The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-10-09
SERMON ON THE DEVIL"
Sunday Discourse By DR.. Chapman, the
Noted Pastor Evangelist.
Treats Forbidden Subject in Novel Manner
Why Men Are Disposed to Laugh
at the Place OF Darkness.

at the Place Of Darkness.
NEW YonK C1TY.-The following reada.
bic and helpful sermon is by the Rev. Dr.
]. Wilbur Chapman, the best known evan.
oelst in the country and one Of the most
popular pulpit orators of New York. 1t
e entitled 1.-THE Devil" and was preached
from the text "And the Lord said unto
Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan
answered the Lord and said, From going to
and fro in the earth. and from walking up
and down in it," Job /: Z.
This is a forbidden subject. We gener-
ally speak of him who is the subject OF my
sermon with a smile, and yet it is sub.
iect with which one ought certainly to be
nerfectly 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
I can quite understand how it should be
20. 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. Some.
times for the unregenerate he employs the
vehicle of darkness that he may blind the
minds of those who do not believe lest the
fight 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-
leye not, lest the light Of the glorious Cos
pei of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them" Corinthians
q: 4. And sometimes to those who do be-
leve he transforms himself into an angel
of light that he may delude them by his
snares. "And no marvel; for Satan HIM
self is transformed into an angel Of light"
. Corinthians IL: IA.
The late DIR. James II. 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-
ell 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-
ton himself as to why this was his habit,
and it occurred to him as he read the Rev
elaton through that it must be because
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 lie
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 broadcst
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.
"But 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?
Ii 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
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
The devil alone should do?
eve are told he does not go around
Like a roaring lion now;
But whom shall we hold responsible
For the everlasting row
To be heard in home, in church and state,
To the earth's remotest bound,
II the devil, by unanimous vote,
Is nowhere to be found?
won't somebody step to the front forth.
with.
And make his bow, and show
How the frauds and crimes of a 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
Who carries his business on"
The other day in Brooklyn a woman
threw herself out Of the window of a five.
story building to escape the brutal tor.
lures of her drunken husband She left
her little boy motherless and worse than
iatherless. That husband was in the clutch
o. the one of whom ! speak at this time.
Would you make light of such foe as
this. The opening chapters of Genesis
give us picture OF a happy pair in Eden,
peace, purity, perfection and beauty every
where prevailed. God looked upon it and
said that it was very good, when suddenly
all was changed. There is marvellous
transformation; sin appears; the curse is
everywhere. trouble begins and rolls high
like the mighty waves of the sea- until the
world is engulfed in the blackness of the
darkness of despair. No wonder that we
1eel like crying out again and again in the
words OF the text, "And the Lord said
unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then
oatan answered the Lord and said, From
gong to and fro in the EARTH and from
walking up and down in it," 1t is of such
an adversary that l speak, and he is not a
subject for jesting. have for the past
ten years been laboring in the interests OF
men, but. somehow during the past three
months they have been upon me as a spe-
eSial burden. l have listened to their heart
breaking cries and their sobs of despair
ana 1T is with the memory Of these tears
that have run like rivers, and the cry oi
many man who feels himself to be lost
as he said 'Is there any hope" that
DrmIng to my readers this message
Inc devil is certainly not myth.
snail give his names in little while and
call your attention to the fact that they
are all found in the New Testament, SO
TINS Is not an Old Testament delusion car.
rled down to the present time, as some
would have us believe, for almost all the
information concerning him we are de-
pendent upon the New Testament Scrip
lures. The Old Testament is strangely ST.
lent call your attention to this fact that
you read in the Old Testament the ac
e9unt OF the temptation and fall in Eden
!nen the trouble of job, then the number
ing Of Israel by David, and finally the Wis
ION OF Joshua, the high priest, and Satar
e1htending with him, you have the foul
places where Satan is definitely mentioned
anu MS work particularly described Tn,
eviuehces OF his existence are everywher,
70 DC seen in the Old Testament, but thes,
are not IN direct statements. This doe.
away with the position of many peopl,
th Mno are are disposed to say good deal abou
ne satan myth, which had its rise in tn,