The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-02-07

anu saduceeS- me pranlseeS are the
numerous. the proud. the orthodox.
They hold strictly to every letter of the
law, and to an endless oral tradition con-
sidered by them az sacred as the law
Some OF these oral beliefs were the
resurrection, demons Ilinistering angels
of many kinds. hell. heaven. hades and
paradise The essences 10 whom
Jesus and His disciples seem To have
belonged. were looked down upon with
scorn BY these same phariSees. and they
looked upon the pharisees as hypocrites.
While these essenes did not hold so
strictly to the letter of the law and to
many traditions of the same. they held
to many Of. these oral traditions. with
some others peculiar to their sect. such
as ba ptism. They also held some pecu-
liza rifles Of belief bordering on what we
might call sstrOlogy or symbolism today.
Revelations gives us few hints OF this.
and they strictly claimed a knowledge of
medicine which would exercise these evil
spirits in the bodies Of people. This last
was held secret. or mysterious. as heal
ing then was considered divine art
The saducees believed nothing of these
oral traditions; they only held TO the
moral law. Heaven. hell. the resurrec-
ton. demons. angels. they claimed had
all been engrafted into the national Jew
fish religion from outside pagan nations.
and they would have none Of II. It does
not seem that they We're looked down
upon at all by the orthodox Jew Of the
day. The Jew did not call any one
hereto or infdel who differed with him
on such beliefs. tt was only when he
denied God altogether that he deserved
those epithets.
The idea of demons. or evil spirits.
thus passed on down from esSene and
pharisaical Jews 10 the early Christian
church. We find the early Christian
writers holding to this belief i'm some
DF han fg9
ing the gods Of other nations as myth
cal and false. they claimed for them the
personal and spiritual power of demons
As Christianity, advanced. carrying
with il its own peculiar ideas Of satan
and his power and replaced the ancient
beliefs of the countries, its believers in
tested or conquered We find strange con-
ceptionS of evil powers growing mp, the
new not only being colored by the old.
hut greatly enlarged. To know how
complicated and strange these ideas
were one has to study the demonologY
Of each country alone and their belief in
good and bad spirits. These were handed
down. losing nothing of course Of the
wonderful time swept on. to posterity.
The belief in the incarnation of devils
and demons has worked incalculable
wrong in the world. The awful ideas OF
hell blazing. filed with dense darkness.
curdling cries of agony. Inhabited by
man to his uudoing. then drag him down
to endless torment. body and mind. is
the direct outcome of this perniclouS be-
lief. lust study these historys Of such
I'm the past. Then in reason make your
own conclusion--if you can reason and
deduct conclusions as TO how much truth
there Is for any of this. And from this
gross materialism sprang other loath-
some beliefs not nameable here. And
strange. too. that men. who should have
been from their position the learned of
their time, believed and argued these
things to he true; 10 be divine, with all
the vim Of the illiterate. Witchcraft was
the last dying throe of the monster. and
no one. without looking UP the matter.
can we have any idea of the suffering. OF
the lives lost and ruined by this wicked
idea that the devil could league with
women principally. and the strange de-
lusions attributable to nerves alone We're
looked upon as proof. Oh. science, A
pity you were strangled so long ago, and
only now begin 10 live again.
But the days of demonology in any
shape are passing. Every step let's
light on this pagan. foolish. childish SUI
perStition And every step forward
which consigns such horrors to oblivion
causes man TO walk with the freedom Of
intellectually, the chains of the past
broken and unriveted.
Medical science long ago destroyed
the IDEA OF the devil : power over the
mental phenomena. To be possessed of
the devil or devils in older days was
merely to be a. victim of some nervous
complaint or complication OF complaints
not understood, because medical science
was not formulated then. or if known to
small extent was lodged with mystery,
and if cures were made they were
looked upon as miracles. Faith cure
also must have been i'm vogue to some
extent in those days, as faith was re-
quired also.
Natural science shows that devils or
demons never had any control over the
elements. Historical science rightly
places them just where they belong and
shows their borrowed clothes all
along. as they glide into prominent be-
lief. Geological and chemical science
shows that at no time in the earth 8
history Of life could death be attribut-
able TO the power in any way Of demon
or devil. The best that can be done
with the devil is TO spiritualize him
some way, and this is something a lit
tie doubtful to comprehend. That which
we call evil is in the world. but II is
not opposed to the divine law Of the uni
verse: II belongs to and is an essential
part Of it. IL is an indispensable alterna-
ton of nature. The elements which form
good from evil as the good is forming
lists in life They are the constituent
parts OF each other. and as alterations
of nature brings that considered evil
so alterations Of life bring evil also.
IDA S.