The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-10-04

II Peter iii, l9).
ooOs-s-s-s-e-s-.-s-s-s-s
Now let US hear st. Peters words re-
specting these angels who sinned He
says Oh Peter ii. A., 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 tGrtdrus here
rendered hell" In our Common Yer
sion. is found nowhere else in the BIZ
BILE. 1t 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, 1.-The Prince of the power of
the air." the Prince of demons. They
are "cast down" in the sense of being
treated ignomfniously. They are Fin
chains of darkness" not in chains of
iron. They can still go and come and
be sources of temptation to humanity
who are in a 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. 1.-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. 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 as 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
tinction.
In harmony with this note how
spiritualists hold their seances, either
In absolute darkness or in a very faint
light. They claim now that the spir-
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
mainly 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 If they will not be permitted
by God to find some greater powers
Of naturalization, contrary to the Di-
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 as ever. There is room
for this understanding in the state
ment of the Apostle that the chains of
darkness were 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 injury to humanity, to all
who are not attentive to the Word of
God. and who. therefore. will not
know who these spirits are-that they
are the fallen angels. the demons of
the Bible.
"Wicked Spirits" Lying Spirits"
These are the terms used in the
Scriptures in describing the fallen an
gels, who from earliest days have at
tempted to deceive humanity-repre-
senting themselves as human beings
who have died an1 who desire to COM
municate with their friends. And they
attempt to do so through spirit me-
diums. This is their practice from Of
old. Their endeavor is to break down
the human will and to more apd more
control it. The height of their Imbi-
ton and success is to fully dominate
the human will, so that they may use
the human body as their own flesh, as
when they had power to materialize.
Those who come fully under their con-
troll become demented, often several
spirits gaining possession Of the one
and attempting to use the
same brains and body. 1t Is estimated
that one-half of all who are in insane
asylums are merely victims of spirit
obsession The great remedy against
all this is the Truth of Gods Word.
Those who accept that cannot be de-
ceived. But the masses Of mankind
are being deceived. The Scripture
teaching is that when a man is dead
he knows not anything, and will never
know anything until the resurrection
of the dead Whoever knows this is
fortified against all the receptions Of
the evil spirits.
We are Lot claiming that all me-
diums are fraudulent. Some of them
we know to be most sincere. A large
number have been delivered from their
awful position of acting as tools of
Satan by the reading Of our little
pamphlet, Proofs that Spiritism is
Demonism."
Jesus Preached to These Spirits.
There are no human spirits to be
preached to. Human beings. are not
spirit beings. The dead of humanity
who have never heard of "the only
name giveE under heaven or amongst
men whereby we must be saved" will
hear that name in Gods due time-in
the resurrection-during the thousand
years of Messiah's reign when he, as
the true Light, shall tighten every man
that cometh into the world" John i, 81.
But If Jesus died and in death knew
not anything, how could he preach to
the fallen angels? We answer that it
is a common expression that factions
speak louder than words" The great
actions or facts connected with our
Lords death and resurrection consti-
tuted a most wonderful sermon to the
fallen angels. AS they beheld the Re
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