The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-22

insanity were mistaken for the wis
dom OF God; epilepsy and apoplexy for
the presence of a devil The world is
full of the combating forces of good
and evil. We see good in the sun. and
ram, but are still little puzzled about
cyclones.
Health is a good thing, we all ac
knowledge; but you can't discover the
good in cancer-unless you have had
a second birth.
The religion called Christianity was
founded by God to help repair the
deViIs work. Now if the devil should
die, would God make another? For II
is the devil who is responsible for
mans fall, for all our sins and for the
whole plan of atonement. Why did
God make the devil las of course he
did he made everything), when he
knew the angel of light he was work.
ing on would in a short time revolt and
become a successful rival? | repeat.
a successful rival. Of the 20. 900 .O0G
people in the United States, only 20
million can even nominally be called
church goers. Fifty millions are the
devils prizes, and his successful rival
ry continues in spite of the preaching
and struggles that have been going on
for 1900 years.
Sin came into the world through the
devil" he continued, land death
through sin. If it wasn't for the devil.
nobody would have died. The world
would have been full long ago and you
and | never would have been born.
Consequently We have to thank the
devil for our existence"
The book of Revelation is the crazi-
est book / ever read. 1t tells that the
devil was locked up in a bottomless Dit
for 1000 years. How could you impris-
on anything in place without bot
tom? I don't know.
DR. Parkhurst calls the apostles
worthless cravens.' I don't agree with
him. l think the apostles were fairly
good sort of men, and best Of all. they
never attempted to reform Jerusalem
after the Parkhurst plan. All the
fathers of the church spent their time
killing sensible men and combating the
devil. As late as the 10th century,
when priest baptized a child he
drove devouring devil out Of it--and
he never smiled while he was doing it,
either.
If the devils do not exist, then the
gospels are not inspired. 1t is Gu
rious fact, though, that the gospel OF
John never mentions Christ as driving
out a devil. Perhaps John didn't be-
lieve in them. The orthodox Christian
clings to the devil because he has sins
| charged to Satan and Christ's virtues
credited to himself, a very satisfactory
but hardly logical method of bookkeep-
ing. The devil as he is theologically
believed in, is a mass of contradict
tons. Why, he the enemy of God,
eternally torments his friends, the
sinners, to crafty God, his arch-enemy!
! What absurdity The devil is bound
| to know that his career is sure to
eventually end in failure. Why, then,
does he behave as he does? L>don't
| know.
How did the devil come to sin? He
wasn't tempted by another devil. He
was In heaven, In good society, away
| from saloons and alcohol. Yet he re-
| belled, and one-third of the angels with
him, all of them created by God. What
was 1t made God so unpopular?"
| Col. lngersoll closed with an elo-
quent peroration regarding the su-
preme happiness born of a confidence
in immortality. Yet" said he. Il
would rather have no heaven than
heaven and hell; no God, than God and
the devil"