Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-04
POWER OF SATAN.
Rev. j. r. Howerton at the Pres
byterian Church.
a Sermon That Interested a Large Con
gregation and One That VIII
Interest the Reader.

Mr.. Howerton's text was:
"And the Lord said, Simon, 81.
mon, behold Satan hath desired tC
have you that he may sift you as
wheat but have prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not; and when
thou art converted strengthen thy
brethren. Luke xxi, 81 80.
"These," said the minister, "mUst
have seemed strange words TO Peter
at the time, but how clear their
meaning afterward became. How
many sentence falls unheeded into
the ear, and lies buried from con-
seriousness until after events recall
them and make the words startling
in their significance. How many a
lesson learned in childhood and long
forgotten, comes back to be inter,
preted by the mans experience
How many warning, unnoticed at
the time, is recalled on the verge of a
great danger, or sometimes remem-
bered only when it il too late. How
many a passage of Gods word is read
by the young Christian without COM
prehension, in which ripper eXpe-
rience will sometimes reveal Won
drous things of wisdom and grace.
How many lessons of Gods provi-
dence, dark and difficult at the time,
afterward become so clear and sim
pie. In the passages which Chris
tiaus so curiOusly read now, in the
sermons which they hear and seem
to forget, in the warnings which rhey
receive and seem not to heed, liz the
promises which they fail to appre-
ciate, God is laying up stores in
memory against time of need,
either to save them from some great
trial or to sustain them in it; either
to keep them from falling or to keep
them up; either to keep them from
sinking or to bring them to humility
and repentance either to keep them
from wandering or to restore their
souls before they be hopelessly lost.
Listen well, then, to those things
which now seem strange and need
less; the time may come when they
will be your light in a dark place.
plank in an ocean of doubt and dis
pair, your anchor in great storm of
temptation, your last weapon in a
terrible conflict, your only comfort
in great sorrow.
$50 it was to Peter. These words
were strange to him now. They
pinned and offended him. That he
of all others should need the especial
prayer of Christ wounded his pride
But there is no doubt that these
words were atterward his only sup
port against dispair; when after his
great and heart breaking sin, he re-
called Christ's words and this prom.
Use: That his faith should not fail
forever Oh how bitter-sweet a
thing it is to think that we so often
suffer not Gods promises and grace
to keep Us from sinking, only to
bring us back, BUNDLED and repen-
tant, when we have sinned."
In applying the lesson drawn
from the text to Christian lives of
to-day, Mr.. Howerton said that the
first thing he could see forcing itself
upon him was the strange and even
startling fact that God sometimes
delivers His own people into the
hands of Satan to be tempted. In
order to get a clearer understanding
Of this important truth it became
necessary to compare the text with
other passages of scripture. Mr..
Howerton then went into brief
summary of the scripture doctrines
of Satan and his relation to the world,
Christ and His people. The central
thought was that Satan, being the
first and greatest apostate from God,
and the seducer of all those who
have rebelled against Him, has ac-
quired a kingdom Of evil, of which
all who have fallen under the ban Of
Gods justice are subjects, including
both fallen angels and men. The
word of God is plainly contrary to
the doctrine of the eternity of the
two principles-evil and GOODYEAR
ring for final supremacy. This
would also be inCo lsistent with the
iufuity and omnipotence of God.
The word teaches that sin hal a be.
ginning in the universe, being Meth
er an eternal principle nor a neces-
sary part of the universe, nor ere
alton of God. But it clearly teach
es that there has been great apos
tacv from Coda vast rebellion, OF
whose magnitude and extent we
have only the iaintest conception.
Of this apostacy Satan is the head.
1t has not pleased God to over
whelm this rebellion at once by the
fiat Of His will, but to suffer it TO
for His own glory in its
final overthrow. To take an illus
tratipn from human warf,rn G;ol
has acknowledged Satan as belli-
gerent, and has conceded him the