FORESIGHT AND PERSEVERANCE OF THE DEVIL.
By R. F. C.
BUT previous to this time Satan foresaw that the people would need a special preparation in order for them to receive his last great delusion. They must not only believe that man is immortal, but they must be trained to expect the conversion of the world and a spiritual reign. This would prepare them to reject the scriptural doctrine of the literal, visible coming of Christ, which he knew would be preached in the world in fulfillment of the prophecies, and also to receive those mysterious, spiritual delusions which he would be ready to introduce to the world as soon as the Advent messages should be announced. Then, while faith was wavering in consequence of the expiration of the 2300 days, and the disappointment of those who put all on board the Advent ship, it would be a good time for the spirits of devils to commence operations, assuming to be the departed spirits of men, and thus fulfill the expectations of those looking for a spiritual reign. Accordingly, some 200 years ago he set Daniel Whitby and, after him, other commentators to applying those prophecies which speak of the future glory and eternal inheritance of the saints, to a period of 1000 years prior to the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the saints. That reign of Christ and the saints, spoken of in Rev. xx, was to be a spiritual reign, commencing with the conversion of the world, progressing and terminating while the saints of all ages, for the past 6000 years, are sleeping in the dust of the earth. That once strait and narrow way is to become so broad that all the world can walk in it. Consequently the man that goes with the multitude—the greater majority that have a form of godliness—is safe. In pursuance of this plan, when the personal advent of Christ began to be announced to the world, his professed followers, many of them, were ready to reject him by rejecting his word and promise concerning his second coming. Their language seemed to be, We will not have this man—this personal Jesus to reign over us, we will have a spiritual reign. Then God permits Satan to work with power and signs and lying wonders, and their spiritual reign commences. As when his ancient people Israel desired a king, he gave them one in his anger and took him away in his wrath, so he grants the desire of these who have rejected their rightful King. He gives them a spiritual reign in his anger and will soon take it away in his wrath. Satan is permitted to work with all deceivableness in them that perish; "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thess. ii, 10. The truth rejected is the near personal coming of Christ and the resurrection of the saints. The people have chosen, instead of this truth, the fable of the world's conversion and a temporal millennium. Thus they are well prepared for Satan's last, strong delusion, which does indeed bid fair to convert the world. And since the false christs and false prophets of the last days will show such signs and wonders that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect, [Matt. xxiv, 24.] it is reasonable to expect that all but the elect will be deceived by them. Satan is not only demonstrating the immortality of the soul by spirit manifestations, but as in the beginning he taught a plurality of gods, so now he is teaching a plurality of christs; and these christs have already made their spiritual advent into the world. We are taught that "any just and perfect being is Christ." And the Truth Seeker, a Spiritualist paper, says in its prospectus, "It shall be the organ through which the christs of the last dispensation will choose to speak." Rev. R. P. Wilson, in his lectures on Spiritual Science, says, "We recognize the birth of a Saviour and Redeemer into the universal hearts of humanity, wherein truly the deity is incarnate, dwelling in the interior of man's spirit. We believe that each soul of man is born with his or her Saviour within them, for as man is an embodiment of the universe in epitome, he contains in his central nature an incarnation of Deity." "The Healing of the Nations," which the Spiritual Telegraph calls the "Book of books," expresses the same idea as follows: "Man is his own saviour—his own redeemer. He is his own judge—in his own scales weighed." Thus Spiritualism has as many christs as ancient Paganism had gods. Spiritualism could effect but little, had not the way been prepared by the false teachings of those who profess to believe the Bible. Satan foresaw this, and has managed to get the fundamental articles of his creed into the creeds of all the popular churches. These churches, while they fancy they are about to convert the world through the popular "revivals" of the day, are doing more for the cause of this Satanic delusion than all the world besides. This they will not acknowledge of course, but read their religious papers and see how the "death angel" is eulogized for his benevolence in transporting our friends to the happy "spirit land." Articles in perfect accordance with the anti-Bible philosophy of Spiritualism, are handed about from one periodical to another as a choice bit of true christian philosophy. Such a piece I lately saw in the Sabbath Recorder, copied, I think, from some other paper, and sent out to its readers without note or comment. It was entitled, Benevolence of Death; and the writer held the idea that death was a benevolent arrangement, by which we emigrate to a better country. The doctrine that sin entered into the world and death by sin, is fairly set aside by the writer, and the "last enemy" of the saints of God, which is to be destroyed by the resurrection, is represented as a kind friend. "We must emigrate," says he. Now while such infidel trash, directly contradicting the plainest declarations of the word of God, is passed around among professed christians as a choice morsel of divine truth, what can we expect, but that the great mass of the members of these churches will be carried away with the flood of Spiritualism? Since writing the foregoing I have seen some late numbers of a religious paper; and I find them heavy laden with Spiritualism. Not that the conductors of the paper are professed Spiritualists. No, they are opposed to Spiritualism. They are opposed to the running of the cars. All they do in the matter is to keep the track in good repair. In one paper was a very pathetic account of the death of two little brothers, who were buried in one coffin. Speaking of the sickness and death of the second, the writer says, "The best medical advice was immediately called in, but all remedies were unavailing, and he joined his little brother in heaven at 3 o'clock the next morning." Another notice of the death of a little girl and boy of one family, the boy dying last, is accompanied with the following poetic effusion: Sweet Emily with radiant smile,
And cherub wings of flame,
Stood waiting on that better shore,
Till little Georgia came.
And now far up those dazzling hights,
Seraphs alone have stood,
They soar and sing their song of joy,
Close by the throne of God.
Another obituary has the following: Where life's pure river softly flows,
Through pastures green and fair,
Our golden haired and sinless boy,
Dwells free from pain and care.
We will not murmur at our loss,
Though life seems drear and cold;
We know our lost lamb waits for us,
Safe in the Saviour's fold.
Another was headed, "The Angels." It was a description of the death of a girl about seven years old, who had recently lost a brother, a cousin and an aunt, who had lived in the same family. The writer says, "We are not fond of detailing the scenes of that last struggle with the Great Archer, before mortality puts on immortality." He then describes the death scene. Just before her expiring moments, the little girl brightens up and says, "Hark! the sky is full of music. It is the angels; they come into the room; they come round the bed. O! it is brother, cousin, aunt, and many, many more." The writer describes her as dying with a smile upon her countenance, and says, "Death had daguerreotyped a smile as he gave life to another angel." From a piece of poetry in another number of the same paper I take the following: It doth not yet appear what we shall be,
When death from sin and sorrow shall set free
The struggling spirit—rising hence to soar,
Where sorrow, death and sin, shall be no more.
All these are in perfect harmony with Spiritualism, and in perfect contradiction of the Bible. They represent, with Spiritualism and the Serpent, 1. That there is no death to man, properly speaking. "Ye shall not surely die." 2. That what is called death is a veritable birth into a higher life. While God says, "Dying thou shalt die;" these respond, "Dying thou shalt not die—Ye shall be as gods," or angels. 3. That death, instead of being an enemy, the consequence and penalty of sin, as the Bible teaches, is a real blessing, a benevolent arrangement by which we emigrate to a better country. While the word of God teaches that the saints will put on immortality when they are raised up from death, these teach that at the hour of death this mortal puts on immortality. Says the beloved disciple, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." These respond, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, when death from sin and sorrow shall set free the struggling spirit," taking the power, and the honor and glory from Christ, and giving them to death. They represent the dead as singing "their song of joy, close by the throne of God;" while the Bible says, "In death there is no remembrance of thee." "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Paul declares that, in case the dead rise not, "then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." But these would have men introduced, by death, into the presence of God, where there are pleasures forevermore. If I fully believed what they teach, I should earnestly pray for death to set me free from a "cumbersome clog of clay," and that the resurrection might never come, to "re-unite soul and body." And so would they. If they believed it without a doubt, the best medical advice would not be called to keep their friends out of heaven. It is a doubt, that "death is the gate to endless joy," that makes us "dread to enter there." The little girl that recently drank a bottle of laudanum, because she "wanted to go to heaven and see her little brother," believed the doctrine. And those Spiritualists who deny the doctrine of future punishment, if they acted consistently with their professed faith, would follow her example. Holy men of old, when in the depths of affliction, or in view of the day of wrath, have desired to be hidden in the grave, where they would lie still and be quiet, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Job iii, 13–18; xiv, 13–15; x, 18, 19. But never did they desire to die that they might go to heaven at death. On the contrary, says Job, "Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself." &c. Job x, 20. Says David, "O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more." Ps. xxxix, 13. Should these expressions of Job and David be translated into the language of popular theology, they would read like this: "Let me alone; do let me take a little comfort before I go to heaven." Elijah, when fleeing from persecution, sat down under a juniper tree in the wilderness, and requested for himself that he might die. 1 Kings xix, 4. Not because he was as good as his fathers who had died, and as well deserving of being taken up to heaven as they. But said he, "O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."