TYPES OF DEMONS IN CREATION

Outside of the Bible there are abundant collateral proofs of "such beings as Satan and demons." There are conditions in the material world which typify demons or evil spirits. Paul in substance (Romans 1:20) implies that in all God's creation He has a moral purpose and by it has revealed certain important religious truths which confirm similar revelations in His written word.

"The invisible things of Him are clearly seen by the things that are made." Men who are disposed to find fault with the revelations of severity in the Bible should also complain at nature, for as some one says, "She is red in tooth and claw."

I am indebted to Prof. Townsend's "Satan and Demons" for the following proofs or types of demons in the physical universe.

"The study of the Vegetable Kingdom reveals that there is not a tree, plant, shrub, nor flower in any latitude, that does not have an insect or parasite that under certain conditions preys upon it."

"The grub worm, the mole, the beetle, the canker, the cut worms, the rose and potato beetles keep the gardener busy the season through. Legislative action is invoked to arrest the progress of the gypsy moth, army worm, California scale (San Jose scale) and other pests. Successful agriculture and horticulture call for a perpetual fight. Since these imps, tormentors, and troublers are everywhere, why should one be surprised at the Bible accounts that there are likewise imps, tormentors, troublers of those who in the spiritual world are trying to cultivate the vineyard that Providence has committed to their care. The malignant spiritual imp (revealed in Scripture) is no more strange than the destructive horticultural one," seen in the material world.

Also, "among animals of almost every latitude are to be found parasites and tormentors without number." The sheep and cattle-tick, the horse-fly, the small tormenting fly which by the hundreds bury themselves in the hair of the cattle and are switched off a thousand times only to return, make life a torment to the poor, dumb brutes. Fleas, flies, mosquitoes, jiggers and ticks, trouble and pester man and beast. The writer knows of one man who died from the effects of a single jigger burying itself in his body; and he himself has been tortured by those fiery little red insects, having as many as fifty buried in his body at one time. Invisible, unseen, almost microscopic in size, but possessed with an uncanny intelligence, infesting grass and weeds with tentacles extending to catch and cling to man or beast: they then work their way up and into the body, there dying, festering, poisoning and torturing their victim.

A German professor said: "War is the watchword of the whole organic nature: there is a constant war of all organisms against outward unfavorable circumstances. "Multitudes of obnoxious pests invade the very homes and bodies of the human family. In some latitudes they make life a burden, almost a terror.

"The atmosphere men breathe is loaded with living, though invisible, organisms that under certain conditions cause disease and death. The water men drink to quench their thirst swarms with creatures that are so hideous and horrible, when examined under the microscope, that one can scarcely believe one's eyes: devils could not look more repulsive."

"The soil conceals the poisonous tetanus bacilli which is in waiting to kill by lockjaw if one's foot is pierced by a nail or sliver.

"The human body may become any day the home of billions of disease and death producing creatures (bacteria).

"These pests of the physical world are meant to be a symbol of evil, malignant, invisible agencies, that sometimes by the legion, are said to haunt the footsteps and imperil the lives and souls of men in the spiritual world."

"There are myriads of living, malignant, destructive organisms in every realm of nature that, like Satan and his demons, trouble and torment the innocent as well as the guilty." And if men criticize the Bible for its revelation of demons they should also criticize the physical universe.

"Belief in evil demons is persistent and wide spread." It is almost universal. There is a noticeable constitutional disposition in man to refer certain things to the devil and demons. Hence we hear, "He is demon possessed," or "Satan seems to be in everything, making all go wrong," Men say, "Oh, go to the devil !" without inquiring why it is so natural to say it or why so many do, or that it is a proof that in the instinctive constitution of man there is belief in Satan and his angels."

Some offer demon possession as an explanation of the course pursued by fiendish murderers, of young and old, obstinate swearers, drunkards, harlots, suicides and the young man or young woman who leave the path of purity for sin and shame. A prominent social reformer says, "The course which intemperate and licentious men and women are pursuing in our large cities, and the eagerness with which they rush into vice, though knowing full well the woe that transgression brings to the body, mind, and soul, are outside of the sacred Scriptures, the strongest possible evidence to my mind of the existence of malignant and evil spiritual agencies that tempt, lead on, and then destroy their victims?"

A man leaves his wife for a "flapper" who swears fidelity only to him, but proves false. His wife can not believe him anything but an exemplary husband, even after he killed the "flapper." He had been so exemplary: stayed at home nights with his wife, wrote and phoned he would kill the girl and himself. The mother-in-law was puzzled too, to know what could have made him do such a thing? Was it whiskey or drugs?

The whole world seems to be in the dark about the origin, the animating cause of its crime-wave and lawlessness. It is clearly engineered by a great Master director, the lawless one who comes under no numberless demons, evil spirits and lesser devils in his employ, slaves to his will. Allowing native sin, heredity, environment, acquired depravity, their place in the explanation of sin and crime, yet there is the spirit that worketh in all the sons of disobedience.

Not what makes people do things? Who makes them?

Hear an inspired word for the evil days we are passing through. "For we have to struggle not with flesh and blood but, with Angelic Rulers, the Potentates of the dark present, the spirit forces of evil in the heavenly sphere."

The way of victory Paul points out: "So take God's armor that you may be able to make a stand upon the evil day and hold your ground by overcoming all the foe." This is not by human effort but by faith in Christ, who on the cross conquered the entire Satanic host.

The maniac who blew up the school in Bath, Mich., was demon driven. The truth about demons might have saved him.