The last Old Testament record of Satan is found in Zec. 3:1: "And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.” The prophet had just been saying: "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord" —and this is the fact beyond all others that brings forth Satan's powers of resistance, for he knows that when that time comes he will be destroyed. (See Heb. 2:14.) (See Heb. 2:14.) "And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan" (Zec. 3:2.)

In continuing the presentments of Satan into the New Testament, it may be well to try to group them in such a way as to best portray him in an understandable manner-for not the least of his achievements is his ability to eliminate himself and shift the blame on his victims -the power he so freely bequeathed to our first parents. This being true it is only when he seeks the most perfect and exalted ones that he may be entirely recognized. Thus we read that Jesus after the descent of the holy Spirit at his baptism was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and later Jesus said unto Peter: "Satan hath desired to have thee, but I have prayed the Father that thy faith fail not." And Paul tells us not only of the messenger of Satan (the thorn in the flesh) but says in II Cor. 2:11: "For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ, lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices." And again

he says II Cor. 11:3: "But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity in Christ" (verse 14), "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light," and in I Thes., 2:18 he says: "Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again but Satan hindered us"; and Jude tells us that "Yet Michael the archangel when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said, the Lord rebuke thee"; and Jesus speaking of the woman with an infirmity (whom the rulers of the synagogue rebuked because he healed her on the Sabbath day) said: "And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" And in Luke 22:3 we read: "Then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve," and while some say this last reference is impossible if Satan be a personality, some of us who realize how completely he tries to take possession of us at times, find no difficulty whatever; and besides if Jesus and Paul and the Archangel recognize him as an active agent, with all the attributes of a rational being, it is quite sufficient for my own beliefsfor all our knowledge must first be gained through the material senses. Paul says "that was not first which is spiritual, but htat which is material, and afterwards that which is spiritual" (I Cor. 15:46.) Then some of our best people say that their idea of religion is contained in the

word love-but can love exist as an abstract force? I cannot conceive of love apart from a personality-God is love, and therefore God must be a being endowed with the power to love, God is good, and the opposite of good is evil, and the opposite of love is hatred. The devil is the "father of lies" and the negation of all that is good. To say that he has no power is to deny the experience of every lover of good-but to say his power is co-equal with God is just as erroneous. Jesus said to Pilate: "Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." Which proves that his power is limited. And Jesus says: "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.”

VI.

"THE BEAST" OF REVELATION.

Were a newspaper of our time to print a cartoon embodying a complex idea of any given subject, and give in full an explanation of it immediately following the cartoon, would it not seem reasonable that we would study the description there given before making inquiry of others in regard to it? The "beasts" of Daniel and Revelation are just such cartoons, which prove the adaptability of the Bible to all times, and immediately after the vision appears to Daniel he says (Dan. 7:15): "I was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. These great beasts which are four are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever and ever"; which without doubt has reference to. four great kings whose reign shall immediately precede the coming of our Lord.

Then Daniel asks again of the fourth beast, which is used now in second place, to represent the final kingdoms of the earth, and the ten horns, are now, ten kings, (see the entire Chapter 7.) And in Revelation wherein the word beast is used it is followed by assertions con

cerning it, that can be applied to a man and be understood, but otherwise such is impossible, and we must not confuse the original word, translated beast, as the same in all instances given in Revelation; but many of the facts related there correspond entirely with those given in Daniel, for instance in Daniel 12:7, the time is given by the man "when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times and an half."

And in Revelation 13:5, "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months"; and in Revelation 11:2: "And the Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months" and (3): "And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and three score days," which by reiteration in different words seems to indicate that as Jesus said, speaking of this same time, which has its beginning with the setting up of the abominations of desolation, "Whoso readeth let him understand" and yet the following is given in the Jan. 17, 1917, issue of "The Christian Herald," in answer to "Reader," Oklahoma: "The number or mark of the Beast mentioned in Revelation 13:18, has been variously interpreted. By some early writers it has been supposed to have referred to the branding of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes."

Now when we reflect that John wrote Revelation some time between A. D. 60 and 90, and