Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1912-04-26

quickened in the spirit By which two
experiences-death and resurrectionl
He preached unto the spirits in prison.
q Peter Iii, Is. 19).
This text has been made the basis for
some very peculiar presentations. The
difficulty in every case seems to be thu
failure to remember that the Bible al
ways and everywhere teaches that the
dead are really dead. that they know
nothing, and that, therefore, 1t would
be impossible to preach to the dead.
Spirits Once Disobedient
The spirits to whom the message was
given had proven themselves disobe-
dent, says st. Peter. He even tells US
the time of their disobedience-'i the
days of Noah, while the ark was pre-
pairing"
Turning to Genesis vi, is. we find.
there the cause of the diSobekence OF
these angels who for time had Been
permitted to s; e what they could do for
the uphft Of humanity. or. rather. per
mittcd to demonstrate that the down
ward tendency Of sin is incurable ex-
cept in the manner which God has al
ready arranged fer through Messiah
and His glorious reign Of 1909 years.
Instead of those angels helping man
kind out of sin, they helped themselves
into sin; and by SO doing they increased
the depravity amongst humanity umh
the astounding record is that the
wickedness of man was great m the
earth. and that every imagination OF
the thought of his heart was only evil
continually" The particular sin OF
those angels was that when they were
era nted the privileges Of matchmaking
of tuking human bodies-for the sake
of helping and instructing mankind
they misused this power and took TO
themselves wives.
We are particularly told that the OIL
spring Of this improper union were
giants, both physically and mentaAy
superior to the fallen human family
'.men of renown." The race thus IN
several centuries became so corrupt
that apparently only Noah and his
family were left uncontaminated.
1t was then and there that God In
prisoaed these spirits c'angels, whe
kept not their first estate'O. and are
therefore called fallen angels, devils,
demons. They were not Imprisoned -
some far-off world called hell. nor are
| they engaged there in stocking fires.
The record 10 that God cast them
| down, that they might not longer asso-
ciase with the holy angels, but must be
| reserved in td,tafus-our earths atmos-
phere.-Jude G; II Peter Ii, 4. 5.
When imprisoned or eut of from the
privilege of naturalization, many OF
the fallen spirits continued their active
| opposition to God, after the manner oil
Satan. Hence they are spoken OF as
! his angels. his messengers, and he Is
spoken of as BeeIzebtsb. their Prince.
How Jesus Preached In Death.
Here arises another question: II
Jesus was "eally dead. as the Scrip
lures declare; if HE peHred out HIS
soul unto death" and made His SOU
an Offering for SIM and His soul was
not raised from the dead until the third
day after His crucifxion. how couit
He In the meantime preach to spirits
in prison. or to anybody else? We re
ply that He could preach In the sams
way that the Apostle refers to. saying
abel. being dead. yet speaketh" (H'
brews xi. A.; and again, in the SAM
way that the blood of Abel Is said t.
have cried to God-fguratively. OF ont
thing we are sure, namely, that Jesus
yace no oral address while He wa'
dead. He preached In the way W.
sometimes refer to when we say, "Ac
lions speak louder than words"
1t was the great object lesson whiel
the fallen angels saw that constitutes
to them the great sermon that CAV
them ground for hope. They admk
ed Jesus loyalty and faithfulness Z
God, but doubtless believed Him to b
foolish: they never expected Him 3
arise from the dead.
J But when they Dercaived Qia saGnl