The great hidden force of wickedness and deception is doing a more nefarious work to-day than when it made its appearance in the Garden of Eden nearly six thousand years ago.
GWYNNE DALRYMPLE
Our first parents were happy in the Garden of Eden before the entrance of sin.
IN EARLIER articles of this series, we have mentioned that the Scriptures teach the apostasy and revolt of an angel eminent by wisdom and power; and we have hinted that this angel in his revolt had companions. That he was not alone is expressly taught by the Scriptures, for Peter, in the second chapter of his second epistle, fourth verse, asserts that “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
The Bible expressly informs us also that these angels have been cast down to this earth. “That old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9. We hold, then, from this scripture (for we can find nothing contradictory to it) that Satan and his angels are at present cast out upon this earth.
DEMONIC POSSESSION
The Bible has something to say about the work of these fallen spirits. There would seem to be two general ways in which they labor against all that is wholesome and good. The first way is that of demonic possession. In demonic possession a spirit of evil, entering into a man, actually controls him. It mounts upon the throne of his will, and from that throne utters irresistible commands,—commands of cruelty, misery, and destruction. Of such possession there are some instances recorded in the Old Testament, but many more are described in the New. We shall cite two instances from the Gospel of Matthew: In the seventeenth chapter, verses 14-18, we are told how a father came to Jesus, asking relief for his boy. “He is a lunatic,” the father said, “and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.” The account continues that Jesus healed the child with convulsions, and cast him wallowing on the ground. The evil spirit was loathe to leave, but could not disobey the direct command of Jesus.
Again, an even clearer instance is found in Matthew 8:28-34. Jesus had landed on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the country of the Gergesenes. “There met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.” We are told that the demons who were in these men spoke through them, crying out, “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?”
Mark records a conversation (5:6-13) that the demons had with Christ, the victims being used by these evil spirits as spokesmen. Christ inquired their name. Evading the question, they vaguely said that their name was “Legion,”—that is, there were very many of them. At last they besought the Saviour to let them depart into some swine that were feeding on the near-by hills. Jesus having given His consent, the spirits left the men, and went into the swine and, having entered them, promptly destroyed them. The men who had been possessed were restored to their right minds, and turned from furious madness to become disciples of the Son of God.
These are the clear accounts of the Scriptures. To-day in civilized lands, demon possession is either not so frequent or else assumes more subtle forms. The diffusion of Christian principles has checked the violent horrors of satanic possession as it anciently existed in Galilee and Samaria. Yet we are not prepared to suppose that it is extinct. In heathen lands where gross darkness is yet faintly touched by the light of the gospel, demon possession as terrible as that of Gadara or Capernaum may yet be seen. In China, in the New Hebrides, in the fastnesses of the Congo where witch doctors practice their mystic rites, we are of the opinion that demonic possession, with all its terrors of convulsions and agonies, may be witnessed, and is witnessed, by those missionaries who have consecrated their lives to the giving of the gospel in the darkest parts of our world.
FAMILIAR SPIRITS
According to the Scriptures, there is a second manner in which satanic spirits work,—a manner which, though it is less violent than possession, is not less pernicious. The Bible has much to say about those who have communication with “familiar spirits.” In Leviticus 19:31, the people of God are warned, “Regard not them that have familiar spirits.” In Deuteronomy 18:10-13, the warning is repeated against “a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them [the nations of Canaan] out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.” Familiar spirits, then, would seem to be connected with those who practice necromancy; and necromancy is the pretended art of communicating with the spirits of the dead. In Isaiah 8:19, 20 comes again the same warning, that the people of God should not seek unto them that have familiar spirits; that the living should not seek to the dead; but that rather men, seeking unto their God, should look to Him for wisdom, and to His law for enlightenment.
THE MYSTERY OF DEATH
Now, there has at all times been a strong desire on the part of mankind to solve the mystery of death. The cessation of life is so awful, it is so overpowering to the mind, that one whom we knew, who lived with us and loved us, who, a few days past, could see, could hear, could feel, could laugh with us and weep, should now lie before us still and cold, insensible as clay, lifeless as a log or a stone,—this mystery has always wrought powerfully on the imaginations of men. They have felt that one whom they loved could not be dead, that somehow, somewhere, he must be alive; that somehow, some way, they must be able to communicate with him, and he with them.
Such sentiments are so ancient that their origin is lost from us; but we conclude that it must be of the greatest antiquity, when we observe that such teachings are found in every mythology, and among nations of the highest civilization, as well as among the most barbarous tribes. Thus in the Egyptian legends, Isis rescues her husband Osiris from his grave in the Nile, heals his wounds by her magical arts, and resurrects him from the power of death. So the tablets from Babylon assert that Ishtar has gone to the realm of Ilat, queen of the dead, to reclaim the perished Tammuz. So in the Grecian and Roman mythology communication with the dead is held not impossible, for Orpheus crosses the Styx to the side of his Eurydice, and the pious Æneas descends into Hades to communicate with his father, the deceased Anchises.
MOST STRIKING INSTANCE
Yet the most striking instance of attempted communication with the dead is recorded in the Bible itself. For the whole12account, we refer our readers to the twenty-eighth chapter of the first book of Samuel, where we are told how Saul, the first king of Israel, so far departed from divine instruction that he sought counsel of one who had a familiar spirit. To be sure, he turned to this means of information only in the gravest extremity. It was his last resort. Once favored of God, and once worthy of God's favor, the monarch had by slow steps separated himself from the divine will. Pride, jealousy, disobedience, and selfishness had invaded his life until they utterly possessed it; and the Spirit of God, unable to remain in a heart that stubbornly rejected its every pleading, had withdrawn itself.
Then came war with the Philistines. The king, desirous, not of communion with God, but of the information that he might obtain from God, sought the word of the One whom he had spurned. But there was no response; no dream came to the guilty monarch; the Urim and Thummim flashed no revealing ray; and every prophet of God was silent. In frenzied zeal to know the result of the approaching battle, Saul fled to a woman of En-dor who had a familiar spirit, and requested of her that she should bring up before him the spirit of Samuel. In accordance with his plea, a spirit, apparently that of Samuel, came up from the earth, announced to the woman who the disguised Saul really was, complained because Saul had disquieted his rest to bring him up, piously expressed regret that the king had asked of him information that God had seen fit to withhold,—and then immediately gave him the information,—and assured the monarch that after the morrow's battle all, good and bad, would be together. He then disappeared as the king, fainting with terror, fell prostrate to the floor.
REAL NATURE REVEALED
This account, we believe, is pregnant with suggestions as to the real nature of what is asserted to be communication with the dead. First, we notice that the spirit of Samuel appears from the earth,—an unusual direction for a heavenly spirit to come from. Secondly, before saying anything to the king, the spirit communicated the royal identity to the medium, although she belonged to a class condemned by God. Thirdly, the professedly righteous spirit revealed to Saul matters that God had refused to reveal to him. Fourthly, the supposed Samuel seemed to say that the wicked and righteous would all be consciously together after death, for he assured Saul, “To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me,”—a wholly extraordinary state of affairs, nowhere else taught in the Scriptures. Fifthly, the mind of God toward this whole transaction is made clear to us in another part of the Bible, in the first book of Chronicles, the tenth chapter and thirteenth verse, wherein it is written: “So Saul died for his transgressions which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it.”
Unfortunately, the woman of En-dor was not the last to practice with familiar spirits. Her successors are yet with us; and spiritualism, which is nothing else than pretended communication with the dead, flourishes in our own times. It speaks to those who crave novelty and a supernatural excitement, and offers them its wares. It calls to the curious-minded, who desire to delve into mysteries, and sets before them its deceitful knowledge. It presents itself—and this is the most wretched of its dealings—to those who have lost the ones whom they have loved; it comes to them while their tears are hot on their cheeks, and their hearts are yet heavy with grief; it assures them that through its arts they can find the ones they have lost, and talk with those whose voices have been forever hushed.
“SPIRITS, . . . WORKING MIRACLES”
Alas for those who, being in affliction, receive as true these promises! They may indeed go to the séances; they may witness the tipping of tables and hear the strumming of mystical banjos; they may indeed see shadowy forms, as of their loved ones, and hear muttering voices, as of those they used to hear; but we are certain upon the authority of the word of God that they will not find the spirits of the departed. Spirits indeed will be there, but they will be “the spirits of devils, working miracles” (Revelation 16:14), and not of those who have gone from us.
For those who have passed away in death are not, in some vague immaterial form, haunting séance rooms. They are in their graves, where the wicked cease from troubling, bling, and where the weary are at rest. (Job 3:17.) Their breath has gone forth, their thoughts have perished, their consciousness has departed from them. (Psalm 146:4.) Into their repose, into their deep and dreamless slumber, the cares and anxieties, the follies and vexations of this life cannot intrude. The seasons shall come and go; the heat of summer and the cold of winter shall be changed about; the work of men and the work of nature are alike powerless to disturb the rest of those who have laid down their burdens and passed from us. They rest in unconscious peace.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
Yet by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, those who are dead shall not always remain dead, and those who are asleep in the grave shall not forever be separated from us. “Marvel not at this,” the Saviour declares, “for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice.” John 5:28. “We shall all be changed,” are the words of the apostle Paul, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. . . . O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Corinthians 15:51-55. And again the same apostle tells us: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. . . . The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
The work of evil spirits, therefore, to impersonate those who are dead, cannot avail against those who take the plain word of God as their guide. We know that in Christ there is hope for our dead, and that in Him they shall rise again. He is life eternal. Not in the darkness of attempted communication with those who have gone before us,—with whom none can communicate, for they rest unconscious in their graves,—not in the attempted solaces of popular spiritualism, with its many frauds or, worse than its frauds, its spirits of evil angels; but in Christ is the salvation of both the living and the dead. His voice rings out, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Revelation 1:18. He, then, can unlock the tomb, and release to us its unconscious captives; and we have the assurance that He will indeed do this at the time that God has appointed. Death can indeed gain no victory; the grave shall not forever triumph; for Christ will overcome them.
