Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1890-05-08
DO NOT BE DELUDED.
The Bible Teaches The Reality
of He'll and the Personality
of the Devil.
All Orthodox Churches Compelled to Ae-
espt the Fact or Give up Gods Word
Tho Views Of Q Prominent
Divine On the Subject.
To the Editor Of the Ledger.

Divine on the Subject.
To the Editor OF the Ledger.
Mexico, No., May /, 1890
In reply to two Of your cores
pondents in recent issue Of your
journal, who deny the personality
of the devil and the reality Of hell,
1 beg leave to submit a few points,
since every living man has { deep,
personal interest in the matter.
In all the points I give I rep
| resent all the orthodox or evangeli-
cal churches in the world-the
Methodists, Baptists, Presbyter-
ians, Congregationalists and some
others, who compose nine-tenths of
all who profess to accept the Bible
as Gods word.
First. The Bible teaches clear
ly and Enthusiastically the personal
ity of the devil in precisely the
same way that it teaches the per-
sonality of God the Father, and
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
or of the angel Gabriel, or of a
man.
There is but one devil proper;
there are many inferior evil spirits
and demons belonging to his king
dom and under his control. He is
constantly singled out as the head
and emperor of the dark, malig-
nant empire of evil, and his per-
| sonality is shown in a number of
ways. First. By the names given
him he is called the devil, the ad-
versary, the great dragon, the god
of this world, beelzebub, the chief
of the devils, the old serpent, the
angels of the bottomless pit, etc.
Names stand for and represent
things going before. There may
be things without names, but all
names stand for real things. Thus
language is formed.
Next, intellect or mind is asorlb-
ed to the devil We read of the
"wiles'' of the devil, and of the
depths" of his cunning plots. He
"tempts," as he tempted Christ,
Peter and many others. "He de-
cieves whole WORLDS" he entered
into Judas, Ananias and others;
thus his intellect, intelligence, etc.
| Works, also, are ascribed to him.
| He "works in the children of dis
obedience - We read of signs and
wonders done by. him, "after the
working of Satan" Jesus ''came to
destroy the works of the devil. !"
He stirred up storm, caused fire
to fall from the air, and destroyed
Jobs children and their cattle. So,
many evil works he performs. He
has character and is called a
"tempter," murderer" a "liar," !"
the "w1cked one." He has also
a will and acts according to his evil
will.
| A final destiny ,or fate,is assigned
to him. He is consigned to "eternal
FIRE and chains" If there is no
personal devil, then there can be
lno personally God, or.personal angel,
or personal Saviour, or personal
man, for their personality Is shown
in exactly the same way.
The devil is not omnipresent, OF
course, but he has muititudes OF
evil spirits, of various grades and
orders, who act under his orders,
and. come and 60 over all the
earth to tempt and deceive and de.
stroy men, and they can move with
the swiftness Of light. Whatever
Satan does by the agency of other
evil spirits, he is said to do him.
self.
Il The Bible teaches the reality oil
hell as clearly as it does the per.
sonality of the devil. 1t is the
: final abode of Satan and all evil
spirits and wicked men who rejec
the only Redeemer. This endless
: hell of intense, conscious suffering
lis, indeed, as good Bishop Fostel
says, "the horror of all horrors
/. and the most dreadful and unwel
!, come conception ever presented tt
: the human mind" +" Though al
r our natural feelings and instincts
all revolt from it, and though W,
would all gladly believe, if vi
could, that all lost souls are fnall,
leither sessnred or annihilated, ye
this is impossible.
: ALI the orthodox churches now
and in past ages, have been com
pelled to accept the fact of thi
!, 3 endless hell, dreadful as it is, be
;, cause they must do SO or give u
1.-THE Bible as Gods word. It
not because we wish, but becaus
we must.
After the most thorough and ez
haustive critical examination of al
the words, terms and principles q
+ Interpretation bearing on the sub
L jeot by all her thousands of Gree
scholars, and her most eminent
> learned and holy men, the conclus
l. ION is absolutely unavoidabl,
J, Over and over many time
q the very same Greek words (aio
and aionas), which express th
:. eternal existence of God, and th
l. atorno1 hop,,sraoo and cnrfotnfu r