tainly the Christian walking with God becomes more like him. If evil associations corrupt good manners, association with the infinitely pure and holy God will elevate and purify the soul.

The duty and blessedness of walking with God may lead to a dangerous error. They did so lead men in the dark ages. Holy men thought that to be with God they must withdraw from all association with their fellows. They retired to cells and caves, and gave themselves to prayer and penance. Such a course, though pursued in sincerity, is radically inactive and selfish. There was once a Hindoo who gave himself to the adoration of the Infinite. In his house he built a chamber with but one window, and that in the roof. His eyes were ever turned upward. When he went abroad he rode in a palanquin closed at the sides and open at the top. As he passed along, his bearers saw poverty and distress, while he saw nothing but the sky. He could contemplate the Infinite without a thought of finite sorrow. This may have been good heathenism, but it is not Christianity.

Christ, while in the world, went about doing good. He sent out his disciples to heal the sick and cast out devils. They would have enjoyed walking with him and

sitting at his feet; but he sent them to minister, even as his Father sent him, and as he ministered. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world"; to live in the world as not of it; to live by the faith of Christ, and do everything in his name and to his glory. He who thus lives finds God everywhere. He does business with his fellows, and his business is sanctified. God is present in his office and at his home, and those who see him know not only that he has been with Jesus and learned of him, but that he walks with him every day, and continues to learn.

THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD.

Christ did not underestimate the power of Satan. He recognized him as a prince, having authority and the world as his dominion. This is what Satan claimed. When he appeared to Christ in the wilderness tempting him, he showed him the kingdoms of the world and said: "All these are delivered unto me." Christ, by not contradicting him, admitted his claim, asserting, however, at the same time his own independence and superior authority. "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

A like admission and claim are found in the words, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." I once read a description of Satan by a man who said he had seen him. He described him as an enormous creature, half man and half bat, with cloven feet and fingers like eagle claws, and his tail was a fiery dart, and smoke and flames came from his mouth, while all about him were fumes of sulphur,

( 141 )

and the air was full of strange and unearthly flashes and terrifying sounds.

The description reminded me of Apollyon in the "Pilgrim's Progress." It was a faithful picture of the Satan of superstition. Many people when they think of Satan think of such a creature. Another article, much better written, in the same paper, described the Satan of modern philosophy. It ridiculed the idea of "a personal devil." It regarded Satan as the spirit of evil, "an abstraction put into the concrete," an "unknown quantity representing the origin and highest degree of sin." As I read, Satan seemed to vanish, not according to the popular idea, in smoke and the odor of brimstone, but in a mist of sneers and learned phrases.

One conception is perhaps as accurate as the other, but neither is at all like the Satan of the Bible. We know nothing in regard to Satan's outward appearance. He came to Eve in the form of a serpent, and in other places is described as a roaring kion and "the dragon." The words may be used figuratively, or Satan may have assumed the forms. He certainly did take agreeable forms, as, for instance, during the temptation of Christ. He appeared sometimes as an angel of light.

As to his character and history we are more fully informed. He was originally holy and happy, an angel of high rank among the hosts of heaven. Through sin he fell from his estate, drawing after him multitudes of other angels, over whom he retains power, and whose leader he is in warfare on all that is good. As to his character, if there is anything in a name, his names condemn him. He is the "adversary," "the enemy," "the accuser," "the destroyer," "the devil," "the deceiver," "liar," "tormentor," etc. These show also his work. He goes about to deceive and torment and destroy. Other names indicate his dignity and rulership over other spirits and men. He is the "prince of devils," the "prince of the powers of the air," the "prince of this world," and even the "god of this world.”

As the prince of this world, "he rules not by divine right nor through any inheritance, but by conquest." The Garden of Eden was a battlefield in which his cunning accomplished more than the generalship of all the ages. Adam and Eve were the representatives of a race, and, in their subjection, the world came under his power, and, as a strong nation possesses and rules a conquered province, he has appointed his officers and imposes his taxes upon it.