earliest history. We call attention to two events, each one of which was
so great that it left a blight sufficient to turn the course of human
history into darker and bloodier channels. The first followed closely upon
the remarkable deliverance from the Flood. The Ark had settled; life began
its routine, fresh from the awful calamity. Noah built an altar and
worshipped God; but before the perfume of the holy incense evaporated,
that faithful servant of the Most High became _beastly drunk_, and his son
Ham looked upon his nakedness and shame. The children of Ham must carry
the curse until the end. The other followed closely upon a deliverance
from fire. Lot was a citizen of Sodom, but he had not defiled himself;
the iniquity of the place came up before God, and He destroyed it; not,
however, until His angel led this righteous man to a place of safety.
Through the entreaties of his designing daughters, as they were resting in
the mountains, Lot became intoxicated unto idiocy. We must draw a veil
over the shameful scene that occurred during his debauch; but the tribes
of Moab and Ammon, war-like savages of the desert unto this day, was the
terrible resultant. They are the incorrigible followers of the Crescent
rather than the Cross.
Wherever drunkenness has touched humanity it has blighted and withered
like a Sirocco from Sahara. No one but a fallen archangel could have
invented such a beverage. Yet the character of liquors used by the race in
its infancy for carnival pleasures, compared with the output of the modern
distillery and brewery, are as moonshine to the blistering heat of the
summer sun. Satan profits by experience; he has not been idle during the
centuries. Solomon warned against "looking upon the wine when it was red,
and turneth itself in the cup"--fermentation. If fermented grape juice
should, at that time, bring forth such an inspired warning, what language
would be necessary to depict the character of the low grade, adulterated
fire-water sold in the saloons and dives of America and Europe?
The true spirit and character of liquor cannot be understood if viewed as
a stimulating beverage, satisfying and inflaming human passions. Its
Author soon discovered that such an unmixed evil must answer at the bar of
an outraged individual and public conscience. He saw that if liquor
succeeded in all he had planned, it must send its roots deeper down than
taste and appetite. Hence this handmaiden of the Devil has now become one
of the most gigantic trusts on earth, blooming out into commercial,
political, and industrial proportions. The whole business lives and moves
and has its being on misery and bloodshed on one side of the counter; loot
and plunder, coupled with an insane lust for gold, on the other side of
the counter.
It has not one redeeming feature; but so carefully has it sheltered itself
by a devil-fish organization that it stands like a Gibraltar. It has
become so great that the actual investments in the business aggregate
billions; an army larger than the combined forces, North and South, at any
one time during the Civil War are being supported; over one hundred
millions go annually into the national exchequer. China has been called a
sleeping giant; woe to the nations once she is awakened. In the liquor
traffic we have a giant that never sleeps. Twenty-four hours each
day--like Giant Despair--he enslaves and imprisons the multitudes. So
tremendous has this organization grown that its work does not stop with
social demoralization, but with little difficulty can dictate governmental
policies, throttle legislation, and bribe juries.
Again, we cannot judge or estimate the liquor traffic until we follow it
down through its labyrinth of social, financial, and moral declension. Not
until we see it face to face, glaring and defiant, in the haunts where
finished products are on exhibition. The "Scarlet Annex," temples of
lust, and the White Slaver's headquarters are united in the place where
labour troubles are hatched, mob violence gathers fuel, and feud hatred is
crystallized into bloodshed. Where gamblers, thugs, yeggmen, murderers,
anarchists, jail-birds, and burglars hold high carnival. We must see the
bloated faces, the bleeding Magdalenas, human beasts, and wife beaters, as
they wallow in filth and obscenity, before the perspective is correct.
The inauguration of liquor as a duplicate for God's greatest manifestation
of Himself--the infilling of the Holy Spirit--was a master stroke. In a
wild, reckless debauch it supplements man's every need and hunger. In the
crazed brain there is a vision of wealth, power, revenge, joy. The
drunkard is clay in the liquor-demon's hand; if a coward, liquor makes him
bold; if sympathetic, liquor deadens his heart; if honest, liquor makes
him a thief; if a loving father or son, liquor makes him a brute. Behold
the Handmaiden of the Devil--King Alcohol: the most efficient ally of the
"angel of the bottomless pit."
XXV
THE ASTUTE AUTHOR
"Till I come give heed to reading."--_1 Timothy iv. 13._
"Of the making of books there is no end."--_Ecclesiastes xii. 12._
When we remember the crude methods of book making in the days of Solomon,
compared with the facilities of modern publishing houses, his statement
has in it a touch of humour. To-day manuscripts are turned over to
printers and binders, and in two weeks an edition of from five to fifty
thousand copies are ready for the market. There are three million volumes
in our libraries; and, a writer has said, enough new books come from the
press annually to build a pyramid as large as St. Paul's Cathedral,
London. Mr. Carnegie is planting his libraries in every town and city in
America.
Evening and morning papers are laid at our doors with flaming head-lines
of all that has happened the world over in the last twenty-four hours.
Detailed descriptions of murders, scandals, elopements, court scenes,
betrayals, etc. Magazines, representing every phase of life and industry,
are multiplying continually. The literature of a nation is potentially its
food for character building, morally and spiritually.
Now what are we reading? Editors are calling for "stuff" with "human
interest." The manuscript with "preaching" gets a return slip instead of a
check; writers are governing themselves by this canon. The most popular
writers of fiction a decade ago, who wrote books with high moral and
spiritual tone, have step by step eliminated _religion_, and now deal with
Socialistic questions and New Thought problems.
The most popular novels are teaching false standards of life, and some of
the "best sellers" are base libels on religion and the Church. This is the
situation, and a close observation of the output of the high-class,
reputable publishers will confirm it. Why is this the status of our book
makers? Book writing and publishing, like all other branches of human
endeavour, have become commercialized; writers and publishers are
pandering to a vitiated taste for revenue only. It is not literature
editors are seeking, but stories that will sell.
A librarian of one of our large cities told the writer that seventy-five
per cent. of the books called for and read were positively harmful to the
highest ideals. If such is true on this plane of literature, what can be
said of the publishing houses which produce nothing but books utterly vile
and immoral? It is said there are two thousand publishing concerns in New
York City issuing just such literature, circulated secretly in many
instances. An army of writers are employed to furnish so many "thrillers"
monthly. These "stories" deal with the lowest, vilest passions of
humanity. What is true of New York is also true of Chicago and other
cities.
Enough stories have been written of the James Boys, Wild Bill, Buffalo
Bill, and other border heroes (?), could they have lived to take the
least part in so many situations, to have required a century to pass
through them all. As much blood as was shed actually at Shiloh has been
shed by the writers of border outlawry during the past twenty-five years.
The indirect influence of the books of the James Boys have caused more
bloodshed than those Missouri bandits spilt by their unerring
marksmanship.
A penniless orphan boy was adopted by his well-to-do uncle, who gave him
all the comforts and opportunities of an actual son. Early in his teens he
became a novel fiend--the lowest and vilest type; reading several each
week. When scarcely fifteen years old, he armed himself with his uncle's
pistol, took from the barn the finest horse, and left in the early
morning. The gentleman, suspecting the truth concerning the missing horse
and boy, called a neighbour, and the two gave chase to the young ingrate.
They came upon him late in the day, and as the uncle seized the bridle
rein, the nephew shot him through the heart, and wounded the neighbour
before he could be pulled from the horse and overpowered.
A beautiful girl was found dead in Central Park, New York. Her face, form,
and the fabric of her clothing showed plainly that she belonged to a home
of wealth and culture. In one hand was an empty vial labelled deadly
poison; in the other hand, gripped in the paroxysms of her last struggle,
was a paperback novel. The explanation was simple: the heroine had a
downfall, and rather than face her shame, committed suicide.
If you will observe the throng of factory girls, overworked, underpaid,
heart-hungry from which the White Slaver reaps a rich harvest, they will
be reading the class of book mentioned. They enter into the sacred
relation of married life with false, distorted ideals, the end of which is
often ruin: infidelity to marriage vows, abandonment, and divorce court.
There is another department of literature, written with but one purpose in
view: the overthrow of orthodox faith. A thousand questions are raised
which the common people cannot answer. Why is it the unchurched masses are
continually drifting farther and farther from the Church and what it
stands for? Labour unions have almost repudiated religion; class hatred
was never more pronounced than to-day, notwithstanding the loud
proclamation of human brotherhood. Say what you will as to causes, this
condition is not an accident; we must go far up the turbid stream to find
the source of these defiling waters. When we find the source, it will be
found that behind all these insidious influences stands the inspiring
Author.
Why is there such an incessant effort to divert the minds of the best
people from personal relationship of Jesus through faith in His blood?
Where is the author, the editor--even religious editors--who stand
four-square for the Bible of our fathers and mothers? We are glad to say
there are a few exceptions; but the drift of writers and editors is away
from fundamentals. Satan boldly and thievishly appropriates every
available avenue to the soul; wherever his cold, clammy hand touches, it
leaves a chill of death. Beyond a question more writers than we ever
dreamed are only amanuenses of the Astute Author.
XXVI
THE HYPNOTIST
"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and signs and lying wonders."--_2 Thessalonians ii. 9._
"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the
beast."--_Revelation xiii. 14._
"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead."--_Ephesians v.
14._
Just where the natural and the supernatural exists is a most difficult
psychological problem. Many marvellous doings and strange apparitions,
from the beginning, were attributed to the supernatural. These same
wonders are now known to be the application of physical and psychological
laws. The "enchanters," "soothsayers," "diviners," "magicians," and
"fortune tellers" have awed the simple-minded and superstitious in all
ages. A clear understanding of Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Telepathy, Odylic
Force, Psychological Phenomena, Clairvoyance, Black Art, and Spiritism,
will throw light on many of these supposed supernatural mysteries. Under
whatever name demonstrations may be known, they are all various phases of
certain well-established laws touching our physical, mental, and psychical
being.
One of the most common, and best understood, of these mystery workings is
Hypnotism which, defined, is "an artificial trance, or an artificially
induced state, in which the mind becomes passive." The subject, however,
acts readily upon suggestion or direction; and upon regaining normal
consciousness, retains little or no recollection of the actions or ideas
dominant during this condition. Hypnotism is purely mental and physical;
but this strange power which one can exercise over another strikingly
illustrates the influence which Satan exercises over millions of blinded
subjects. We shall avoid any attempt to discuss the science and philosophy
of Hypnotism; this phase of the subject is not germane to our discussion.
All these subtle laws of mind, acting in relation to the body, only now
being understood by scholars, are undoubtedly familiar to our common
Enemy. We believe that centuries before man knew anything about psychic
laws, as understood to-day, strange, unaccountable influences were
operating on the wills and consciences of men. Hypnotism is a form of
sleep; but during the time the subject can receive and obey instructions.
They are absolutely under the control of the hypnotist.
Paul caught an extraordinary vision of sin when he exclaimed to the
Ephesians: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." Here is a
fearful figure of sin: that it is sleep--semi-consciousness--
unconsciousness; yet they think, act, move about, enjoy, love, hate, etc.,
etc., and they are as one asleep. Observe this state is, if allowed to
remain _in articulo mortis_, Hypnotism, conducted by the Master of Black
Art; and they obey his will, over against observation, warning, wisdom,
experience of others, even of themselves. Voices may call loud and long,
but do not awaken the soul under the satanic spell.
There are many freaks of hypnotic influence which illustrate vividly the
power of sin--and back of the sin, the sin Personality. We have seen
subjects placed under hypnotic sleep, and they would remain in this
condition for twenty-four hours. The demonstration was made in a large
department store, facing a stone-paved street, which roared day and night
with cars and heavy traffic. Hundreds of people swarmed about the sleeping
man, laughing and talking loudly. Not until the hypnotist came and touched
the subject did he arouse from the heavy slumber.
A still more remarkable demonstration is reported to have been
accomplished in an Eastern city. We give as authority the _Associated
Press_. After the subject was placed under the hypnotic trance, he was
dressed like one being prepared for burial, then put in a coffin, hauled
to the cemetery in a hearse. The "corpse" was then lowered in a grave of
the proper depth, the grave filled to the ground level. The air tube from
the coffin to the top was large enough to enable a light to be reflected
on the face of the sleeper. "Buried alive," said the report. He was left
in the grave several hours.
If superior mind force can accomplish such marvellous feats on human will,
what may we expect from supernatural mind force with a burning ambition to
subdue? The columns of our _dailies_ are filled with reports of the doings
of men and women that cannot be explained on any other hypothesis. Think
of the insane, unreasonable, illogical risk in all manner of sin--for
what? A momentary taste of some "forbidden fruit." We hear that
self-preservation is the first law of our being; but how often this law is
utterly ignored for sensuous gratification. Those who do these things are
unable to understand their insane conduct until it is all over. "Oh, I can
see it all now," is the despairing cry so often heard. Of course, the
hypnotic spell is removed. How easy it is to sit and philosophize on the
actions of people. "Why would any sane person do such a thing?" A sane
person would not; the why of all these human twists is very simple when we
are willing to admit the literal teaching of God's book concerning our
indefatigable Enemy. "The apostate angel and his followers by pride and
blasphemy against God and malice against men became liars and murderers by
tempting men to do sins" (Jude 6, R. V.).
Why did the Prodigal Son do such an insane, sinful act? Why? Well, he came
to himself, but not until the harm was wrought. Why have ten thousand
prodigals since that day been guilty of the same insane conduct? The
answer is obvious. Why did Judas sell his Lord?--He who had been so highly
honoured: chosen, ordained, sent out? "Satan entered into Judas;" there
you have the whole truth. By and by, Judas came to himself; then remorse
and despair not only caused him to return the money, but destroy himself.
In a subsequent chapter we shall discuss more particularly the suicide
problem; but we are satisfied Judas was a victim of two satanic schemes:
the hypnotic spell deadened his reason and judgment to do the deed; then,
after the Crucifixion, despair gripped him like a vice. Who would say that
Judas was excluded from the Saviour's dying prayer: "Father forgive them"?
Peter denied Christ, then lied and blasphemed about it. He was restored;
but Satan's power over Judas was not broken. His end was Satan's finished
work. What he did to Judas he purposes to do with every "subject"--utter
destruction.
We once saw a snake charm a bird; the serpent's head was lifted several
inches--eyes blazing, and red tongue flashing. The bird fluttered, gave a
piteous wail, but was helplessly walking into the jaws of death. Now the
question arises: what about the freedom of the will? Do we ever cease to
be free agents? Certainly we do not; the hypnotic subject exercises free
choice; that is never destroyed, but he acts under a compelling _vis
uturga_--power behind.
XXVII
DEVIL POSSESSION
"As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed
with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb
spake."--_Matthew ix. 32-33._
"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good
things?"--_Matthew xii. 34._
One characteristic, which has been prominent in the varied manifestations
of Satan studied so far, is adaptability. Methods that were available in
the days of our Lord cannot be used successfully now. By some secret
unknown to us the Devil enters into the souls of men. This is a mystery;
so is, also, the filling of the Holy Spirit a mystery. The Devil possessed
King Saul, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, and many are the instances
recorded in the ministry of the Saviour. Devil possession, it seemed, was
very common; Christ was continually casting them out, and He also gave His
Apostles power likewise to cast them out.
We do not believe the Enemy has abandoned his old profession: an evil
spirit despises a disembodied state; if people are fortified and shielded
against his entrance--then the swine. As cold air whistles and roars about
every crack and cranny, entering in from all directions, so evil
spirits--Devil and demons--press their entrance into the soul. If it is
true they cannot enter except by permission,--they pry and pound until
resistance is impossible, unless divine reinforcement comes to the rescue.
There are maniacs, violent, desperate, incurable, to-day as truly demon
possessed as was the man who lived among the tombs. This, however, is not
his modern _modus operandi_; desperate maniacs could then terrorize a
whole community. Our great asylums have solved this problem; even the
immediate family is relieved of the burden and fear. Those who do not
accept the theory of demon possession should explain a case at present in
one of our institutions. It is a boy, at the time it attracted attention,
only twelve years of age, thin, emaciated, and by no means abnormal in any
particular. This child would remain quiet for days; during this time he
possessed no strength beyond one of his age. At unexpected moments he
would be seized with violent contortions, frothing at the mouth, and
snapping like a mad dog; and a continuous flow of the most obscene
language and blasphemy while the spell lasted. This is not the strangest
part: he had the strength of a giant; it required four or five men to
overpower him. One man was helpless in his hands; he would literally hurl
them to the floor. Compare this story with the one in the fifth chapter of
Mark: "And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out
of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the
tombs; and no man could bind him, no not with chains, because that he had
been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man
tame him."
In countries where the gospel light has not yet shown full-orbed, demon
possession with manifestations similar to those of Bible times are known
to be common. F. B. Meyer relates numerous cases in Russia; many by prayer
were cast out in the name of Jesus Christ. "I confess," he says, "these
incidents have greatly impressed me. I wonder how far it would be right to
deal with certain forms of drunkenness and impurity as cases of
demon-possession. It may be there is more of this demon work among us than
we know, and especially in cases of mania." Dr. Howard Taylor, of the
China Island Mission, it is said, was accustomed to diagnose the symptoms
of demon-possession in the same way as of any other disease. Dr. Nevins,
of the Presbyterian Mission Board, tells of hundreds of cases, witnessed
by himself, where by faith in the Son of God the demons were cast out, and
the victims were clothed and in their right mind.
Cotton Mather says of Salem witchcraft: "Those persons said to be
bewitched would swoon, froth at the mouth, their bodies would cramp into
irregular shapes; meanwhile they would utter accusations against good
people who, they said, had bewitched them. This excited sympathy of the
court. As soon as the court rendered judgment, those bewitched victims
would be relieved of their physical cramps and mental torture." Salem
witchcraft was real cases of demon-possession, but the court blundered in
that the demons were located in the wrong persons.
Sir Walter Scott says that similar manifestations of Satan as were
witnessed at the time of the Salem witchcraft occurred simultaneously in
every country on earth. He writes again: "Anna Cole, living at Hartford,
was taken with strange fits which caused her to express strange things
unknown to herself, her tongue being guided by a demon. She confessed to
the minister that she had been familiar with a devil." Pages could be
filled with modern examples which coincide so exactly with New Testament
records that we have no doubt the causes are the same.
Professor Webster, late of Wheaton College, said in a lecture before the
students: "I once knew a man possessed of a demon. He became so vicious
that he had to be confined in a cell in jail. When he heard any one swear
or blaspheme, he would go into convulsions of laughter. When any one used
the name of God or Christ, he would curse everything good, and foam at the
mouth. He possessed superhuman strength, like the man living among the
tombs."
The soul is God's masterpiece, created to be the habitat of the Paraclete,
but may, as truly, become the habitat of a demon. We believe that Diabolus
has so organized his forces that his minions represent various sins; they
are specialists--skilled labourers: drink demons, lust demons, lying
demons, anger demons, theft demons, pride, blasphemy, etc. Demon
possession to-day expresses itself in sins we try to control by means of
courts, education, etc. Homes become a miniature hell because of drink,
pride, lust, or lying demons.
Our penitentiaries are crowded with men who were controlled by a demon,
forced them into drink, anger, or theft, until the deed was committed. We
may feel thankful that there are so few Scriptural cases of demon
possession about us--the old time possession. The wise Enemy has shifted,
but at the same time has greatly enlarged his field of operation. There
are no witch victims to-day: the courts would not punish the witches, but
the bewitched would be safely cared for in an asylum. But observe, there
are ten thousand other insidious ways in which he possesses men and women,
enlarging his kingdom daily; his victims multiply, but not among the
tombs. The name of Jesus continues to be the only remedy.
XXVIII
DEVIL OPPRESSION
"So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with
sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown."--_Job ii. 7._
"Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the
devil."--_Acts x. 38._