evil being, "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience,” the author of untold and incalculable miseries, physical, mental, and moral, to mankind. But that such notions are untenable is most evident, both from very many expressions in Holy Scripture, and from the experiences of ancient and modern saints. Is it to be believed, that when our blessed Redeemer is said to have cast forth devils by His Word, when He said, "I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven,” (Luke x. 18); when He asked (Luke xiii. 16), "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?" nothing more than Eastern metaphor was alluded to? No. "Where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst." I quote the following truthful and pertinent remarks,* which will serve as well to remind you again of much that was said in our last meditation, as to show the danger of "explaining away" the Word of God. "What our Lord really says, is, that at a certain past time, Satan asked of God (to Whom therefore he is subject), that he might have the disciples-all the twelve-to sift them as wheat, and obtained his request; but that He, too, their Advocate with the Father, put in a counter-petition, that He prayed,

*The "Christian Advocate," for October 1861, p. 346.

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doubtless for them all, but specially for Peter, because he would need it most. The veil that hid the unseen world of spirits from their sight, is here drawn aside for the disciples, and they are made acquainted with the solemn realities about themselves, which had been transacted there. The accuser of the brethren' had appeared before the throne of the Almighty. Utterly foiled and defeated in his attacks on the Master, in Whom he had nothing, he turned his rage and malice against the disciples. For them he asked, and they were given into his hand, to tempt, and to sift as wheat. But, before the throne of Jehovah, there appeared another Pleader The true High Priest preferred His petition on their behalf, and His prayer too was heard. The terrible sifting came. One of the twelve was driven away as chaff. But the rest, though all forsook, and one denied their Lord, yet, by virtue of the Saviour's prayer, endured the trial, and came forth as wheat from the sifting Those

two wonderful scenes at the commencement of the book of Job, in which Satan appears before God, and procures the holy patriarch to be given into his hand, form a striking parallel to the case of the disciples. There, too, it was only by permission that he could touch Job at all, and then only within the limits that were assigned him, 'Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not

forth thy hand.'

save his life.'

'Behold, he is in thy hand; but There, too, Satan's desire was to sift

Job as wheat. He insinuated that he was a hypocrite; that his piety would not stand the test; that, if tried by suffering and loss, he would prove to be chaff indeed-so utterly irreligious as to curse God to His face. There, too, the result was the discomfiture of Satan, and the ultimate triumph, through Divine grace, of the servant of God."

We have already seen, from the patriarch's history, plain proof that the Lord, from time to time, allows Satan to move Him to afflict us with illness: that the Lord, however, though He makes this evil being His agent in such afflictions, limits his power over His Own people at all times: and that faith, to be found acceptable in God's sight, needs to be submitted to the furnace of trial. We have seen proof, that in the case of those who seek, with all their hearts, to live closely to God, Satan asks of God power to sift their sincerity, and obtains His request. You and I, my brother, if we have determined to serve the Lord with all diligence, must have been exposed already, or have yet to be exposed at some future time, to that ordeal. In his malicious wrath, as in the case of Job, Satan may ask of God that the furnace may be heated with a sevenfold fury, and in this petition he may be successful. But take courage; as long as we put our trust in the Lord, we shall never

be forsaken. You will recollect, that in the midst of all his misery, the patriarch's determination, through Divine grace, was, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

I wish now to show you, from this history, that Satan defeats his own purposes in afflicting God's people, because their faith, through God's grace, is thereby strengthened. So long as the evil one sees an eminent servant of God untried, it is reasonable that he should suppose his faith and trust in Jehovah are capable of being undermined, or burnt away by fiery tribulation. When the afflicted one is actually in the heat of his trial, the malicious disturber of his peace derives a fiendish hope of success from each impatient word or gesture, and perhaps presses the servant of God yet more closely in consequence of this. But when hour by hour, the tried and tempted one cries to the Lord for help and deliverance, a rescue will come, though, that Satan may sustain a more decided defeat, the trial may not at once be removed. Take courage from this, my brother. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Let him see that, through your gracious God, you have emerged unharmed-nay, improved, purified-from the furnace, and thenceforth you will sensibly feel that the Lord will give you an easier victory over him every time he assaults you. You will be less and less ignorant as to his devices; you will watch

and pray more constantly against him; and so shall your soul, through God's grace, be delivered from the devouring lion's power.

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But we may learn also from this history that, in order the better to strengthen his position in attacking a believer's faith, Satan will often incite his nearest and dearest relatives to seek to withdraw his heart's allegiance from God. He did this in the case of Job. How terribly must his temptation to rebel have been strengthened when, in the midst of the powerful maladies that caused him such anguish of heart, his wife said unto him "Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die.” surely that was a case of "a tongue set on fire of hell." Satan thought that the patriarch's patience was fast becoming strained beyond his powers of endurance. And in the moments of his fancied triumph, he moved his wicked wife to assist him in this deadly warfare. But God had not forsaken him. He looked on from the midst of the "clouds and darkness that are round about Him," and was Job's invisible Helper and Comforter at the time. He left him not to endure alone. Satan might have said at last, almost in the words of the Babylonish monarch -(Daniel iii. 25)—"Lo, I see two men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the second is like the Son of God." For the blessed Saviour suffers when His people