Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-05-04
Pastor RusseII's Sermon


truly love Him, and who truly desire
to believe the teachings Of His Wordl
We have all been under a kind of
"hoodoo." "The god of this world
[Satanl hath blinded our minds on
this subject. We are now coming to
see that death Is the penalty for sin
and that the resurrection is the saliva
tion which God has promised and will
provide
Satan has had powerful allies and
servants In the fallen angels, and It is
through their persistence that his
lie has trlumphed over the Divine
Word of truth-"Dylng, thou shalt
die" These fallen spirits have made
various manifestations In every land
for centuries, and thereby have ap-
parently substantiated the theory that
dead man is more alive than when
he was alive. Knowing that mankind
would have nothing to do with them
II their real personality were known
they hide their personality and repre-
sent themselves as our dead friends
who desire to speak with us, either dl
rectly or through mediums.
A further desire Of these angels Is
to obsess or to get possession Of hui
man being. Being chained or restrain
ed from the privilege Of materlall2a-
tion, the next most desirable thing in
their estimation is to gain control over
a human being and to use his body
instead Of their own. This is styled
obsessioH, and persons so afflicted to-
day are sent to an insane asylum
where, It is estimated, they constitute
at least one half Of the entire number.
In the days Of our Lord these were
not mistakenly supposed to be Insane,
but rightly declared to be obsessed.
All remember the New Testament ac-
count that our Savior and His Apos-
ties cast out leglons Of fallen spirits
from humanity.
"Know Ye Not That the Saints Shall
Judge Ansss~
We need not discuss this question
with Bible Students for 1t Is too well
recognized to be disputed. We sug-
gest a topical study of this subject by
all Of our hearers. See how many
times Jesus and the Apostles cast out
demons and note the particulars. AL,
though we still have with us spirit
mediums and many obsessed we can
not know whether the proportlonate
number is greater or fewer than In
our Lords day. Since the worlds pop
ulatlon today Is so much larger the
same number of evil spirits (Which do
not lncreasel would show proportion
ately less. But, however that may
be, we may assume that some frultage
resulted from the great sermons
preached to these In connection with
the death and resurrection of our
Lord respecting which St. Peter
tells us In our text Additionally,
st. Paul remarks, Know ye not
that the saints shall judge angels"
q Corinthians vi. 81 We do know
that the hOlg angels need no judging,
no trial, hence the Apostle must In
some way refer to a trial or judgment
or testing of these spirits In prison
who were once dlsobedlent, in the
days of Noah. And II the judgment
or testing is part Of the Divine plan,
1t implies a hope for them, and In con-
junction with st. Peters statement
In our text It gives the reasonable In.
ference that the preaching which Je-
sus did to them was not wholly in vain.
How Jesus Preached In Death,
Here arises another question: II Je-
sus was really dead, as the Scriptures
declare, If "He poured out His soul
unto DEATH" and "made His soul an
offering for SIM" and His soul was not
raised from the dead until the third
day after His cruclhxlon, how could
He in the meantime preach to spirits
in prison, or to anybody else2 We
reply that He could preach In the
same way that the Apostle refers to,
saying, "He, being dead, yet speak
eth" Hebrews xl, 4); and again. In the
same way that the blood of Abel is
said to have cried to God-Aguratlvely.
OF one thing we are sure, namely,
that Jesus gave no oral address while
He was dead He preached In the way
we sometimes refer to when we say,
factions speak louder than words"
It was the great object lesson which
the fallen angels saw that constituted
to them the great sermon that gave
them a ground for hope. On several
occasions the fallen spirits, when com
manded to come out Of human beings,
declared that they knew Jesus. In the
long ago they had known Him, when,
us the Only Begotten Of the Father,
and His Representative, He had ere.
ated them and all things that are
made, and was also the mouthplece for
all Divine orders and regulations.
They realized that He had come into
the world to be its Redeemer; they per.
ceived the great stoop that He had
made from His lofty position on the
heavenly plane to the servant position
on the human plane. They admired
His loyalty and faithfulness to God,
but doubtless believed Him to be fool
lsh; they never expected Him TO arise
from the dead. But when they per.
celyed His resurrection on the third
day to glory, honor and immortality,
"far above angels, Drlncipalities and
powers and every name that Is nam
ed" His sermon to them was complete,
namely, that "the wages Of sin Is