Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-10-16
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
THE DEVIL"

AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED |
THE DEVIL"
The Rev. DR.. J. Wilbur Chapman Treats |
aForbidden Subject in q Novel Manner
Why Men Are Disposed to Laugh at
the Prince of Darkness.
New YoRK C1TY-The following reada-
Bile and helpful sermon is by the Rev. DR..
j. Wilbur Chapman, the best known evan
gellst In the country and one of the most
popular pulpit orators of New York. It
is entitled s'The Devil, and was preached
from the text "And the Lord said unto
Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan
and fro in the earth, and from walking up
and down in it." JOB l: 7.
This is forbidden subject. We gener-
sally speak Of him who is the subject of my
sermon with smile, and yet it is sub
| Ject with which one ought certainly to be
perfectly familiar. We have all had some
| experience with him who is the author of
| our distress, and who is responsible for
every cloud though it be no larger than a
mans hand that has cast itself upon the
sky of our life, and yet doubt not that
there are very many of us that could not
give a very accurate explanation of our
views. There are very many who scout
the idea OF personal devil at all, and this
view is much more general than we think.
/ can quite understand how it should be
| so, for Satan's master stroke of policy is
to direct our minds from inquiry concern
| ing his true character and the methods by
which he governs his kingdom. Scne-
| times for the unregenerate he employs the
vehicle of darkness that he may blind the
minds of those who do not believe lest the
tight of the Gospel of the glory of Christ
should dawn upon them and they should
believe. "In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which be-
lieve not. lest the light Of the glorious Cos
pei Of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them 2 Corinthians
4: 4. And sometimes to those who do be-
iieve he transforms himself into an angel
of light that he may delude thr n by his
snares. "And no marvel; for Satan him
self is transformed into an angel of light"
2 Corinthians II: IA.
The late DR.. James HI. Brooks, of St.
Louis, one of the greatest Bible teachers
in our country, said that it used to be his
custom in his family worship to read the
New Testament through consecutively un-
til he came to Revelation, and then he
would always turn back to Matthew and
read again to the Revelation, and then
back to Matthew once more, until one day
sitting alone in his study he began to ques-
tion himself to why this was his habit,
and it occurred to him as he read the Rev
|
this is the only book in the New Testa-
ment which tells of the doom of Satan,
and it is quite easy to understand why he
would turn the mind away from that book
which tells of his defeat.
Men don't believe in devil now,
, As their fathers used to do;
, They've forced the door of the broadest
creed,
To let his form pass through -
There isn't print of his cloven foot,
Or fiery dart from his bow,
To be found in earth or air to-day,
For the world has voted so.
"Hnt who is mixing the fatal draught
That palsies heart and brain,
And loads the bier of each passing year
With ten hundred thousand slain?
Who blights the bloom of the land to-day
. With the fiery breath of hell?
If the devil isn't, and never was,
: Won't somebody rise and tell?
"Who clogs the steps of the toiling saint,
And digs the pits for his feet?
Who sows the tares in the fields of time,
e Wherever God sows His wheat?
The devil is voted not to be,
. And, of course, the thing is true;
But who is doing the kind of work
4 The devil alone should do?
!. E'We are told he does not go around
Like roaring lion now;
+ But whom shall we hold responsible
For the everlasting row
To be heard in home, in church and state,
70 the earth's remotest bound,
) If the devil, by unanimous vote,
e Is nowhere to be found?
= s'Won't somebody step tc the front forth
with,
u And make his bow, and show
e How the frauds and crimes Of single day
;. Spring up? We want to know.
The devil is fairly voted out,
And of course the devils gone,
But simple folks would like to know
I. Who carries his business on"
% The devil is certainly not myth.
shall give his names in little while an
10 call your attention to The fact that the
e are all found in the New Testament, S
le this is not an Old Testament delusion cal
= ried down to the present time, as som
~ would have us believe, for almost all tn
l. information concerning him we are d.
c. pendent upon the New Testament Scril
lures. The Old Testament is strangely S
lent. I call your attention to this fact tha
if you read in the Old Testament the al
IN then the trouble of Job, then the numbe
- ing of Israel by David, and finally the vi
/" ion of Joshua, the high priest, and Sata
IS contending with him, you have the for
D. places where Satan is definitely mentlOne
~ and his work particularly described. II
49, evidences of his existence are everywhe1
!!s to be seen in the Old Testament, but the:
ip are not in direct statements. This do
t. away with the position of many peop
u, who are disposed to say good deal abo,
:" the Satan, myth, which had its rise in Il
infancy of our race, when the human mir
was exceedingly childish and credulou
The devil is the author of evil, the foun
rs ain of weakness, the adversary of Il
- truth, the corrupter of the world. t
q, planteth snares, soweth error, nourishe
contention, disturbeth peace and scatte
-. eth afliction I am sure there is new
- greater glee in hell than when chur,
IS. quarrel is engendered, nor when peace
Id. driven away from heart and home in tt
face of storm of contention. This is
:, word picture of him, but we must ha
IL more.
Il is quite plain that Satan had son
connection with the earth before man a
peared. He is now supposed to be f