The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-09-26
!.
PRE- A CHING
" 10 u
IlIPRISON NED
SPIRITS
by which also he went and
preached unto the spiits IN PRISON
QPeter ii, l9). I. ~

continually" What a terrible picture
of the condition Of things before the
food! But God was not astonished,
for he had foreknown everything.
Hence he had a great canopy of water
in the sky which temporarily gave the
earth an equable, temperate climate,
but which he intended should fall
upon the earth and cause the great
food in Noah's day. Hence at the ap-
propriate time God gave instructions
to Noah to prepare an ark for the saw
ing Of himself and bis house. Noah
and his family were the only members
of Adams race In all the earth who
were not more or less contaminated by.
those angels. How wide must have
been that influence when we read as
an exceptional matter, "Now Noah
land his family was perfect In his
generation" the disobcdient angels
had nothing whatever to do with gen.
Grating them. AZ
3 Fallen Angels Changed.
While the angels preferred to live as
men in human bodies, they would not
be overwhelmed like humanity in the;
flood, but merely dissolve. by demate.
REALIZATION, their human bodies and be-
as originally. spirit beings Satan was
the first sinner against the Divine gov.
eminent. in his endeavor to set up n
separate empire and to have humanity
for his subjects. Although God had
full power to destroy Satan and the
other disobedient angels. be has not
exercised that power. Instead he mere.
~ isolated them from himself and the
holy angels and imprisoned them, in
the sense that he no longer permitted
them to materialize. either as u ser.
.pent or as humanity for the tempting
and injury of our race. In this sense
they are NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of lib.
erty.
Now let us hear st. Peters words re.
specting these angels who sinned. he
says Oh Peter II, ~, God spared not
the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into
chains Of darkness. to be reserved unto
Judgment" The word fdrtd,us here
rendered "hellr in our Common Yer
sion, is found nowhere else in the b.
BILE. 2 It refers to our earth's atmos.
phere and to the fact that those fallen
angels. called. demons or devils. are
"the power Of the air." And Satan.
who was originally an angel of much
higher rank and nature, is their
Prince, S"The Prince or the power OF
the air." the Prince Of demons. They.
are east down. in the sense Of being
treated ignominiously. THEY are Tin
chains of darkness mot in chains Of
iron. They can stillS SO and come and
be sources of temptation to humanity
who arc in sinful attitude Of mind
They are restrained in chains Of dark
ness In the sense that whatever they
do must be done in the dark-until
their Judgment time at the Great Day
at the beginning Of Messiah's thou
sand-year day Of the reign Of right
eousness.
Turn to St. Jude's Epistle. There
We read Verse 81. "The angels which
kept not their first estate. but left
their own habitation. he;hath reserved
In age lasting chains. under darkness.
unto the Judgment Of the Great Day.;
Their first estate in which they were
created was the spirit or angelic con.
dition.s They left their own proper con-
dition Of living and nature. in viola
ton Of the Divine will, that they might
live on a lower plane-live in sin: for
the angels are sexless. though always
referred to rs masculine. And our
Lord declares that those begotten Of
the holy Spirit. who during this age
shall attain to the resurrection Of the
dead, the First Resurrection will be
like unto the angels" In several re-
spects-one of these being that they
will neither marry nor be given In
marriage. but be without sexual dis
tincton.
~ AZ haA ihouy VIII lulS suOle uUW
spiritualists hold their seances. either
In absolute darkness or IN a very faint
light. They claim now that the splr.
Its are getting more and more power
Of naturalization and that soon they
will be able to materialize In broad
day light and go about amongst hui.
manity as members of the race. We
do not question the power Of God to
restrain these fallen angels, these de-
mons-his power to restrain them from
Undertaking. and thus doing great
harm In the world. Nevertheless, we
wonder II they will not be permitted
by God to find some greater powers
Of naturalization, contrary TO the d.
vine decree, that their course in this
matter may more particularly mani.
fest to what extent some Of them
have changed and reformed and de-
sire to be obedient. for instance. while
others are still as opposed to God and
Righteousness us ever. There Is room
for this understanding in the state.
ment of the Apostle that the chains OF
darkness we're to control them until
the Great Day-not necessarily. into
that day-perhaps at. its very begin.
ming. they may be permitted to gain
certain liberties and do a certain
amount of ini,irv IN hunnnitv IN Nil