Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1888 — SATAN ON HIS TRAVELS. [ARTICLE]

SATAN ON HIS TRAVELS.

WHAT SATAN FINDS AND HOW HE ACTS. The Yonth Especial Pet* (it Hi* Majesty —He Destroys the Domestic Circle. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday. Subject: “Satan off His Travels.” Text, Job i, 7. Heisaid: .*This monster of my text has a great ' “(JnelyTTnamesr You*know that not" tOrious villains are apt to take a variety of panies. Arraigned in Paris for burglary, a man with give one name; arrested in San Francisco for arson, he will give another name; imprisoned at Montreal for murder, he will give another name. So this creature of mv text has many names. He is called in sacted and profane literature Abaddon, Apollyon, Ahrimanes, Zaniel, Asmodeus, the” "revenging devil, Beelzebub, the sovereign of devils; Lucifer, the brilliant devil; Diabolus,the despairing devil; Mammon, the money devil; Pluto, the fiery devil; Baal, the military devil; Mercsin, the plaguing devil. He is called the father of lies, and has for his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren ail falsehoods, deceptions, frauds, swindles, slanders, back-bitings and, subterfuges. All men of good sense, whether enlightened by the Bible or in heathendom,have noticed that there are baleful and maleficent influences abroad that have not their origin in the human race, and demonology is as certain as angelology. We find that there is somewhere a ihpnarch of all wickedness. He has a throne- of pow'er, and courtiers, and armies, and navies, and machinery of evil vast as the round world. He is the supervisor of all mischief. And what he cannot do himself he delegates others to do, and, as each one of our race is supposed to have a guardian good angel. I have no doubt that every human being has a besieging, malignant spirit nagging his footsteps and trying to make him think wrong and act wrong—an especial devil,a devil of fraud, or a devil of avarice, or a devil of uncleannqss, or a devil of poor health;-and, as in my text the spirits are represented as reporting To the Lord, so I have no doubt the evil spirits report to Satan, who is the enemy of the whole human race, and who has a celerity that makes flight around the world the matter of a second, and who marshals on his side the forces volcanic, atmospheric, epidemic, geologic, oceanic and cyclonic. Satan began his attack-on this world long before Adam and Eve were created. While I believe the Bible record that the world was fitted up for man’s residence in one week, I believe also the geological record that the world was previously for hundreds of thousands of years going through great changes. The lumber for the house that was to bq built in a week forour first parents may have been hauled to the spot a million years before. This Prince of the Power of the Air has been trying for all that million > ears to demolish and use up this world. The record is on the rocks. He tried to drown it with universal waters. He tried to burn it up with universal fires. Then he tried to freeze it into ruin, and covered it with universal glaciers. And for ages he kept this world before our parents occupied it in paroxysms and convulsions, and the remains of those struggles I have seen and you have seen in museums, or if with geologist’s hammer vou have gone down into the stone libraries of the mountains. Yea, after the famous Bible week the world has been fitted into a paradise for the home of our sinless ancestors. Satan comes into the Garden of Eden, not through the gate of foliage and uptight in posture, but crawls in under the bushes, a snake, and, having despoiled our first parents,, goes to work to ruin Paradise, and does the work so thoroughly that one who recently visited the site of the ancient garden between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates says the

place isadesert;-Ytot- -a-flower;- -and-4ke ■ grounTso poor that nothing but some date trees grow there, and the miserable villagers from near by are not so well covered up with their rags as Adam and Eve were covered up with their innocence. So, you . see, the father of lies toid the truth for once when the Lord said unto him, “Whence comest thou?” and Satan said, “From going to and fro in the earth,and from walking up and downin it.” In my text we have Satan on his travels 1 , and I am going to tell you some of the routes he is apt to take. On his way down from the palace where he reported himself in answer to the question, “Whence comest thou?” the first range of mischief he may be expected toTake place in the air. It is not a witticisim or a slip of the pen when Paul in his letter tothe Ephesians called Satan the “Prince of the Power of the Air.” I think it means that Satan works through the conditions of the atmosphere. The west wind is full of amels, the east wind is full of devils.. Satan spreads abroad hia black wings and hurricanes and euroclydons and Carribbean whirlwinds and equinoctials are hatched out. He takes the miasmas that float up from swamps and hatches them into typhoid fevers. He takes the cold blasfs and hatchesthem into pneumonias and rheumatisms and consumptions. Not only has he power in the upper air where higher clouds float, but power over the lower air * which we breathe, and as we breathe nineteen times a minute and take in three hundred and fiftf cubic feet of air in every twentyfour hours, and much of this air affects the arterial circulation, you see what opportunities the Prince of the Air has for contaminating and despoiling ahd demoralizing a man. Another route he is apt to take is in domestic life.' There i 6 no greater sport for him than a conjugal quarrel. It does not make any difference how long the marriage ring has oeen on the finger of the right hand, he will tfy to pull off the signet He says to the husband “ Yhat a plain wife you have compared to what she once was? Don’t you see that the color has gone out of cheek, and there are several wrinkles about her temp’es and a sprinkling of frost on her locks? * Besides that, you have advanced ih intelligence, while she has stood still or gohe back. How hard it is that you shouTd be chained to such dulless and imbecility!” Then he turnsand says to the wife: “That man neglects yon: you have a right to be jea'ous. He likea his cigar and his club and anvthing and everything better than you. Why not get a divorce? There are'thousands of marriage re-

lations strained almost to breaking, and I commend to all men and women who are restless in the present marriage state that they resume the; old time courtship and take as much pains to make themselves agreeable as they did five or ten or twenty years ago before the wedding, march announced to the flushed and fluttering cfowd-that the bride and groom were coming. TZXnotlier route that Satan us apt to take in his active travels is the factories and other establishments where capital in the <4’*™ ..coaaiiagjQam aad a. good many hands of laborers are busy among wheels and spindles and fabrics. On this visit he will first step into the manufacturer’s office,, and,, finding the owner and proprietor of the great establishment all alone with his correspondence and his account books, says to him. “You are not making as much money as you ought. You furnish all the brains. Were it not for your enterprise this establishment would not be in existence. These' men and women in your employ are of very common mold. Their appetite is’coarse and they do not need the luxuries you require. Their comfort and happiness are of very little importance. Put them down on tne very verge of starvation and take all the profits into your own possession and if they do not like it tell them to go where they can do better.” Having done his work in the count-ing-room, Satan steps right out among the workmen. He says: “You work too many hours, and you do your work better than it needs to be done. You are serving a bloated bondholder anyhow. He has no right to have any more than you have. Why should he ride and you walk? Why should he haVe tender- : loin steak and you salt .porit?- Capital is the enemy of labor. Let labor be the sworn foe of capital. Why don’t you strike and bring him to terms? Wait until he has a large order to fill by contract and then he can not help himself. Go all together, without a moment’s warning, and tell him you are going to stop. If. he has more resources than you know of, and persists in going on and getting new men, give them a volley of brickbats or put a little dynamite in his office and blow him and his factory all up with the same explosion.” Another route Satan is apt to take in his active travels is through the mercantile establishments. He steps in and says to the clerks: “How much salary do you get? Is that all? Why, you can’t live on that! Yotrfiave a right to enough for a livelihood. A few quarters out of the money-drawer will never be missed, or here and there is a remnant of goods you could take home without being found out.- Or you could change those account books a little and you could make that figure eight a nought and that figure five a three, and if you do not feel exactly right about doing that you can some day pay it back, which you can do perfectly easy. Don’t feel like running the risk? Well, then you can’t go to the theater and you can’t go on that round with the boys and you will have to wear that plain coat, whereas you could have ycur overcoat fur-lined, and take board at a tip-top place and walk amid plush and tapestries positively Oriental. While you are making up.your mind I will just go through the different part sos this great commercial establishment and try every one from the wealthy firm down to the errand boys.” The result of that Satanic visit, is that one of the partners has drawn so much out of the concern that the whole business is crippled and a bright and promising boy is sent home to his mother in disgrace and a young man is in jail for embezzlement. Threelives ruined and three eternities. Satan would rather have one young man than twenty old ones. If he would win the septuagenarians and the octoganarians ho could do but little harm with them. But he says: “Giveme a young man, especially if he be bright and generous and social.” He sees that young men have for good or bad been the mightiest influence in this world. Fernando Cortez cpiiquered Mexico at thirty-twojGus-tavus Adolphus became immortal in history so early that he died at thirty-eight; Raphael, most famous of the painters, died at thirty-seven, William Pitt was

Prime Minister of England at twentyfour. Jesus Christ completed his earthly life at thirty-three. Five years in a young man’s life are of more power for good or evil than the last fifteen of an old man’s life. So Satan is especially greedy for young men. and in going to and fro in the ear h he has especial temptation for them, alter men’s souls. Another route that Satan on his active travels is apt to take, is for the despoiling of the people’s souls, It does not pay him merely to destroy the bodies of men and women. Those bodies would soon be gone anyhow, but great treasures are involved in this Satanic excurtion.' . But blessed be God! I may substitute anthem for requiem and “Hallekujah Chrous” for the"Deg.d March in Saul.” The New Testament says: The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.” It prophesied that an angel. would come down from heaven with key and chain and incarcerate and shut up Jhe old dragon. It says that Christ came to “destroy him that had the power of death—that is, the devil.” And from the way Christ drove the devil out of those possessed by him until he was glad to hide under the bristles of the swine of Gadara, and from other violent ejectments, we know that there is in existence a power a millionfold mightier than the diabolic. The old lion of death shall go down under the stroke and roa - of the “Lion of Judah’s tribe.” Yea, miy text shows that Satan was compelled to report to the Almighty and give account of himself. When God said to him, “Whence comest thou?” he was forced to answer. What means that Scripture which says that Christ shall bruise the serpent’s head? If you have ever killed a snake the passage ought to be plain to you. You see this old serperit, the .devil, has crawled across the nations, poisoning whole generations and leaving its trail on everything, but after a while it will be cornered, and hissing and writhing in rage, and with crest lifted and forked tongue shot outfit will make final attack oh Christ, but Christ will advance upon it, and, lifting h ; s omnipotent foot, that foot strong enough to crush a world, lifting that foot right over the head of the . reptile, will put down his heel with a crushing power that shall leave the monster bleeding and mpshed never to hiss again, or bite again/or shake his old rattles again. Tbahk God he has already received a stunning blow. H ear you not the rumbling of the Christian printing presses and the whirlin n of the Gospel chariot wheel? As mnuy souls have been add-

ed to the Christian Church in the last eighty years as in the previous eighteen centuries, and that is a ratio of increase acclamatory with gladness. The kingdom is coming apd I am so sure of it that I do not propose to fret and worry because it has not already come. I may jump to get on a boat that is going off, but I do not propose to jump for a boat that is coming in. The'sharp attacks of infidelity ana sin are a good" sign that especial blessing is coming in showers over ail the earth Flies bite hard just before a rain, .JLweilfl fiQt aee the real consummation dur children will see it. Look out for the wiles of the devil, not only those of you who are young, but the middle-aged an 1 the old. Outside of God you are not safe a moment. But yield not to disheartenment. If we put our trust in God, our best days are yet to come—days of victory, days of song, days of heaven, .and the best days of the cause of righteousness in all the earth are yet to come. As the ten thousand men of Xenophon’s army, when thev came to the top of Mount Theches, and saw the waters on which they were to sail for home, the soldiers,with clapping hands and waving banners, all together shouted: “The sea, the sea!” So we today in our march toward our heavenly home come up to the top of the mountain of holy anticipation, and look off upon oceans of light and oceans of glory and oceans of joy; and, thrilled as we have never been thrilled before, we dap our hands and wave our gospel ensigns and cry one to another and shout up to the responding and re-echoing heavens: “The sea, the sea!” ELECTION ECHOES. T. Provencher, a Judge of Election, was shot and instantly killed during a political row at San Rafael, N. M. The Republicans of Pittsburg and Allegheney celebrated Harrison’s election with the most enthusiastic demonstration ever given in those cities. • r Chairman Hunter of the Democratic State Committee of lowa, who was arrested on a charge made by John West, of bribery o f voters, has waived examination and given bond for his appearance for trial. Two men were killed at the polls in Fayette, Mo. Rice Maupin, a young white man, and Taylor Hight settled an old feud by a shooting match, in which Maupin was killed. Moses Why land, colored, attacked a white man and was shot and killed. Daniel Phillips, of Louisville, Lewis County, New York, voted for Madison in 1808,, and he has voted at every Presidential election since. He cast his twentieth Presidential ballot for Harrison’s grandfather in 1840. Mr. Phillips is over one hundred years old. General Harrison’s great victory has caused no change in the customary order of his household. He goes out for his morning walks, usually alone, and fega'dless of the weather. Mrs. Hairison does not appear to be burdened with the new responsibility that has been placed upon her. Colonel Quay and W. W. Dudley,have arrived at Washington, where they will manage the affairs of the National Republican Committee henceforward. They expect to make a vigorous contest for seats in the disputed districts and to seat several Republicans in seats now claimed by Democrats. Anna Dickinson, the lecturer and actress, has begun suit in the N. Y. Supreme Court against the Republican National Committee to recover $1,250 for services rendered during the campaign. She claims that she was engaged in September to deliver thirty lectures in the West, and was to receive $125 for each lecture and her expenses. She has received the $3,750, but claims it was also agreeTthaFin ni’e 'event of "Haxfison’s election she was to receive $5,000.

The Story of Stephen Foster. From a profusely illuslrated article in the November Century, “The Guilds of London,” we quote the following: “If Whittington’s eat cannot be placed among well authenticated Felidae, many a man has attained the glory of Lord Mayoralty in ways fully as romantic as those of Whittington in the nursery tale. Stephen Foster was a debtor confined in the jail of Ludgate, which once stood over the gate on the hill, a very little way west of St. Pauls. There was a gate at which every day a prisoner was allowed to sit to collect alms for his fellows, and here one day Foster sat. A wealthy widow passing by gave him money, inquired into his case, and took him into her service. He saved hi& wages, traded successfully, married the widow, and in due time became Sir Stephen Foster, Lord Mayor of London. In his prosperity he forgot not his days of adversity, and founded a charity for prisoners which was long kept in the jail of Ludgate and commemorated in his epitaph.” He Fell Into a Whale's Mouth. Minneapolis Tribune. “My narrowest escape from death,’ said Captain F. D. Haskell, a retired sea Captain, “was when I fell, like Jonah, into the very mouth of a whale, which, however, did not swallow me, probably not thinking me a choice morsel. In my whaling days we did hot have the harpoon gun, but were obliged to row up close to the whale and- -harpoon him by a cast from the boat. This whale that ! spofce of gave a sudden twiet and threw me backward out of the boat. I tumbled squarely into his mouth,-which hung open fourteen feet from jaw to jaw. He closed his mouth and crushed my legs rather gently for a whale, and let me go again, when I was picked up by one of the ship’s boats. We got the whale, though.” • ~ We never thoroughly know a man until we hear him laugh.