The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-12-19

and personal power. He declares with
p pla5 ness q apa speech ssa b tHat b 4so y 2 I'M mu basser
ming; that he is malignant and mighty,
and IS the head andetyraJt OF sinful men.
ii anyone to permit himself. even II
thought, TO contradict Jesus Christ. II
is tremendous conceit to consider ones
self on q higher plane Of knowledge n
world than Jesus Christ. But there are
men whose overweening. vanity takes that
attitude. They allege that our Lord was
the child Of His age and subject to the
limitations of knowledge and mfsconcep-
tons of truth onmon to His fellow men.
But the is not by
the appealtto Scripture. There are facts
of mems individual consciousness which
are inexplicable except for the doctrine
OF a personal devil.
1T is the experience of men who OBJ
serve their personal life with care that
they are subject to solicitations and
temptations that come to them from the
unseen Quite apart from anything that
Is native in them, manifestly separate in
their consciousness from what they know
a persuasion. a spirit within their spirit
which traduces God, which seeks to create
a sentiment that God IS not true or not
good; or which incites them to think un-
kindly of their neighbors or to doubt their
virtues or to be glad at their m-isfortunes;
or which at unexpected moments suggests
foul desire or urges to selfish action.
Nov, men may easily deny the reality
of these things and stigmatise them as
superstition, but I am bold to say that
such -contemptuous treatment of what is
profoundly real to the consciousness Of
good MEN is neither graceful nor modest
nor worthy of regar when 1t comes from
those who are making no spiritual strug-
gle against subtle evil. The unspiritudl
man is out of court on this question. 1t
Is the undeniabie experience Of earnest
believers h are battling to live lives
holy unto God, that besides their conflict
with their " corruption they are con-
Scious of sudden assault of well timed
suggestions of sin. alarming, astounding.
painfully separated from themselves and
distinctly di~stinguishable from any pic
ture Of imagination, No observant and
watchful Christian is without the con-
IF evil thought and the surging up Of dark
suggestions, which he knows are not mis-
own.
whence come these insinuations,
What, or Who is that that has access
TO the interior recesses of our spirits
and tenpts US to our hurt? What Is
this iabhorrent power, not ourselves, in
visible and malignant, which sometimes
carries US off our feet and which always
we must resist desperately, If we would
not be untrue to ourselves? The Holy
Scriptures declare that this IS the devil,
a liar and murderer from the beginning,
whose malignant aim is to destroy the
works of God and 10 overwhelm man in
guilt and misery.
This explanation covers the facts, and
there is no other that does. 1t is reasona-
RAC, 1l44t1 NtACl = - In LII lLdL Gftll Oil
mend itself to the consciousness of men,
Ard not only does it explain the facts
which are otherwise inexplicable, but it
gives Us courage and inspires US with
hope. 1t gives US assurance that evil is
not a necessary and 1~rseparable quality
of our nature. It ~fortifes that in us
~againstit even when we do it. 1t confirms
the conviction that sin is IN alien and
fniIaical power. and that BY the good
and gracious ministry of Gods spirit we
may break its bonds aSunder and east
its cords from US.
NV. Once more, there are facts Of the
moral order and history of the world
which are iDexplicable except there be a
personal deyil.
TO those who have pondered most
deeply upon human life and history, the
ultimate fact about It is the conflict be-
tween good and evil. To Goethe there
seemed nothing else in the history of man
whether the good or the evil should pos
sess his soul. 1t is a struggle which to
the eye of the thoughtful student is ear
ried Onward with q clear purpose and
the side of evil than of good are there the
marks OF ingenuity and leadership. The
reins are in the hands of a master.
b forces are compacted like the hosts
of an army. There are no signs of
looseness, vagueness, confusion, but
rather everywhere in the activity of
OF one head. In every age and genera
ton, in every country and among every
class of men. evil manifests itself IN the
same i~ineaH1enta. The same purpose, the
same malignancy. the same fruits. There
Is d consistency in. 1t which, While the Sen
erations of men succeed each other down
the long stream of time, gives ii a history
OF its own from the beginning until now,
a history with its rise and progress and
conGuestS and defeats, just like the MIS-
Tory of good And as there is a God Sit
ting In the shadow, keeping watch above
His own so the facts demand a hidden
spiritual intelligence presiding over a
kingdom of evil, arraying its forces fer
consistent ends, guiding them to attack
Tense at another.
Yet while the Christian will think of
Satan with sOleEanity and awe. and re-
cognize IN this dark superhurnan intells-
gerce his subtle and malign enemy, he
will be perfectly protected from a servle
or superstitious tear. He who receives
the teachings ard embraces the hopes of
Gods word is brought into a sane and
healthy rnergtal and heart life, which.
while i does not close its eyes to facts,
vet is able to face them with confidence
and courage; while ii believes there is a
devil, and hat he is very busy and pow
erful. yet knowing Christ, does not fear
tested that He might destroy the works
Of the devil Christ Himself in His mis-
sion of Move and sacrifice to the full
to and complete overthrow OF
Satan's SANDER upon the Divine grace
and goodness. The benign energy of the
Holy Spirit in the believers heart Is his
sure protection against the Wiles of the
OF power on high is the divine guar
antee of the progressive and ultimately
absolute destruction OF that dominion OF
he'll that carries misery and despair to