DEMONIACAL INFLUENCES

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 13, 1860

DEMONIACAL INFLUENCES.

THE susceptibility of man to supernatural influences from evil spirits stands on the same footing with his susceptibility to heavenly influences from the Spirit of holiness. If one is a reality, the other is also. The reasoning that can disprove the spiritual connection of man with Satan, will be equally effectual in dispelling the idea of a spiritual connection between man and God.

We may disbelieve in the existence of a personal Devil, but no logic can erase the doctrine from the divine records. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is full of warnings against our spiritual foe. He began his career on earth with the conquest of woman and man, as narrated in the opening chapters of Genesis; he finishes it with the war of Gog and Magog that closes Revelation. Our adversary is represented as a roaring lion, that "goeth about seeking whom he may devour." He walks to and fro in the earth, taking captive deluded souls, that become the obedient vassals of his will. He works in the hearts of the children of disobedience. He is "the prince of the power of the air." He and his emissaries traverse the regions of our atmosphere with the same freedom and facility as angels of light. Darkness is particularly favorable to his ghostly workings. The inferior spirits, or demons, as they are denominated in the New Testament, who serve under the direction of this one infernal master-spirit, are innumerable. They have the power of entering in and possessing the minds of their victims, filling their hearts with evil suggestions, and leading them, yet not against their will, into the perpetration of every form of wickedness. Satan must first gain the assent of the individual whom he tempts before he can make a conquest. Hence the scripture direction, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you." A wicked thought leads to a parley with the adversary; the parley, almost to a moral certainty, ends in actual transgression.

As God has a kingdom on earth, so has Satan. He has his subjects, and these have hitherto comprised a majority of the human race. As the Holy Spirit enters the heart of the believer, transforming him into the image of God, so the Devil incorporates his workings into the motions of the unbeliever's heart, not merely extinguishing spiritual life, but producing instead a diabolical life, an infernal union of earth and hell. Perhaps it may be thought too bold an expression if we should assert that as the Christian receives a new birth from God, so the sinner receives in his inner moral nature an actual birth from the Devil, but such is the representation of scripture. "Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." Mankind are classified as "the children of God and the children of the Devil." By infusing his image and nature into the heart of the incorrigibly reprobate, Satan becomes their spiritual father, and their volitions become but the mere transcript of his will.

None but a downright infidel can question the reality of an infernal influence on mind. But there is more hesitancy in admitting the physical manifestations of Satanic power. And yet it seems impossible, with the Bible in our hand, not to perceive that it bears witness to the latter as well as the former. The account in Genesis shows that Satan manifested himself in a visible form. He wrought physical wonders through the magicians that imitated Moses, though their power extended only to a part of the miracles wrought by him. The adversary was allowed to exercise his power on Job, and he smote him from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot; but for the divine prohibition, he would have taken his life. The "peepings and mutterings" of the ancient wizards were physical developments of Satanic influence. In the days of our Lord, the prince of darkness and the impure spirits subject to his control, appear to have possessed an unwonted power over the inhabitants of Judea. It certainly was not in spiritual modes alone that demoniacal influences were exerted then. Grievous bodily torments were inflicted by supernatural agency. Unclean spirits were roaming through the land, seeking for human beings in whom they might find a lodgment. After they had obtained possession of a victim, his nerves and muscles were strung with a supernatural tension far surpassing the limits of human power, and rendering him incapable of confinement even by chains and fetters. Seven of these polluting demons had taken captive an unresisting female, and were instilling the virus of their malignity throughout her whole physical organism. In another case, a legion were clustered upon one poor maniac. They were not only capable of attaching themselves to human organisms, but they could also exert their malevolence upon brutes, as they did in driving a whole herd of swine, by a resistless impulse, from the brink of a precipice into the sea.

The mode in which good or evil spirits act upon the mind or body is, and probably will remain, a mystery. We know in fact but little of the power which one human being is capable of exerting upon another. We see in general that impressions are made through the avenues of sense; but these are not the only channels through which mind is affected. There are other modes and conditions of influence, by mind upon mind, but in the effort to detect and explain them, science has hitherto been foiled. The mesmeric charm by which one mind impresses its perceptions on another, appears to be an unquestionable fact. Scientific men have carefully examined the phenomena, and have pronounced them no illusion. Whether there be, or be not, such a power as that of clairvoyance, is still a matter of doubt. How much of modern spiritualism is produced by mesmeric influence, how much of it is gross imposture, and how much, if any, is attributed to Satanic agency, cannot with our present knowledge, be satisfactorily decided. By far the greater part is probably gross imposture. That none of the pretended revelations come from the spirits of the deceased, has been conclusively proved. But it is not so certain that the spirits of demons have no part in these performances. The weight of evidence is in favor of their agency. The effects are such as satanic malignity would be likely to produce. The wild eye and the excited brain remind us of the ancient sorcerers. In hundreds of cases these manifestations end in insanity. Hume, the celebrated medium, is said to have nearly arrived at this point. Then the frightful rapidity with which the subjects of these influences are hurried into licentiousness can scarcely be accounted for, except on the supposition of a direct infernal impulse. Theaters, dancing parties, luxury and intemperance, while their tendencies are all downward, yet do not wholly obliterate the moral sense; some traces of innate shame, some consciousness of guilt still remains; but spiritualism makes men and women shameless; they glory in their adulteries, publishing and defending them with a boldness and recklessness unaccountable, except on the supposition of an actual demoniacal possession, the complete prostration of the soul under some overpowering infernal influence, that supercedes and obliterates the ordinary impulses of humanity.

If such be the tendencies of spiritualistic manifestations, how dangerous must it be to tamper even with the outlying threads of the tempter's web? Some, no doubt, enter these mysterious circles from an honest desire to ascertain what is

truth and what is error; and we acknowledge that it is important to the cause of science and true philosophy that all natural phenomena, both physical and psychical, should be thoroughly investigated by men of learning and well balanced minds; but how many, trusting to their own powers of discrimination and self-control, have been suddenly thrown off their guard, insensibly drawn under a mysterious enchantment, and finally plunged into a chaos of mental and moral conflict from which they will never emerge but by a miracle. To the young especially we would say, beware of placing yourselves within reach of any doubtful influences; the tempter ever has his net ready, and what begins in sport may end in unavailing regret. By the Jewish law all intercourse with familiar spirits was strictly prohibited; the man or woman that had a familiar spirit, not the man who professed to have a familiar spirit, as modern sadducers would interpret it, but who really did have such a spirit, for his ally and counselor, was to be put to death. If the consultation of demons was a crime of such magnitude under the old dispensation we cannot suppose that similar practices will be innocent now.

But we need not multiply evidences that there are unseen, mysterious, malignant agencies now at work in the hearts of men. It is not strange that those whose eyes are blinded by the god of this world should be unable to discern the influence of that subtle power which is urging them on. But the spiritually minded well know from personal experience, the reality of Satan's power. They are not ignorant of his devices. They feel the necessity of daily offering the petition, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one;" for such is the most natural translation of that clause in the Lord's prayer. Elsewhere in the New Testament the same term is rendered, "the wicked one."

Happy day, when the mighty angel shall descend with his key and chain, and the old devouring dragon roam the earth no more!—Am. Baptist.