THE MILLENNIUM.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1216, 15 April 1880, Page 3

THE MILLENNIUM.

An ingenious Congregatioualist minister ths Rev. Mr. Williams, of Crescent road Church, London, has hit upon a novel way of bringing in the millennium. He invites the ministers of his denomination to make special prayer for the conversion of the devil. So far as I know this is a new idea, and it is remarkable that no one has thought of it before. There is every probability that the devil i.s not as blacK as ho is painted, and that a great many wickednesses are laid to his charge in which he had no sort of hand, and which, indeed, didn't in the least need his assistance. To give the devil his due, he has never been known to run a whisky saloon, or keep a gambling hell, and though playing-caids are called the '•devil's books," no one as a matter of fact, has ever seen a card in his hand. There is not a tittle of evidence that he ever sailed a Guinea slaver, c immanded a pirate .ship, conducted a war of conquest oi stuck up a couatry bank. He w°B never charged with embezzling trust funds, and has never been in goal for forgery. Lawyers are said to be the "devil's brigade," but the saying is probably unjust to the devil. As to the "Devil' a Half acre" in Stafford-street, no doubt the neighbourhood is a bad one. but where is the proof of ownership? I think it would be found upon examination that the title deeds of this particular property are drawn in quite another name, Little reliance can be placed on any argument drawn from our knowledge of the "printer's devil." His relationship to the head of the family as not accurately defined, and, though a graceless imp, who cannot be drawn darker than he sometimes appears, his moralsare not insusceptible of inprovement, and have often been ameliorated by the argument a posteriori. Any inference drawn of this case would go far to justify the courageous charity of the Rev. Mr. Williams, and incline us to echo hopefully the sentiment of Burns' "Address to the Deil :" O wad 5 c talc ' a thought and men ' ! Ye aiblins might — I dinna ken — But as to the influence of the devil's conversion in promoting the millennium, I have my doubts. There would still be the world and the flesh, and, unless these were converted too, the secession of the oflicr moinbPi" of the tiio would not count i'or mufh. The human race has h:id a i tolerably lon i' ."schooling in evil now, and j could probably pot at any forbidden fiuit that it fancied without thohelp of a tempter to show the way.— London Corresi pond«'ns Vlap intnf'i,