The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-17

That is all Take the prophets Ian.
 guage literally, and all we gather from
 | it Is that the Lord showed him Joshua
 standing before the Lords angel, and
 somebody called Satan standing al
 Joshua's right hand to resist him; and
 that the Lord rebuked this somebody
 Called Satan!
 I What then could be surer than this,
 that we have no clear revelation of the Devil as we may think him and talk of
 him to-day in any of the thirty nine
 books of the Old Testament; i. e., in
 much the larger division of the Bible
 The chosen people are told with minute
 precision by their inspired leaders and
 lawgivers what they shall eat and how
 they shall eat 1t; when they shall rest and when they shall work; how they shall wash and clothe and adorn them selves, and a thousand other things of like character. Was any one of these
 conceivably of so much importance to them as would have been clear and precise knowledge of the Devils exist ] ence, if the Devil existed?
 That the Devil idea was absent from 1 the religion of the Jews in its ancient
 purity; that as this idea appears in the
 later Jewish writings it was an impor- tation, foreign addition to the old
 faith, think there is very little doubt, | if any at all. The Jews, you will re- l member, were carried off as captives | to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, l in the early part of the sixth century l B. C., and remained in captivity for about seventy years. Among the Bab- ylonians they came in contact with Persian Dualism, that religion which
 rested upon the doctrine of two gods, one eternally good the other eternally evil; Ormuzd, the good, striving for
 mans and the worlds betterment. Ahriman, the bad, striving with we'll nis.. equal strength to thwart the pur-
 poses of Ormuzd. and to bring to pass evil for the world and the race of men.
 There Is little doubt that the Devil of
 later Jewish theology, who was be-
 lieved in so firmly by the Jews for sev-
 eral centuries preceding the advent of
 Christ, and occupied so conspicuous a
 place in the thought and teachings of
 the contemporaries of Christ-there IS
 little doubt that he was simply the
 Ahriman, the bad god of the Perslans- modified, toned down. robbed of his in dependent deity, fitted into the charac- teristic mould of Jewish conception It was most natural that the Jewish peo- pie should have been deeply impressed by the Persian idea of the bad god dur ing the years of their captivity; 1t was most natural that they should have been quick to trace their misfortunes of the seventy sorrowful years to the 1 malice of some supernatural opponent of Jehovah rather than to Jehovah 1 himself And, after their return from l captlvity--their ancient glory departed, | threatened by nations more powerful | than their own, likely at any time to | be attacked and overcome. and forced 1 under the yoke of some new bondage what more natural than that they should have become more and more certain of the existence of a powerful | invisible enemy an evil spirit, a Devil | who was for the time being triumphing upon earth and thwartng the good purposes of Jehovah? At the advent of Christ the Jewish belief in the Devil had reached its height; and widespread and most intense was the popular ex- pectation that the Messiah was about to appear to conquer the Devil, destroy his power over the chosen people of God, and exalt Israel to the place of among the nations of earth.
 Hence the numerous references to l the Devil in the New Testament, the story of Satans meeting and conflict with the Master in the wilderness, the stress laid by the writers of the gos- pels on the ability of Jesus to heal those who are possessed of demons, the of Satan.
 Now, if it be said that we are com pelled to believe in the existence of the Devil, because he was undoubtedly be- ieved in by the writers of the New it should also be said that we are compelled to believe in the exis- .ence of swarms of invisible demons who may take possession of men or beasts and need to be driven out-like hat legion who were driven out of the :wo lunatics and entered into the swine md hurled them over the precipice into he sea- For it is no more certain that he writers of the New Testament be- ieved in the Devil than 1t is that they believed in swarms of invisible demons, a with power to enter into a man, rob i lim/ of his reason and outcast him ' rom the haunts of men to seek shelter I with the beasts of caves and tombs.
 We have not one jot more of Scrip " ural authority for believing in the ex- stence of the Devil than for believing | r n the reality of diabolical possession. 3
 For my part, the existence of the g Devil is unthinkable in connection with n he fundamental postulates of Chris = ianity. I cannot reconcile it with be- ef in the sovereign power and good ess of God. For, suppose that the )evil is Gods enemy. that he presides yith absolute sway over a portion of ! ! he universe, that he fights against I tod, and Is occasionally or frequently uccessful-i. e., occasionally or fre- uently defeats God--and what have ou done? Why, you have supposed, 1 \ ou have asserted, that God is not ab- olute sovereign of the universe; that [e exercises only a partial sovereign y; that His omnipotence is negative, lis will conditioned, His sway limited y another being supernatural and ht What were this but to de- are belief in the existence of two gods U however strongly you might insist nat one possessed more power than 1e other?-Sermon by the Rev. Quincy wing II the New Orleans Times-Dano