^ Bishop Gore. * R. W. Dale, Lecturer on the Ephesians, p. 422.
ST. MARK 45
of man's fall, because they have no eye for the heavenly heights of his restoration, or for the mighty powers of God that are at work to bring this about, seem to count that much will have been gained by casting out Satan ; although it may be very pertinently asked, as indeed one has asked, What is the profit of getting rid of the devil, so long as the devilish remains ? of explaining away an Evil One, so long as the evil ones who remain are so many ? ^
Men don't believe in a devil now.
As their fathers used to do; They've forced the door of the broadest creed
To let his majesty through; There isn't a print of his cloven foot,
Or a fiery dart from his bow, To be found in earth or air to-day.
For the world has voted so.
But who is mixing the fatal draft
That palsies heart and brain, And loads the earth of each passing year
With ten hundred thousand slain ? Who blights the bloom of the land to-day
With the fiery breath of hell. If the devil isn't and never was ?
Won't somebody rise and tell?
Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint,
And digs the pits for his feet ? Who sows the tares in the field of time
Wherever God sows His wheat ? The devil is voted not to be.
And of course the thing is true; But who is doing the kind of work
The devil alone should do ?
We are told he does not go about
As a roaring lion now; But whom shall we hold responsible
For the everlasting row To be heard in home, in Church, in State,
To the earth's remotest bound, If the devil, by a unanimous vote,
Is nowhere to be found ? * Archbishop Trench.
46 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
Won't somebody step to the front forthwith,
And make his bow and show How the frauds and the crimes of the day spring up ?
For surely we v/ant to know. The devil was fairly voted out,
And of course the devil is gone; But simple people would like to know
Who carries his business on,^
1. There are three distinct ways of proving the personality of Satan.
(1) First of all there is the Biblical way. For those who are willing to accept the plain teaching of Scripture there is no need of going further. For this Book plainly teaches both his personal existence and his great activity and power. But for those who are not content to accept these teachings there are two other independent sources of evidence. And each of them is quite conclusive in itself, to the earnest, seeking man.
(2) There is the philosophical evidence. That is to say, there is no power apart from personality. That can be put down as a purely philosophical proposition. There may be manifestations of power without the personahty being seen or recognised. That is very common. There cannot be power apart from an intelligence originating and directing it. And certainly there is an evil power in the world. That is plainly felt and recognised everywhere. Now that presence of an evil power argues plainly the personality of an evil being actively at work behind the scenes.
(3) There is still a third line of approach quite distinct from these two, and as irresistible in itself. That is the experimental, or the evidence that comes through experience. Let a man who has been yielding to temptation try to quit; let a man try to cut with the sin he has been indulging ; and he will at once become aware that he has a real fight on his hands. He will become conscious of a real power attacking him with terrific force. About that the man himself will have no doubt. It will come with peculiar force, and drive, and cunning subtlety. It will hang on with great tenacity and persistence.^
1 Alfred J. Hough. » S. D. Gordon.
ST. MARK 47
2. Very remarkable is the prominence which Satan assumes in the New Testament, compared with the manner in which he and the whole doctrine concerning him is kept in the background in the Old. In the Old Testament, after the first appearance of the adversary in Paradise, which even itself is a veiled appearance, he is withdrawn for a long while altogether from the scene ; there is but a glimpse of him, a passing indication here and there of such a spiritual head of the kingdom of evil, through the whole earlier economy (as in Job i. and ii., Zech. iii. 1, 2, and 1 Chron. xxi. 1). He is only twice referred to in the Apocrypha (Wisd. ii. 24; Ecclus. xxi, 27). This may partly be explained by an analogy drawn from things natural, namely, that where the lights are brightest, the shadows are the darkest. Height and depth are correlatives of one another. It is right that first reveals wrong ; and hate can be read as hate only in the light of love, and unholiness in the light of purity; and thus it needed the highest revelation of good to show us the deepest depth of evil. But this does not explain the reticence of Scripture altogether. No doubt in that childhood of the human race men were not yet ripe for this knowledge. For as many as took it in earnest, and as it deserves to be taken, for 6hem it would have been too dreadful thus to know of a prince of the powers of darkness, until they had known first of a Prince of Light. Those, therefore, who are under a Divine education are not allowed to understand anything very distinctly of Satan, till with the spiritual eye it is given to them to behold him as lightning fallen from heaven ; then, indeed, but not till then, the Scripture speaks of him plainly and without reserve.^