The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-03-13
1.-THE CONFLICT
AGAINST EVIL
FORCES GREAT
ABLE SERMON PREACHED BY DR..
A. F. WATKINS SUNDAY
MORNING.
SPIRITUAL WEAKNESS DISCUSSED
Jesus Was the Prince of Peace-His
tory of the Christian Church
Reviewed.
SPIRITUAL WEAKNESS DISCUSSED

At the Main Street Methodist church
Sunday morning, DR.. A. F. Watkins
preached from the text, For we wres-
tie not against flesh and blood. but
against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness OF |
this world, against spiritual weakness |
in high places"
DR.. Watkins said in part:
When st. Paul wrote these words
he was a prisoner in Rome, bound, as
he says that with a chain for the de-
ference of Israel to the Roman soldier
who guarded him. 1t was but natural
that his words and thoughts should be
effected by the circumstances that sur
rounded him, and we find that he had
been watching the Roman soldier who
had been watching him, and that his
quick mind had perceived in the COM
plete equipment of the Roman legion
ary the symbol of the Christian sol
dier
There was much in the circum-
stances of the time to cause this SYM
bolism to appeal to the popular
thought, and to one in whom the mill
tary spirit was as strongly developed
as in st. Paul, the parallel between
civil and spiritual warfare was very
attractive. Christianity with it's store
of new truths was recognized by the
practical mind of the apostle as con-
stituting a tremendous motive to the
most heroic action.
Jesus was the Prince of Peace;
but ere his sway could be complete,
he came as He Himself said, to bring
not peace but sword. st. Paul re-
allied that the Christian conquest of
the world demanded conflict with the
forces of evil, and he perceived that
beneath the mere physical struggle
the warfare must be waged against
the spirit that underlaid and inspired
all forms of opposition to the truth
The conflict was indeed against flesh
and blood, but against these only as
they were manifestations of the far
more subtitle spirit of enmity against
Christ.
"The history of the Christian church
shows it to have been:
"0). A conflict of the truth will
brute force as seen in the physical vic
lence which it encountered and the
hardships which it imposed upon it:
representatives by ecclesiastical anC
political influence. Against thes'
the cause of Christ had triumphe(
gloriously; floods of opposition coult
not quench its fervor nor the fires o
hatred stay its onward march.
(2). 1t is shown again to be a con
fiict of the truth with intellectual hos
stility. The teachings of philosophers
the forces of superstitions, the infiu
ences of racial and caste prejudic
were arrayed against it. Agains
these the gospel had won it's way. Tn
conflict was more severe, the hostil
forces more subtitle, but these, too, ha
been thrust aside.
"3). The essential conflict was tn
battle of truth against spiritual ho:
tility. 1t was not the conflict wit
sins but with Sin, as an inherer
spiritual principle. 1t was confiiC
with evil, impure and strong, the e
sential enmity of the world to Chris
"The circumstances of the hour wi
not admit of more than the briefe:
reference to the thought that wa
most prominent in the mind of tt
apostle, viz: the personality of I'll
DEVIL since our purpose Is to CO
slider a more practical question
duty. The series of expressions use
by st. "principalities, power
etc. are. uniformly used in scriptu
as designating personal spirit /
spired by malignant hostility to Il
truth and righteousness of Chris
= whose existence and activity fin
fullest confirmation in the teaching
of Gods word.
at is the fashion of the times
&discredit the existence of the trnt
lssss.k.s :. 4. .a5si3 =