The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-05-03
novn," was at a time when manhood's

| for perhaps several centuries. IN tile
meantime the race had become so cor
| rupt that apparently only Noah and
his family were uncontaminated-a
others had more or less come under
the influence, directly or indirectly, of
these fallen angels or their giant sons.
Hence, Of Noah it was written mot
that he was perfect man, butt, Now
Noah was perfect in his generation
(uncontaminated) and his family appar-
| emily the same Hence these alone
were saved in the ark, while all the re-
mainder, more or less contaminated,
were destroyed by the food.
ain Chains of Darkness"
It was then and there that God i'm
prisoned those spirits, angels, who kept
not their first estate, and are therefore
called fallen angels, devils, demons.
| They were not imprisoned in some far
off world called hell, nor are they en-
gagged there in stocking fires for the tor
ture of poor humanity. Following the
leading of the Scriptures we find that
when the flood came they were not de-
stroyed because, while their f1eshly
bodies which they assumed might in
deed perish, yet they would merely de-
| materialize, or assume their spirit con-
ditions again.
The record is that God cast them
down, that He condemned them to an
overthrow-that they might not any
longer associate with the holy angels,
but must be reserved in tartaruS-Our
earth's atmosphere. Here they were
imprisoned, not in a special place, but
in the sense Of having their liberties
restrained, Fin chains of darkness"
They were no longer permitted to ma
terialize and thus to associate with hui
manity. These things are distinctly
told us by st. Jude and st. Peter
Jude 6; ii Peter ii, 4, 5)-an explana-
ton in full harmony with the Genesis
account of their fall.
Once Disobsdient-StillD isobsdient.
We Of course cannot know that all
of those fallen angels are still In dis
loyal condition Of heart. On the con-
trary, in harmony with our text, we
'
angels have since repented Of their
wrong course and 1t would be none
too strong way to state the matter
that any such repentant ones would
surely have terrible. experiences as a
result. To be obliged to be in close
evil and malignant ones and to have
knowledge of all their evil designs and
efforts would be a terrible experience
and, besides this, we may be sure that
the rebellious would not hesitate to
prosecute the repentant ones in every
conceivable manner, as they would be
lawless, regardless of the Divine will.
On the other hand, the repentant
ones would be obliged to restrain
themselves and to not render evil for
evil, knowing that this would be con-
trary to the Divine will. In other
fallen spirits. influenced by the preach
ing of Jesus or otherwise. would have
kind of purgatorial experience, and
the very thought calls forth our SYM
pathy. ...
When imprisoned or cut off from the
privilege Of naturalization, many of
the fallen spirits, we know not what
proportion, continued their active Op-
position to God, after the manner Of
Satan. Hence they are spoken of as
his angels, his messengers, his serv-
ants and he Is spoken Of as Beelzebub
of Saf
sinned much earlier than the others,
and in a different way, the Scriptures
tell us was an angel of higher rank,
or higher nature, and this superiori-
ty Of his has made him the Prince or
ruler over the hosts of fallen spirits.
Fighting Against God.
The fight of Satan and his fallen an
gels is against God, against all who are
In harmony with Him, against all the
regulations Of righteousness, and
against all the channels and servants
whom the Lord may use st. PauIs
words along this line are forceful; he
remarks that Gods people contend not
merely with flesh and blood" but also
with wicked spirits in high Positions
and the question arises, "Who is sufii-
cient for these things? The reply is
that none is sufficient; without the aid
Of the Redeemer His church would be
quite overcome and vanquished by evil
Likewise, without the Redeemers aid
through His Kingdom, without the
binding of Satan, without our Lords
releasing Of the world from the bond
| age of sin and death, there would be
no hope Of the worlds recovery from
its present bondage. But with the
Apostle we exclaim, eff God be for u.s.,
who can be against us?' (Romans
will, 3D.
Through Mediums and Obsessions.
Satan's original plan of attack was to
bring our race under his influence by
Misrepresentation putting darkness
for light and light for darkness-for in
stance, the temptation under which
Mother Eve fell. Satan there repre-
sented himself as Ewes friend, giving
her sound advice. He represented God
as having a selfish motive behind His
command that our first parents should
not eat Of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. Satan declared that
God had told an untruth when He said
that the penalty for sin would be death
Satan declared that man cannot die.
| And has be not since kept I'D the