Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-11-29

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szzskEssa e s ia,s whose name is in
the text Wheth
er It is a pleasant thought or not, the
devil is the god of this age. and Is
given great power. and, apparently
anticipating his doom, he is intensely
active. Being wicked. he would make
wickedness universal, end he uses all
possible methods of cOrrupting men,
created in the image and likeness or
the God he hates, and unfortunately
succeeds with a vast number OF them
The Method of Deception.
The devil now uses the method OF
deception rather than force. which In
some ages of the world was US, - very
generally. This deception may be of
several kinds. The devil may assume
an attitude of special sanctty, or good
ness: he may direct the thought OF
man to the acceptance of error, or he
may delude man to the reception OF
something that is branded as truly
/ religious. Taking up the first form
Of deception. the devil appears some
t times as an angel of light lie ap-
/ peared in a glittering and fascinating
! form to Eve in the Garden OF Eden
and worked the ruin OF the race NOR
ally. Many believe that the Anti
christ, who will presume to take Gods
/ place, and thus claim supreme sane
tity. will be the devil himself AS we
observe the present havoc in religious
/ thinking, and study its evolution, we
/ find that many of those who were
champions of dOctrinal error have
posed as most serious seekers after
truth. and have the reputation, oft
times well established. of being men
/ OF sweet temper. most encouraging
manners and captivating courtesy
/ This is not strange, for men OF an
opposite type, as champions, would
at once defeat the DEVILS purposes.
/ The method of delUsion by leading
men away from the truth has one Of
its strongest features i'm the persua-
sion that men should do their own
thinking on religious subjects The
specious plea is made that the Chris
tian religion is one of nationality and
that therefore men must think out its
great problems for themselves. They
are urged to let nothing guide them
in thinking, not the Bible. nor Chris
tian teachers. but that they should
start almost anywhere and work the
problems out. The result is inevits-
BILE. for mans thoughts are not Gods
thoughts and Gods thoughts only are
correct in this sphere. man is ever
learning but never able to come to a
knowledge of the truth. Indeed, he
ordinarily gets further and further
from It. Fortunate is the man who
sees that he must have some safe
starting point for religious thought.
and that he must hold himself Loyalty
to the lines of its development
We have the delusion OF universal
salvation based on a false conception
of the character of God. emphasis be-
ing placed on the love of God, which
is unscripturally defined. the justice
and holiness of God being practically
eliminated from thought All those
yielding to this delusion are not I'm
/ the denomination known as Universal
lists, whose courage in protesting what
/ they believe is in itself worthy or
/ commentator.
! There is the delusion OF religious
Journalism. Men and women are per
] suaded to attach themselves TO re-
/ ligious societies without any demand
being made on them to put into their
lives the principles of Christian relig-
/ ion, nor for the necessity of a new
/ birth and genuine repentance and
simple faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
who is the only Mediator between God
and man. Those yielding 20 this de
fusion have form of goodness but
deny the power thereof
There is the delusion Of false Cd
timism, which. while not strictly re-
| ligious, eventuates as religious delu-
sions do. The principle that God is on
his throne and all is right wEh the
world. has almost universal approval.
being echoed from thousands of puI-
pits. There is utter blindness to the
evils Of society, or those facts that
are usually designated as evils are
excused or explained away with more
! or less success.
We are in period OF decisions
along Biblical lines as In no previous
age. A man or woman gets some root
Of religious thought, and pursuing Il
Independently discovering that In or
der to its wider acceptanee IL must
have Biblical Endorsement, flies to the
Bible and selects from its contents
that which ogtensibly supports the
theory proposed Within the LAST
twenty-five years there have been sew
eral such decisions. and hundreds of
thousands of men and women have be-
come their victims. These delusious
are propagated at the expense OF mir
lions Of dollars. The carrying OF a
| limp back Bible is no evidence that
the one carrying 1t is a believer In
its teachings as a whole. but may be
a believer in some religious fad, and is
quite deft in pointing TO certain par
ticular verse in support Of the theorT
advocated.
One Of the sad facts about these re-
ligious delusions is that the deiuded
when their eyes are opened 10 the dG-
fusion are ashamed TO make confes-
ci0p and q no pdon it Ono re tho sxraaf