Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-10-09
SERMON ON 1.-THE DEVIL"
Sunday Discourse By DR.. Chapman, the
Noted Pastor Evangelist.
Treats Forbidden Subject IN Novel Manner
Why Men Arc Disposed to Laugh
at the Place Of Darkness.

at the Place Of Darkness.
New York CITy.--The following reada'
BILE and helpful sermon is by the Kew Dr.
j. Wilbur Chapman, the best known evan,
gelist in the country and one OF the most
popular pulpit orators of New YORK IL
is entitled 1.-THE Devil" and was preached
from the text "And the Lord said unto
Satan, Whence contest 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 l: 7.
This is forbidden subject. We gener-
ally speak of him who is the subject of my
sermon with a smile, and yet it is a sub
ject with which one ought certainly to be
perfectly familiar. We have all had some
experience with him who is the author OF
every cloud though it be no larger than
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 very accurate explanation OF our
views. There are very many who scout
the idea of a personal devil at all, and this
view is much more general than we think
can quite understand how it should be
30, 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 unregeneratc 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 anon them and they should
believe. "In whom the God OF this world
hath blinded the minds of them which be-
ieve 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-
leve he transforms himself into an angel
Of light that he may delude them by his
snarcs. "And no marvel; for Satan HIM.
self is transformed into an angel of light
Corinthians IL: "a.
The late DR.. 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-
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-
ton himself as to why this was his habit,
and it occurred to him as he read the Rev
citation through that it must be because
this is the only book in the New Testa-
mcnt which tells of the doom of Satan,
and it is quite easy to understand why he
which tells of his defeat. y
Men don't believe in devil now,
As their fathers used to do;
They've forced the door of the broadcast
creed.
To let his form pass through
There isn't print of his covcn foot,
Or fiery dart from his bow,
To be found in earth or air to-day,
For the world has voted so.
Out vino is mixing the fatal draught
That pnlsies heart and brain
And loads the bier of each passing year
With ton hundred thousand slain?
Who blghts 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 toiing saint,
And digs the pits for his feet?
Who sows the tarcs in the fields of time,
Wherever God sows His wheat?
The devil ia voted not to be-
And, of course, the thing Is true;
But who is doing the kind of work
The devil alone should do?
"Wc are told he docs not 60 around
!. Like roaring lion now;
But whom shall we hold responsible
For the everlasting row
To he heard in home, i'll church and state,
70 the carth'S rcmOtCst bound,
ii the devil by a 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 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 hi, business on
Tie Other day in brooklyn woman
threw herself out of the window Of a five.
story building t. escape the brutal tor.
lures of her drunken husband. She left
her little boy mothC"ICss and worse than
fatheriess. That husband was in the clutch
OF the one OF whom ! speak at this time.
Would You make light Of such Zoe as
this. The opening chapters of Genesis
give us a picture of 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 cnguIfed in the blackncss of the
darkness of despair No wonder that we
feel like crying out again and again in the
words of the text And the Lord said
unto Satan, Whence contest thou? Then
Satan answered the Lord and said, From
going to and fro in the earth. and from
walking up and down in it." 1t is OF such
an adversary that ] speak, and he is not
subject for testing. ] have for the past
ten years been lahoring in the interests of
men, but somehow during the past three
months they have been upon me as a spc
cial burden. ] have listened to their heart
breaking cries and their sobs of despair
and it is with the memory of these tears
that have run like rivers. and the cry OF
many man who feels himself TO be lost
as he said, as there any hope" that |
bring to my readers this message.
The devil is certainly not myth ]
shall give his names in little while and
call Your attention to the fact that they
arc all found in the New Testament, so
this Is not an Old Testament deluson car
lled down to the present time, as some
would have lis believe, for almost all the
information concerning him we are de-
pendent upon the New Testament Scrip
lures The Old Testament is strangely 81.
lent | call your attention to this fact that
ii you read in the Old Testament the ac-
count of the temptation and fall in Eden,
then the trouble of Job, then the number
ing of Israel by David. and finally the Wis
ion of Joshua. the high priest, and Satan
contending with him, YOU have the four
places where Satan is definitely mentioned
and his work particularly described The
evidences OF his existence are everywhere
to be seen in the Old Testament, but these
are not in direct statements. This does
away with the position of many people
who are disposed to say good deal abont
the Satan myth, which had its rise in the
infancy of our race. when the human mind