THE HOLY SPIRIT
and other spirits 

PART II.—EVIL SPIRITS.

"For our conflict is not with flesh and blood,

but with principalities, and with those in

authority, and with the possessors of

this dark world, and with the

evil spirits that are beneath

heaven." Eph. 6:12.—

SYRIAC.

Introduction to Part Second

þHaving now spent some time in setting forth the beauties of the Holy Spirit it seems good that I should now give an exegesis of evil spirits; for I feel it my duty, as much as lies in me, both to exalt the good, and abase the evil; to extol the right, and decry the wrong.

  Everything may be viewed from a positive and a negative standpoint, and as the foregoing pages have been given to the positive side of the way of truth we shall give the following pages to negative researches. The reader may find some things in the following pages which he will disagree with, or dislike; but I shall not withhold the counsel of God for any man's private opinion. It is my determination to tell the truth and to leave results with God.

  Satan has long ago learned that all people cannot be led into wrong doing with their eyes open, consequently has invented marry deceptive schemes by which he blinds the eyes of those he seeks to lead astray. The hosts of Satan having been defeated and put to confusion by the resurrection and triumphant victory of the redemption plan, the course infernal quickly set to work to devise some way of overthrowing the works of God. A decision was soon reached by the infernal counsel that martyrdom would be the most successful plan; whereupon Satan sent hasty messages to the utmost bounds of his domain that the children of God should be imprisoned, beheaded, burned at the stake, and put to death in every conceivable manner, that the work of God might be stopped. Under this infernal decree over fifty millions of God's people were put to death, and yet the triumphant tread and onward march of the Victor of earth and hell was not checked. When one brave hero fell by Satan's hand, others who beheld his triumphant death were converted to God, and Satan's plans failed to stop the work of God.

  Upon the failure of this scheme the courts of hell again assembled to seek a better means of attack. This time all agreed to change their tactics, and instead of violence to use cunning devices. Said they, "We will breathe an infernal stupor over all the earth, which will produce a careless sleep, after which we can array ourselves in gay clothing and steal into the camp[135] of the saints while none are aware." At this suggestion the arches of hell reechoed with cheers from the infernal hosts at the thought of coming victory; and a myriad of imps, each clad with an armor to suit his respective work, set out for the camp of God.

  This is the plan that Satan is working on today; he has ceased to use force, and seeks to deceive. This scheme has worked, and is working much better than martyrdom. Deception and spiritual lethargy have slain more souls than ever were slain by martyrdom. Satan now arrays himself in the robes of hypocrisy, spiritualism, hypnotism, mesmerism, sectarianism, and thousands of other deceptive attires, and "walks about" as "an angel of light," "seeking whom he may" deceive. It is now time for every child of the Highest to gird on "the whole armor of God" and rush to the conflict, determined to triumph or die. Let us wake the sleeping nations, who slumber under Satan's spell, by repeated blasts from the trumpet of eternal truth; and vanquish the infernal hosts or spill the last drop of royal blood. When I behold the many deceptive schemes of Satan and see my fellow men duped by the thousands, and realize how few I can save, I tremble beneath the burden and cry to God to help to rescue the perishing.

  We shall endeavor in the few following pages to expose and overthrow the plans of hell, and prepare the reader to meet the devil in a few of his most subtle attacks. "For our conflict is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, and with those in authority, and with the possessors of this dark world, and with the EVIL SPIRITS THAT ARE BENEATH HEAVEN." Eph. 6:12. Syriac.

þEvery spirit of the devil is deceptive, but in this chapter we shall expose a few general principles of deception, rather than name different spirits.

  The devil uses many different ways to deceive the souls of men; such as false impressions, deception through false teachers, etc. We shall now examine separately a few of the most common ways of deception.

  FALSE IMPRESSIONS.—By false impressions we mean impressions direct from the spirits of devils. Some may not be ready to believe that Satan can send us impressions direct through evil spirits, but it is true, nevertheless. Satan deceived Ananias and "filled his heart to lie to the Holy Spirit"; and so does he still continue to fill the hearts and minds of men and women and causes them to lie to God and their fellowmen.

  Deceptions of the devil are manifest on every hand in the form of false doctrines and fanatic ideas. The devil will impress a man that a certain doctrine or idea is right, and he will go to the Bible with a preconceived notion and hunt for a few abstract passages to support his theory. In this way hundreds of people are deceived by the devil, and go on believing they are right and trying to bring everyone else to their deceptive way. For illustration, we shall take the Catholic doctrine of forbidding the priests to marry. Paul declares this to be a "doctrine of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1, 3), and yet the Catholics in general believe it to be of God. This is a fair sample of thousands of doctrines and ideas that emanate from the devil, both among Catholics and Protestants.

  Possibly one of the most prolific means in the hands of the devil to deceive souls is

  DECEPTION THROUGH FALSE PROPHETS.—To many the prevalence of false prophets is a great source of discouragement, but when we see their appearance f foretold d in the Bible and see there the faithful warnings of the men of God, it should only  cause us to "draw nigh to God." To point out even a few of  the most noted false prophets of the past century would require  several volumes. "But there were false prophets also among the [136]           

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