Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-11-11

ton" Yet he is to have one more
wrestle before be is free from evil habits
and he goes into it, not in his own
strength. for that has failed him twice,
bat in the strength of the Lord Cod
Almighty. The old habit seizes him,
and he seizes it, and the wrestlers bend
backward and forward and from side to
side in awful struggle, until the mo-
ment comes for his liberation and, Win
both arms infused with strength from
God, he lifts that habit, swings 1t III
air and burls it into the perditlon from
which it came and from which 1t never
again will rise Victory, victory, through
our Lord Jesus Christ! Hear 1t, all ye
wIestlersl 1t threw him twice, but the
third time he threw it, and, by the
grace of God, threw it so hard be is as
safe now as if he had been ten years In
heaven. Oh, l am so glad that Paul IN
my text suggests the wrestler and the
power of the third throw
But notice that my text suggests that
the wrestlers on the other side in the
great struggle for the worlds redemp-
ton have all the forces of demonology
to help them, I'VE wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principal
ties, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world. against
spiritual wickedness in high places. "
All military men will tell you that
there is nothing more unwise than ia
underestimate an army. In estimating
what we have to contend with, the
most of the reformers do not recognize
the biggest opposers. They talk about
the agnosticism, and the atheism. and
the materialism, and the nihilism, and
the pantheism. and the Brahmanism.
and the Mohammedanism as well AS the
more agile and organized and endowed
weaknesses Of our day But these are
ONLY a part Of the hostilities arrayed
against God and the best interests OF
humanity. The invisible hosts are far
more numerous than the visible. Ii is
not so much the bottle; it is the demon
of the bottle. 1t is not so much the rou'
lette table, it is the demon of the rou-
lette table. II IL not so much the act OF
stock gambling as it is the demon OF
stock gambling. 1t is the great host OF
spiritual antagonists led on by Aziel or
Lucifer or Beelzebub or Asmodeus or
Ahrimanes or Abaddon, just as you
please to call the leader infernalistic.
Can Won doubt that the human agencies
of evil are backed up by Plutonic agen-
cies? IL it were only a common war
steed. with painting nostril and fiaunt-
ing name and gathering hoof, rushing
upon us, perhaps we might clutch him
bv the bit and hurl him back upon his
launches, but it is the black horse cav
airy of perditon who dash down and
their riders swing swords which, though
invisible, cleave individuals and homes
and nations tell you, Paul was right
when he suggested that we wrestle, not
with pygmies, but with giants that will
down US, unless the Lord Almighty is
our coadjutor. Blessed be God that we
have now, and further on will have in
mightier degree, that divine helpl
The Overthrow of Evil
The time is coming-l know 1t will
quicken your pulses when | mention 1t
when the last mighty evil Of the
world will be grappled by righteousness
and thrown Which Of the great evils
will survive all the others know not,
whether war. or revenge, or fraud, or
lust. or intempernce, or gambling, or
Sabbath dissertation. 1t will not be "the
survival of the fittest, but the survival
Of the worst. 1t will be the evil the
most thoroughly intrenched, most COM
pletely re-enforced most patronized by
wealth and fashion and pomp, most APP
plauded by all the principalities and
powers and rulers of darkness 1t will
stand with grim visage looking down
upon the graves of all the other slain
abominatious-graves dug by the hot
shovels Of despair and surmounted by
such eptaphiOlOgy as this. 1T biteth
like a serpent and stingeth like an ad-
der" 1.-THE wages of sin is death, "
"Her house inclineth unto death and
her paths unto the dead, " There is a
way that seemeth right to man, but
the end thereof is death" Yes. | imag
inc we have arrived at the time when
we may say, Yonder stands the last and
only great evil Of all the world to be
wrestled down. 1t stands not only look
ing upon the graves of all the eDtombed
and epitaphed iniquities of the world
but ever and anon gazing upward in
defiance of the heavens and shaking its
fist at the Almighty. saying: Nothing
can put me down. | have seen all the
other enemies Of the human race wres-
tied down and destroyed. but there is
no arm OF foot, human or angelic or
dei6c that can throw me. have ruined
whole generations, and swear by all
the thrones of diabolism that / will
ruin this generation Come on. all ye
churches and all ye reformatory insti-