The Gospel According to Satan, by Standish Grey  

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'The Gospel According to Satan(1881) by Standish Grey.

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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN STANDISH GREY MA-

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN.

I was prepared for infidelity in London, but I confess, my dear Ferrars, you alarm me. ' " But let us be calm, my dear Nigel. Do you mean to say that I am to be considered an infidel or an apostate because, although I fervently embrace all the vital truths of religion, and try, on the whole, to regulate my life by them, I may have scruples about believing, for example, in the personality of the devil? " "If the personality of Satan be not a vital principle of your religion, I do not know what is . There is only one dogma higher. You think it is safe, and I dare say it is fashionable, to fall into this lax and really thoughtless discrimination between what is and what is not to be believed. It is not good taste to believe in the devil, Give me a single argument against his personality which is not applicable to the personality of the Deity. . . . Now mark me ; you and I are young men. If these loose thoughts, which you have heedlessly taken up, prevail in this country for a generation or so-five-and- twenty or thirty years -we may meet together again, and I shall have to convince you that there is a God. " ... LORD BEACONSFIELD'S " ENDYMION, " Vol. ii. pp. 187, 188. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. By STANDISH GREY, M.A. "I will be a lying spirit ."-I KINGS xxii. 22. " He deceiveth them that dwell on the earth."-REV. xiii . 14. KE BIBLIOTHECA JUN 1881 BODLEIANA LONDON : KERBY & ENDEAN, OXFORD STREET. 1881. 141. m 939 All Rights Reserved. PREFACE. DEEPLY impressed with the conviction of the rapid growth in our land of irreligiousness under the garb of true religion , as well as of scepticism and godlessness openly avowed, I send forth this book, not as being a full exposition of even some of the errors of our own time publicly accepted, nor yet as essays against palpable evil doctrine, but as a warning against the subtle teaching, which, while pretending to be the result of advanced knowledge and of the higher development of free thought, is in reality a masterpiece of delusion whereby Satan seeks to blind man's apprehension of God's truth, and, by pandering to man's desire after more accurate deduction from reason, to lead him, by paths that appear right, in a way that is the direct opposite to the revelation of God. vi PREFACE. And I shall have accomplished my most sanguine hopes, if, by this means, I may be permitted to lead some souls, hesitating on the brink of doubt and scepticism, to stop and consider ere they advance another step on to that treacherous ground ; and also if, by thus tearing the veil from Satan's masked designs, some blind eyes may be opened to see clearly the gulf to which he is leading those whom he has taken captive at his will .' I have striven, feebly it may be, to pourtray Satan as man's bitterest personal foe, to bring his lying teaching to the test of the light of God's glorious truth, and, while proving the error of "the Gospel according to Satan," to state clearly "the Gospel of Christ, " and to lead man, ere it be too late, to stretch forth his hand and take the gift of God , which is eternal life, which He is still offering as the only way whereby man can be saved. S. G. ' Of religious books generally, London Publishers and Booksellers say, "the orthodox books will have a limited sale, but the heterodox can be sold to any extent- the more heterodox the larger the sale." This shows the ten- dency of the age, and how readily it is satisfied with pernicious food in the shape of scepticism and error ! CONTENTS. THE PREACHER CHAPTER I. ... CHAPTER II . HIS RELIGIOUSNESS ... CHAPTER III .

T ... 17 HIS PREACHING - ON DOUBTS ... ... ... 29 CHAPTER IV. HIS PREACHING- ON PROCRASTINATION CHAPTER V. ... 38 HIS PREACHING- ON MAKING THE BEST OF BOTH 49 WORLDS ; AND ON MORALITY ... ... ... CHAPTER VI. HIS PREACHING- ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION 73 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. HIS PREACHING-ON ANNIHILATION ... 888 CHAPTER VIII. HIS PREACHING- ON ATHEISM ; AND ON SCIENCE CHAPTER IX. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST ...

104 135 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. CHAPTER I. THE PREACHER. " The Prince of this World. "-JOHN xiv. 30. PRE- EMINENT among created beings in beauty, power, and intelligence stands Satan, one of the chiefs in the hierarchy of angels. What more magnificent description of him could be penned than the following portrait from Ezekiel ? " Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God ; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold : the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain of God ; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones 2 2 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. of fire . Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created , till iniquity was found in thee. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." " .. • I To this " anointed cherub " was evidently allotted power and dominion over the earth, and therein he doubtless ruled before man was created to take his place ; and since his fall and partial exclusion from his old domain he still retains some of his power and ancient title to sovereignty. For in his temptation of Christ he asserted his possession of authority and power : " And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them : for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I will I give it ."2 That this is no false arrogation to himself— for even liars can, when the occasion serves, speak the truth-the Holy Spirit bears witness, for Satan is called " the prince of this world, " 3 "the god of this world, " and " the prince of the power of the air. " 5 Neither is he debarred from manifesting himself to men in his character of angelic might in order to deceive, for it is 1 Ezek. xxviii. 12-17. 4 2 Cor. iv. 4. 2 Luke iv. 6. 3 John xiv. 30. 5 Eph. ii . 2 . THE PREACHER. 3 I written, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. " It does not suit his purpose always to be painted black, but he assumes the character by which he may best gain the greatest hold over men, not wishing to frighten them, but to win their allegiance to himself. His chief rôle is to hide his personality from man, and to get man to believe that the evil he works is the mere outcome of a certain amount of wrongness in human nature, or is the result of a certain want of balance between the good and the evil in man's spiritual being. And so , leading men on by the false philosophy of the day to doubt the existence of a personal devil, he is ready to set aside his own identity if he can thereby eventually lead men also to doubt the existence of a personal God. once But the wisdom of God is too much for him ; for the Holy Spirit thus writes of some strange personal conflict with one who was Satan's compeer : "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said , The Lord rebuke thee. " 2 Again the Pharisees in their blasphemous 1 2 Cor. xi. 14. 2 Jude 9. 4 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. ascription of the Holy Spirit's work to the power of the devil, speak of Him as " Beelzebub the prince of the devils, " giving him his due position, and acknowledging his personal existence. I Also in the book of Revelation he is spoken of as "a king" over evil spirits, and is further identified in names ranging over a wide extent of time as evidenced in his titles in two languages, "the angel ofthe bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. ' 992 When Satan fell from his high estate he was banished from his angelic throne in the heavens, but, by permission of the Almighty, for His own wise purpose and for His glory's sake, he was not altogether shut out from his dominion in the regions of the air, but was still allowed a certain liberty of action , and , strangest of all, had access into the very presence of God, of which he avails himself as "accuser of the brethren." 3 As a warning, and to show us how he takes advantage of this permission, we have that marvellous scene as given in the book of Job : " Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present 1 Matt. xii. 24. 2 Rev. ix. 11. 3 Rev. xii. 10. THE PREACHER. 5 themselves before the Lord, " doubtless to give an account oftheirstewardship in God's economy of the universe, " and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou ? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth , and from walking up and down in it." Here Satan made answer naturally, as any angelic chief might have done, concerning the seat of his power, and his work therein. " And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil ? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought ? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side ? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land . But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power ; only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. ” I We see here that God Him- 'Jobi. 6-12. 6 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. self opened the subject and drew Satan's attention to Job. Satan had noticed Job, had well considered his position , and knew well his circumstances and how God had prospered him, but had done this as a spectator merely; he could not see into Job's heart, nor did he know how firmly Job would stand in the hour of trial. God would try the faith of Job, and chose to use the spirit of evil for His purpose. It is not the possession of faith that is meritorious and precious-that is the gift of God-but it is the trial of faith that is precious. ' Mark, too, that Satan does not propose of himself to touch Job, but suggests that God should put forth His hand and touch him, thereby acknowledging a limit to his own power. And the Almighty gave Satan permission to put forth his hand against Job, at the same time clearly defining the limit to his power. And then we read that Satan, the personal devil, " went forth from the presence of the Lord. " In this account of Satan's persecution of Job we get an insight into his power as god of this world and prince of the power of the air. He was able to influence the Sabeans to make a raid upon Job's property , to steal his cattle, and I 1 Pet. i. 7. THE PREACHER. 7 to murder his servants ; he was able to call down fire to consume his sheep and their shepherds ; and still further to call the storm into his service, and to wreck the house where Job's sons and daughters were feasting. After this we are introduced to a similar scene, where again Satan shows his inability to probe the depths of the human heart, and at his instigation God gives him power over Job's person, drawing the limitthis time at his life only. And here again we have unfolded to us how, by God's permission , Satan has power to afflict with disease. In the book of Revelation, in the days of the final tribulation on the earth, we read how Satan's emissaries have power to afflict men with sore diseases and to kill them. Yet another scene depicts the entrance of Satan into God's presence, and into the councils of His spiritual intelligences . " I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth - gilead ? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and 8 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith ? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said , Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also : go forth, and do so. " 992 Let us now look at the character of the arch . fiend as pourtrayed in God's Word. " He was a murderer from the beginning.' He " abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the father of it." 3 " The devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. ” 4 " Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." 5 " The accuser of our brethren. " 6 He is also full of devices against us, and as such we are warned of him . And again we are warned of his depths, depths unfathomable at present, but against which we are to be on our guard. 8 We have still further revelations of Satan's power and daring wickedness, in which, as God's adversary, he opposes even Him and His work : " He shewed me Joshua the high priest (Jesus) standing before the angel of the Lord, and I 1 Kings xxii. 19–22. 4 1 Peter v. 8. 7 2 Cor. ii. 11. 2 John viii. 44. 5 Rev. xii. 9. 3 John viii. 44. 6 Rev. xii. 10. 8 Rev. ii. 24. THE PREACHER. 9 Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." I Again the Apostle Paul, writing of his work for God in the missionary field, says, " We would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again ; but Satan hindered us." 2 Again our Lord, in His parable illustrating the preaching of the gospel, says, " Those by the wayside are they that hear ; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved . "3 Paul also speaks of his hindrance of the gospel : " If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 4 Yet once more the veil is lifted from the otherwise impenetrable mysteries of God, and the Lord of glory Himself is seen , in the weakness of his human nature, subjected to the daring malignity of him who once had been the " anointed cherub. " " He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan. " 5 1 Zech. iii. 1. 2 1 Thess. ii. 18. 3 Luke viii. 12. 4 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. 5 Mark i. 13. ΙΟ THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Let us now glance at some of the instances where we are told of Satan's power for evil over men. We have already referred to his influence over Ahab to his destruction ; let us turn to a passage in King Saul's life . " The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." " Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel." 2 "Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ? " " Supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. . . . When he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon ; and after the sop Satan entered into him. " 4 3 Peter also was tempted , and of that he was warned by the Lord. " The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not " 5-not that he might be kept from the temptation , but that he might be sustained under it. Then in the sad instance of Pilate, when in that misguided man's conscience the spirits of good and I 1 Sam. xvi. 14. 4 John xiii. 2, 26, 27. 2 I Chron. xxi. 1. 3 Acts v. 3. 5 Luke xxii. 31, 32. THE PREACHER. II evil were striving each for the mastery, his patient Victim told him that the evil was permitted to prevail : " Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. " I The description of Satan's influence for evil over mankind would be incomplete without reference to his power over man's body in producing disease, often the outcome of sin, and also the death of the body as its result. We have already dwelt on the instance of Job, how he was sore afflicted with a most loathsome disease. We have also a case related to us where Christ distinctly attributes disease to the work of Satan. "There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her : and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." On the ruler of the synagogue objecting that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, Jesus, upbraiding him, said, " Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall , 1 John xix. 11. 12 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. and lead him away to watering ; and ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day ? " Jesus here definitely states that this woman's malady was a direct exercise of the devil's power for evil. I The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians , refers to some trouble in his flesh, which very probably was some affection of his eyesight, doubtless the remains of that mysterious blindness with which he was struck on his way to Damascus. In confirmation of this idea is a passage at the end of his Epistle to the Galatians where he says, " Ye see how large a letter" (or rather, with how large letters, nλikois vpáµµaow [pēlikois grammasin] , as if he had a difficulty in seeing clearly) " I have written unto you with mine own hand. "2 Whereas it is evident that he usually dictated his letters to some scribe. In speaking of this to the Corinthians he says, " Lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me. " 3 So, too, a case is narrated of dumbness as the I Luke xiii. 11-16. 2 Gal. vi. 11. 3 2 Cor. xii. 7. THE PREACHER. 13 result of possession of a devil : " They brought unto him a dumb man possessed with a devil : and when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake." "" I Again : Luke, "the beloved physician, " tells ofa case of demoniacal possessionwith symptoms of insanity : “ There met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high ? I beseech thee torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him : and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters ; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.") 2 In these cases of demoniacal possession the symptoms are in many respects so similar to those we see in the present day in cases of mania, that we are almost led to conclude that cases which we now call madness are often really cases of possession of the devil. In Peter's address to Cornelius he says, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the I Matt. ix. 32, 33. 2 Luke viii. 27-29. 14 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Holy Ghost and with power ; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. " I In this passage it is clearly implied that the maladies of which Jesus so frequently healed persons were the result of direct oppression of the devil. There is yet another remarkable passage that seems to indicate that Satan has power over men in the matter of death-not only the death of the soul, but also of the body : " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is , the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. "2 In this chapter we have brought together sufficient evidence to convince even the most sceptical, unless Satan holds their eyes that they should not see ( 1 ) , that Satan is a veritable person, an angel formerly of one of the highest rank in the order of God's celestial intelligences ; (2) that for his seat of power he had allotted to him dominion over this earth ; (3) that he was lifted up with pride " 3 because of I Acts x. 38. 66 2 Heb. ii. 14 15. 31 Tim. iii. 6. THE PREACHER. 15 his beauty, and, being banished from the immediate presence of God, fell ; (4) that for some inscrutable purpose of Jehovah he was permitted to retain somewhat of his former power and might, that power being manifested in his perpetual antagonism against God ; ( 5) that sin , once having got possession of his nature, warped him from all that was good, and made his character the impersonification of all that is called sin ; (6) that , knowing that his time is short, he is ever using his power over men, in influencing them to follow him into every kind of evil , being determined to the utmost of his power to mar God's good work in creation, leading men into sin and into all its miserable consequences ; and (7) that he has power, which he exercises, to produce disease and to cut short man's life on the earth by death. Such being the case, men are ever, in their better nature, being brought constantly into antagonism with Satan, unless they are held fast in the " snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. " 2 " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 1 Ezek. xxviii. 17. 2 Tim. ii. 26. 16 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. wickedness (wicked spirits) in high places." And the order we have received as soldiers, to safeguard us in this tremendous fight, is " Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. " ' Eph. vi . 12, 11. CHAPTER II. HIS RELIGIOUSNESS. "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. "- 2 COR. xi. 14. AT Athens the Apostle Paul and Satan met in opposition-Satan, as the exponent of the then fashionable systems of philosophy, masked under a certain garb of religiousness ; Paul as the apostle of a true religion founded on the purest philosophy. To-day Satan and the Church are in opposition, the Church unfolding through faith the mind and ways of God to man ; Satan, using religiousness as a cloak, guiding man through a labyrinth of unknown paths to leave him unsatisfied on the shore of the ocean of the great Unknown. Paul, standing in the arena of the highest council of that most intellectual of cities, said, "Ye men of Athens ; I perceive that in all things 3 18 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. ye are too superstitious 99 I (δεισιδαιμονεστέρους [deisidaimonesterous] , too god-fearing, or, given to worship too many gods) . " For as I passed by, and beheld attentively the objects of your worship, I found an altar on which was inscribed, To THE UNKNOWN GOD" (AгNNETNI OENI―agnostō theō) , the god- fearing feelings of the Athenians leading them to this determination, that, rather than unconsciously offend a deity by omission from their catalogue of gods, they guarded themselves by dedicating an altar "to the Unknown. " Man naturally is essentially religious : he must have something to worship. That there exists some superior though unseen Intelligence governing external circumstances and having some inexplicable hold over him is deeply impressed upon his mind, so that he feels compelled to bow to the inevitable, and, in his desire to range this supernatural Being on the side of his own will, he worships in order to propitiate the Deity. Satan is no fool ; though fallen he retains his supernatural wisdom, and, in his antagonism to the Infinite, strives ever to lead men away from Him by a religiousness so far simulating 1 Acts xvii. 22. HIS RELIGIOUSNESS. 19 real worship that blinded humanity knows not the path it is treading till it finds itself face to face with the unfathomable abyss. Worship is the attitude of the soul in adoration ; and Satan's aim has ever been to supply man with an object for his worship. His first object was to lead men from the contemplation of an unseen Spirit to gaze upon some material entity, in order, as he persuaded them, to give them some reality on which to fix their otherwise vague imagination. So he embodied man's conception of a good or an evil spirit in the mysterious vision of the hosts of heaven, and then led them to manufacture effigies, the tangibility of which their mind could more easily grasp, until, as man's reasoning grew and his knowledge increased, he could be trusted to deal with the intangible, and so led him on to the worship of Force, and satisfied his eager desire to cross the borderland of reason and thought by bringing him, through various systems of philosophy, Positivism ,' PanI Names of various schools of philosophy, whereby men have striven, ac- cording to the predilections of different minds, to systematise various phases of thought in their search after truth . Positivism, the method of Comte, which presents a doctrine which is " positive " (as Mathematics) as opposed to the vagueness of metaphysical doctrines. All real knowledge, he says, is founded on observations of facts-in other words, of phenomena- whether those phenomena are in nature or in society. Everything else is unknowable, and tobe dismissed from contemplation. Pantheism, the deification ofman and of all human virtues. Rationalism, which overthrows " faith, " and admits no 20 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. theism, Rationalism, Materialism, Atheism, to the Agnosticism of the present day, which leaves him grasping after the knowledge of the Infinite in the mazes of the unknowable. "I come, I know not whence ; I I go, I know not whither ; am, I know not what ; It's a wonder to me I'm so joyful. ” " Dogmatism and rationalism are the two extremes between which religious philosophy perpetually oscillates." Such is the remarkable sentence with which Dr. Mansell opened his famous Bampton Lectures at Oxford two- andtwenty years ago ; but now, as the pendulums of two clocks hanging close to one another on the same wall influence each other's oscillation , so the pendulum, as it were, of " religious philosophy" has started another pendulum, not religious, into active motion, and we see the oscillations of philosophy without religion taking place between Positivism and Agnosticism. apprehension ofknowledge that cannot be reasoned out. Materialism, that re- duces all physical force and psychical phenomena, as but the result of the working of material or tangible tissue or matter. Atheism, which attempts to account for all physical phenomena without the guidance or interposition ofa God ; and Agnosticism, which is the necessary consequence of Positivism, and also its opposite. It is not the denial of the existence of realities be- yond or outside the regions of space and time ( i.e. , ofthe material universe), but an ignoring of them as impalpable, and inappreciable, and unapproach- able by a true scientific method. I Mansell's Bampton Lectures, 1858. HIS RELIGIOUSNESS. 21 Wewill now glance at a few Passages in confirmation of Satan's teachings concerning worship as follow: " Lest thou lift up thine eyes into heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them. " " Turn thee yet again , and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five- and- twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east " (the eastward position) ; "and they worshipped the sun toward the east." 2 They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils. "3 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God ; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up. "4 "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the 66 Deut. iv. 19. 66 2 Ezek. viii . 16. 3 Lev. xvii. 7. 4 Deut. xxxii . 17. 22 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN . Lord."I " Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which 172 he hath not seen.' 66 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone, and of wood. " 3 "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast ; and they worshipped the beast. "4 " And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. " 5 " As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee ; but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes , in the city of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem ; for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have 1 Deut. xviii . 10-12. 3 Rev. ix. 20. 2 Col. ii. 18. 4 Rev. xiii. 4. 5 Rev. xiii . 8 HIS RELIGIOUSNESS. 23 wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes and worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men ? " ism 99 There is yet another devil- created form of socalled religion which aims at supplying man with that which he craves for-a fore-reaching into the domain of spiritual existence. " Spirithas within our lifetime come to be a quasi- religious belief, and, with some, from small beginnings the tampering with the supernatural has grown into a kind of investigation after truth , wherein the spiritual part of man has sought intercommunication with something that appears to answer to its aspirations. As we have already observed, Satan is no fool ; and so, rather than frighten man by a too sudden revelation of supernatural power, he leads him on by degrees, from manifestations of some hitherto hidden power, by associating such manifestations with phenomena that appear to be nothing better than the tricks of an impostor, until he becomes accustomed to revelations that are wholly inexplicable by any I Jer. xliv. 16-19. 24 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. hypothesis other than that they are manifestations of Satanic power. Mesmerism, electro-biology, table-turning, spirit-rapping, and at last the higher manifestations of spiritism, have all been brought forward in turn ; and men have become familiarised with phenomena that are beyond their natural ken, and which phenomena are only the precursors of still further manifestations which, we are warned, are to be among the special signs of the latter days. And ever as some fresh wonder has arisen to startle man from his belief in tangible cause and effect, some one has come forward to give to man some physical explanation which will for the moment satisfy his too pertinent inquiry, and which lulls him into the belief that the new phenomenon may be only after all the result of some power hitherto hidden, but which advancing science will assuredly explain to him satisfactorily, as depending on some natural law. So we find electricity has been pressed into the service, and has been made to do duty as the accepted cause of phenomena that, on more accurate investigation, are found to be wholly irreconcilable with the known laws of its action . And now the apostles of spiritism , fearful HIS RELIGIOUSNESS. 25 lest men should shrink from too open an exposition of a power that is seemingly Satanic, teach that its phenomena are explicable by some force concerning which much is yet to be learnt, but which, when more fully understood , will be found to be but the manifestation of some attribute of our nature the use of which has hitherto been kept from man's knowledge. Thus we see Satan is preparing the way for those further manifestations of his power by which he is, in the latter days, to lead men away from God, when he is to raise up some image and endow it with power of speech, and by which he is to work out his great plan of leading men to blaspheme the Most High, and to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. ' In spite of all these warnings men have listened to the preaching of Satan, who has traded on man's craving for something to worship, and has given them a travesty of worship to satisfy them withal. We see the worship of the queen of heaven enjoined by a section of the so-called Christian Church, and the holiest and most mysterious ordinance, the feast of remembrance instituted by the Lord Himself, turned into an idolatrous worship, as of old they poured out 1 Matt. xxiv. 24. 26 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. drink offerings to the queen of heaven and made her cakes to worship her. And then the climax of devil-worship is reached, when Satan presents to man the same temptation that he presented to Christ : " All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." I Thus Satan as an angel of light preaches religion, making church-going and chapel- going fashionable, and a symbol of respectability ; and so man decorates an edifice with surroundings to please the senses and therein worships he knows not what ; and places that should be the temples of God become rendezvous of the gay and the frivolous ; where the women take notes of the latest fashions in dress, and the men, when they go, criticise the essays that are presented to them, essays teeming with a superficial morality, and ranging through every subject save the simplicity of the gospel of Christ . Man seeks an object worthy of his worship, and Satan presents himself in the guise of wealth, or power, or fame, and, where these are unattainable, as the goal of selfish satisfaction or a quasi- contentment with his lot, however apparently hard ; and man offers himself Matt. iv. 9. HIS RELIGIOUSNESS. 27 " I on Satan's altar in order to attain the goal of his desires : man seeks rest from toil , and Satan gives it to him in the hollow pleasures of a perishing world ; man seeks happiness as an alternative with the sorrowful struggles of life, and Satan gives him " the pleasures of sin for a season ; man craves for consolation amid the despair of unsatisfied longings , and Satan blunts his foreknowledge of evil, and blinds his knowledge of eternity; man's conscience craves release from the bondage which he recognises not as the bondage of sin , and Satan lulls him to sleep with the cradle- song of self- satisfaction ; and as the last scene approaches, and the soul of man would stretch out her hand in the darkness to feel after a God she has hitherto ignored, Satan waves an ignis fatuus before his dazed vision, and man stumbles blindly on to the gateway of death, with a vague hope that light is beyond, and wakes not to the reality of his damnation till, closing his eyes on the twilight of earth, he opens them to discern afar the lurid gleam of the bottomless abyss. Thus Satan panders to man's religiousness with the semblance of religion that is godless, and bythe worship of idols suited to each man's 1 Heb. xi. 25. 28 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. requirements leads him step by step farther awayfrom a God who is waiting to be gracious, and in whose keeping is the book of life . 2 "Wherefore, my dearly beloved , flee from idolatry. " "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." " It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lordthy God, and him only shalt thou serve." 3 I I Cor. x. 14. Matt. iv. 10. 2 1 John v. 21. CHAPTER III. HIS PREACHING: ON DOUBTS. "Yea, hath God said ? "—GEN. iii . 1 . GOD is "a God of truth, " Satan is "the father of lies ; " and where God puts forth truth for man's reception, Satan masks it with a lie that is often, at the first glance, not wholly false ; and so, by appealing to man's reason, leads him from the apprehension of that which can only be grasped by faith ; and man takes to himself the credit of having reached , by his own common sense, " a more firm foundation than childish faith could possibly have afforded him. Satan begins his work by infusing doubts into the mind of man. Man received from God one command, and, coupled with it , the penalty of death for its transgression . Satan, knowing that death was twofold, lied concerning part of the truth, and so, warping the truth, infused into man's mind a doubt which aimed a shaft 1 Deut. xxxii. 4 2 John viii. 44. 30 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. at the Almighty's word. " Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? ” I 'The God who has placed you here has surely not laid so strict a command upon you. There must be some mistake, perhaps , in your very apprehension of His command, for He is a God of love and mercy ; and besides, He has given you power to acquire knowledge concerning Himself and this earth in which He has placed you ; and it is for that very object you are here to develop that intellect which shines forth. from your countenance. ' " For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. " 2 And so man fell and Satan has ever since been adding lie to lie , until God's truth has been weighted down by the mass of Satan's superimposed falsehood, till at last it lies hidden so deep, that it needs the light of God's Holy Spirit to present it anew for man's acceptance. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities ; all is vanity. " 3 Such is God's verdict on all things beneath the sun ; but Satan preaches that vanity is another word for fulness, that in it lie all the potentialities of 1 Gen. iii. 1. 2 Gen. iii. 5. 3 Eccles. 1, 2. ON DOUBts. 31 happiness, and, as man's great object in the world is happiness, Satan opens out to his view a vista of enjoyment by the worship of that vanity that God has condemned. So Satan's world. glories in the term, and loves to hear her mart of sin called " Vanity Fair." That cannot be vain that all men follow. Man has knowledge ; if he follows the dictates of his reasoning, that which makes life worth living cannot be the evil that is pourtrayed. Thus the experience of the wisest of men is set aside, and the devil, ever ready to quote part of God's Word for his purpose, says, " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes." I One of Satan's most effectual weapons against the faith of the Christian is the infusion of doubts into his mind, and he uses this weapon. with such subtilty as to make it appear to man a meretorious state a state, indeed , of true humility. In his preaching, therefore , he persuades men that unreasoning belief in God's promises is nothing less than arrant presumption ; that the spirit of humility which is pleasing to God is best shown by saying, that 1 Eccles. xi. 9 32 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. of course we must not presume to take upon ourselves to affirm that we are saved, and that we are indeed members of Christ, and citizens of heaven ; but that we hope-in the modern interpretation of the word, which in the weakness of man's faith has come to imply doubt-if we act up to our knowledge and behave rightly, and are no worse than the generality of men, that God will eventually make it all right with us, and that we shall, through God's mercy, perhaps , be saved in the end. And so man goes on hoping and fearing, alternately lifted up and cast down, till in sheer despair he either sinks into hopeless misery, or discovering, after bitter trial, the wretchedness of having no foundation other than the Rock of Ages on which to build, he throws himself into his Saviour's arms, and at last finds peace. But Satan does not rudely begin by dashing man's hope of eternal salvation all at once from his grasp ; he gradually instils, as it were, minor doubts, through the subtle arguments of ancient philosophy, as to the evidence of our own existence ; putting subjective sensations in the place of objective realities, until the mind reels, lost in vain struggles to grasp the conception of the Infinite. ON DOUBts. 33 Then he leads men to doubt his own exist. ence, and, in place of a personal devil , persuades man that what is commonly called evil is merely the outcome of a slight deviation from perfect rectitude which man cannot help, and need scarcely deplore ; that it is the natural result of man's compound nature, a nature wherein dwells a tendency to good, and a tendency to evil, and that the preponderance of either of these is, as it were, merely the tilting of the balance, according as the various circumstances of life in our complex existence weigh down the scale on one side or on the other. Evil , thus being masked, is made to seem less sinful ; hence man doubts its heinousness in God's sight, and at last doubts the necessity for believing that God views it in so very grave a light as is represented : doubts therefore arise as to the intensity of God's wrath on account of sin, and so the probability of penalty is removed to a far and perhaps wholly remote contingency, and man goes on his way hoping that sin is after all not so very sinful, but a mere accident of his nature, and that good is not so very far out of reach, but will be eventually attained in the race for happiness. 4 34 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Hence, God's standard of holiness being lowered in man's estimation , and the depths of sin bridged over by the indulgence of an amiable God, there remains no room for any dread of eternal punishment ; and the most that man need fear, if he only give himself time to think at all, is that, perchance, in a far-off state of existence , if doubt has not swept even that idea from his breast, in the reckoning up before the final Judge of the sum of his earthly actions, the balance against him of evil committed may set him down in a lower position than some other, who, fromthe accident of his surroundings, may have managed so to have lived that his good deeds will then show a balance in his favour. But in some minds, weaker, and made of more plastic material, Satan, with impudent boldness, plants the great doubt of the existence of God Himself, and in His stead forges a conception of an immaterial First Cause which he calls "Force;" and so with one sweep he does away for ever with man's responsibility to his Creator, and gives him instead a quasi- responsibility to himself and to his neighbour for the temporal well-being both of himself and the commonwealth. ON DOUBTS. 35 But the arch-fiend does not preach his gospel of doubts "To some black wether of St. Satan's fold " only. His primary object is to mar God's work, and so he creeps to the edge of the fold of God; nay, he even commissions his emissaries to stand up in the garb of God's ministers and teach his lying errors. " I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."I " There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies , even denying the Lord that bought them. " 2 Hence in our own day, which verily we hereby perceive to be the last days, we see even Christians, so-called , are led astray by the arguments of Satan, and while seemingly trying to hold on to the anchor of hope, they admit doubts into their minds concerning the almightiness of JEHOVAH, question His power to change His own natural laws, and to exhibit His supreme authority over matter by miraculous intervention. They admit the possibility of unlimited sin, and, as a corollary, doubt the possibility I Acts xx. 29: 30. 2 Pet. ii. 1. 36 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. of punishment, and, even in some cases, of a hereafter, thereby reducing themselves to ephemeral beings whose destiny is wrapped in mystery. "Now there was, not far from the place where they lay, a castle, called Doubting Castle, the owner whereof was Giant Despair ; and it was in his grounds they now were sleeping. Wherefore he getting up in the morning early, and walking up and down in his fields, caught Christian and Hopeful asleep in his grounds. Then with a grim and surly voice he bid them awake, and asked them whence they were, and what they did in his grounds. They told him they were pilgrims, and that they had lost their way. Then he fell upon them, and beat them fearfully in such sort that they were not able to help themselves. . . . This done he withdraws, and leaves them then to condole their misery, and to mourn under their distress ; so all that day they spent their time in nothing but sighs and bitter lamentations. " They then meditate suicide-a desperate resolve to which Satan often drives those whom he has made to doubt. " Brother, said Christian, what shall we do ? The life that we now live is miserable. For my part, I know not whether it is best to · • ... ON DOUBts. 37 · live thus, or to die out of hand ; ' My soul chooseth strangling rather than life ' (Job vii. 15) ; and the grave is more easy for me than this dungeon ! Well, on Saturday, about midnight, they began to pray, and continued in prayer till almost break of day. Now a little before it was day, good Christian , as one half amazed, brake out into this passionate speech : 'What a fool, ' quoth he, ' am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty ! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.' . . . Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at the dungeon door, whose bolt, as he turned the key, gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out. . . Then they went on, and came to the king's highway again, and so were safe. ” ¹ "Without faith it is impossible to please Him ; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. " 2 "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the winds and tossed." 3 ¹ Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 2 Heb. xi . 6. 3 Jas. i. 6. CHAPTER IV. HIS PREACHING: ON PROCRASTINATION. “ Soul, take thine ease. ”—LUKE xxii. 19. GOD sends forth His company of preachers to proclaim to man salvation NOW ; Satan gets up into the pulpit and preaches TO- MORROW ; a blank, hopeless, distant to-morrow. " Behold now is the accepted time ; behold now is the day of salvation . " I "The Holy Ghost saith, TO- DAY if ye will hear His voice. . . . Take heed, brethren , lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another DAILY, while it is called TO- DAY, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. "2 "Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for I Cor. vi. 2. 2 2 Heb. iii. 7, 12, 13. ON PROCRASTINATION. 39 light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness . " ¹ "Fear ye not, stand still , and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you to-day." 2 " Stand thou still to-day (marg. ) , that I may show thee the word of God. " 3 " Those that seek Me early shall find Me. " 4 " Remember now thy Creator. " 5 " Boast not thyself of to- morrow ; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." " In such strains does the Almighty urge upon man the necessity for coming to Him now. Now is all that we have of time that we can call our own ; the next moment we may be-where ? Satan insinuates that to- day is ours in which to enjoy life -to-morrow is surely ours too ; nothing will probably disturb the coming of tomorrow, and if we have a mind to change our mode of life , to- morrow will be time enough. And so, reckless of what death may mean, and heedless of where it may land us, and how suddenly it may come, He teaches man to cry, " Let us eat and drink ; for to- morrow we die. ” 7 OurLordillustrates the evanescence of earthly I Jer. xiii. 16. 2 Exod. xiv. 13. 31 Sam. ix. 27. 5 Eccles. xii. 1. 6 Prov. xxvii. 1. 4 Prov. viii. 17. 7 1 Cor. xv. 32. 40 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. · · things by " the grass of the field which to- day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven. Therefore take no thought for the morrow." I So, too, to His servants God says, " Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." 992 How often are God's servants even led to procrastinate in the doing of His work by the persuasions of Satan. A Christian meets with a soul under the conviction of sin, or a soul held captive by the devil, and the Spirit prompts him to speak a word in season. Immediately Satan suggests that it is out of season ; that at another time the man will be more ready to listen ; that to speak on such an occasion will even bring the holy cause into disrepute. Nay, more, what will society say ? Besides, such discourse is best left to ministers of religion, who, from their own place and at the proper occasion, will preach repentance to life . Moreover, you are only at best a weak fellowsinner, and perhaps the other knows of your own inconsistency, and so your words will have but little weight, and you will appear to him as a hypocrite. Hold your peace, and God will give you a better opportunity of speaking for Him. Fellow Christian, heed not Satan's lying I Matt. vi. 30, 34. 2 Matt, xxi . 28. ON PROCRASTINATION. 4I arguments, but " Preach the word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long- suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. " I "Jesus said, Follow me. But [ the man] said , Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." Again : concerning our conduct to one another it is written, " Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give ; when thou hast it by thee." 3 " Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to- morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain ; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow." 4 The soul of man with its innate knowledge of evil, begotten of the fall , is ever reaching forth to grasp possible good, and, eager to snatch the fleeting hour, strives to attain now to its share of happiness ; but Satan, ever watchful for man's destruction, says, ' To- morrow will be time enough. ' And so the soul and Satan keep up a dialogue, wherein the soul urges her wish for present enjoyment, or perchance present peace; and Satan argues that the future is man's as surely as the present, and that after a course of 1 2 Tim. iv. 2, 3. 2 Luke ix. 59. 3 Prov. iii . 28. 4. Jas. iv. 13, 14. 42 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. pleasure now , he can reach out his hand by-andby and attain security hereafter. Soul. I am weary of sin and disappointment ; I have found my plans fail , and as to pleasure, although " whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy," I have yet found all was vanity and vexation of spirit ; I will therefore turn me now to God, who has promised rest , ² and maybe I shall find it. - I Satan. That is all very well ; but your disappointment comes of your own mistakes and your want of energy in the pursuit of pleasure. You have only just dipped into the cup ; drink deeper, you will find the finest flavour at the bottom, and afterwards, if you still have a mind to it, you may turn to your God, if there be one, and even then perhaps to be disappointed . Soul.-Yes ; but as I drink deeper I sicken of the draught, and I don't find that it gives me health ; perhaps, however, there are more enduring joys. Have not I read somewhere " In His presence is fulness of joy " ? 3 Satan. You may have read that, and, if you like to believe it , you are in His presence now, I Eccles. ii. 10. 2 Matt. xi. 28. 3 Psa. xvi. II. ON PROCRASTINATION. 43 if, as you say, He is omnipresent. It may be you have tried the wrong cup ; see, here is another, whose exquisite flavour may better suit your palate ; drink of it and your eyes will be opened. Soul. I drink, and my eyes are opened, and I see before me corroding disease treading hard on the heels of licentiousness. I am pursued by devils of remorse, and I writhe as their foul breath reaches me, and they stretch out their talons to lay hold of me. Satan. -Believe me, your eyes are but partly opened, and your distorted vision conjures up spectres that have no real nothing really behind you . existence ; there is Look to the present ; just trust me, and I will pour into your lap riches, and power, and fame, and you shall occupy such a place that men will envy your position on the pinnacle on which I will place you. Soul.-Yes-and then what ? What, " when the years draw nigh when I shall say I have no pleasure ? " Satan.-Ah, then ! when you have enjoyed life to the full, the time will come when you may be sick, and then in your weariness you may stretch forth your hands to Him if you like. You I Eccles. xii. 1. 44 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. nothing ! pushing man will have plenty of time for repentance forsooth ; and then when the end comes, I will be with you, and show you that what you dread has no real existence ; there will be no bands in your death, and beyond it all there is Thus Satan is, as it were, ever back from the wicket gate of life . The sinner, pricked in his conscience, persuades himself that he is striving, agonizing, to enter in at the strait gate ; but Satan, by partially choking up the entrance to the wide gate, makes it appear to man to be the narrow one ; or else he tempts him, by a glimpse of the flowers and pleasures that lie on the margin of the way, to try the broad road, at all events for a time, in the hope that, by procrastinating his entrance into the narrow way until he has tasted the present enjoyment of evil, he may be induced to forego his struggles towards the right, and so blindly to yield himself body and soul to participation in the wrong. Satan does not frighten man by proposing to him to thrust from himself for ever all idea of coming to God ; but gradually instils into his mind his terrible " gospel of delay. " Man holds, as a worldly maxim, that " delays are danger1 Psa. lxxiii. 4. ON PROCRASTINATION. 45 ous ;" but in spiritual matters Satan tells him that delay is the proper thing ; that this world is given him wherein to enjoy himself, that the "high gods " even made him for that very purpose : "They breathed upon his mouth, They filled his body with life ; Eye-sight and speech they wrought For the veils of the soul therein, Atime for labour and thought, A time to serve and to sin : They gave him light in his ways, And love, and a space for delight, And beauty, and length of days, And night, and sleep in the night. His speech is a burning fire ; With his lips he travaileth ; In his heart is a blind desire ; In his eyes foreknowledge of death ; He weaves, and is clothed with derision , Sows, and he shall not reap ; His life is a watch or a vision Between a sleep and a sleep ." I He tells him also that prosperity and pushing in worldly affairs are incompatible with too close attention to the things of the next world ; that too much spirituality interferes with the free enjoyment of worldly pleasures ; and, therefore, as this life is given us wherein to "live " and see life," by all means let him see it-let 1 Swinburne, "Atalanta in Calydon." 66 46 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. him "have his fling " -of course only for a time, until a more convenient season arrives, and then there will be time enough for man to "make his peace with God, " and scrape into heaven somehow ! And he leads men by such gentle cords, cords of silken ease, that poor man feels not their trammels, but is blindly drawn along, not knowing that Satan has him safe in tow; and so he is led safely (?) by many an apparent pitfall, congratulating himself on his narrow escape from many a danger, until suddenly the devil leaves him in the dark, and, missing his leading- strings, man gropes his way then amidst the horrors of the valley of the shadow of death, till he finds himself face to face with the king of death himself, and, too late, stretching out his hands to feel for the God he has so long and so persistently despised, he hears, instead of the voice of angels waiting to carry him to the regions of bliss, nothing but the mocking laughter of fiends as they dance round his rapid descent into outer darkness. Let us now turn to an instance when, as far as we know, procrastination put aside for ever the opportunity of repentance. " As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, ON PROCRASTINATION. 47 Go thy way for this time ; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." I O sin-stricken soul, measure not your convenience against God's urgent pleadings. " Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well. . Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. " 2 Gaze for a moment at the sinner on the cross. Convicted, repentant, and emboldened by faith, " he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him , Verily I say unto thee, TO- DAY shalt thou be with me in paradise. " 3 "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ? Turn you at my reproof : behold , I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at 1 Acts xxiv. 25. 2 Isa. i. 16-18. 3 Luke xxiii. 42, 43. 48 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN . your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh ; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress and anguish cometh upon you : then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me : for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord : they would none of my counsel : they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. " I I Prov. i. 22-33. CHAPTER V. HIS PREACHING: ON GOD AND MAMMON, OR MAKING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS; AND ON MORALITY. (1.) ON GOD AND MAMMON. "When ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations ."-LUKE xvi. 9. WHEN Satan gets up to preach he must have a text, as others, and seeing there is a certain predilection in favour of the Bible yet remaining in men's minds, he takes the moral teaching as laid down in God's Word and wrests it to his own purpose. Satan's object is to make men think they are walking uprightly and in accordance with God's moral law ; while all the time they are blindly walking along the broad road that leadeth to destruction . As an illustration, he takes such a passage as that in which the verse at the beginning of this chapter occurs, wherein is unfolded a picture of worldly shrewdness, and, warping the lesson it teaches, Satan inculcates the advantage of 5 50 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. using the opportunities that this world affords, enlarges on our Lord's statement, that " the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light " r and teaches men that such conduct will eventually lead them to inherit everlasting habitations . But the point of the parable consists in that the rich man, cognizant of his unjust steward's shrewd injustice, and in spite of his having cheated him, commends his smartness. The children of this world would much rather be called 'knaves ' than ' fools ' ; and so we find, when some fraud has been compassed by some deed of special sharpness, the world condones the sin in praise of the ' cuteness with which the wrong was planned and carried out. Then our Lord, having spoken this and the preceding parables to the publicans and sinners, turns to His disciples and draws the lesson put forth in the text we have quoted. Paul refers to a similar position thus : "They that use this world as not abusing it. "2 " I say unto you," my disciples, " make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness "-use the wealth even of the unrighteous world in such a way, giving alms to the poor, and so forth— 1 Luke xvi. 8. 2 I Cor. vii. 31. ON GOD AND MAMMON. 51 "that when ye fail " (or rather, as the best readings have it, when it fail—that is, the world's wealth) " they may receive you into everlasting habitations ;" they may welcomeyou, thosewhom you have benefited, as having befriended them on earth, when you arrive at your everlasting inheritance. Satan amplifies and distorts this teaching, and urges upon his attentive hearers that God has placed them in a world full of means and opportunities for enjoyment of life ; that they maynay, are to use these means to the fullest extent to gain for themselves pleasure and gratification ; that they may make their minds quite easy as to such conduct being right, for is it not put forth in the Bible ? And then he persuades them that, having rightly followed such directions emanating from so high an authority, they can hereafter of necessity receive but one reward of their conduct, namely, to be received into the realms of the blest. " Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness ; " and if you have not the wealth, yet still make to yourselves friends even by unrighteousness : for does not the end justify the means ? Whatever you do, make yourself popular, get the world to like 52 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. you, go with the multitude where they go, do as they do ; don't run counter to them and get yourself called peculiar, and so lessen your influence ; and perhaps, by your moral conduct, you may win others to the paths of rectitude -rectitude in so far as you do not incur the blame of society, and, somehow or other, it will turn out all right in the end, and God, who knows how straitened your opportunities have been, and how you have walked according to what light you had, being a God of love and mercy, will look leniently on the little failings that are inseparable from your human nature and fleshly instincts, and, extending to you His pardon, will receive you, if not exactly into the lofty position of those that are called His saints, yet into a fairly honourable and comfortable state , where you may attain to an enjoyment of which the minor pleasures of earth have been but a foretaste . So mankind goes on, congratulating itself that it is no worse than its neighbours. Men excusing their consciences in the matter of sin, saying that God made them with fleshly appetites which He must have meant them to gratify ; Satan persuading them that the conduct of the majority must be right, and so ON GOD AND MAMMON. 53 they " call evil good and good evil, " and know not that "the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."2 "Ye cannot serve God and mammon ; 99 3 Satan says you can, and as you can, you had better do so. Serve mammon as long as you can, for mammon is yours to worship or use as long as you can get pleasure out of it ; and then, when you have had enough of this world and its pleasures, you can turn and serve God, and so satisfy your conscience that you have done your best. Man, therefore, at the instigation of Satan, takes what advantage he can out of this world's enjoyment and opportunities , flattering himself that he is only doing what is lawful-for is not the world given him to use ? and are we not placed here to do our duty in our relationships of life ? Nay, should we not be shirking our duty if we neglected to take our proper place in the commonwealth ? It is quite true, Satan says, that you cannot serve God and mammon, but that means that you cannot do so simultaneously ; but that is no reason why you should not serve one at 1 Isa. v. 20. 2 2 Cor. iv. 4. 3 Matt. vi. 24. 54 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. one time, and the there will be time other at another. And enough when you are satiated with this world to turn to God, and by serving Him, or acknowledging Him at the last , fulfil all He has any right to require of you. Has not God said, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out "?I He will not be untrue to His word, and so your safety is secured, and it will somehow turn out all right in the end. Thus Satan preaches that, not only is it not wrong, but that it is even a duty of man to make the best of both worlds, to enjoy himself to his fullest capacity in this beautiful world in which God has placed him ; reminding him that his Bible speaks also of " the pleasures of sin," and so, inasmuch as he has but followed the dictates of that nature which God has placed in him, he cannot hereafter be condemned for conduct that resulted from his Godcreated proclivities. O ye wretched misguided wanderers on the devil's highway, see ye not that the two paths are not parallel ? though apparently so they are in the end widely divergent. The goal you would reach is far removed from that to which your I ¹ John vi. 37. 2 Heb. xi. 25. ON MORALITY. 55 present road is leading ; and it is as impossible to travel Zionwards by a double path as it would be to sail at the same time east and west in the same ship. Stop ere it be too late, lest being hedged round by the multitude of your fellowtravellers, you may, with partially returning consciousness , find yourselves urged onwards with an irresistible power to that bourn from which there is no return . "The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. " I ( 2.) ON MORALITY. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. "-LUKE vi. 31 . SOCIETY stands on a basis of outward morality for the mutual well- being of its members ; and the god of this world, knowing that he would lose his influence were he to run counter to what remains of uprightness in man's nature, himself propounds a morality that satisfies the multitude ; and, by taking the morality of the Bible as his pattern, he gives to man a fictitious copy vaguely resembling the Divine I James iv. 4. 56 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. original, and so leads him to copy his copy under the idea that he is tracing the laws written by the finger of God. So he begins with the Decalogue, and thus interprets it to man. I I. " Thou shalt have no other gods before ME." That is, you must worship only God, but you may call Him by whatever name presents to your mind the most adorable image, whether Force, or First Cause, or whatever other idea your mind may formulate into a tangible conception of the Inconceivable. II . Thou shalt not make a graven image to bow down to it. That is only for poor benighted savages. Your superior intellect would keep you from such an absurdity as imagining that a lifeless stock could lend you material aid ; nevertheless, that need not prevent you from bowing down to the Deity as represented by pictures or statues, if thereby your worship is rendered more real to your finite mind ; and you have the example of educated men in all ages, thus helping the weakness of their embodied souls. III . Thou shalt not use lightly the name of I Exod. xx. 3. ON MORALITY. 57 thy God, yet the admission of His name into your ordinary conversation by no means implies frivolity or disrespect, for should not God be in all your thoughts ? and surely His name does but lend weight to asseverations that otherwise might fall tamely on ears ever given to doubt. IV. With regard to the Sabbath, you must keep it holy, i.e. , set apart ; the turmoil of our work necessitates our resting to recreate our weary bodies and minds. Besides, as we have already considered, man must have a time for worship ; and, as society allows a periodic rest , you may as well worship your God on that day. Moreover, it is respectable so to do, and as you devote a portion of the day to so-called religious exercises, the rest is yours for recreation and amusement and " innocent " pleasure. V. This command, as illustrated in many passages of your Bible, refers only to children, and children, when grown up, may use designations as applied to their parents, as " governor,' etc., without sacrificing their sense of honour ; for does not society exact a certain amount of respect towards the elders without which insubordination would reign supreme ? VI. Thou shalt not kill, for that is an outrage 58 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. 2 against your neighbour's well-being. Society could not get on if life should be cut short on the slightest provocation ; and to take life is to take from man his most precious possession . Yet there are occasions when killing is not only permissible, but necessary and right. Is not " the Lord a man of war " ? ¹ and do not the articles of the Church of England say that " It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, to wear weapons and serve in the wars " ? Therefore killing under those circumstances is not only not wrong, but is the palpable duty of man ; otherwise there would be no means of rectifying the wrong, of helping the weak against the oppressor, nor of maintaining the necessary balance of power among the nations. War may be and ought to be the final appeal in questions of national dispute ; but when milder measures or arbitration fail, there is nothing left so potent, yet withal so uncertain, as the appeal to arms. VII.-X. This same rule holds good through these succeeding laws, for each of them is aimed against robbery in some form or other ; society could ill brook the raid of man against man in the matter of honour and property Exod. xv. 3. 2 Articles of Religion, xxxvii. ON MORALITY. 59 and fair name ; and so for the greatest good of the greatest number certain rules must be kept , or at all events so broken , if broken, as not to be discovered , lest life should become intolerable by outrages against all that is held dear. Satan thus builds up for man a code of morality. Not that he cares for his leading a moral life, but he persuades him that a certain uprightness of conduct is all that he needs to win happiness hereafter, and to climb into heaven by the ladder of morality as laid down by society ; and that any other plan of salvation is not only useless, but any idea of its necessity implies a failure of man to maintain unsoiled the innate goodness with which he is naturally endowed. Man, at Satan's instigation, thus argues with himself to set his conscience right : ' I have never done any one any harm ; I am no worse than my neighbours ; I have led a moral life ; my conscience does not condemn me ; God is very merciful ; He knows I have served Him as well as I could, or as circumstances would allow, and so I have no dread of the future.' Such is the sop which Satan dips in the dish of hell and gives to his dupes. We will now consider Satan's rules of morality, and see how far they resemble God's 60 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. great pattern ; for the devil's object is to make his copy so like the real pattern that men may be deceived thereby. 66 99 I Worship. They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God ; they ask of me the ordinance of justice ; they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ? . . . Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure ; ye fast for strife and debate.' "They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them, for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo ! thou art unto them as a very lovely song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument ; for they hear thy words, but they do them not." 2 Here we have a mock worship of the Most High, a worship wherein the worshippers are deceived into the belief that they are worshipping aright ; they raise their Te Deums to the accompaniment of delightful strains, they sit and 1 Isa. lviii. 2, 3, 4. 2 Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. ON MORALITY. 61 listen, because it is the fashion to do so , but their heart is in their pleasures, and they please not God. Love. Men are taught to love and respect one another as leading to mutual support and comfort in life ; but love is perverted and dragged in the dust, and because they " worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, God gave them up to vile affections. " Humility. " All of you be subject one to another ; and be clothed with humility. ": So Satan teaches deference one towards another, and shows that respect is due . from one to another, and that, by a certain amount of mock humility, man may often gain his object, and, by flattering, win his way to positions of wealth, or eminence, or power. Courtesy. "Be courteous. " 3 This is the crowning standard of society's behaviour. To be gentleman- like and lady- like is to show forth the courtesies of life , les jolies manières du monde. The man who is courteous stands high in the favour of the world, and such conduct is Satan's key by which the portals of so- called society are unlocked. Worldly men find they can get on best when they assume as their own the line of I Rom 2 . i. 26. I Pet. v. 5. 31 Pet. iii. 8. 62 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. behaviour that simulates most closely the walk of the followers of Christ. Mercy. "Blessed are the merciful. " Aharsh and cruel man is an object of mistrust , and so unkindness is voted ungrateful, and a lack of mercy engenders a spirit of revenge. 992 66 Obedience. Obey them that have the rule over you.' There must be some order and submission of classes to one another, that is a necessity of life ; so obedience must be inculcated, and from childhood upwards man learns to obey those over him, that the machinery of the world may work without hindrance. Sincerity. "That ye may be sincere. " 3 The ordinary transactions of man with man cannot be carried out without truth and sincerity ; so trust and apparent sincerity are woven into all men's acts. The worldly man finds it politic to be honest, and trust in man's word and trade credit are acknowledged necessities in life, without which all dealings would come to a standstill . Where trust therefore pays, it is to be followed ; where it does not pay, Satan seres man's conscience to substitute for it " white lies, " which are uttered as base coin of interI Matt. v. 7. 2 Heb. xiii. 17. 3 Phil. i. 10. ON MORALITY. 63 change between man and man in the public places of the world . I While speaking of truth it will not be out of place here to notice the real position of Satan's disciples in this matter. "None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth ; they trust in vanity, and speak lies. " "They delight in lies. "2 Satan infuses the element of doubt into all man's statements and investigations, and some light is thrown upon this infusion of his name into doubt and contradiction by the expression, ' Devil a bit, ' which, as an ejaculation not unfrequently used, gives the lie direct, and more than implies denial of the truth. Hospitality. " Given to hospitality. " "Use hospitality one to another, without grudging. " 4 " Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. " 5 Hospitality is the order of the day in the world, but not according to God's rule : " When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee ; but when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind " 6-but the 1 Isa. lix. 4. 4 1 Pet. iv. 9. 2 Psa. lxii. 4. 5 Heb. xiii. 2. 3 Rom. xii. 13. 6 Luke xiv. 12, 13. 64 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. rule of the world is, ' Invite your rich neighbours to your dinner- parties, and they will ask you in return, and that will enable you to keep your friends together ; ' for men like to get what they can out of one another, and so men put themselves under obligations to one another which must be fulfilled. Besides, it would not be respectable to ask the very poor into one's houses ; they would presume with undue familiarity, and it is best to keep them in their place ; and, moreover, "they cannot recompense thee. " One may give them at certain seasons charity dinners, but that of course comes under the head of good deeds. I Industry. " Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good. " " Do your own business and work with your own hands. "³ "He that gathereth by labour shall increase. ” 4 "This we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat ." Work is a necessity of our nature. In man's primitive condition he had to work to till the ground in order to get food ; and now, as evolution o power has resulted in high civilisation , and a subdivision of labour supplies man with all his 1 Luke xiv. 14. 2 Eph. iv. 28. 4 Prov. xiii. II. 31 Thess. iv. II. 5 2 Thess. iii. 10. ON MORALITY. 65 various wants, man has to labour, each in his several sphere, both to maintain the even balance of produce, and to gain means of livelihood. So industry is not merely the result of God's laws, but is the outcome of natural laws, and man's necessity takes the place of God's command. But Satan goes further than this and preaches idleness to man, and urges him to get all he can with the least possible amount of work : witness the continual " strikes " at the present time, where man is ever striving to cheat his employers by trying to obtain higher wages for less work done : and so the vigour of the country is weakened , the employment of capital is curtailed, and man becomes idle, luxurious, and selfish. Industry says, ' Never put off till to- morrow what can be done to- day ; ' Satan says, ' Never do to-day what can be put off till to-morrow.' And so man is ever fruitlessly chasing to- morrow which does not belong to him , and passing by the opportunity of service to-day, an opportunity of which he may, perchance, never be able to avail himself. Liberality. "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity. " "Blessed is he that 1 2 Cor. ix. 7. 6 66 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. 66 considereth the poor. " Charity shall cover the multitude of sins. " So it is part of man's worldly system to give-oftentimes as little as he can decently manage-in so-called charity ; and charity, by the gradual growth of perverted meaning, has hecome warped from its primary signification of love, to stand as the exponent of man's selfish emulation to be accounted kind to his poorer brethren. And when a subscription list is carried round for some charitable object the worldly man scans the list to see how much So-and-So has given, and often " grudgingly and of necessity " puts down his name for a larger sum than he cares to, or is able to afford, in order that he may appear unto men to be wealthy, or to have a heart full of compassion for the needy. And then, in those minds in which exists a far-off idea of good deeds and their recompense, the ever- ready text is misapplied, " Charity covers a multitude of sins ; " and so this miscalled charity is enlarged to cover if possible, as a cloak, a host of shortcomings and sins, in the devil-begotten idea that when the final account is reckoned up, if there be such a time, man's charity may perchance outweigh the account written against him. 1 Ps. xli. 1. 2 I Pet. iv. 8. ON MORALITY. 67 I Chastity. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." " These filthy dreamers defile the flesh. " Satan persuades society that chastity need only be superficial, and that as long as it is not thrust under public observation, unchastity is but an inherent part of our nature, and is in itself tacitly allowable. So the governments of the world are urged to make laws which, while keeping the basest forms of such sins out of sight, make sinning safe, and tend to set aside disease, which is God's appointed retribution to the transgression of His holy laws. Temperance. " Be not among winebibbers ; among riotous eaters of flesh : for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty ... Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions ? Who hath babbling ? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine. " 3 "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink ; that continue until night, till wine inflame them."4 "They have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way ; the priest and I Col. iii. 5. 2 Jude 8. 3 Prov. xxiii. 20, 21, 29, 30. 4 Isa. v. II. 68 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink ; they err in vision , they stumble in judgment. ” "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken. "2 As society sees that drunkenness unfits a man for work, and tends to demoralise his whole being, making him an unprofitable member of the community, Satan has sided with man's policy in that matter, in so far as it suits his purpose, and is making it unfashionable to drink and to get drunk ; and we see that what the gospel of Christ is doing, Satan is imitating for his own designs, to give men self- satisfaction in their own striving against what he has at last discovered to be unprofitable, and so, not among Christians only, but also among the worldly, teetotalism, good in itself, is gaining ground as an aid to the philanthropic uplifting of man towards a more moral tone in his daily life. Good Works. " This is a faithful saying that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. " 3 " Zealous of good works. "4 Satan, in his gospel, in order to satisfy man's pride, inculcates salvation by I Isa. xxviii. 7. 2 Hab. ii. 15. 3 Tit. iii. 8. 4 Tit. ii. 14. ON MORALITY. 69 good works. He puts the cart before the horse and teaches that man can by his good works win salvation ; whereas God teaches, "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." In God's order a man must have life first in order to work ; in Satan's disorder man must try and work first in order to get life . In other words, the corpse is told to get up and walk in order to find life ; whereas life must first be given to the dead soul before it can walk in God's ways. Satan, having thus built up his scheme of morality, points to the Bible in confirmation of the happy lot of his followers. " I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death ; but their strength is firm : they are not in trouble as other men ; neither are they plagued like other men : . .. their eyes stand out with fatness ; they have more than heart could wish . . . And they say, How doth God know ? and is there knowledge in the Most High ? Behold these .. prosper in the world ; they increase riches. "2 · Before we close this chapter it will be well to I Rom. iv. 5. 2 Psa. lxxiii. 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12. 70 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. glance for a moment at God's estimate of the conduct of the ungodly : " Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof : from such turn away." I " There is none righteous, no, not one : there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips : whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes. " 2

" Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights ? I 2 Tim. iii. 2-5. 2 Rom. iii. 11-18. ON MORALITY. 71 For the rich men thereof are full of violence , and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth." I 66 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor. They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry. ” 2 "There is none upright among men : they hunt every man his brother with a net . That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward ; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire : so they wrap it up. The best of them is as a brier : the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. " 3 " For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ : whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things."4 "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old , yea, are mighty in power ? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes . Their houses are I Micah vi. 11 , 12. 3 Micah vii. 2-4. 2 Job xxiv. 9, 10. 4 Phil. iii. 18, 19. 72 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. . . . They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us ; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him ? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him ? ” x "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.' " 2 " Ye are they which justify yourselves before men ; but God knoweth your hearts : for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. " 3 I Job xxi. 7-15. 2 Matt. xxiii. 25. 3 Luke xvi. 15. CHAPTER VI. HIS PREACHING: ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. " Ye shall not surely die."-GEN. ii . 4 . "IMPRISONMENT for life ." Such is the dread sentence pronounced from a human judgmentseat on some guilty criminal convicted at the bar of human justice -condemned to moral death, not deprived of existence ; taken from his dwelling among men ; severed from all human ties of family and friendship ; buried in a living tomb ; cut off from all association and intercommunication with his fellow- creatures, dead to all knowledge from without, the convict exists, yet the world in which he has hitherto lived exists for him no longer. What more exact illustration do we need of a soul condemned by God's tribunal to be cut off for ever from life , and banished for ever from His presence ? But Satan does not leave man so without hope ; he preaches his great lie of " universal 74 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. salvation ; " he preaches that the great God is a God of love and mercy, and that He will not leave man for ever to endure a punishment that is objectless, but that He will, after the endurance of a certain term, restore him to favour, bring him out of his prison, and if He does not place him with the congregation of the supremely blessed, yet He will give him back life and a measure of happiness and peace. To the convict on earth death would in many cases be preferable to perpetual incarceration , and so Satan leads men to believe in an " eternal hope, " masking the truth that underlies so vague an expression that, if hope is eternal, it can never result in the fruition of reality, otherwise hope would be no longer hope. Satan inculcates the belief in the innate goodness of man, and teaches that the spark of life , however feeble, must eventually assert its dominant power, and burst forth into the flame of perfect existence in the consummation of all his desires. So man has ever held through all ages the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Plato and other ancient philosophers taught it ; the heathen buried their warriors with their house- ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 75 hold effects to be used by them in their future existence ; at the death of great men slaves were killed that their spirits might minister to the wants ofthe departed spirit ; wives burnt themselves ontheir husbands' funeral pyres ; and death is ever looked upon as but a great leave-taking, asthe portal through which all must pass, some before others, to meet somehow and somewhere in the regions hereafter. Following this line of thought our great poet stretches forth a hand into the darkness , and grasps with vague longing an ultimate goal of good : "Oh yet we trust that, somehow, good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood ; "That nothing walks with aimless feet ; That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, 66 When God hath made the pile complete.

Behold, we know not anything ;

I can but trust that good shall fall At last-far off-at last, to all , And every winter change to spring." ¹ In Memoriam, liii. I 76 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. "The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul?

• * *

"I falter where I firmly trod,

And falling with my weight of cares Upon the great world's altar- stairs, That slope thro' darkness up to God, "I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope." Another writer, shuddering at the declaration of Christ, that " few there be that find "2 the gate oflife, writes : " My belief is that in the end there will be a vastly larger number saved " -he scarcely dares say more-“ than we have any conception of. What sort of earthly government would that be where more than half the subjects were in prison ? I cannot believe that the government of God will be like that."3 Putting man's imagination against God's declaration. Again the same writer : " St. John uses a very broad expression . ' Jesus Christ, ' he says , ' is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. I In Memoriam, liv. 2 Matt. vii. 14. 3 Guthrie, Life, p. 773. ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 77 The whole world.' ' Ah ! ' some would say, ' that is dangerous language.' It is God's language-John speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. It throws a zone of mercy around the world. Perish the hand that would narrow it by a hair's breadth. " I True, but that propitiation once made, there remains the sin of rejecting it. Yet another author, struggling vainly with the immensity of his subject, says : " And I would ask, . . . Why is no account to be made of the fact that even the unmerciful debtor is only handed over to the tormentors until the debt shall have been paid ? " He loses sight of the terrible amount of that debt, and of the impossibility of man being able to pay it. And here we are brought face to face with the whole plan of God's redemption, of which more hereafter. The debt is not the accumulation of man's transgressions, but the one sin of rejecting God's proffered rescue , the ignoring of the Spirit's work, the sin that is unpardonable. But Satan argues with man on the ground of God's love and mercy—that if God is as He is depicted, Almighty, He could have prevented evil ; and if He has allowed it , He surely will not ¹ Guthrie, Life, p. 511 . 2 Farrar's " Eternal Hope," p. 45. 78 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. man. visit its consequences upon feeble, unresisting " I create evil. . . . Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou ? "I True-but God gave to man free will, and man has rebelled against the Most High ; and can the King of kings pardon rebels still in rebellion against Him? Would our sovereign pardon a rebellious people who refused to lay down their arms? would not voluntary submission be exacted as the terms of forgiveness ? and shall God be untrue to Himself, while earthly kings maintain their princely right ? If God forgave sin as soon as committed it would lessen the heinousness of sin. God has revealed Himself not only as our Father, but also as the Judge. A judge has nothing to do with mercy, but only to pronounce on the inevitable consequence of sin. But here Satan steps in and tells man that faith is but feeling, and that reason must have her sway, and that reason recoils from punishment for sin that is, after all , but the outcome of our feeble nature. Man's mind is thus wracked with the storm of conflicting thoughts, until Satan, taking possession of man's reason, I Isa. xlv. 7, 9. ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 79 smothers his faith, and, teaching him that he must receive nothing that he cannot reason out , leads him step by step farther from the light, until he leaves him groping in impenetrable darkness. But happily it is not always so ; but, tossed hither and thither on the sea of conflicting thought, and, running the risk of collision with Satan's wreckage, reason at last, failing to ride out the storm of human doubts, lets go her anchor, and faith holds firmly the ship of man's soul that would otherwise have driven on to the rocky shore of the abyss, " until the day dawn. " I If this life is merely a season of probation , how can we hold that the next stage of existence will result in a finality of destination ? Why should it not also be a period of probation , and souls failing in that, be handed over, as it were, to a farther probation, and so on ad infinitum ? And if so, what chance is there , humanly speaking, of man, failing to attain to holiness in one stage, ever becoming sufficiently purified to stand in the presence of the holy God ? Does not Scripture warrant us in believing I 2 Peter i. 19. 80 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. that there is no repentance beyond the grave ? and if no repentance, surely no hope of deliverance from that condition into which man has plunged himself through rebellion. " For in I death there is no remembrance of Thee : in the grave who shall give Thee thanks ? " "Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead ? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee ? Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or Thy faithfulness in destruction ? " 2 " The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence."3 " For the grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee : they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth." 4 " There is no work, nor device , nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." "They blasphemed the God of heaven, and repented not their deeds." 6 "95 · · Those, therefore , that hold the devil's doctrine of universal salvation, or, which is the same thing, deny the eternity of punishment to some, are impaled on the horns of a dilemma : for the Holy Spirit, that Person of the Godhead who is now dwelling with man, and in those who are Christ's, either does or does not accompany souls Psa. vi. 5. 4 Isa. xxxviii. 18. 2 Psa. lxxxviii. 10, 11. 3 Psa. cxv. 17. 5 Eccles. ix. 10. 6 Rev. xvi. 11. ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 81 to hell. If He does, why should He not so influence them as to bring them back at once ? and if He does not, by what means can they repent, and change their rebellious nature, and become heavenly- minded and relinquish sin, and their antagonism against God ? "Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him ? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them ; or, Where is the God of judgment ? " I Punishment hereafter, if not continuous (" the wrath of God abideth on him " ") , must be corrective and purifying ; and if so, then there must be salvation otherwise than by the blood of Christ. But " neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."3 Otherwise, Christ's death was useless, and the tremendous sacrifice of the Father and of the Son was not required, and has been offered in vain. The punishment of the wicked is irrevocable , and is not to be measured by any amount of earthly retribution . " He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three I Mal. ii. 17. 2 John iii. 36. 3 Acts iv. 12. 7 82 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. witnesses ; of howmuch sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath. counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ? For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." I We have sufficient evidence that this life is not a state of probation. Salvation is not meted out as the reward merely of successfully weathering the storms of temptation, or as the result of our failing to have brought home to us the damning evidence that " the accuser of our brethren" brings to bear against us ; it is only to be obtained by a free pardon brought to us in the condemned cell. The trial is over, man has failed to make good his cause, and the whole world has become guilty before God. " He that believeth not is condemned already , because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. "3 The cry goes up from the condemned cell for mercy and I Heb. x. 28-31. 2 Rev. xii. 10. 3 John iii. 18. ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 83 pardon, and the free pardon is offered, signed with the blood of the Substitute who took the place of the criminal, and if he chooses he may come out on that ground alone, but if he refuse to accept it, he remains until the day of execution. But Satan's gospel is far otherwise. He says : ' You are not yet in the condemned cell. You are only temporarily confined in this mortal body : you may by your good conduct ingratiate yourself with your gaoler, and at last be let out to go your own way.' I " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and " they that are in the flesh cannot please God. "2 " But without faith it is impossible to please Him. "3 Therefore, a man dying without faith departs to the future state without any means whereby he shall ever please God, and so without any hope of restitution to God's favour. But Satan does not let man die without hope, but holds before him the probability that, disembodied and separated from the temptations that befall him here, he may eventually struggle back, by his innate goodness into favour with the Most High, against whom he has so grievously sinned. ¹ John iii. 6. 2 Rom. viii. 8. 3 Heb. xi. 6. 84 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Why, if post-mortem repentance is possible , did the Lord say concerning Judas, " Woe to that man bywhom the Son of man is betrayed ! Good were it for that man if he had never been born "? Surely the blessedness of heaven would taste more blessed to that man at his final restoration because of the very banishment that he would have undergone, and because of the distant vision of the blessedness of the redeemed in the glory of the Father, upon which he had for so long been gazing. " One of you is a devil. " Are the devils to be restored ? Does not the very existence of Satan himself, after these thousands of years of banishment from God's presence, establish the fact that existence thus is possible ? And does not the increasing bitterness and antagonism of Satan against God foreshadow the possibility of those whom Satan has led captive continuing in their rebellion and sin for ages upon ages ? and if for ages upon ages, they are and will be capable of so continuing ; for what is there to prevent their so continuing for ever ? The case of the heathen is constantly alleged as an argument against the eternity of punishment ; that it would be unjust to sen2 John vi. 70. I Mark xiv. 21. ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 85 tence to damnation those who may never have had an opportunity of hearing God's offer of salvation. But " shall not the Judge of all the 66 earth do right ? " The only wise God our Saviour "? 2 Cannot we be content to leave to His almighty wisdom the right judgment in all things ? And He who sees everything from the beginning will take all circumstances into consideration in meting out the final destiny of man. Yet we see that even the heathen have, in Nature itself, certain evidences of the existence of Nature's God , and of His attributes as therein shown forth ; and that they have a moral law in themselves teaching their consciences what is right. " The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."3 "As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law. " 4 Moreover, as in heaven there seem to be different grades of reward and blessedness , depending probably on the varied capacity in Gen. xviii. 25. 3 Rom. 1. 20. 2 Jude 25. 4 Rom. ii. 12. 86 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. 66 I man to receive such, as many jars may all differ in size but each be full according to its capacity, as one star differeth from another star in glory ;" so also we read that " that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given , of him shall be much required ; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."2 And again: " It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee . "3 Scripture is very clear as to the class of those who will be banished for ever from God's presence. " An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it. " 4 ' But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone : which is the second death. " 5 (" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the II Cor. xv. 41. 4 Isa. xxxv. 8. 2 Luke xii. 47, 48. 3 Matt. xi. 24. 5 Rev. xxi. 8. ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 87 first resurrection : on such the second death 912 hath no power. " ") "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth , neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.' In no wise-that is, in no ways, on no account, for no reason, on no pretence ; so also the declaration , " Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. " 3 "Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."4 And lest there should be a vain and lingering hope that man will become better in a future state and so merit restoration, it is written, " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."5 It seems that the essence of future punishment will be banishment from the presence of God ; and so our blessed Lord, in order to "taste death for every man, " experienced the hiding of God's face, and had wrung from Him, FOR US, that bitter cry, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " 7 "With lies ye have . • • strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life. " 8 I Rev. xx. 6. 5 Rev. xxii. 11. 2 Rev. xxi. 27. 6 Heb. ii. 9. 3 John vi. 37. 7 Matt. xxvii. 46. 4 Rev. xxii. 15. 8 Ezek. xiii. 22. CHAPTER VII. HIS PREACHING: ON ANNIHILATION. "Everlasting destruction. "-2 THESS. i . 9. SATAN varies his sermons according to the capacity and natural bent of his hearers ; and therefore to those whose minds retain some consciousness of wrong, and who dare not imagine that sin will go unpunished, he preaches the terrible doctrine of annihilation ; lowering man even below the level of the brute. "Who knoweth the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth ? ” I Satan has had adherents to this doctrine from early times. Paul, arraigned before Felix, said, "This I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God, which they themselves I Eccles. iii. 21. ON ANNIHILATION. 89 also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. ” "When Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee : of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. . . . The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit ; but the Pharisees confess both." 2 All the higher intelligence of man's nature cries out against the doctrine of extinction : his soul rises to sublimer hopes, and he feels that he was not called into being in order to perish ; he realises that there is something within him, distinct from his material existence, namely, HIMSELF, which is both inextinguishable and immortal. Cogito, ergo sum : I think, therefore I am. It is only when his mind is wholly absorbed with the pleasures, or weighed down with the consciousness of the enormity, of sin , that he seeks for consolation in the thought that, after all , there is no retribution , that he exists only for the present, and afterwards there is rest in-annihilation. Our poet gives utterance to the dominant hope of man in the following lines : I Acts xxiv. 14, 15. 2 Acts xxiii. 6, 8. 90 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. "Thou wilt not leave us in the dust : Thou madest man, he knows not why ; He thinks he was not made to die ; And Thou hast made him : Thou art just." * And again : "My own dim life should teach me this, That life shall live for evermore, Else earth is darkness at the core, And dust and ashes all that is ;

• * *

"What then were God to such as I ? 'Twere hardly worth my while to choose Of things all mortal, or to use Alittle patience ere I die ; ""Twere best at once to sink to peace, Like birds the charming serpent draws, To drop head foremost in the jaws Of vacant darkness and to cease.'" 2 Why should infidels, unbelievers in the truth of the Bible, refuse to allow to competent witnesses the testimony as given in that written history ? though at the same time they receive the witness of their fellow-men in courts of law; nay, they receive the testimony of eye-witnesses as narrated in other books of history , records resting on the authority of perhaps one writer, whereas we have, gathered together in the Bible, 66 so great a cloud of witnesses. " 3 1 In Memoriam, Introduction. 2 In Memoriam, xxxiv. 3 Heb. xii. 1. ON ANNIHILATION. 91 There were many witnesses to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Will any Materialist dare to assert that the restoration of life in that instance was merely the return to activity of the dormant forces of the corporeal tissues, when we are distinctly told that he had been dead four days,' and that decomposition, the chemical disintegration of the component parts of the body, had already set in ? Back, from the place where the spirit had gone, Back, from the confines of air, Back, to the place where the dust lay alone, At the Master's command he was-there. " Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there : and they cane, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead."2 Whence did Samuel come when he appeared to Saul ? " She said, An old man cometh up ; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel. . . . And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up ? " 3 Whence, too, came Moses and Elias to hold converse with Jesus ? "And there appeared I John xi. 39. 2 John xii. 9. 3 Sam. xxviii. 14, 15. 92 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. unto them Elias with Moses : and they were talking with Jesus." I will not here enter into any lengthy argument to refute the doctrine of annihilation by reference to the many passages wherein words of fine distinction of meaning are arranged on one side or the other, because much has already been written on the subject by far abler pens than mine. My aim is chiefly to place before my readers very briefly, and in comprehensible language, the grounds for believing that man's spirit, whatever its destination , is wholly indestructible ; and, by appealing to common sense, to show the folly-nay, arrogance-of those who maintain that man was created for an ephemeral existence only, and that, having placed before him happiness and misery, it rests with him by virtue of his free-will to choose which he will have only in this life. But if words are to have any weight, then I ask what, except Satan himself by direct teaching, could have induced man so to blind his apprehension of truth, as to interpret eternal as applied to life and happiness, to mean one thing, and, as applied to death and misery to mean the crushing out of all existence, and I Mark ix. 4. ON ANNIHILATION. 93 so the abolition of misery ? To take the one word aivios (aiōnios) , it is sufficient to show that the same word is used to designate the duration of the soul in misery, and the duration of the Almighty Himself as well as of everlasting life. " It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. ” "Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ." "The commandment of the everlasting God. " " The eternal Spirit . "4 "The God of all grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory."s 2 66 • "Before the mountains were brought forth , or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God." Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four- and- twenty elders fall down before Him that sat upon the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever."7 "These shall go away into everlasting I Matt. xviii. 8. 5 I Pet. v. 10. 2 Jude 7. 3 Rom. xvi. 26. 6 Psa. xc. 2. (LXX.) 4 Heb. ix. 14. 7 Rev. iv. 8-10. 94 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. punishment : but the righteous into life eternal. " "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. "" 2 "I give unto them eternal life."3 "This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life , and this life is in His Son. " 4 "The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ” 5 Eternal life is hereby seen to be some condition beyond, and superadded to, the condition of mere existence ; and so eternal death is some condition beyond, and superadded to, existence , and co-existent with it : and he who dares to set aside the truth as put forth in God's Word, dares to assail the citadel of God's own existence, and throws a doubt on the whole essence of the everlasting being of JEHOVAH the great I AM. Let us now examine, by the light of reason, some of the statements in God's Word which wouldbeabsolutely meaningless if the doctrine of annihilation were true. And here I may state that I am writing for those who acknowledge that the Bible is at all events a work differing from ordinary books in its origin : for those who deny the authority of the Scriptures put Matt. xxv. 46. 4 1I John v. II. 2' John iii. 36. 3 John x. 28. 5 Rom. vi. 23. ON ANNIHILATION. 95 themselves beyond the pale of argument, and arrogate to themselves the right and power of judging, unaided, matters which all acknowledge, without revelation , are beyond our ken ; and, relinquishing all participation in the supernatural, consider their lives as the mere outcome of " the fortuitous concourse of atoms. ” And first of all, concerning Satan himself, and those whom he dragged with him in his fall. What is the meaning of the following passages, if, at the end of all things, Satan is to be annihilated ? For what is he reserved if he is destined to cease to exist ? "God spared not the angels that sinned ; but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to judgment. " "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own. habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. " 992 "" I Then with regard to those whom Satan deceived, and who have refused God's offer of pardon and freedom. " The Lord knoweth how . . . to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. " 3 " To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." 4 "After thy 1 2 Pet. ii. 4. 2 Jude 6. 32 Pet. ii. 9. 4 2 Pet. ii. 17. 96 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God . . . unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. " " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. ” 992 I What meaning has "the mist of darkness for ever " if that mist is only to surround inanimate beings ? A corpse has no terror ; so there must be existence hereafter of some kind or other in which the cast-out soul can be subjected to the horrors of the thick darkness. What is the meaning of " tribulation and anguish," unless there shall be souls capable of feeling the anguish, and of suffering the tribulation ? How can " shame and everlasting contempt " be imposed on nothing ? There must be sentient beings to feel shame, and to be covered with remorse at being the subjects of everlasting contempt. Those who hold the doctrine of annihilation are ever quoting passages referring to destruction 1 Rom. ii. 5, 8, 9. 2 Dan. xii. 2. ON ANNIHILATION. 97 as showing that there will be total extinction of existence ; but it is written concerning Israel , " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; but in Me is thine help ; " clearly showing that destruction is used in the sense of exclusion from God, from which, in the case of Israel, there is hope of return . "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. " If annihilation were here meant it would not be qualified by reference to banishment from God's presence. For how senseless would it be to speak of banishment with regard to a non-existent individual ?-such a reference would be absurd. Again we have evidence that in the locality of the lost there will be society-the society of other evil-doers. Society is fellowship, the association with others, and so there must be existence hereafter, even for the outcasts. "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him , and in an hour that he is not I Hos. xiii. 9. 2 2 Thess. i. 7-9. 8 98 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. aware of, and shall cut him asunder " (separate him from those with whom he has hitherto been living), " and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." I "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming : it stirreth up the dead for thee : . . . all they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become weak like unto us ? " 2 " The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. " 3 Here Satan is represented as joining the leaders of the apostasy in a place where they exist, and are being tormented. Annihilation, if true, would be deliverance from punishment, and not its infliction : at all events it might be accounted an instantaneous punishment, ceasing in the very act of its infliction ; whereas Scripture declares it shall be for ever. The word " death " even does not carry with it the idea of cessation of existence, for we are described as dead in sins, " 4 yet we live : and again as " dead to sin, " 5 yet having spiritual 1 Matt. xxiv. 50, 51. 2 Isa. xiv. 9, 10. 3 Rev. xx. 10. 4 Eph. ii. 5. 5 Rom. vi. 2. ON ANNIHILATION. 99 life . "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."I Does not Satan also push the argument of annihilation to its extremity, and thus cut off the hope of eternal life even from all ? thereby trusting that he will establish his point, and lead all men into carelessness of living. Nevertheless Plato taught the doctrine of the immortality of the soul 400 years B.C. And writers other than those inspired held the same truth. In the Book of Enoch it is written concerning the wicked, " Their souls shall not be annihilated in the day of judgment. " Josephus says that the Pharisees "believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life ; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison . " Hippolytus, writing in the third century, says, " The doctrine of the resurrection has also derived support among the Essenes ; for they acknowledge both that the flesh will rise again, and that it will be immortal, in the same manner as the soul is already imperishable. " 1 Rom. vi. II. 100 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Job believed not merely in the eternity of the spirit, but also in the resurrection of the body. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another."I David also says, " My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life : in Thy presence is fulness of joy ; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 992 The chief argument, however, against the doctrine of annihilation is that it discredits the atonement. For if annihilation is to be the final goal, where was the need for so great an exhibition of God's power and love as is shown in the tremendous sufferings and sacrifice of Christ ? And so we see the result of Satan's teaching in our own day, where his apostles, who preach annihilation , throw overboard the doctrine of the atonement as untenable, and declare it to be a fiction accepted only by those who, desiring 1 Job xix. 25-27. 2 Psa. xvi. 9-11. ON ANNIHILATION. ΙΟΙ something better than they have on earth , build up the hope of a life hereafter, where their souls shall enjoy to the full that of which they have experienced but a foretaste in this life. But as the doctrine of the atonement is the most precious resting- place of the Christian's soul, and leads to uprightness of walk with God, so the doctrine of annihilation, inasmuch as it destroys all future hope in those who accept it , is thereby proved to be of the devil's work the masterpiece ; he having set himself the task of doing his utmost to mar all God's work for the regeneration of the human soul. Glance for a moment at the result of the propagation of this terrible heresy. " There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. " I " Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way ; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope : thou hast found the life of thine hand ; therefore thou wast not grieved . " 2 " I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. "3 " If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die."4 1 Eccles. ii. 24. 2 Isa. lvii. 10. 3 Luke xii. 19. 41I Cor. xv. 32. 102 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. There is yet another position taken by those who, striving to hold a more orthodox belief, say that annihilation does not immediately synchronize with death, but that there is a resurrection both of the just and the unjust ; that the good are raised to glory, while the wicked are raised in order to undergo punishment for a certain time, and then after such punishment, varying in duration or intensity according to their several transgressions, they will be annihilated. But surely this doctrine also, though more plausible than that of immediate annihilation, yet is foreign to the teaching and spirit of God's word. For if man, having free will, wilfully rejects God's proffered salvation , and refuses to accept Christ as his Substitute in punishment, in what degree is he better than Satan himself, who is enduring the punishment of banishment from God's presence ? Do we find any indication that Satan's punishment is terminable, or that he will ever cease to be a rebel against God ? Subdued he will be, and forced at last to acknowledge the supreme sovereignty of God, but those whom he has led captive will be his captives still and his companions in his punishment of eternal separation from God, against whom they have wilfully rebelled . ON ANNIHILATION. 103 If Satan can but get man to believe these pernicious doctrines he has gained a great point, for "A bird in hand is better far, Than two that in the bushes be ; " and man says, " Seeing is believing,' and what I see I'll enjoy ; so here goes. I'll have my fling here, and chance everything else ." - Hence the struggle for wealth and fame, and sensual pleasures, to drown the uprisings of conscience, and to enable poor man to live a life of tolerable endurance-nay, even of a certain amount of seeming enjoyment — here, till , on the brink of the grave, his eyes open to the solemn truth, and the shuddering soul, trembling to dip her foot in the dark river, is hurried into it by the legions of devils that have been her constant though unseen companions, to emerge on the other side in the blackness of darkness, where there is no hope for ever and ever. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil . " "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. " 2 I Eccles. viii. 11. 2Jude 20. CHAPTER VIII. HIS PREACHING: ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. " -- PSA. xiv. 1 . THE man that doubts the existence of God, God declares to be " a fool ." Satan says, that man is a fool who maintains that there must be a God. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom : and with all thy getting get understanding."I And man interprets this to mean that he must search out all wisdom by means of the organism he possesses for that process, viz. , the brain ; that brain is an organised material product, having as its function the production of thought, as muscle has as its function the production of motion ; and that the one is as much the mere outcome of various processes, the natural result of its organised being, as the Prov. iv. 7. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 105 other; and that both these processes act through the force that is the product of tissue- change, and that there is no necessity to acknowledge the intervention of spiritual or extra- material power in the one case more than in the other ; and so that the idea of God is an unnecessary factor in the conception of so - called vital phenomena. But God foresaw the arrogance of man, in that he would strive to reach out beyond what is revealed, and credit himself with evolving knowledge out of his own inner consciousness, apart from the Spirit of the Almighty. " They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. " Satan has now, by gradual instruction through succeeding ages, educated man, so that he places those in the category of fools who, acknowledging their inability to grapple with the supernatural, and finding that reason fails to complete the chain of evidence concerning cause and effect back to remote eternity, take hold of faith as the only available ladder by which they can reach God, and, using it , climb to an eminence of thought wherefrom they can view so much 1 Rom i. 21, 22. 106 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. of God's immeasurable landscape as He, as yet, permits to mortal ken. So in the world's estimation we must be content to be " fools for Christ's sake, but . . wise in Christ. " The Athenian philosophers said of Paul, “ What will this babbler say ? "² And Festus said to him, " Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad. ” 3 The Jews said even of Him who is Wisdom , "He hath a devil, and is mad. "4 But, after all, man's puny wisdom is but a drop in the ocean of Omnipotence : "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."5 Satan's great object is to becloud man's intellect by clogging it with thoughts that become hopelessly entangled in the effort to unravel the infinite wisdom of God; and so man flounders on, until, failing to penetrate the cloud of glory that clothes the Invisible, he deems the veil that bounds his further prospect to be the back- scene to the phenomenal acts of the universe, and hopes eventually to work out to its complete elucidation the complex machinery of illimitable creation. Thus man glorying in the excellency of his I 1 Cor. iv. 1O. 4 John x. 20. 2 Acts xvii. 18. 3 Acts xxvi. 24. 51 Cor. iii. 19. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 107 wisdom says, 'Who can be such a fool as to believe blindly all that the Bible says about creation, nature, or miracles, when we know that it is no scientific book, but only a collection of histories and myths and maxims of the superstitious ? ' God needs no apologist, but I must apologise to my readers for coupling at the heading of this chapter Atheism and Science. For I would not be thought so narrow- minded as to suggest that Science leads to Atheism, or that the devoutest worshipper of knowledge cannot also be-nay, necessarily must become-the most reverent worshipper of God ; for God " cannot deny Himself," and the more we search, with true reverence, into the wonders of God's creation, the clearer we shall see that it is one consistent and harmonious whole ; and where in our investigations we miss the connecting links , it is not because such do not exist, but because our crude vision fails to perceive the finer distinctions and steps that intervene between the coarser phenomena that present themselves to our finite minds. As a man of science myself, I stretch forth my hands in faith to reach some fragments 2 Tim. ii. 13. 108 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. of God's great truths, content for the rest to wait patiently until, freed from the clay that limits my spirit's ken, I shall behold unclouded the glory of God. "Now we see through a glass darkly ; but then face to face ; now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known." Wewill now consider some passages from the works of those writers who, looking at Science apart from God, shut out from their calculations any conception of a Divine Author. 66' Perhaps nothing will make the full meaning of descent clearer than calling it the nonmiraculous history of creation .' . . . A naturalist can no more imagine the coming into existence. of matter, than he can imagine its disappearance, and he therefore looks upon the existing quantity of matter in the universe as a given fact. . . . Where faith commences, science ends. These two arts of the human mind must be strictly kept apart from each other. Faith has its origin in the poetic imagination ; knowledge, on the other hand, originates in the reasoning intelligence of man. Science has to pluck the blessed fruits from the tree of knowledge, un11 Cor. xiii. 12. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENce. 109 concerned whether these conquests trench upon the poetical imaginings of faith or not. " Here the author, finding himself face to face with the great difficulty of the existence of matter, and utterly unable to account for it by his reasoning powers, takes it for " a given fact"! I shall therefore "The great majority of all these legends about creation bear too clearly the stamp of arbitrary fiction, and of a want of a close observance of nature, to be of interest in a scientific treatment of the history of creation. only select the Mosaic history from among those that are not founded on scientific investigation, on account of the unparalleled influence which it has gained in the Western civilised world ; and then I shall immediately take up the scientific hypothesis about creation , which originated with Linnæus as late as the commencement of last century. With justice, we may therefore designate their scheme of the world's growth as the Supernatural History of Creation. . . . On the other hand, the theory of development • • which we shall have to treat of here as the non-miraculous or Natural History of Creation must, if carried out logically, lead to the monistic or mechanical (causal) conception of I Haeckel's " History of Creation, " vol. i . pp. 7, 8, 9. IIO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. the universe. · · It does not see in every individual species of animal and plant the embodied thought of a personal Creator, but the expression for the time being of a mechanical process of development of matter. " I " Let us now first of all glance at the most important of all the supernatural histories of creation, I mean that of Moses, as it has been handed down to us in the Bible, the ancient document of the history and laws of the Jewish people. The Mosaic history of creation , since in the first chapter of Genesis it forms the introduction to the Old Testament, has enjoyed, down to the present day, general recognition in the whole Jewish and Christian world of civilisation. Its extraordinary success is explained not only by its close connection with Jewish and Christian doctrines, but also by the simple and natural chain of ideas which runs through it, and which contrasts favourably with the confused mythology of creation current among most of the other ancient nations. First the Lord God creates the earth as an inorganic body ; then He separates light from darkness, then water from dry land. Now the earth has become inhabitable for organisms, and plants are "History of Creation, " vol. i. pp. 33, 34. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. III first created, animals later ; and among the latter the inhabitants of the water and the air first, afterwards the inhabitants of the dry land. Finally God creates man, the last of all organisms, in His own image, and as the ruler of the earth. " Two great and fundamental ideas, common also to the non-miraculous theory of development, meet us in this Mosaic hypothesis of creation with surprising clearness and simplicity -the idea of separation, or differentiation, and the idea ofprogressive development, or perfecting. .. We can therefore bestow our just and sincere admiration on the Jewish lawgiver's grand insight into nature, and his simple and natural hypothesis of creation , without discovering in it a so- called Divine revelation.' That it cannot be such is clear from the fact that two great fundamental errors are asserted in it : namely, first, the geocentric error that the earth is the fixed central point of the whole universe, round which the sun, moon, and stars move; and secondly, the anthropocentric error, that man is the premeditated aim ofthe for whose service alone all creation of the earth , the rest of nature is said to have been created . The former of these errors was demolished by Copernicus' ' System 112 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. ofthe Universe,' in the beginning of the sixteenth century ; the latter by Lamark's ' Doctrine of Descent, ' in the beginning of the nineteenth century. . . . Even in our century, many naturalists, especially geologists , have tried to bring the Mosaic theory into harmony with the recent results of natural science, and have, for example, interpreted Moses' seven days of creation as seven great geological periods. However, all these ingenious attempts at interpretation have so utterly failed , that they require no refutation here. The Bible is no scientific book, but consists of records of the history, the laws, and the religion of the Jewish people, the high merit of which, as a history of civilisation, is not impaired by the fact that in all scientific questions it has no commanding importance, and is full of gross errors. " I Here we see that the author has failed to perceive that, in the beginning of the book of Genesis, there are two distinct accounts of creation : one, from the first verse of the first chapter to the third verse of the second chapter ; the second, from the fourth verse of the second chapter to the end. Now the facts of nature can in no way mili- ' Pp. 37, 38, 39. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENce. 113 I tate against God's revelation, and the expression , "the earth was without form and void, " by no means excludes the conception of illimitable ages of that very condition that is now generally received as the preliminary state of matter before it became formed and fully developed. 66 Moreover, the six periods of creation are not at all necessarily limited to six diurnal revolutions of the earth. For, apart from the declaration that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day " -which is not incompatible with the idea that that expression may be representative of inconceivable ages-we must remember that not until the fourth period do the heavenly bodies appear, and so time, as understood by us, had no existence. Therefore the revelations of geology do not at all antagonize the revelation of Scripture, and ample margin is given wherein the mind may bridge over a period of duration that would be otherwise inexplicable . The second account of the creation of man is not incompatible with the idea of a pre- existent race of intelligences, such as might have been the host of Satan's deluded subjects ; and in I¹ Gen.fi. 2. 22 Pet. iii. 8. 9 114 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Genesis vi . I we find a statement not wholly inexplicable by the idea of a pre- Adamic race. But to return to our author. In vol. ii . p. 335 he says, " As I have already remarked at the beginning of this book, science, as an ob jective result of sensuous experience , and of the striving of human reason after knowledge, has nothing whatever to do with the subjective ideas of faith, which are preached by a single man as the direct inspirations or revelations of the Creator, and then believed in by the dependent multitude. This belief, very different in different nations, only begins, as is well known, where science ends. " He here puts faith in antagonism with reason ; and so it is as considered as a separate mental process ; but inasmuch as, with our reason, we work upon given material, whether of mathematical axioms, or chemical substances, or physical forces, with faith , which " is the gift of God," we grasp those truths which are beyond our reason and are only spiritually discerned . Nevertheless Haeckel brings down all mental perception, whether of the brute creation or of man, to one level ; for he states (p. 362) , “ BeI Eph. ii . 8. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 115 tween the most highly developed animal souls and the lowest developed human souls there exists only a small quantitative, but no qualitative, difference, and that this difference is much less than the difference between the lowest and the highest human souls, or than the difference between the highest and lowest animal souls ." Wewillnow turn to another work of Haeckel's. And I quote from him specially, as he is one of the most modern scientific exponents of the present form of the doctrine of Descent, and, in his denial of the necessity of acknowledging a God, one of the most dangerous of writers ; and against all such it is well that we be on our guard. " In the lowest depths of the sea such homogeneous amorphous protoplasm probably still lives, in its simplest character, under the name of Bathybius. Each individual living particle of this structureless mass is called a Moneron . The oldest monera originated in the sea by spontaneous generation, just as crystals form in the matrix. This assumption is required by the demand of the human understanding for causality. " For when, on the one hand, we reflect that the whole inorganic history of the earth proceeds 116 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. in accordance with mechanical laws, and without any intervention by creative power, and when, on the other hand, we consider that the entire organic history of the world is also determined by similar mechanical laws ; when we see that no supernatural interference by a creative power is needed for the production of the various organisms, then it is certainly quite inconsistent to assume such supernatural creative interference for the first production of life upon our globe. At all events we, as investigators of nature, are bound at least to attempt a natural explanation.' " He, however, who does not assume a spontaneous generation of Monera, in the sense here indicated , to explain the first origin of life upon our earth, has no other resource but to believe in a supernatural miracle ; and this, in fact, is the questionable standpoint still taken by many so- called ' exact naturalists,' who thus renounce their own reason. " 2 Haeckel, in thus taking his stand on the doctrine of spontaneous generation , begs the whole question of the necessity for a Creator ; taking for granted, as we have already seen, the existence of matter as an established fact, and "Evolution of Man, " vol. ii. p. 31. 2 Ibid. p.32. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 117 shirking the important question of how matter was called into existence. In so doing he loses sight of the wide difference between organic and inorganic substances or things , and ignores the wide gulf that separates substances that have life from those that have it not. In the much-vexed question of spontaneous generation the burden of proof rests with those who strive to maintain it . The practical experiments that are necessary for its investigation are beset with great difficulties , difficulties chiefly in the method of excluding all possible sources of error. For it is almost impossible in the most carefully conducted experiment to exclude all possibility of some germ being introduced into the fluid experimented upon, and if there is the remotest chance of a single germ creeping in the experiment is vitiated. We are asked to believe that inorganic matter, whose properties are well understood, under certain conditions, changes its nature, and that particles associated only by agglomeration form themselves into a nucleus, that such nucleus becomes endowed with life, -how ?-and so being changed from inorganic to organic matter is able to absorb into itself the material necessary for its 118 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. growth. Whereas the truth is that inorganic matter, as such, has no power of assimilation, and grows only by the attraction to itself of similar particles by association . The subtle factor called “ life ” must be propagated from some other individual possessing it , and without life there is no power of propagation. Inorganic matter wears away by friction or disintegration and is not built up save by the addition to it of particles of inorganic matter. Difficult as the definition of life must ever be, the following seems the most rational and true to nature. A living thing, or organism, is that which has the power of taking or absorbing to itself material from outside itself, and differing, it may be, from itself, and assimilating such material to its own essence, and for its own use ; and an inorganic substance, though it may possess the power of adding to its bulk, adds to it by the process of agglomeration-as a builder builds by adding brick to brick-and has no power of changing the nature of such matter in the process. A crystal is an illustration of the latter process ; for it takes to itself particles of material similar to itself, and builds itself up with them ; whereas the most primitive organic cell ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 119 takes to itself pabulum, and absorbing it within its structure, builds itself up from within itself by the conversion of such material, by its living nucleus, into substance similar to its own preexisting substance. In order, therefore, to hold the doctrine of spontaneous generation, this differentiation is abolished, and we are asked to believe that which is inconceivable, that matter, under some occult influence, is enabled to change radically the whole essence of its nature. I cannot close this author without a further quotation to illustrate the danger of admitting a theory which aims at the abolition of our faith, that man was created in the image of God. "All Mammals, including Man, are at least of common origin, and it is equally certain that their common parent-forms gradually developed from a long series of lower vertebrates. 66 • • · Feeling, evidently, rather than understanding, induces most people to combat the theory of their descent from Apes.' It seems much pleasanter to be descended from a more highly developed, divine being, and hence, as is well known, human vanity has from the earliest times flattered itself by assuming the original descent of the race from gods or demi- gods. 120 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. The Church , with that sophistical distortion of ideas of which she is so great an adept, has managed to extol this ridiculous pride as Christian humility ; and those people who reject with haughty horror every suggestion of descent from lower animals, and consider themselves children of God, those very people are exceedingly fond of boasting about their child- like humility of spirit. It is also much more to my individual taste to be the more highly developed descendant of a primæval Ape ancestor, who, in the struggle for existence , had developed progressively from lower Mammals, as they from still lower Vertebrates, than the degraded descendant of an Adam, god- like, but debased by the Fall, who was formed from a clod of earth, and of an Eve, created from a rib of Adam. ' · · "We must next inquire what is the character of the mental organ in man. The undeniable answer to this question has already been given . Man's mental organ is, in its whole structure and origin, the same as that of all other Vertebrates. "This idea will, of course, be indignantly rejected by most people who accept the contrary dualistic view, which denies the insepar- "Evolution of Man, " pp. 445, 446. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 121 · able connection of the brain and the mind, and regards ' body and mind ' as entirely separate and distinct. . . . These same dualistic philosophers must, of course, if they are consistent , also assume that there was a moment . . . at which this mind first entered the vertebrate body of man. 66 Goethe says 'Matter can never exist and act without spirit ; neither can spirit without matter.' The ' spirit ' and ' mind ' of man are but forces which are inseparably connected with the material substance of our bodies. . . Our spiritual forces are as much functions of this part of the body [ brain] as every force is a function of a material body. Hence the evolution of man has taken place according to the same ' eternal, immutable laws, ' as has the evolution of any other natural body." 99 I In all their attempts to trace back physical phenomena to the starting- point of the universe, these godless philosophers are at last brought up sharp to a deadlock against a wall of impenetrable mystery. They trace back the worlds with their cooling crusts to a condition of nebulous matter 'without form and void, ' circulating-where ?— "Evolution of Man, " pp. 450-453, 456-458. 122 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. "Kant's cosmogony maintains that the whole universe, inconceivable ages ago, consisted of a gaseous chaos. . . . The millions of bodies in the universe which at present form the different solar systems did not then exist. They originated only in consequence of a universal rotatory movement, or rotation , during which a number of masses acquired greater density than the remaining gaseous mass, and then acted upon the latter as central points of attraction. "This wonderful theory . . . makes use exclusively of the inherent forces of eternal matter, and entirely excludes every supernatural process, every pre- arranged and conscious action of a personal Creator.. "A great and unsolved difficulty lies in the fact that the Cosmological Gas Theory furnishes no starting-point at all in explanation of the first impulse which caused the rotary motion in the gas-filled universe. In seeking for such an impulse, we are involuntarily led to the mistaken questioning about a ' first beginning.' We can as little imagine a first beginning of the eternal phenomena of the motion of the universe as of its final end. " Poor fools ! they acknowledge the difficulty of ¹ Haeckel's " History of Creation, " vol. i . pp. 321-324. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 123 conceiving the beginning of motion, and yet in their philosophy can find no way out of it . How is it that such a stupendous thought does: not force them to prostrate themselves before an Almighty God, and, acknowledging that our perception is, as yet, finite , give unto Him the credit and the glory of being Himself the Divine Author of all things, even of motion itself ? Here is the weakness of their chain of evidence, and Satan holds the eyes of their understanding lest they should see and believe. Thus does poor puny man attempt to reason away the existence of the Deity. And now it has been reserved for us in our day to see the Imperial Parliament of the most God-fearing nation of the world admit into its precincts a man to whom the name of God exists as only a meaningless fiction . Also, as an indication of the drift of men's minds, the following item of news reaches us from Paris : " Blanqui is about to start a new daily journal, the character of which can be judged by its proposed fascinating title , Neither God nor Master.' "" A book has recently been published, which, as a satire on the end to which the free thinking of the present day may ultimately lead , is well 124 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. worth reading. The scene is placed in the twenty-fifth century, and the book opens with this remarkable sentence : " No room for God! " The author is supposed to have been listening to a lecture on " The origin of all things, " by a Professor Glibble. The lecturer had been teaching " that everything had originated from the primeval mist, self-ordered ; Science refused to take extra- natural agencies into account. She recognised no factors in producing the great sum of being but those now working." Having traced life up from the mist through the monad to the quadrumana and so to man, he continued : "There is no opening here, as you see, for what theologians are wont to call a first cause. There is no room for God. Mind, I do not say that there is no God ; that would be inconsistent with the methods of Science. All that I say is, that there is no room for God, meaning His operations. We can trace the several steps of creation ; we can count and number the causes producing each successive step ; and in them we find no supernatural agency. There is no room for God. Sweep the heavens with your most powerful telescope, and you behold the moon brightening under your eyes ; you see her moun1 "Erchomenon " (Sampson Low), p 1. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 125 tains and dark caverns ; the planets become more luminous ; the stars twinkle more brightly, more beautiful ; but you find no God. Take the solar spectrum, and you discover by its help the very substances of which sun and stars are compounded ; you can analyse them in this room ; but in the result of the analysis you find no trace of God, or angel, not even a feather of his wing (here the audience laughed). We conclude, therefore, that there is no room for God. With these words, which fell glibly from the professor's lips, the lecture was brought to a close. "Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments ; neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. " I The author then describes a Sunday as then kept, and proceeds : " As for myself, I intended to go to church ; so after breakfast I asked one of the attendants which was the nearest church . " I don't understand you , citizen-the nearest what ? ' the man replied respectfully. " The nearest church,' I repeated. shook his head, and asked me to explain. He " I mean the place where you worshipwhere people go to worship God. ' I " Erchomenon," pp. 5 , 6. Jer. xxxvi. 24. 126 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. " Pardon me, citizen, I have never heard of it before.' " I was confounded ! Surely the man was befooling me. Never heard of the worship of God! Impossible ! But it was too true. He had never heard of church, of worship, of God." At last, on addressing another, " You want,' he said, after a short silence, ' to visit the Temple of Humanity, where the worship of the Grand d'Etre is performed . " " That Sunday was sacred to Comte, Handel, and Holyoake, and the service consisted of an oratorio of Handel's and a panegyric of Handel. In the missal he found the following passage : 'Jesus was a Jewish peasant, born in Nazareth, a village in what was anciently known as Palestine. He was remarkable for the purity of His life and the simple wisdom of His words. The histories which have been preserved of this remarkable man tend to show the great influence that He acquired over His kind. He set Himself against the superstitions of His times, and shared the fate of all reformers. He was cruelly put to death through the instrumentality of the priests of His own faith in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, under Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judæa. He has exercised a very ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 127 considerable influence over the world, and many of the principles which He taught apply in a remarkable manner to the society of the present age.'" I To quote from this book one more passage. The author listens in his hotel, by means of the telomicrophone, to a lecture by a Professor Spangle on " The History of Civilisation." After tracing civilisation and Christianity through the past ages up to Darwinism, he continued : " The world and man being evolved from nothing, there is no room for an intelligent Cause which men formerly called God, whom they regarded, first as their Creator, then as the Supreme Governor of the universe. All the superstitions that grew round this idea fell to the ground. Those superstitions were strongly entrenched in Christianity. Hence between Science and Christianity a terrible conflict was maintained, which might have continued until the present day, but for a happy discovery, and the moderation of some men of science, combined with the growing indifference of Christians. The happy discovery was this, that Christianity ministered to a want of the human heart, which had been created by the I "Erchomenon," гp. 109, 110. 128 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. habit of thousands of years of worship. The human heart desired to worship. So long as it had an object that it could worship, it was satisfied. Could not Science substitute some other object than the Christians' God ? If it could, it might be hoped that in time the sentiment of worship would gradually die out. Scientific men resolved to conciliate human nature in this point. In this they displayed much moderation and good sense. It was evident that in the close of the nineteenth century Christianity had become a matter of dress-gorgeous dress ; of ceremonies-grand ceremonial ; and of sublime music. The teaching of Jesus was but slightly known, for the book containing His life and teaching was excluded from all the schools in which children were taught ; and hence a generation of Christians grew up without any knowledge of any other Christianity than what they saw in their public meetings, which was, as I have said, mainly an affair of dress, ceremony, and music. This, combined with the spread of evolution, whichwas everywhere taught, reduced I "Meanwhile this volume (the Bible), sown broadcast over the world, without the omission of one jot or tittle, has been excluded from the legal course of instruction in our own elementary schools. "-The Times " Leader, " Dec. 9, 1880. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 129 Christianity to a mere name, and prepared men to forsake it." I The following sentence indicates but too well the tendency of the modern lines of thought : "Those who can read the signs of the times read in them that the kingdom of man is at hand. ” 2 A professor is necessarily a teacher, and such, then, is the mental food that is spread as a tempting dish before the hungry souls of the young and inquiring in our own times. Though the Bible is not given to us to teach us science, yet, inasmuch as it is written by the God of all truth, it cannot lead us into error : it may therefore be interesting to look at some passages which, if rightly understood , may give us some insight into scientific knowledge, and show us that the Bible is not in opposition to Science, even as we now recognise it. In the book of Job, the oldest of the books of the Bible, we find allusions that will repay our research. "God, which removeth the mountains . . . which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble, " ³ shadows forth the disintegration of the hills , and refers also to the phenomena of earthquakes. I "Erchomenon, " p. 144-146. 2 Prof. Clifford. 3 Job ix. 5, 6. ΙΟ 130 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. " Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades. ” I " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth ? "2 show that the science of astronomy was well understood by the ancients, and that the laws of the heavenly bodies and cosmic changes are in the hands of the Creator. "Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth , as if it had issued out of the womb ? when I madethe cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it , and brake up for it My decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further : and here shall thy proud waves be stayed ? . . . Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth ? "3 What more accurate description do we need of the sources of the sea and the bounds of the restless waves ? Indication is here clear that the clouds furnish some of its waters, and also that hidden springs from beneath feed it, and I¹ Job v 9. 2 Job xxxviii. 31-33. 3 Job xxxviii . 8-11 , 16. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 131 that the shore line, feeble and flat as it sometimes seems, is yet a sufficient bar to its invasion of the dry land ; as we also read , " Fear ye not Me? saith the Lord ; will ye not tremble at My presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it : and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail ; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it ?"I So, too, with regard to clouds and rain : " God understandeth the way thereof, He knoweth the place thereof. For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven ; to make the weight for the winds ; and He weigheth the waters by measure. When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder.' 99 2 "For He maketh small the drops of rain : they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof; which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly." 3 I "Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds ? " 4 Even yet it is an unsolved problem how the water, so much heavier than the air, is suspended in it as cloud. ¹ Jer. v. 22. 2 Job xxviii. 23-26. 3 Job xxxvi. 27, 28. 4Job xxxvii. 16. 132 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. " The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north ; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits." I Here we have clearly revealed a distinct scientific fact ; and although this was written nearly three thousand years ago, yet it is only recently that the circular theory of storms has been demonstrated, and acknowledged as a natural law. But now the fact is so well established that the pathway of storms is traced, and their progress from one part of the earth is telegraphed to another as a warning of their advent in their circuit. Also in the 39th and 40th chapters of Job, what better description do we find of like antiquity of the nature, characteristics, and habits of the animals, even of our own time ? Then, too , we find also in the Bible passages that predict with no uncertain sound some of the discoveries and inventions that we have seen spring into existence in our own day. " But thou, O Daniel, shut up the word, and seal the book, even to the time of the end : many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."192 I Eccles. i. 6. 2 Dan. xii. 4. ON ATHEISM AND ON SCIENCE. 133 And what do we see now, but that the running to and fro of man in travelling is increased in a measure wholly out of all proportion to that which obtained only fifty years ago ; and knowledge is multiplying to an amazing extent . Moreover, the word translated " increased " may also mean " darted," indicating by no means obscurely the darting of information by the means of the telegraph. I In the end of Isaiah we have this remarkable passage : " They shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters (marg. coaches) , and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord." Here we have told us how Israel shall be brought back to their own land, a consummation we see approaching at no great distance of time, and among the means of conveyance mentioned are words that seem to imply railways or " covered cars " as the then more usual method of transit. Thus, if space permitted, we could show that the Bible, God's Word, is no mean exponent of Science, and we may well hold it true, that when the Bible seems to be in opposition to modern I Isa. lxvi. 20. 134 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SATAN. Science it is not because the Bible is wrong, but because in our blindness we fail to perceive some link that would reconcile the two. And when a miracle seems to contravene some natural law, who are we to limit the Holy One, and say that the God who made the laws cannot hold them in abeyance for some wise purpose ? Man does this when necessity arises, and shall man be wiser than his Maker ? " Lo, these are parts of His ways ; but how little a portion is heard of Him ? ” I 1 ¹ Job xxvi. 14. CHAPTER IX. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. "God is love."—I JOHN iv. 8. "Just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." -ROM. iii. 26. HAVING thus sketched in the previous chapters the gospel according to Satan-and how imperfect an outline of Satan's malignant teaching he has given, the author is himself but too painfully conscious-we will now consider God's marvellous plan of redemption as exhibited in the gospel of Christ. And here we are treading on holy ground ; it behoves us, therefore, to approach the subject with a sense of deep solemnity, desiring to learn God's will as revealed in His Holy Word. If the Bible is not the Word of God, the whole of our lives, after all, may be one vast mistake good and evil can then be only relative terms whereby to express our line of conduct, and there is nothing left but to please our- 136 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. selves, inasmuch as, without revelation , there is no knowledge of a hereafter, nor of any judgment that shall be beyond the present term of existence. "And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.' 99 I Three cardinal points must of necessity be believed in order to a full comprehension of the Gospel of Christ. They are : I. The Divinity of Jesus Christ ; II. The doctrine of substitution in punishment as effected through union with Christ ; and III. The Resurrection of Christ. For (i) if Jesus Christ were not, as He claimed to be, God, then there is nothing for it but that He was the greatest impostor that ever lived, seeing that He put Himself forth as the Divine Redeemer for the salvation of man, which , as a mere man, He never could have been. Then (ii ) if man cannot be identified in union with Christ, substitution is a mere fiction , for God's justice could not have been satisfied by the vicarious punishment of a man like unto his fellows. I ¹ Josh. v. 15. HIS DIVINITY. 137 And again (iii ) if Christ did not rise , there is no proof that His undergoing punishment on man's behalf is of any avail : for if he were not received again into God's presence, what proof is there that the sin of the world that was laid upon Him has ever been lifted from Him? Taking, therefore, each of these statements , and examining them by the light of God's Word, and thereby establishing their truth, we shall see that the Gospel of Christ is one consistent whole, and the salvation of man is its logical and only sequence. And, first, note how far, in the prophecies concerning a Redeemer, there is ground for the admission that that redeemer should be God Himself as follows : " Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. " ¹ " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ; and this is His name whereby He shall be called : THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. " ² "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though 1 Isa. xl. 3. 2 Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. 138 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." 99 I "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel , and His Redeemer the Lord of hosts ; I am the first, and I am the last ; and beside me there is no God." " I amthe first and the last : I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and behold I am alive for evermore. " 913 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. "4 "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary ; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. " " Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious ; but unto them which be disobedient . . . the same is made ... a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. " 6 " Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called wonderI Mich. v. 2. 4 Zech. xiii. 7. 2 Isa. xliv. 6. 5 Isa. viii . 13, 14. 3 Rev. i. 17, 18. 61 Pet. ii. 7, 8. HIS DIVINITY. 139 ful Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. ” " Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel," " which being interpreted is, God with us. ” 3 " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."4 5 Surely we have here in these passages a sufficient number of prophecies so clearly stated " that he may run that readeth. " And those whose duty it was to make known to the people the will of God as set forth in prophecy should have been fully prepared to recognise the coming of the Messiah, as the sent One from JEHOVAH ; and, had they been looking to God for guidance, they would without doubt have acknowledged Him as He that should redeem Israel ; "but their eyes were holden that they should not know Him, "' 6 and so "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."7 John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, I Isa. ix. 6. 5 Hab. ii. 2. 2 Isa. vii. 14. 3 Matt. i. 23. 6 Luke xxiv. 16. 4 Luke i. 35. 7 John. i. 11. 140 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. also testifies concerning Him, " Behold the Lamb of God. . . . I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God. " "He that cometh from above is above all. . . . He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. . . . The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand." 992 Jesus also bore witness concerning Himself as to His being Divine : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. " 3 "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there AM I in the midst of them. ” 4 " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth and, lo, I AM with you alway, even unto the end of the world. " 5 " There were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man speak blasphemies ? Who can forgive sins but God only ? ... but that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins ( He saith to the sick of the palsy) , I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all. ” " He that seeth me, seeth Him that sent John. i. 29, 34. 4 Matt. xviii. 20. 2 John. iii. 31, 34, 35. 996 3 John viii. 58. 5 Matt. xxviii. 18, 20. 6 Mark ii. 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, HIS DIVINITY. Ι4Ι me. "I "" Father."2 He that hath seen me, hath seen the " The high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said [a Hebrew term of positive affirmation: ] nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. " " Jesus said, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true ; for I know whence I came, and whither I go ; if I judge, my judgment is true : for I am not alone, but I and the Father which sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me." 4 It was in no uncertain way that Jesus bore witness to and claimed His Godhead. The Jews who heard Him did not mistake His meaning; they fully understood that He indeed claimed to be God, and therefore they accused Him of blasphemy. " The Jews sought the more to kill Him, 1 John. xii. 45. 3 Matt. xxvi. 63, 64. 2 John xiv. 9. 4 John viii. 14, 16-18. 142 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. " "The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone Thee not ; but for blasphemy, and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God. " 2 After our Lord had stated to the high priest that He was God, " the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need have we of witnesses ?"3 It is remarkable, too, that even Satan, as represented in one of his spirits commissioned to possess a poor maniac, was forced to confess the Godhead of Christ : " What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God most high ? I beseech Thee, torment me not ? "4 Here we have the strange sight of the devil a suppliant at the feet of Jesus ! We will now look at some passages wherein the apostles bear witness to the divinity of Christ. "Thomas answered, and said unto Him, My Lord and my God. "5 "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, 3 Matt. xxvi. 65. I John. v. 18. 2 John X. 33. 4 Luke viii. 28. 5 John xx. 28. HIS DIVINITY. 143 even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory : which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." I " Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. "2 66 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us."3 " God ... hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds ; who, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high ... Unto the son He saith , Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; . . . and Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation. of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of Thine hands. "4 II Cor. ii. 7, 8. 3 Tit. ii. 13, 14. 2 Phil. ii. 6. 4 Heb. i. 1-3, 8, 10. 144 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. " Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever."I 66 God, and (rai, kai, even) the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at His appearing and His kingdom . ' 12 "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just ... and killed the Prince of life."3 "Feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. "4 This is a remarkable passage, as it speaks of the blood of Christ the Redeemer, as the blood of God. " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. "5 "His name is called the Word of God. " 6 " By Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by Him, and for Him and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. "7

" Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath immortality. " 8 I Rom. ix. 5. 5 John i. 1, 3. 2 2 Tim. iv. I. 6 Rev. xix. 13. 3 Acts iii. 14, 15. 4 Acts xx. 28. 7 Col. i. 16, 17. 8 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15, 16. HIS DIVINITY. 145 "He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. ' " The Lamb shall overcome them : for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings. ”² " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. "3 "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. "4 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and. the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. " 5 " I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders ; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth , and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and I Rev. xix. 16. 4 Heb. xiii. 8. 2 Rev. xvii. 14. 3 Col. ii. 9. 5 Rev. i. 8. II 146 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four-andtwenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever."99 I " To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. "2 "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. ' 993 These passages prove to us incontestably that the man Christ Jesus was also the God of glory; that He claimed to be so Himself ; that the Jews thus understood His claim ; that the devils acknowledged that He was God ; that the apostles all bore witness to the same truth ; and that He is worshipped, when such worship is permitted to be offered to God alone. We ask, then, why was it necessary that Jesus should be God ? or rather, why was it necessary that God Himself should come in order to redeem man from his fallen estate , and to raise him to glory, and, wonderful to say, to a position of union with Himself ? If Christ had been but a man he could not have been the Redeemer of the world ; for, as man, He would have been partaker of man's I Rev. v. 11-14. 2 Jude 25. 3 Matt. iv. 10. HIS DIVINITY. 147 · • sinful nature, and would Himself have needed redemption ; whereas He was only made " in the likeness of sinful flesh . " It was necessary, therefore, that a Redeemer should be found for man, " holy, harmless, undefiled , separate from sinners ; who needeth not daily, as those high priests" (the high priests of the Jewish Temple) , " to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's . " 2 " Nor yet that He should offer Himself often for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world : but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. "3 If He had been only a man it would have been sufficient for Him to bear His own punishment ; as man He could not have borne sin's tremendous load ; but being holy, He, as God, had a right to His own life, and that life He had power to give up for sinful man, and, so, by taking his place in punishment, to die in his stead ; and further, as God, when the work was finished, to rise in the power of His eternal life , and to give of that life to His redeemed ones. In the second place, let us examine the Rom. viii. 3. 2 Heb. vii. 26, 27. 3 Heb. ix. 25, 26. 148 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. proposition of the necessity for receiving the doctrine of the substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner, and, for the acceptance of that doctrine, that also of complete union with the Substitute who takes the sinner's place in punishment in order to give to the redeemed sinner His place in glory. There is a proverb that " Many a true word is spoken in jest ; " and never was truer word spoken in more bitter jest than when the chief priests, the scribes, and elders, parading in front of the dying Saviour's cross, cried out in withering taunt, " He saved others ; Himself He cannot save. ' It was indeed too true for the Holy Victim, but a glorious truth as regarded poor sinful, rebellious man. There was no other way by which man could escape just punishment ; had his Substitute refused to drink the bitter cup to its last dregs, man would have had to drink it, and the draught would have overwhelmed him in the depths of eternal death : "O Christ, what burdens bow'd Thy head ! Our load was laid on Thee : Thou stoodest in the sinner's steadTo bear all ill for me : A victim led, Thy blood was shed ; Now there's no load for me. Matt. xxvii. 42. HIS SUBSTITUTION. 149 " Death and the curse were in our cup : O Christ, 'twas full for Thee ! But Thou hast drained the last dark drop, 'Tis empty now for me. Thine own free will bore all the ill : Now life and peace for me. "Jehovah lifted up His rod : O Christ, it fell on Thee ! Thou wast sore stricken of Thy God ! There's not one stroke for me. Thy tears, Thy blood beneath it flow'd ; Thy bruising healeth me ! " The doctrine of substitution is exemplified most clearly in the account of the trial of Abraham. When "Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son, the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said ... Lay not thine hand upon the lad , neither do thou anything unto him ; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns : and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. " I Here we see that God accounted the sacrifice I Gen. xxii. 10-13. 150 THE GOSPel of christ. of Isaac as actually accomplished, and He accepted the death of the ram as equivalent to Isaac's death. And the Holy Spirit, writing through the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of the sacrifice of Abraham as an accomplished fact : " By faith Abraham, when he was tried , offered up Isaac : and he that had received the promises offered up his onlybegotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called : accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure. ” Here the doctrine of the resurrection is emphatically declared. 99 I Again, it is written : " All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; and with His stripes we are healed. " 2 "Christ also suffered for us . . · who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye were healed."3 1 Heb. xi. 3Pet. ii. 22, 24. 17-19. 2 Isa. liii. 5, 6 HIS SUBSTITUTION. 151 Here we have the distinct statement that God transferred our sins to His own Son ; that beholding Him covered with our sins, as He is " of purer eyes than to behold evil, " He punished Him for those iniquities of ours ; He inflicted a real chastisement upon Him, hiding His face from Him ; and then we are explicitly told that by His stripes, those stripes of punishment, we are healed. This is no equivocal language, but the clear declaration of God, repeated and preached by the apostles sent and commissioned bythe Lord Jesus Christ Himself ; who would never have allowed such a statement to be promulgated had it not been entirely and most fully true. But for the clear perception of the doctrine of substitution—to establish it as a doctrine that admits of no dispute-it is necessary that there be a strict identification of the Substitute with those whose place He took. We will therefore look at some passages where we are told that man is united with Christ, and so with God.. And we shall see that the Scripture idea of union is not merely the union of two natures, but incorporation as of soul with body, a receiving of man into God. I Hab. i. 13. 152 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 66 We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. " * "That they all may be one ; as Thou Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us ; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them ; that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one. "2 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. ” ³ “ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” 4 In confirmation of the incorporation of Christ with His redeemed, His purchased ones, it is written, "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so ALSO IS CHRIST. " 5 This verse, even if it stood alone, would prove the Divine origin of the Scriptures. Had man written this passage he would not have dared 11 John. v. 2c. 3 John xv. 4, 5. 4 Rom. viii. 1. 2 John. xvii. 21-23. 51 Cor. xii. 12. HIS SUBSTITUTION. 153 to express himself in such language, but would have written, " so also is the Church. " But the Holy Spirit, recognising the absolute oneness of Christ and His people, takes as an illustration that which constitutes one complete and indissoluble whole, and writes concerning the Church as if it was the Christ. "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."I "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him, male and female created He them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created." 2 So "when he bringeth in the first- begotten into the world "3 God made him male and female, Christ and the Church, and called their name Christ. " He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. " 4 " This is a great mystery ; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."5 We must now consider what part this substitution or union with Christ plays in God's great scheme of redemption. For God must be true to Himself ; how, then, can he be “just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" ? The law of God's justice necessitates the punishment of sin . Were He to pardon sin from 1 Eph. v. 30. 2 Gen. v. 1, 2. 5 Eph. v. 32. 3 Heb. 1, 6. 4 1 Cor. vi. 17. 6 Rom. iii . 26. 154 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. love alone, where would be His justice ? and were He to punish sinful man in strict justice simply, where would be His love ? As Judge, He has to administer His own law; and unless God can be just at the same time that He justifies the ungodly, justifying His absolute justice, man's salvation would be altogether impossible. If compensation were merely as payment for a debt, substitution would suffice-as where a man pays another's debt the claim is satisfied, and the debtor is free. But with crime it is otherwise, and union or identification with the criminal is necessary to satisfy the claims of justice. "If, then this union be real and personal, and not merely legal or metaphorical, the death of Christ must necessarily be a complete satisfaction to justice, not in theory only but in fact. When the head was crucified, the members must be reckoned as having died ; when the head rose from the dead, the members could no longer be held as prisoners ; and when Christ ascended to heaven, every member of His body was entitled to regard it as his home. If the head be in heaven, the members may for a time be on earth ; but they cannot remain there, far less can they ever be in hell. HIS SUBSTITUTION. 155 "Taking for granted, then, that the Scripture representation is true-and it would be foolish to make Scripture responsible for a theory which it does not assert-the death and resurrection of Christ render the salvation of His people not a possibility only, but a necessity according to law. Either the connection must be severed , or they must be admitted into heaven : if He be the head and they be the members, where He is there must they be also. "When Noah went into the ark, no miracle was needed for his salvation. He and the ark were dealt with as a unity, because it bore his weight, and he was lifted up by its buoyancy ; it was subjected to the storm without, he was sheltered in its chambers within. The effect might be said to be substitution , but the cause was union. If that union had not existedthat is to say, if he had not been in the arkand if he had floated and the ark had sunk, such a result, instead of being a satisfaction to law, would have been a double miracle. In like manner, if there were no union between Christ and His people, His death and their salvation, instead of being a satisfaction to justice would be a double outrage. " 1 I"Primeval Man Unveiled, " pp. 271, 272. (Hamilton Adams. ) 156 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. "Mercy to any one not united to Christ is an utter impossibility. Out of Christ there is no mercy, and can be none, else Christ died in vain. There would have been no necessity whatever for an atonement in such a case, because if God could be merciful to any one out of Christ, He might have been merciful to all. Those, therefore, who are trusting to the general mercy of God, and are conscious that they are not united to Christ, must be labouring under a very dangerous mistake. There can be no lawless mercy with God, and this would be a violation of lawwhich we have no right to expect. . . . Our sins, in order to be forgiven, must be conveyed somewhere : the only place to which they can be conveyed is the person of Christ, and the only means of conveyance is union. If they are not so disposed of, and yet remain unpunished, they would stain the justice and the throne of God, which is impossible." ' I If salvation could have been obtained otherwise than by the death of Christ, then all He went through-the emptying Himself of His Godhead, His sad life here on earth, the wrath of His Holy Father, and His ignominious death -would have been utterly useless, and worse than useless. I"Primeval Man Unveiled, " pp. 274, 275. HIS SUBSTITUTION. 157 66 According to the Bible, a man is saved, not because he is better than others, but because he is IN Christ, and because Christ is IN him ; and a man is lost, not because he is worse than others, but because he is NOT IN Christ, and because Christ does NOT dwell IN him. Man, being a sinner, must die, not by the sentence of a judge only, but by the operation of a law ; and when he dies he descends into hell, because there is no other place to which he can go, unless some one interferes to save him. " "That God cOULD give up His Son to suffering and shame for the sake of His ruined creatures, but COULD NOT, by any means, pardon them by a violation of law, does not convey to us the idea of a remorseless tyrant, or an insensate God, but rather that of a Being who commands at once our highest admiration and adoring love." 2 "At the same time, it must be observed that, in order to satisfy the requirements of law, the union between the sinner and Christ must be a real and personal union, not theoretical only, or fictitious. There is no possibility of over-reaching the laws of God by any legal equivocation. The union must be a union like 1 " Primeval Man Unveiled, " p. 276. 2 Ibid. p. 278. 158 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. that of the husband and wife in regard to property, or the head and hand in regard to crime. Justice will not be fooled into mercy by a pretended union which exists only in fancy, and has no reality in fact. The union must be such that justice and law cannot distinguish the parties, the one from the other, so that when it has struck the one, it has struck the other, and when it has got the blood of the one, it has got the blood ofthe other-in short, there can be no salvation , except to those who are bonâfide in Christ, and Christ in them. " I "With Christ we died to sin, Lay buried in His tomb ; But quickened now with Him, our life, We stand beyond our doom." We come now to the consideration of the third proposition, that it was necessary to our salvation that Christ should be raised from the dead, and that there should be proofs of such resurrection . For had not God received Him again into His throne it would have been because He was still laden with the sin of the world, sin unexpiated and unatoned. "If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no I " Primeval Man Unveiled, " p. 279. HIS RESURRECTION. 159

resurrection of the dead ? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God ; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished . " I So inseparably was the resurrection of Christ preached with the gospel that the Athenians thought Paul was introducing to their notice two new gods, male and female-o ' Inooûs and ǹáváστaois (hō Iēsous and he Anastasis) Jesus and the Resurrection. " Some said, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods ; because He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." 2 David prophesied concerning Christ : " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell " ( Hades, the place of departed spirits) ; " neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. " 3 Christ Himself explained to His disciples that II Cor. xv. 12-18. 2 Acts xvii. 18. 3 Psa. xvi. 10. 160 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. the Scriptures prophesied His resurrection : "Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day ; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations." I "Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh ; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. " 2 Here we have distinctly declared that while, on the one hand, the Man Christ Jesus was naturally of David's seed ; on the other, the Holy Spirit witnessed that He was God's Son by the resurrection . "We believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead ; who was delivered for " (on account of) " our offences, and was raised again for " (on account of) "our justification. " 3 Here we are told that, while Christ was delivered to death because of our sins, He was raised up because our justification was accomplished : in other words, the resurrection of I Luke xxiv. 45-47. 2 Rom. i. 3, 4. 3 Rom. iv. 24, 25. HIS RESURRECTION. 161 Christ proves that, in consequence of Christ's death, we are accounted justified before God. I "Who is He that condemneth ? Is it " (the answer is here also, as in the next verse put as a question for emphasis) " Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" Can it be possible ?-nay, it is impossible—that the Christ that died for us, and who was raised up in proof that He had left behind Him in the grave those sins for which He was punished, could condemn us for the sin that no longer existed in the count against us. The fact of the resurrection ofChrist is proved by many independent witnesses, and their testimony is given in clear and unmistakable language, confirmed in the narrative inspired by the Holy Spirit. "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Mag. dalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with Him." 2 "And as the women went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held Him by the feet and worshipped Him." 3 1 Rom. viii. 34. 2 Markxvi. 9, 10. 3 Matt. xxviii. 9. 12 162 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. "And behold two" [of the disciples] "went that same day to a village called Emmaus. . . . And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. ” I "And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then cameJesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you." 2 "After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. " 3 Paul writes, " I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures ; and that he was buried , and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures ; and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve ; after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep . After that he was seen of James ; then of all the apostles . And last of all he was seen of me also ." 4 "To whom also " (the apostles) " he showed I Luke xxiv. 13-15. 3 John xxi. 1. 2 John xx. 26. 4 Cor. xv. 3-8. HIS RESURRECTION. 163 himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days." " I Satan knew full well that Jesus would rise from the dead, for he believed what was written; 2 and he made gigantic efforts to nullify, if possible, the effect ofthe resurrection , and to account for the emptiness of the Saviour's tomb by a lie. He posted guards at the tomb of Jesus, and risked the lives of the sentinels, according to Roman law, in his attempt to promulgate a story of the sacrilegious robbery from the grave of Christ's body; but he thereby over- reached himself, for the very precaution taken against any possible fraud made the fact of the resurrection only the more surely proved when his guards were struck down, paralysed with fear, at the stupendous event that they were powerless to prevent. "The chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said , while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead. • . . Pilate said unto 1 Acts i. 3. 2 James ii. 19. 164 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. them , Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch. In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, . . . behold, there was a great earthquake : for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. . . . And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. ... Behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught ; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." 991 This testimony to the fact of the resurrection is most valuable, as it is the testimony of the enemy, and it proves that the chief priests and elders fully acknowledged the fact as having ¹ Matt. xxvii. 62-66 ; xxviii. 1 , 2, 4, 11-15. HIS RESURRECTION. 165 taken place, else why were they so anxious to propagate the false report, and take such precautions to prevent the falsehood becoming known ? We have also the testimony of the angel of the Lord who was sent to open the sepulchre : " He is not here : for He is risen as He said. ” ' Again : Festus bears witness of what Paul taught " of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." 2 Paul also, writing to Timothy, says, " Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel . "3 Again Paul, preaching at Athens, said, God "hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained ; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." 4 And finally, in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, He Himself testifies, " I AM the first and the last ; I AM He that liveth , and was dead ; and behold I AM alive for evermore. ” 5 We have thus seen that the resurrection of Christ was absolutely necessary in order to I Matt. xxviii. 6. 2Acts xxv. 19. 4 Acts xvii. 31. 5 Rev. i. 17, 32 Tim. ii. 8. 18. 166 THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. prove that His sacrifice of Himself for man had availed to remove sin : for had not God raised Him up there would have been no particle of evidence that the punishment for sin had put that sin away ; and man would have stumbled on in darkness without a Redeemer, or any knowledge of the necessity for a Redeemer, until death revealed to him a yawning abyss from which there would have been no escape. The three propositions, therefore, which we placed at the beginning of this chapter have been demonstrated to be the truth of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and as necessary to be believed by all who would accept salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ. First, that the Redeemer of mankind must have been Divine, as otherwise He would have needed redemption Himself, and would have been powerless to have done anything for His fellow-men, or to have stood in man's stead. Secondly, that the Redeemer was not only man's Substitute as one that took his place merely, but that there being an actual personal union and identification of the Redeemer with . the redeemed, the punishment inflicted on the former was, in fact, inflicted on the latter; so that the redeemed stand freed from all condemnation, CONCLUSION. 167 and are made just in the sight of the Righteous God. And thirdly, that the resurrection of the Redeemer proved the completeness of His work, His acceptance, and, therefore, that of the rest of His body with God, and confirmed the truth of the first proposition that the Redeemer was none other than God Himself. " God is the God of Salvation . " I " Let God be true, but every man a liar. " 2 " Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord , and the cup of devils ; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. "3 " How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, follow him ; but if Baal" (Satan), " then follow him. " 4 "Consider what I say ; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. " 5 1 Psa. lxviii. 20. 41I Kings xviii . 21. 2 Rom. iii. 4. 31 Cor. x. 21. 5 2 Tim. ii. 7. Δόξα Θεῷ.

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See also

• Gospel
• Satan