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which are probably directed by Satanic influences. But in the end the prince of this world shall be cast out.

There is an influence, which men and angels exercise upon each other. It was possible for good angels to take up bodies, only when holy men were on earth. Angels appeared in the garden of Eden. Angels visited Abraham. Angelic manifestations at the time of Moses were frequent. Angels came to the unselfish Daniel, when he was in the den of lions. An angel was in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Mesheck and Abed-Nego. From the time of the conception of Jesus, till years after his ascension, the appearance of angels were frequent. A host sang at his birth, waking the shepherds, keeping watch of their flocks by night. Twelve legions would have protected Jesus from his persecutors, when they were about to crucify him, had he permitted them. There is no record of demonical possession of beasts, save when the physical was feeling the influence of holy men on earth. Satan could not have entered the serpent, had not nature been quickened by the presence of the divine life in its holiness in Adam and Eve. In the time of Jesus, it was a common thing for demons to enter men and beasts.

When God appeared to speak to men in a voice, it may have been by embodied angels. Angels never spoke to men, save when there were holy men living; and it took holy men to interpret the meaning of the sounds uttered, or the symbols given. Daniel, in whom the spirit of God was, interpreted the meaning of the writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast. The people who, stood about Jesus the day before his crucifixion, thought it thundered, when an angel spoke to him comforting him. The men who accompanied Saul on his way to Damascus, saw the great light which shone about

'John 12:31.

him, and heard the sound of the voice of the reëmbodied Jesus who spoke to him, but none save Saul understood the words spoken.

Holy men have commandment over the creature, by the power of their wills that angels cannot exercise. The angels who visited Abraham, when they went down to Sodom to see Lot, were not able to protect themselves from the ruffians who surrounded Lot's house: while if Abraham had found ten righteous men, he by the power of faith would have saved the city from destruction.

and they are

When Jesus

Men spiritually are stronger than devils; tempted by devils only when they permit it. commanded devils to come out of men, they came. The devils were subject to his disciples, whom he sent out to preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Any good man is mightier than Satan. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Wicked men are worse than devils. When Jesus stood before the rulers of the Jews it was, How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. There is not a recorded instance of devils mocking Jesus, or contradicting him, or failing to recognize him as the Son of God, as did the righteous scribes and Pharisees; there is no record of devils swearing or blaspheming. It may be that when men swear they go into sin farther than the devils want them to. There is not an infidel nor an atheist among all Satan's hosts. The devils believe and tremble.

The Son of God, the Son of man, the Son is used in the New Testament to designate Jesus Christ primordially, as the accomplished manifestation of what the race of men shall yet be. The Son of God, the Son of man, the Son is the human

'Jam. 4:7.

race in its glorified power, men in the fullness of the stature of Jesus the Christ. Jehovah never said to the angels, as he did to the Son, Thy throne O God is forever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. The world will yet be ruled in righteousness by man whom God has ordained. Carnally minded men are not merely recreant to God's greatest trust, but they refuse to entertain the sublimest hope ever vouchsafed to created beings. Men rebellious against God are in larger sin than devils.

Men are begotten of the Father as his children, but the angels are his ministering spirits. Though we were created a little lower than the angels, the angels were mature from the beginning, but the persons of men at birth are in embryo, and the race while in a state of nature is in its swaddling clothes. But men are better than angels, in that a son by inheritance has obtained a more excellent nature than they. The children of men grow, and when in maturity are in the wisdom and strength of their parents and are heirs of their father's possessions. The ordination of man at his creation was the dominion over every creature, and when men come into holiness of life, they ascend their throne of righteousness forever and ever. "To which of the angels said he, at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. When he created Adam he commanded the angels to be subject unto him. When he brought his first begotten into the world, he said, Let all the angels of God serve him.

The prerogative of the angels is not to command the creature. Satan has no right to be the prince of this world, and his strongest dominion is through wicked men. Wicked angels can aggravate the corruption of nature, but holy angels

'Heb. 1:5, 8.

'Heb. 2:5.

cannot deliver the creature from its bondage in the corruption of sin and death; nor can they hold it in the power of everlasting life. "God has not put the world to come, whereof we speak, in subjection to the angels. Their engagements so far as revealed, is with their presence and by the sympathy of their pure lives to comfort and to strengthen men striving to gain the mastery over their flesh that through the holiness of human life, they by the abundance of life, may destroy sin and overcome the corruption of death in the creature. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heirs of salvation?

"Heb. 1:6, 13. 'Heb. 1:14.

CHAPTER XX

THE DISEMBODIED SPIRITS

ESUS CHRIST abolished death and brought life and immortality, or as it is in the Greek, incorruptibility to light in the gospel. The pagans hoped for a conscious existence after death, but did not accept the doctrine of the resurrection. While the patriarchs and the prophets may have looked upon death as a dreamless sleep, they held the doctrine of the resurrection. But in Jesus Christ was manifested the good news of the power of grace, which lighted this world, shining into the "over there" of our friends, who have gone before, and revealing what manner of life shall be when this vale of tears shall be done away.

The angels are spirits without bodies. The spirits of the departed are without bodies. There is doubtless a corresponding similarity of conduct between these. The angels came as guides and to assist men in subjecting the world to God. Whenever the kingdom of God appeared to be drawing near they were in abundance. The dispensation of the grace of God was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator, but Jesus spoke as the Son of God from the life that was in himself. In our fallen condition we are a little lower than the angels, but humanity in Jesus rose higher than the angels, for he attained to the fullness of a Son of God. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. Is it not reasonable that our friends who departed this life being in the faith, and once experienced the joys of new found hope, should rejoice over repenting sinners also. The rich man in hell was anxious about his brethren on earth. Paul

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