The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-09-27
PEOPLES PULPIT.
PREACHING
TO
MPRTSONED
SPIRITS
by which also he went and
preached unto the spirits in prison"
q Peter iii, l9).

continually" What a terrible picture
Of the condition Of things before the
flood! But God was not astonished,
for he had foreknown everything.
Hence he had 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 his 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
(and his family was perfect in his
generation" - the disobedient angels
had nothing whatever to do with gen.
Grating them.
Fallen Angels Changed.
While the angels preferred to live as
be overwhelmed like humanity in the
food. but merely dissolve, by demate-
rialiZation, their human bodies and be,
as originally spirit beings. Satan was
the first sinner against the Divine gov
ernment. in his endeavor to set up
separate empire and to have humanity
for his subjects Although God had
f,,1I TO =, nj "a
other disobedient angels. he has not
exercised that power. Instead he mere
ly isolated them from himself and the
holy angels and imprisoned them, in
the sense that he no longer permitted
them to materialize, either as ser
pent or as humanity for the tempting
and injury CT our race. In this sense
they are prisoned-restrained of lib.
erty,
Now let us hear St. Peters words re
specting these angels who sinned. He
says QI Peter ii, ~, God spared not
I the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell. and delivered them into
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto
judgment" The word tartdruS 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 ignominiously They are ''in
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 I'm the dark-runtil
their judgment time at the Great Day
at the beginning of Messiah's thou
sand.year day of the reign of right
eousuess.
! Turn to ST. Jude's Epistle, There
| we read verse %, 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.
! dltlon of living and nature, In viola
ton of the Divine viii, that they might
live on Il lower plnne-live in sin; for
the angels are seXleSs. though always
| referred 10 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" win 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
tinctlOn.
In harmony with this note how
spirtuallsts hold their seances. either
in absolute darkness or In 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 materialZe In broad
day light and go about amongst hu
manity us members of the race, We
do not question the power of God tC
restrain these fallen angels, these de
mons-his power to restrain them from
materlalizing 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 Dl
vine decree. that their course In this
matter may more particularly mani
fest to what extent some of then
have changed and reformed and de
sire to be obedient, for instance, while
others are sill as opposed to God ant
righteousness as ever There Is room
for this understanding In the state
ment of the Apostle that the chains ol
darkness were to control them unit
the Great Day-not necessarily int
that day-perhaps at its very begin
ming they may be permitted TO galr
certain liberties and do certain
amount OF injury 10 humanity, to al
..,l.a a. a. ~. n