The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-10-24
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
THE DEVIL"

n
Forbidden subject In "A Novei Manner
WHY Men Are Disposod 20 Laugh at
tho Prince Of Darkness.
New YORK ClrY.-rhe following reada
Die and helpful sermon Is by the Rev, Dr.
j. Wilbur Chapman the best known evan
yest in the country and one Of the most
popular pulpit orators Of New York. II
is entitled THE Devil" and was preached
from the text "And the Lord said unto
Satan, Whence CONTEST thoug Then Satan
answered the Lord and said, From going to
and fro in the earth. and from walking up
and down in It," Job /: I.
This ia a forbidden subject We gener-
ally speak OF him who is the subject OF my
sermon with a smile, and yet 1t Is a sub
iect 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
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 a personal devil az all, and this
view is much more general than we think
| can quite understand how 1t 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. 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
light Of the Gospel Of the glory Of Christ
should dawn upon them and they should
believe. GIN whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds Of them which be-
81 la1k kha awhA ,Fk he oil
pei of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them" Corinthians
4: 4. And sometimes to those who do be.
lieve 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 DR. James r. Brooks, of St.
Louis, one of the greatest Bible teachers
in our country, said that 1t used to be his
| custom in his family worship to read the
| New Testament through consecutively I'M
| 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
! elation through that it must be because
this is the only book in the New Tesla
| 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 49,
To let his form pass through.
| - r. Il.
Or a fiery dart from his bow,
To be found in earth or air to-day,
For the world has voted So
"9ut 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 bhghts 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,
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 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 his business on"
The other day in Brooklyn a woman
threw herself out of the window of five
story building to escape the brutal tor.
lures of her drunken husband. She left
her little boy motherless and worse than
fatherless. That husband was in the clutch
Of 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 happy pair in Eden
peace, purity, perfection and beauty every.
where prevailed God looked uDon it and
said that it was very good, when suddenly
all was changed There is a 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
feel like crying out again and again in the
words OF the text, "And the Lord said
unto Satan, Whence CONTEST thou? Then
'atan 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 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 spe-
cial burden. l 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 crv OF