DEVIL OE NO DEVIL?

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3781, 9 February 1881, Page 3

DEVIL OE NO DEVIL?

(To the Editor of the Evening-Stab.) Sir,—Thie sunlight of knowledge will, in due course of time, dispel the gloom of ignorance which has, in all ages, rocked the cradle of superstition. Impurities and horrors disappear before advancing civilisation.; but there are still many deep-rooted prejudices and numerous vulgar errors that need correction and removal. Science has proved by her light that the "Divine penmen" were not acquainted with her wonders —that a God of infinite wisdom had not inspired them. It as the province of science to refute and, of argument, to conquer error. Laboured eloquence and specious arguments have been, and are being at the present time displayed here, to prove the existence of a devil and hell. A considerable part of large congregations of people suffer their ears to be polluted and thfeir minds abused ;by reference to what the Devil thinks and what the Devil says and does, or will say or do, with the lisual orthodox grammatical and elegant allusions'to '•bottomless pits," Ac, while educated ministers of different denominations of religion stand calmly by, allowing theirvoffice to be unlawfully subverted, bo;, it be that even by this means their tenure may X be prolonged yet a little while, instead of reproving such utterances and telling the people that the words Demon, Satan, and Devil are irierely proper names applied to any obnoxious individual of our own species, and that at no period did any but-the finest ignorant bSfreve in their existence 'either amongst the Greeks, who invented, &r the Jews,: who adopted the terms.

Christians agree that G.oA is the source of !iYI everything '■]' that He made and created all 'things that ate made; that without His . Divine power and support the Heaven \and earth, and all that in them is,-would pass away and fall into annihilation. From these principles it is certain that He created that being who is called the Devil, or Satan. His • character --is not relevant to the question. Incontestibly he is the work of the supreme power, and could continue to exist only by the will and pleasure of the Alß^ffet?»\ Npw, how can reason con'ceffetfcy.a great, wise, all-powerful, and *>■■ all^&^t'God— such as I believe him $}ik> be—could preserve one of his 'own ibsreatures, who hates and blasphemes him mortally and unremittingly, and who sets himselfito seduce, and succeeds in seduc-ing-the people of the Almighty for, the jole.purpose of mortifying Him? Is it possible, I ask most reverently, that the p gracious God could permit this Devil to 1 exist, who : causes him all the annoyance 'he can, who turns From His worship the favored select,, and would, if it were possible, "dethrone, even the Almighty " God. ' But if, s as is said, and Ibelieve God is almi'ghtj;,^nd nothing can happen or does happen without His divine permission, how came it that the devil does bate, blaspheme, /arid seduce his worshippers. The Deity either consents to this or not. If he does consent, the devil is only doing his duty in blaspheming, since he can do nothing without the will of the Creator. If he.does ndt consent, he cannot be omnipotent, and there must be two prin- • ciples—gotid and evil, aiming at opposite purposes. To what then leads our reasonZirig. To this, tbat there is neither devil or hell such as, most orthodox divines maintain, and ,s.uch as is being represented ,'^to large congregations of the Thames people at the present. Whether the sen- ." sational, emotional, animal-magnetic influencpwill le^d them to accept sound for senses arid theatrical action and elocution for devotion; is a moot question. We have ia the 17 and 18 verses of the xvi. chapter '6?> St. Mark, a standard to prove a'Christian. If only one amongst them ''■ nip'w or at any time hereafter emanating from them, comes up to it, none will !f' rejoice more, than

Sceptic.