprink-
ling of frost on her locksl 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
dizziness and imbecilityp Then he turns
and says TO the wife: THAT man neglects
you; you have right to be jealous. He
likes his cigar and his club, and anything
and everything better than you. Why not |
get a divorced Marriage is only civil |
contract anyhow, and not divine alliance. |
Let me have that ring. 1t means nothing. |
and you might as well give it to me-" The |
ring is handed over TO Satan, and he |
losses 1T up and down like play |
81 will hand it bacd, only let me have il a |
little while" And he keeps tossing that |
ring with all its sacred 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 |
yawning gulf, and you suddenly find who
has been pitching and catching the ring,
and you cry out: "Whence CONTEST thouf'
and he answers: From going to aid fro in
the domestic life of the city, and from
walking up and down in it, that is all
There are thousands of marriage relations
strained almost to the breaking, and | com
mend to all men and women
who are restless In the present
marriage state, that they resume the
old-time courtship and take as much pains
TO make themselves agreeable as they did
five or ten or twenty yeas ago, before the
wedding march announced to the flushed
and fiuttering crowd the bride and groom
were coming. According to the statistics
of Prof. bikes. ia one year i'll moral New
Hampshire there were pa divorces; in temp
crate Maine, AIS divorces; in good OLD |
Massachusetts, 600 divorces. and in the New
Enelal ID of steady habits , il3 In one
county of Illinois $50 divorce suits were be-
gun la one year, and in many places il
seems as if a new arrangement had oeeu
made of the commandments, and instead O.
ten there were only nine, the seventh com
mandment having been left out. When |
you see how many husbands and wives are |
parted by law, and know of so many who |
would like to dissolve conjugal partner |
ship, do you not come to the conclusiol |
that Satan is engaged in mighty indus |
tries.
Another route that Satan is apt to take |
in his active travels is the factories and !
other establishments where capital sits il |
the office or counting room and good |
many hands of laborers are busy among |
wheels and spindes and fabrics. On this |
visit he will first step into the mauufact- |
urer's flee, aud finding the owner and |
proprietor of the great establishment all |
alone with his correspondence and his ac- |
count books, SAYS to him: You are not |
making as much money as you ought You |
furnish all the brains Were it not for |
your enterprise this establishment woulI |
not be in existence. These men and women |
in your employ are of very common mould |
Their appetite is coarser and they do not |
need the luxuries you require. Their comfort |
and happiness are of very little i'm |
portance. Put them down on the very |
verge of starvation and take all the profits |
into your own possession, and II they do not |
Like it, tell them to go where they can do |
better" having done his work In the |
counting room, Satan steps right out among
the workmen. He says: "You work too |
many hours. and you do your work better
than it needs to be done. You are serving
a bloated bondholder anyhow. He has no
right to have any more than you have.
Why should he ride and you walki Why |
should he have tenderloin steak aud you
salt pork7 Capital is the enemy If laoor.
Let labor be the sworn foe of capital Why
don't you strike and bring him to termsl