The Devil ana the Church Selected from a Recent Book (Satan) by EDWARD Ml BOUNDS
One of th e schemes of Satan to de base and p ervert is to establish a wrong estim ate of church strength. If he can raise false measurements of church power; if he can press th e m aterial to th e fron t; if he can tabu late these for ces so as to make them imposing and aggregating in commands, influence, and dem and,/he has secured his end. This is one of th e devil’s most insid ious and successful methods to deceive, divert and deprave. He m arshals and parades the most engaging m aterial re sults, lauds th e power of civilizing forces and makes its glories and power -pass in review till church leaders are dazzled, and ensnared, and the Church becomes thoroughly worldly while boasting her spirituality. No deceiver is so a rtfu l in the diabolical trad e of deception as. Satan. As an angel of ligh t he leads a soul to death. To mis take the, elements of Church strength is to m istake th e ch aracter of the Church and also to change character, all its efforts and aims. The strength of the Church lies in its piety. All else is incidental, and is not of th e strength of things. But in th e worldly, popular language of th is day, a church is called strong when its membership is large, when it has social position, financial resources; when ability, learning, and eloquence fill the pulpit, and when the pews are filled by fashion, intelligence, money and influence: An estim ate of this kind is w o rld ly to the fullest ex tent. The church th a t thu s defines its streng th is on the highway to apostasy., The streng th of the Church does not consist of any or all of these things. The faith, holiness and zeal of the Church are the elements of its power. Church streng th does not consist in its numbers and its money, but in the holi-
devil is too wise, too large m ental grasp, too lordly in ibition, to confine his aims th e individual. He seeks
to direct the policy and sway the scep tre of nations. In his larg est freedom, and in his delirium of passion and suc cess, “he goes out to deceive th e nations which are in th e four qu arters of the e a rth .” He is .an adept in deception, an expert in all guileful arts. An arch angel in execution, he often succeeds in seducing th e nations most loyal to Christ, leading them into plans and principles which pervert and render baneful all Christly principles. The Church itself, th e bride of Christ, when seduced from h er purity, degenerates into a worldly eccleslasticism. The “gates of- hell shall not prevail” against the Church. This promise of our Lord stands against every Satanic device.and assault. But th is immutable word as to th e glorious outcome does' not protect th e Church from th e devil’s stratagem s which, may, and often do, pervert the aims of the Church and postpone .the day of its final triumph. The devil is a hydra-headed monster, but he is hydra-headed in plans and wisdom as well as in monstrosities. His m aster and supreme effort is to get control of the. Church, not to destroy its o rg an ization ,.bu t to abate and pervert its Divine ends. This he does in the most insidious way, seemingly innocent, no sta rtlin g change, nothing to shock no r to alarm . Sometimes the revolu tionizing and destructive change is in troduced under th e disguise of a g reater zeal for Christ’s glory. In tro duced by some one high in church honor, often it occurs th a t th e advocate of these measures is to tally igno ran t of the fact th a t the tendency is subver-- sive.
SECURITY. (Inside Back Cover)
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