attributed to Satan. All this was a relic of the mediæval exaggerations of Satan's power. It was then supposed that men might make covenants with the evil one, in which supernatural power was purchased at the price of final perdition (see Goethe's Faust).

Scripture furnishes no warrant for such representations. There seems to have been permitted a special activity of Satan in temptation and possession during our Savior's ministry, in order that Christ's power might be demonstrated. By his death Jesus brought "to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2: 14) and "having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," i. e., in the Cross (Col. 2:15). 1 John 3:8-"To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Evil spirits now exist and act only upon sufferance. McLeod, Temptation of our Lord, 24 -"Satan's power is limited, (1) by the fact that he is a creature; (2) by the fact of God's providence; (3) by the fact of his own wickedness."

Genung, Epic of the Inner Life, 136-"Having neither fixed principle in himself nor connection with the source of order outside, Satan has not prophetic ability. He can appeal to chance, but he cannot foresee. So Goethe's Mephistopheles insolently boasts that he can lead Faust astray: 'What will you bet? There's still a chance to gain him, If unto me full leave you give Gently upon my road to train him!' And in Job 1:11; 2: 5, Satan wagers: 'He will renounce thee to thy face."" William Ashmore: "Is Satan omnipresent? No, but he is very spry. Is he bound? Yes, but with a rather loose rope." In the Persian story, God scattered seed. The devil buried it, and sent the rain to rot it. But soon it sprang up, and the wilderness blossomed as the rose.

II. OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS.

1.

To the doctrine of angels in general. It is objected:

(a) That it is opposed to the modern scientific view of the world, as a system of definite forces and laws.—We reply that, whatever truth there may be in this modern view, it does not exclude the play of divine or human free agency. It does not, therefore, exclude the possibility of angelic agency.

Ladd, Philosophy of Knowledge, 332-"It is easier to believe in angels than in ether; in God rather than atoms; and in the history of his kingdom as a divine self-revelation rather than in the physicist's or the biologist's purely mechanical process of evolution."

(b) That it is opposed to the modern doctrine of infinite space above and beneath us a space peopled with worlds. With the surrender of the old conception of the firmament, as a boundary separating this world from the regions beyond, it is claimed that we must give up all belief in a heaven of the angels. We reply that the notions of an infinite universe, of heaven as a definite place, and of spirits as confined to fixed locality, are without certain warrant either in reason or in Scripture. We know nothing of the modes of existence of pure spirits.

What we know of the universe is certainly finite. Angels are apparently incorporeal beings, and as such are free from all laws of matter and space. Heaven and hell are essentially conditions, corresponding to character-conditions in which the body and the surroundings of the soul express and reflect its inward state. The main thing to be insisted on is therefore the state; place is merely incidental. The fact that Christ ascended to heaven with a human body, and that the saints are to possess glorified bodies, would seem to imply that heaven is a place. Christ's declaration with regard to him who is "able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Mat. 10:28) affords some reason for believing that hell is also a place.

Where heaven and hell are, is not revealed to us. But it is not necessary to suppose that they are in some remote part of the universe; for aught we know, they may be right about us, so that if our eyes were opened, like those of the prophet's servant (2 Kings 6:17), we ourselves should behold them. Upon ground of Eph. 2: 2-"prince of the

powers of the air" - and 3:10 -"the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places"- some have assigned the atmosphere of the earth as the abode of angelic spirits, both good and evil. But the expressions "air" and "heavenly places" may be merely metaphorical designations of their spiritual method of existence.

The idealistic philosophy, which regards time and space as merely subjective forms of our human thinking and as not conditioning the thought of God, may possibly afford some additional aid in the consideration of this problem. If matter be only the expression of God's mind and will, having no existence apart from his intelligence and volition, the question of place ceases to have significance. Heaven is in that case simply the state in which God manifests himself in his grace, and hell is the state in which a moral being finds himself in opposition to God, and God in opposition to him. Christ can manifest himself to his followers in all parts of the earth and to all the inhabitants of heaven at one and the same time (John 14: 21; Mat. 28: 20; Rev. 1:7). Angels in like manner, being purely spiritual beings, may be free from the laws of space and time, and may not be limited to any fixed locality.

We prefer therefore to leave the question of place undecided, and to accept the existence and working of angels both good and evil as a matter of faith, without professing to understand their relations to space. For the rationalistic view, see Strauss, Glaubenslehre, 1 : 670–675. Per contra, see Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 1 : 308-317; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 127-136.

2.

To the doctrine of evil angels in particular. It is objected that: (a) The idea of the fall of angels is self-contradictory, since a fall determined by pride presupposes pride – that is, a fall before the fall.—We reply that the objection confounds the occasion of sin with the sin itself. The outward motive to disobedience is not disobedience. The fall took place only when that outward motive was chosen by free will. When the motive of independence was selfishly adopted, only then did the innocent desire for knowledge and power become pride and sin. How an evil volition could originate in spirits created pure is an insoluble problem. Our faith in God's holiness, however, compels us to attribute the origin of this evil volition, not to the Creator, but to the creature.

There can be no sinful propensity before there is sin. The reason of the first sin can not be sin itself. This would be to make sin a necessary development; to deny the holiness of God the Creator; to leave the ground of theism for pantheism.

(b) It is irrational to suppose that Satan should have been able to change his whole nature by a single act, so that he thenceforth willed only evil. But we reply that the circumstances of that decision are unknown to us; while the power of single acts permanently to change character is matter of observation among men.

Instance the effect, upon character and life, of a single act of falsehood or embezzlement. The first glass of intoxicating drink, and the first yielding to impure suggestion, often establish nerve-tracts in the brain and associations in the mind which are not reversed and overcome for a whole lifetime. "Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny." And what is true of men, may be also true of angels.

(c) It is impossible that so wise a being should enter upon a hopeless rebellion. We answer that no amount of mere knowledge ensures right moral action. If men gratify present passion, in spite of their knowledge that the sin involves present misery and future perdition, it is not impossible that Satan may have done the same.

Scherer, Essays on English Literature, 139, puts this objection as follows: "The idea of Satan is a contradictory idea; for it is contradictory to know God and yet attempt rivalry with him." But we must remember that understanding is the servant of will,

and is darkened by will. Many clever men fail to see what belongs to their peace. It is the very madness of sin, that it persists in iniquity, even when it sees and fears the approaching judgment of God. Jonathan Edwards: "Although the devil be exceedingly crafty and subtle, yet he is one of the greatest fools and blockheads in the world, as the subtlest of wicked men are. Sin is of such a nature that it strangely infatuates and stultifies the mind." One of Ben Jonson's plays has for its title: "The Devil is an Ass."

Schleiermacher, Die Christliche Glaube, 1:210, urges that continual wickedness must have weakened Satan's understanding, so that he could be no longer feared, and he adds: "Nothing is easier than to contend against emotional evil." On the other hand, there seems evidence in Scripture of a progressive rage and devastating activity in the case of the evil one, beginning in Genesis and culminating in the Revelation. With this increasing malignity there is also abundant evidence of his unwisdom. We may instance the devil's mistakes in misrepresenting 1. God to man (Gen. 3:1- "hath God said?"). 2. Man to himself (Gen. 3: 4-"Ye shall not surely die"). 3. Man to God (Job 1:9"Doth Job fear God for naught?"). 4. God to himself (Mat. 4: 3-"If thou art the Son of God"). 5. Himself to man (2 Cor. 11:14 - "Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light"). 6. Himself to himself (Rev. 12:12 "the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath "-thinking he could successfully oppose God or destroy man).

(d) It is inconsistent with the benevolence of God to create and uphold spirits, who he knows will be and do evil. We reply that this is no more inconsistent with God's benevolence than the creation and preservation of men, whose action God overrules for the furtherance of his purposes, and whose iniquity he finally brings to light and punishes.

Seduction of the pure by the impure, piracy, slavery, and war, have all been permitted among men. It is no more inconsistent with God's benevolence to permit them among angelic spirits. Caroline Fox tells of Emerson and Carlyle that the latter once led his friend, the serene philosopher, through the abominations of the streets of London at midnight, asking him with grim humor at every few steps: "Do you believe in the devil now?" Emerson replied that the more he saw of the English people, the greater and better he thought them. It must have been because with such depths beneath them they could notwithstanding reach such heights of civilization. Even vice and misery can be overruled for good, and the fate of evil angels may be made a warning to the universe.

(e) The notion of organization among evil spirits is self-contradictory, since the nature of evil is to sunder and divide. We reply that such organization of evil spirits is no more impossible than the organization of wicked men, for the purpose of furthering their selfish ends. Common hatred to God may constitute a principle of union among them, as among

men.

Wicked men succeed in their plans only by adhering in some way to the good. Even a robber-horde must have laws, and there is a sort of "honor among thieves." Else the world would be a pandemonium, and society would be what Hobbes called it: "bellum omnium contra omnes." See art. on Satan, by Whitehouse, in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible: "Some personalities are ganglionic centres of a nervous system, incarnations of evil influence. The Bible teaches that Satan is such a centre."

But the organizing power of Satan has its limitations. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 279-"Satan is not omniscient, and it is not certain that all demons are perfectly subject to his control. Want of vigilance on his part, and personal ambition in them, may obstruct and delay the execution of his plans, as among men." An English parliamentarian comforted himself by saying: "If the fleas were all of one mind, they would have us out of bed." Plato, Lysis, 214-"The good are like one another, and friends to one another, and the bad are never at unity with one another or with themselves; for they are passionate and restless, and anything which is at variance and enmity with itself is not likely to be in union or harmony with any other thing."

(f) The doctrine is morally pernicious, as transferring the blame of human sin to the being or beings who tempt men thereto.- We reply that

neither conscience nor Scripture allows temptation to be an excuse for sin, or regards Satan as having power to compel the human will. The objection, moreover, contradicts our observation,- for only where the personal existence of Satan is recognized, do we find sin recognized in its true nature.

The diabolic character of sin makes it more guilty and abhorred. The immorality lies, not in the maintenance, but in the denial, of the doctrine. Giving up the doctrine of Satan is connected with laxity in the administration of criminal justice. Penalty comes to be regarded as only deterrent or reformatory.

(g) The doctrine degrades man, by representing him as the tool and slave of Satan. - We reply that it does indeed show his actual state to be degraded, but only with the result of exalting our idea of his original dignity, and of his possible glory in Christ. The fact that man's sin was suggested from without, and not from within, may be the one mitigating circumstance which renders possible his redemption.

It rather puts a stigma upon human nature to say that it is not fallen-that its present condition is its original and normal state. Nor is it worth while to attribute to man a dignity he does not possess, if thereby we deprive him of the dignity that may be his. Satan's sin was, in its essence, sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there can be no "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23: 34), since it was choosing evil with the mala gaudia mentis, or the clearest intuition that it was evil. If there be no devil, then man himself is devil. It has been said of Voltaire, that without believing in a devil, he saw him everywhere-even where he was not. Christian, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, takes comfort when he finds that the blasphemous suggestions which came to him in the dark valley were suggestions from the fiend that pursued him. If all temptation is from within, our case would seem hopeless. But if "an enemy hath done this" (Mat. 13:28), then there is hope. And so we may accept the maxim: "Nullus diabolus, nullus Redemptor." Unitarians have no Captain of their Salvation, and so have no Adversary against whom to contend. See Trench, Studies in the Gospels, 17; Birks, Difficulties of Belief, 78-100; Ebrard, Dogmatik, 1: 291–293. Many of the objections and answers mentioned above have been taken from Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 3: 251-284, where a fuller statement of them may be found.

III.

A.

PRACTICAL USES OF THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS.

Uses of the doctrine of good angels.

(a) It gives us a new sense of the greatness of the divine resources, and of God's grace in our creation, to think of the multitude of unfallen intelligences who executed the divine purposes before man appeared.

(b) It strengthens our faith in God's providential care, to know that spirits of so high rank are deputed to minister to creatures who are environed with temptations and are conscious of sin.

(c) It teaches us humility, that beings of so much greater knowledge and power than ours should gladly perform these unnoticed services, in behalf of those whose only claim upon them is that they are children of the same common Father.

(d) It helps us in the struggle against sin, to learn that these messengers of God are near, to mark our wrong doing if we fall, and to sustain us if we resist temptation.

(e) It enlarges our conceptions of the dignity of our own being, and of the boundless possibilities of our future existence, to remember these forms of typical innocence and love, that praise and serve God unceasingly in heaven.

Instance the appearance of angels in Jacob's life at Bethel (Gen. 28: 12-Jacob's conversion?) and at Mahanaim (Gen. 32 : 1, 2 - -two camps, of angels, on the right hand and on the left; cf. Ps. 34: 7-"The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them"); so too the Angel at Penuel that struggled with Jacob at his entering the promised land (Gen. 32: 24; cf. Hos. 12: 3, 4-"in his manhood he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed"), and "the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil" (Gen. 48: 16) to whom Jacob refers on his dying bed. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: "And is there care in heaven? and is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base That may compassion of their evils move? There is; else much more wretched were the case of men than beasts. But O, th' exceeding grace Of highest God that loves his creatures so, And all his works with mercy doth embrace, That blessed angels he sends to and fro To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe! How oft do they their silver bowers leave And come to succor us who succor want! How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies like flying pursuivant, Against foul fiends to aid us militant! They for us fight; they watch and duly ward, And their bright squadrons round about us plant; And all for love, and nothing for reward. Oh, why should heavenly God for men have such regard!"

It shows us that sin is not mere finiteness, to see these finite intelligences that maintained their integrity. Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 2: 2-"He counsels a divorce-a loss of her That, like a jewel, has hung twenty years About his neck, yet never lost her lustre; Of her that loves him with that excellence That angels love good men with; even of her That, when the greatest stroke of fortune falls, Will bless the king." Measure for Measure, 2:2-"Man, proud man, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As makes the angels weep."

B. Uses of the doctrine of evil angels.

(a) It illustrates the real nature of sin, and the depth of the ruin to which it may bring the soul, to reflect upon the present moral condition and eternal wretchedness to which these spirits, so highly endowed, have brought themselves by their rebellion against God.

(b) It inspires a salutary fear and hatred of the first subtle approaches of evil from within or from without, to remember that these may be the covert advances of a personal and malignant being, who seeks to overcome our virtue and to involve us in his own apostasy and destruction.

(c) It shuts us up to Christ, as the only Being who is able to deliver us or others from the enemy of all good.

(d) It teaches us that our salvation is wholly of grace, since for such multitudes of rebellious spirits no atonement and no renewal were provided -simple justice having its way, with no mercy to interpose or save.

Philippi, in his Glaubenslehre, 3:151-284, suggests the following relations of the doctrine of Satan to the doctrine of sin: 1. Since Satan is a fallen angel, who once was pure, evil is not self-existent or necessary. Sin does not belong to the substance which God created, but is a later addition. 2. Since Satan is a purely spiritual creature, sin cannot have its origin in mere sensuousness, or in the mere possession of a physical nature. 3. Since Satan is not a weak and poorly endowed creature, sin is not a necessary result of weakness and limitation. 4. Since Satan is confirmed in evil, sin is not necessarily a transient or remediable act of will. 5. Since in Satan sin does not come to an end, sin is not a step of creaturely development, or a stage of progress to something higher and better. On the uses of the doctrine, see also Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 1:316; Robert Hall, Works, 3:35–51; Brooks, Satan and his Devices.

"They never sank so low, They are not raised so high; They never knew such depths of woe, Such heights of majesty. The Savior did not join Their nature to his own; For them he shed no blood divine, Nor heaved a single groan." If no redemption has been provided for them, it may be because: 1. sin originated with them; 2. the sin which they committed was "an eternal sin" (cf. Mark 3:29); 3. they sinned with clearer intellect and fuller knowledge than ours (cf. Luke 23:34); 4. their incorporeal being aggravated their sin and made it analogous to our sinning against the Holy