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

| demon for their descendants. Evolution
/ early began To show itself In modes Of
4 thought upon the supernatural and all
| Of these beliefs held strong sway over
/ the minds Of the people coming after
/ And though thousands of years have in
/ terveDcd since then. yet today among the
/ ignorant and Uncducatcd can be found
| traces Of this old demon belief and
/ among even a better class it fingers
dimly in one or two forms.
| The Egyptian Of the time Of Moses held
| 10 a weH-formulated belief in a multi
p piicity Of gods and demons. in a resur-
| Tection or rp-uniting Of spirit and body
/ in heaven and hell and several other sub
| terranean chambers. Their ideas ON some
! Of these things were very much like the
| belief in the same held ny the church to-
/ day.
With all Of their great knowledge. art
and civilization, they do not seem to
| have impressed the .Iew with it. or
! their religious belief The lew 81 course
was a slave and inclined 70 look with
| disfavor upon his master, who under
| Rameses used him pretty mean. But
! the history of the Jew shows that the
! Egyptian usage Of the Jew was clean
| record TO his usage by Mahommetan and
{ Christian since. And il is the Jews be-
! life in demonology which L will touch
! lightly upon now.
The Jews as / said. held the Egyptian
| religion lightly. They held belief in
/ supreme being. and a very material !dea
/ Of angels who were both good and bad.
/ They also seemed To think that heaven
| and hell was in speaking. or easy dis
( lance from the earth. But they held
| these views lightly also. and it took lit
! tie for them to go back on any spiritual
| message given them
Moses. learned i'm all the knowledge of
/ the Egyptians. and that comprised more
! than sometimes referred to. although
| many legends have gathered around his
| name held the belief i'm one God and
/ impresses this sternly upon his people.
| And the Jew. through this teaching for
/ several hundred years held a certain
| idea of God. which he went away slight
| " from afterWard. lie believes in evil
/ powers to some extent, even to CHASING
| the Egyptian gods as that. but believes
| them all To he subject to and workers
| under his God: they are a necessity to
\ Him and To His bidding One does
/ not seem To be more out of place
: than the other. and both are near him
/ To go upon his errands. There seems to
/ be no reproach upon the evil spirit, for
! he is "A necessity between God and man.
/ Hence the strange statements made in
/ old Jewish works which unbelievers will
/ not swallow. and believers cannot an
/ swer oftentime of God sending evil Spir-
its, putting lies in prophets mouths. and
I so and so forth. An evil spirit from
/ God Is d common expression of these
/ old times manuscripts. and ii is well to
I understand these expressions. They are
/ the keynote to the Jewish idea of God
| al that time; and II was a very correct
( idea of Him if they had gone at the
I solution more scientifically and not SO
/ ignorantly. But men seldom get beyond
the real knowledge of their day, and if
! one teach them they will stubbornly hold
| to belief instead of research, reason and
the truth. God with the Jew was the
maker of all things and the overseer of
the smallest as we'll as the greatest.
| The ancient Jew was something of a
| universalist. II he sinned retribution
! came swift and fast in this world The
Jew also had free will power given him.
| God might tempt him or send his mes
| Sengers to give him adverse orders. but
! he claimed TO have the power to know
I the right or wrong or these propositions
! If he had only kept true TO himself and
1 orders. And when you read in ii Sam.
! xiv chapter that God put il into the
! heart OF David to number the people.
| then for this transgression caused 10000
/ 10 die by pestilence. this was a pre-
! rogative directly accorded TO God, and
| mans disobedience was directly respOn-
/ sible for it. For man could not be tempt
ed or controlled only by God. He was
| the only power. A long time had elapsed
| between this ancient manuscript Of
| Samuel and Chronicles, which rec
I ords the same story over again.
The Babylonian captivity had interviewed.
! The Jews were a changing people. Ma
| tiOnal beliefs were dying out with their
| language and they were taking on the
| varied beliefs Of those they mingled with.
| We all know how the mighty Persians
| believed their power Of evil was equally
| created with the good. IL was con
| slant warfare between them and man.
| and mans soul was the shuttlecock. The
| Jews came back from this captivity with
! a stranger faith than ever in their God
| and His power but satan had been mag
nifed also; and while their belief in
| Gods power was not lessened, vet it
| would not do now To attribute evil TO
| Him. and so satan must shoulder the
| blame OF tempting David when they re-
| write the old story; although God Will
| do the Furnishing. There is no incOnsis-
| tency of statement here Satan and God
! are not the same. as some aver. There
has just been "A little evolution Of belief
| is all.
! In that time and age the world long
| before and long since as history shows.
| disease, death, deformity, pestilence.
| national calamities. earthquakes. eclipses
We're all caused by somebody's sin, or as
| the work OF demons. The smallest dis
! obedience or wrong-doing of this, the
| favored people. was all that was needful
! to bring a pestilence and great calamity.
These people knew nothing OF the laws
| OF nature. OF disease. and they thought
| God could be propitated by massacre
! and bloodshed, and this explains il all.
4 They listened TO the voice OF their
laws of life and nature "a TO the voice
| OF God. and believed 10 to be the voice
| Of God and thus Gods true laws were
/ misunderstood
! Coming down to the days OF Jesus.
/ several hundred years have elapsed.
/ Two tribes of the Jews. small and in
! significant i'm the eyes Of the world. re-
! main Mixing with many people. their
/ Language a dead one, talking in the
languages OF other people. and many of
| their beliefs, we find them now believing
in legions Of demons headed by one
great one. Legions of angels. headed by
one archangel. According TO their be-
lief that little country of Palestine was
literally overrun with devils. Instead OF
! the simple belief which their ancient
forefathers held Of Immortality. they
now. the orthodox bulk OF them at least
hold 10 as exhaustive belief in three
OF four future states as the ancient
Egyptian or Etrusean; In fact. they have
all the gloom OF Etrusean. But they are
IfrrfIoH into three parffrtr1Qr