Like the Light of Lightning
By L. A. Reed
"I BEHELD Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Luke 10: 18. In anticipation of His death upon the cross, Christ uttered these trenchant words. They are deep with a significance one cannot grasp without prayerful thought. Lucifer — such is one of Satan's names. It signifies "the lightbearer." But ever since he fell from his place of honor and service in heaven, he has been like the light of the lightning — baleful, destructive. The lightning sheds light in the dark storm, but its light is an omen of destruction. True, it falls from heaven; but it strikes the earth only to blister and burn. So Lucifer fell from heaven, and upon the earth he strikes in a fury that rivals the unleashed lightning. These words of Christ, indicative of the work of Satan, are voiced again in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, where it is said that the dragon, Satan, when he fails in his work against Christ, turns in fury against the church; and the voice of warning sounds from the courts of glory, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12: 12. Satan, like the devastating lightning, has fallen from heaven. L. A. REED.