The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1901-07-13
THE DEVIL IDEA
BY
REV. QUINCY EWING,
Greenbille. Mss.
AND CHRISTIANITY.

there such being the Devil, on evil personality
presiding over kingdom of evil spirits fighting agains
uod, aooring TO lead man astray from the Divine pur
poses, might we not naturally expect that the reality
MS existence and his antagonism to God would occnv
conspicuous place IN the first book in which God under
look 70 reveal Himself to mankind9 Certainly we nigh
ImatuIaly expect that. there is such being as th
DeV supernatural, invisible, forever engaged in TEMPT
ing man from the ways of righteousness to the paths al
the author of all slnwe must suppose thai
mans knowledge OF his existence and his occupation
woud nave been absolutely necessary to mans welfare
~ the very beginning of human history: and we mus
suppose that God desiring mans welfare would have en-
oaced ne very first opportunity to put him on his guard
against the Devil BET how is this snpnos;tion mot hv
the earer books of the Bibe Why 1t isn't met Of ali
Inc earlier books of the Bible are absolutely silent as to
Inc existence OF any such being the Devil We read
ne land OF Egypt and took the Israetes out of BONDAGE
put nothing Is said to them about the Devil Pharaoh :
heart was hardened but the Devil who was ac
FUSED q hardening It, Moses leads the Iraees through
e wilderness they wander forty years. are the victims
OF various troubles misforunes sicknesses thew rebel
against GOD and long for the feshpots of Egypt they
SIN ana are VISITED with terrible punishmens Moses goes
70 me top OF San to talk with God brings back with him
tne Zen commandments, and delivers them to the peope
MOI one word does he say to them about the Devil
ana nady cou II be held that the silence of Moses con-
corning he Devil was due to the fact that he was preoc
cuped that ne had many things to reveal to his follow
ers more important than the existence of the Devil for
wnat could possibly have seemed important to HIM
save only the goyernance and goodness of God? We
need only consider that Moses was not too
win the Welgher matters of revelation to utter snch
commandments as that against wearing garment partly
OF linen ana partly OF WOOL and that against yokino to-
gener an OK and an in order feel reasonably
certain, that If he had himself known anything Or
lno9ght anything about the Devil he would have given
his followers the benefit of his knowledoe or thonrht H.
would not have left them utterly off their ouard aoa;nst 81
SUBTLE and powerful, and dangerous an enemyi
, Is not tins conclusion indeed absolutely unavoidable
Moses 1ad known or thought anything about the
Devi ~ would have said something would have taught
something about him, during the long years of his leader
ship OF the lsraetsh people? But IF Moses didn't know
ABOUT the Devil assuming that his utteranees
inspired Dy God we must suppose either that there
wasn't anything to know; or else that God sneakno
through Moses for eighty years. on all sorts Of sbiecs
sng expclt commandments in regard to the Inlnutiae
ritua ana diet and Dress did not consider the Devs
matter important enough to be the subject Of
evelauon Surely this last hypothesis IS absurd If the
yey exists and acts as he Is commonly supposed to ac
ma we are thrown back the other viz: that Noses
new nothing about the Devil because there was none 70
Inow about ~ o "
pc much for the first five books of the Bible popularity
scrlbed to the great Lawgver of Israel with whom ~
SAID to have talked face to face:-tbev conto,n ~
eterence whatever to the Devil -
put Inns is not all. The Ola Testament taken alto
ener is volume about twice large as the New and q
the entire Old Testament l. e. in twothrds oe ~
lDe there is no mention of any being who clearly an
Vers to the modern orthodox conception of the Devil
h iJ' .S remarkape that IN two-thirds of the book
cn Is called the Word of God book the composition !,
winch stretches over hundreds of years recording
auon after revelation spoken by the Most HIGH throucb
s'ol anu prophet on almost every conceivable sub o.
not this remarkable, that in twothrds of that ri
ok tnere should be no mention of the Devil answering
ary to our conception of him. if such beng exists az
from the creation of the world has been on the tracks dr.
men, seeking to blast their hope of salvation and dra@ h.
9m down to everlasting perdition Surely it is remark ce
i've .mes hve times only the word Satan as proper no
70 the entire Old Testament three times m name th
D9ok OF in Chronicles once in Zechariab o,
there is vast difference between the ea that tha A.
an OF these books seems to embody and the idea of me-
N hfah sunc -
10 5o was Sneerained at later time and has de,
sents b;,s ne 7a'an OF tne Book OF Job, g., du
ne lt - .ne LORI among the sons of God, tina
4 l5;ob d WIN some commission by the tun
satan answers From going to and fro in the earth
IRON waking up and down in it. There is no hint