Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-22


spiration." Principal Caven, OF Ioron-
to. said that it was indicated by the
telling and powerful influence 1t ex-
erted on the religious life of the hisheI
institutions of learning" Mr.. Wlshafu'
of New York, chairman OF the young
peoples forward movement, sald INA.
had spread into all the countries Oh hu
rope, besides portions of ASIA ana Al
RIGA In the University of Madras m
dia, a thousand students had joined II.
In all. not less than five thousand mad
devoted themselves to the cause.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE DEVIL.
FIRED c. Conybeare, in the March In
irrational Monthly.l
The time esprit has filched away
from the minds of the most intelligent
believers of today the belief in an EVIL
being, or ruler of the visible world, for
ever troubling men, especially the
righteous, with corporal apparitions of
himself Instead of exercising the mad
we send them into asylums, where they
are properly looked after. In Great
Britain, except in remote corners of
Cornwall, of ireland and of the Scotch
hears of magical cures and lamentations
which will alleviate sickness and arrest
bleeding. In the age of the Gospels,
every one, from the beggar in the
streets to the emperor on the throne,
believed in the existence Of demons In
Testing men and animals, haunting
trees and rivers, even inhabiting stat
ues as their tenements. 1t was only
question of which name was most pa
tent in exorcism. In that age. as in the
ages that followed, there was back
ground of chronological belief into
which fitted the stories which are a
stumbling block to modern divines like
Farrar and Ian Maclaren. In the age
of the reformation, this background of
belief in evil spirits causing madness
and sickness and bad weather was still
intact, and entered as a factor into
mems lives and conduct to degree
which only those can realize who will
consult the literature of that age Even
Luther, who burst so many bonds OF
superstition, never questioned the real
ity of the visits which the devil paid
him.
With the disappearance from the
minds of the cultivated of the belief in
Satan and his angels, a great part of
the narrative of the New Testament has
been left hanging In the air, and with
out any points of attachment in the
minds of believers. On the one hand
our divines are bound by traditional
reverence for the letter Of the Bible not
to question openly any of its narratives.
On the other hand, their views of man,
of the universe, of Providence, and OF
the general course of history, Of what.
is possible and probable, have under
like the temptation, the swine of Ca
dara, even the angelic apparitions are
mere stumbling blocks. In the Eng
lish church. moreover, their ordination
vows and in the non-conformist con-
gregations the chapel deeds commit
them to an outworn belief; and thereiis
always minority of obscurants ready
to hurl at them hard words like "skep-
tic" nationalist" "backslider," and
atheist" If they venture to speak out
Most of them, therefore, feel the ice so
thin, that they carefully avoid discus
sion Of miracles or of evil spirits. If
they can not avoid 1t, they mechanical
ly restate standpoints which they have
really overcome, repeating, parrot like,
the formulate of another age. Small
wonder that the English clergy are
given up to petty quarrels about lights
and incense, when they may not boldly
grapple with the great issues of belief,
which yet are in everybody's mind. The
result is that an ever-increasing num-
Der Of laymen dispense with their min
istrations, and leave a blank too often
filled by weak women who want a
priest assuming miraculous attributes
to direct their consciences.
Nor is it in Anglo-Saxo and Teu-
tonic communities alone that there has
set in a decay of those chronological
beliefs, which. after it has gone GER
tain way, can not but give an air of
unreality and isolation to
much of the New Testament. 1 have
heard Italian monks ridicule their par