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Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
By JAMES M. GRAY, D. D. 
 
 Christian Workers Commentary on the Old and 
 New Testaments. 8vo, cloth . 
 
 The mature work of an experienced Bible teacher, whose 
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Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 in the light of the 
 
 Old and New Testaments 
 
 By 
 JAMES M. GRAY, D.D. 
 
 Dean of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago 
 
 Author of "Synthetic Bible Studies" "The Christian Worker's 
 
 Commentary" "A Text Book on Prophecy" "The 
 
 Antidote to Christian Science" "Progress 
 
 in the Life to Come" "Bible 
 
 Problems Explained" etc. 
 
 New York Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1920, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 ■~Bs<xl 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 MAR -3 ri2! 
 
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 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 
 
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CONTENTS 
 
 I. The New Attack of Spiritual- 
 ism and How to Meet It . 9 
 II. The Modern History of Spirit- 
 ism ...... 16 
 
 III. Satan, Or Spiritism at Its 
 
 Source .... 27 
 
 IV. Angels and Demons, Or Spirit- 
 
 ism's Personnel 39 
 
 V. Spiritism Before the Flood ., 46 
 VI. "Sons of God" Marrying the 
 
 "Daughters of Men" . 57 
 
 VII. Abominations of the Canaan- 
 
 ites 66 
 
 VIII. Spiritism in Israel and Judah . 80 
 IX. Early Christianity and the 
 
 Black Art .... 90 
 X. Teaching of the Apostolic 
 
 Epistles 102 
 
 XI. Teaching of the General 
 
 Epistles 119 
 
 XII. Teaching of the Apocalypse . 135 
 
THE NEW ATTACK OF SPIRITUALISM 
 AND HOW TO MEET IT 
 
 OF writing books on Spiritualism in these 
 days there is no end. But with a single ex- 
 ception, and that rather inadequate in its 
 treatment of the subject, we have found none to 
 put into the hands of a Christian desirous of 
 learning how to meet and deal with this error 
 from an all round Biblical point of view. 
 
 Some were too technical, some too bulky and 
 expensive and some so mixed with other error as 
 to be impossible to recommend. 
 
 Not a few were written by those who were well- 
 informed on the scientific phases of Spiritualism, 
 the findings of the Society of Psychical Research 
 or the doings of mediums and seances, but whose 
 authors appeared either ignorant of or indifferent 
 to the Bible, which to the Christian, of course, 
 holds the first place and is of final authority. 
 
 Some of the writers were of the novelist type 
 like Sir A. Conan Doyle, Basil King or Booth 
 Tarkington, and antagonistic to Christianity con- 
 sidering it a confirmed failure. These referred 
 to the Bible to ridicule its teachings or to wrest 
 
 9 
 
10 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 their meaning into conformity with their own 
 views, being convinced, as one of them said, that 
 Spiritualism is "not only a new religion but the 
 coming religion." 
 
 We intended to briefly analyze some of % these 
 books for the sake of the warning they contain, 
 but this has been so well done by the Sunday 
 School Times in the case of Basil King's "The 
 Abolishing of Death" that we take the liberty to 
 quote. The reviewer confesses the masterful 
 character of the work and the fact that it intelli- 
 gently recognizes the fundamentals of the Chris- 
 tian faith, but, as he adds, it just as intelligently 
 rejects them: 
 
 "The unique inspiration of the Bible' is rejected. 
 
 The finality of the Bible's message, as a complete revela- 
 tion from God for all men for this life, is rejected. 
 
 The unique deity of Christ is rejected. 
 
 The necessity for the blood atonement of Christ is rejected. 
 
 The existence and reality of sin are rejected. 
 
 God's word that some men will be lost and some will be 
 saved is rejected. 
 
 The reality of death is rejected. 
 
 The need of faith in Christ as Saviour as a condition of 
 eternal life is rejected. 
 
 God's word as to hell, or the second death, is rejected. 
 
 The lines between sin and holiness are obliterated. 
 
 And the divinity of all men, which the Bible denies, is 
 declared." 
 
 II 
 
 It is astonishing and saddening too, to read 
 some of the arguments advanced in books and 
 
New Attack of Spiritualism 11 
 
 other writings on this subject, by Christian min- 
 isters, in their efforts to dissuade their flocks from 
 following these false shepherds. 
 
 One warns them to beware of the medieval sys- 
 tem of demonology, which on further investiga- 
 tion turns out to mean really Bible demonology. 
 He would have his ministerial brethren also deny 
 absolutely that a medium can receive communi- 
 cations from another world, because, he adds, 
 "this would make it inconsistent to suggest that 
 their communications were from evil spirits!" It 
 seems almost impossible that such a man ever 
 could have consulted his Bible except as he goes 
 to a book of familiar quotations to select a text. 
 
 That mediums can receive communications from 
 another world there is no doubt, nor f is there any 
 doubt that their communications are from evil 
 spirits, for the Bible confirms both propositions. 
 That is not to say, however, that all mediums re- 
 ceive such communications, nor that any medium 
 receives them in every case, there are frauds per- 
 petrated as every one knows; but in principle it 
 is as. foolish to deny this as it is for an ostrich to 
 hide its head in the sand and suppose that itican 
 not be seen. 
 
 Another expresses the opinion that it is per- 
 fectly natural to seek communion with those we 
 have loved and who have passed beyond, and that 
 there is no reason why we should not talk with 
 them if they are near to us; but advises against 
 
12 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 it because "the means of communication and the 
 machinery of contact is as yet so imperfect !" In 
 other words, as soon as scientists have perfected 
 the apparatus, communications between the living 
 and the dead, may be popularized, not merely 
 without harm to any but with positive benefit to 
 all. It is like the aeroplane which will soon lose 
 its interest for sportsmen and scientists and be- 
 come a common carrier. 
 
 Strange to say, this last opinion is from a writer 
 of the Evangelical type apparently, for he goes on 
 to say that while such intercourse with the dead 
 would be a great comfort and a renewed assurance 
 of the persistence of life after death, yet after 
 all that is not religion. "Religion," he truly wit- 
 nesses, "is the consciousness of God, the sense of 
 redemption from sin through Jesus Christ, joy 
 and peace in the Holy Ghost, service of the world, 
 and love and tenderness for all mankind." One 
 wonders that a man so intelligent in the Gospel 
 could possibly be led into folly of this kind and 
 into such gross contradiction of the Bible. It may 
 be natural enough for us to seek communion with 
 our departed, but the reason we should refrain 
 from it is because God has forbidden it. What 
 further do we need? 
 
 Perhaps as confusing as anything we have seen 
 was a review of four new books, in an English 
 evangelical periodical, in which the claims and 
 teachings of Spiritualism were weighed in the bal- 
 
New Attack of Spiritualism 13 
 
 ance and found wanting, and as to which the re- 
 viewer said he heartily commended them all. Two 
 of these books were thoroughly sound and Biblical 
 in their contention, but one of the others was that 
 referred to above as containing the theory that 
 mediums could have no intercourse with demons, 
 and the fourth advocated, as an offset to Spiritual- 
 ism, that Christians give more diligence in inter- 
 cession of the saints and prayers for the dead! 
 
 The reviewer would explain his inconsistenq^ 
 doubtless, by the circumstance that all agreed in 
 teaching that between Spiritualism and Christian- 
 ity there was no affinity. Nevertheless, if such 
 lack of discrimination were everywhere, we could 
 well appreciate the remark of another English- 
 man that "the word 'Christianity' has undergone 
 such enlargement that I scarcely know what it 
 means when I see it." 
 
 Ill 
 
 Speaking further of the inability and lack of 
 Biblical knowledge in dealing with this subject on 
 the part of some who ought to be 'teachers in 
 Israel', it recalls the situation w^hen Christian Sci- 
 ence first raised its head as an avowed rival of 
 the Church and when, as a result, the ministry was 
 thrown into a panic. 
 
 And by the way, the editor of Christian "Work 
 on his return from England not long since, re- 
 ported that now one seldom heard Christian Sci- 
 
14 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 ence referred to there. The war, he said, had 
 dissipated all illusions as to the non-existence of 
 evil, and to quote his words, "men who have been 
 buried under a shower of legs, arms, heads and 
 mutilated trunks of human bodies falling all about 
 them do not make easy converts to that faith. But 
 everybody is talking about Spiritualism," he went 
 on to say, "and spiritualistic meetings are being 
 held all over the country, and there are seances on 
 every street. So alarmed have the churches be- 
 come that the preachers are delivering sermons 
 regarding it, and the religious press is printing 
 weekly editorials." 
 
 It was the same in this country and especially 
 in and around Boston, where the present writer 
 lived in the early eighties, which saw the rise and 
 development of Mrs. Eddy's delusion. Of course 
 it was the proper thing to deliver sermons and 
 write editorials against it if only they aimed 
 straight and used the right ammunition; but pas- 
 tors and church committees, not a few, were ready 
 to capitulate or compromise after the first cam- 
 paign, and to admit the validity of Christian Sci- 
 ence as a church and grant letters dimissory to it. 
 
 We remember that Dr. A. J. Gordon was pro- 
 claimed a saviour when, in an issue of the Congre- 
 gationalist of April 1885, he contributed an article, 
 later circulated by the thousands in leaflet form, 
 entitled, "Christian Science Tested by Scripture." 
 Everybody thought Scripture should be recognized 
 
New Attack of Spiritualism 15 
 
 in the premises and that its dictum would settle the 
 matter at least for believers, but until Dr. Gordon 
 rose up to say the word, no one else seemed able 
 or willing to go about it. 
 
 History is repeating itself, but while many like 
 the Hebrews with Saul at Gilgal, are going "over 
 Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead," not a few 
 are remaining true and with trumpets of no un- 
 certain sound proclaiming a "Thus saith the 
 Lord." 
 
 We are happy to join their number, and at the 
 request of our publisher, to do what we can in the 
 chapters of this book to aid Christians in under- 
 standing and meeting the error of Spiritualism from 
 the Bible point of view. 
 
II 
 
 THE MODERN HISTORY OF SPIRITISM 
 
 SPIRITUALISM at its source is older than 
 man, but we have no intention of tracing it 
 to its source just now, that will come later. 
 At the moment we wish to deal with it only for 
 the period of time during which it has been known 
 by its present name. 
 
 And yet its present name is not the best because 
 it has too wide an application. At one time "Spir- 
 itualism" was used to designate the doctrines and 
 religious life of mystics like Jacob Bohme and 
 Madame Guyon who tried to live consecrated lives 
 subject to the Holy Spirit, and in obedience to the 
 Word of God. 
 
 As a French investigator put it, "spiritualism is 
 the opposite of materialism. Whoever believes he 
 has something within him distinguished from mat- 
 ter is a spiritualist," in which sense, of course, all 
 true Christians are spiritualists, though it does not 
 follow that they practice communications with 
 spirits of an invisible world. 
 
 16 
 
Modern History of Spiritism 17 
 
 Therefore to designate this latter belief the word 
 "Spiritism" has come to be used, which we shall 
 employ hereafter, meaning by it the idea of some 
 people, that the living can and do communicate 
 with the spirits of the departed, and also including 
 the various practices resorted to in that intercourse. 
 
 II 
 
 Spiritism, which is also necromancy or the evoca- 
 tion of the dead, was a feature of that Gnosticism 
 which assailed the Christian Church in the Apos- 
 tolic era, and against which Paul, by the Holy 
 Spirit, inveighs particularly in his epistle to the 
 Colossians. And this, in turn, indicates that it was 
 not a new thing even then, but that it formed a 
 part of the earlier pagan religions. Allusions to 
 it have been found in Homer, Strabo ascribes its 
 practice to the early Persians, Theodoret finds it 
 in Chaldea and Babylonia, and readers of the Old 
 Testament recall Moses speaking of it as among 
 the abominations of the Canaanites (Deut. 
 XVIII) of which we speak in a later chapter. 
 
 The Delphic oracles (more than 600 B. C.) 
 are claimed by Spiritists and we believe with good 
 reason, and the same may be said of the lives of 
 seers and clairvoyants and the facts of witchcraft 
 in all ages. "Never would that oracle at Delphi 
 have been so celebrated nor stored with so many 
 gifts from all kinds of peoples and kings, unless 
 
18 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 every age had experienced the truth of its utter- 
 ances" (Cicero, De Divinatione 19). 
 
 To come to the Christian period, the early 
 Church fathers assume as unquestionable the 
 agency of evil spirits in the pagan oracles and rites, 
 showing themselves by divinations, cures and 
 dreams. The records of the Roman Catholic 
 Church also speak of phenomena which bear a close 
 resemblance to present-day Spiritism. During the 
 Reformation Luther published a treatise against 
 "The Celestial Prophets'', so-called, of Germany, 
 whom he charged with exercising the imitative 
 powers of Satan. 
 
 There were occurrences in the Wesley family 
 ascribed to Spiritism (1716), and it is commonly 
 believed to explain much in Swedenborg's alleged 
 full and open communication with the spirit world. 
 
 In America, David Brainerd, in his work among 
 the Indians, declared that one of his greatest diffi- 
 culties was the conviction they held that their di- 
 viners had supernatural power, a conviction He 
 himself shared. 
 
 In 1843, 'he Shakers at New Lebanon, N. Y., 
 became the subjects of strange experiences, and in- 
 fluences purporting to be spirits who had lived in 
 the world in different ages, took possession of their 
 bodies and spoke through their vocal organs. 
 
 Ill 
 
 What is known as the "spirit-rapping" phe- 
 
Modern History of Spiritism 19 
 
 nomenon began in March, 1848, in the family of 
 John D. Fox in Hydeville, N. Y., whose daughters 
 a few years afterwards began to give public per- 
 formances. 
 
 The alleged spiritist manifestations of these 
 young women became the subject of extensive 
 newspaper discussion with the result that "med- 
 iums", through whom they w^ere said to occur, 
 were multiplied in different parts of the country 
 by hundreds and thousands. 
 
 The seances of the Fox girls before the Civil 
 War were attended by some of the most prominent 
 men of the country, and when they visited Europe 
 they had the nobility and royalty for their audi- 
 tors. Societies were organized, and disciples and 
 imitators came forward in great numbers. 
 
 IV 
 
 This brings us to the scientific epoch in Spirit- 
 ism, when such men as Sir William Crookes, the 
 English chemist and physicist, who died recently, 
 became actively interested in it. 
 
 In the London Quarterly Journal of January, 
 1874, he classified the phenomena under some ten 
 or a dozen heads, and also conducted exhibitions in 
 his own house, mostly in the light, when it is said 
 that the existence of an unexplained force was 
 accurately tested by means of an ingenious ap- 
 paratus. 
 
20 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 In other words, with Sir William Crookes' in- 
 vestigations it began to be felt that the phenomena 
 of Spiritism were not all fraud, and while the 
 scientists were unable to explain the source of 
 some of them, their ignorance in the premises 
 went so far to confirm the teaching of the Bible 
 that the source was to be found in the super- 
 human realm. 
 
 Sir William testified that "it was a common 
 thing for seven or eight of us in the laboratory to 
 see Miss Cook (the medium) and 'Katie' (the 
 spirit) at the same time under the full blaze of the 
 electric light." On one occasion, the electrician 
 showed to the satisfaction of the spectators that 
 the medium was inside the cabinet while the sup- 
 posed spirit form was visible and moving outside. 
 
 Quoting Nelson's Enq^clopasdia, it was the or- 
 ganization of the Society of Psychical Research 
 (England, 1882; America, 1888) that revived 
 recent interest in the doctrine. Its work has 
 tended to put limits to the claims which have been 
 made for communication with the discarnate, 
 though it has at the same time strengthened the 
 belief in it by giving it better scientific credentials. 
 Reports on the remarkable case of Mrs. Piper 
 were published in five different volumes of the 
 Proceedings of this Society, and it is said that they 
 offer the best mass of scientific evidence extant in 
 support of possible spirit communication. 
 
 It was the evidence derived from this woman's 
 
Modern History of Spiritism 21 
 
 case when she crossed the Atlantic in 1889, that 
 finally convinced Sir Oliver Lodge that deceased 
 relatives spoke or sent messages through her or- 
 ganism informing him both of known and un- 
 known facts subsequently verified. In other 
 words, to quote him exactly, it convinced him u that 
 the brain and organism of a living person might 
 be utilized by deceased personalities whose own 
 bodies had ceased to work." 
 
 To avoid an erroneous supposition in the light 
 of some things which we have already said, let it 
 be stated clearly at this point that the Bible is 
 against the conclusion of Sir Oliver. It reveals, as 
 we shall subsequently discover, the possibility of 
 materializations, but not the actual talking with 
 the dead. By materialization in this case we mean 
 the assumption of a material and bodily form by 
 evil angels or demons who wickedly personate the 
 dead and deceive the living, but nothing more. 
 The proof of this will follow, but to avoid any pos- 
 sible misunderstanding at the outset, the fact it- 
 self is here stated. 
 
 The current revival of Spiritism, or "the Spirit- 
 ist intrusion", as Life called it, dates from the 
 recent war, and was predicted by close and earnest 
 students of the Bible. It is "due to the bereave- 
 ments of the war and to the longing of broken 
 
22 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 hearts to find out something concerning the des- 
 tiny of those who have been taken from them." 
 Instead of turning "to the law and to the testi- 
 mony" as the inspired prophet exhorts, they have 
 taken up with spirits "that peep and that mutter" 
 (Isaiah VIIL 19, 20). 
 
 "There is hardly a home in England," we are 
 told, "from which some boy has not gone forever 
 during these last two years. Can they be reached? 
 Can one have communion with them? Can they 
 break through the wall between their world and 
 ours? 
 
 "Then, one by one, such men as Sir Oliver 
 Lodge and Sir A. Conan Doyle published books 
 saying, 'We have had communications from our 
 boys, and have spoken with them and with their 
 comrades who perished on the field of battle.' 
 
 "Thousands of parents responded, 'If they, why 
 not we?' And the result has been an almost over- 
 whelming rush to mediums, and long lists of se- 
 ances are now advertised in the papers." (Edi- 
 torial in The Christian Work). 
 
 In our opinion the campaign of the powers of 
 darkness gained its greatest headway up until that 
 date during the fighting from Mons to Ypres. 
 
 Readers will recall a fantastic story of that 
 period published at first in a London evening 
 paper, and entitled, "The Bowman", which pur- 
 ported to tell how St. George and the old Agin- 
 court bowmen appeared during the retreat from 
 
Modern History of Spiritism 23 
 
 Mons and fought with the British against the foe. 
 The author frankly declared it was pure fiction, 
 but so heated was the British imagination at the 
 time and so psychologically ready for the recep- 
 tion of the occult, that he was not believed by 
 many who seriously entertained the opinion that 
 angels appeared to the soldiers. 
 
 Nor were these in all cases the intellectually 
 weak, but in some instances intelligent and edu- 
 cated men and women, including a Christian scholar 
 whom we personally know, and who is honored 
 throughout Christendom. Indeed an eminent 
 clergyman of London is reported to have said that 
 such a case of spiritual intervention was "emi- 
 nently creditable. Joan of Arc saved her country 
 owing to the vision of an angel, and why should 
 not the phenomenon be repeated in this case?" 
 
 Immediately people began to hold intercourse 
 with their beloved dead, as was supposed. The 
 Christian scholar, in a private letter to the writer, 
 said: "My wife saw her boy in his spiritual body 
 permitted to come once to comfort her, We know. 
 It is the same with many. This war is given for 
 the convincing of many that the future life is a real 
 thing, and that God Himself speaks to man. This 
 is the one consolation that remains out of this 
 hideous and horrible time of trial. My wife was 
 permitted to talk to her boy. He was even more 
 radiant than in life, but otherwise the same. He 
 told her of his death and the manner of it. We 
 
24 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 learned after a month that this was true. Some 
 people call it a dream. I know it was a vision 
 granted to soothe her sorrow and her longing. 
 This has nothing to do with magic. The spiritual 
 eye saw the spiritual body." 
 
 VI 
 
 It would not be the part of wisdom for the 
 writer to delay warning the unwary until our con- 
 sideration of this subject approached its conclu- 
 sion. Hence a pause is made here to say that the 
 experiences above recorded are very different from 
 those of Bible saints. 
 
 Let a brief reference be made again to Isaiah's 
 words (VIII. 19-22). He sees Israel in the lat- 
 ter days in great distress, doubtless far beyond 
 anything known in the late war. They are u hardly 
 bestead and hungry", "behold trouble, darkness, 
 dimness of anguish". They are seeking "unto 
 them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards 
 that peep and that mutter", and he rebukes them, 
 saying "Should not a people seek unto their God? 
 On behalf of the living should they seek unto the 
 dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they 
 speak not according to this word, it is because there 
 is no light in them." 
 
 In other words, are not the Word and the Spirit 
 of God the source, and the sufficient source, of the 
 Christian's comfort in this age? Does he need 
 
Modern History of Spiritism 25 
 
 such visions to convince him of the future life 
 and that God speaks to men? The rich man in 
 our Lord's story in Luke 16 thought well of that 
 kind of evidence, but we remember how fruitless 
 "father Abraham" thought it would be. If such 
 things are the only, or the strongest, consolation 
 remaining for God's people in such a time of trial, 
 what of the millions of them to whom they do not 
 come? 
 
 Let the Christian ever keep in mind that there 
 are such beings as evil spirits, of whom we shall 
 learn considerable by and by, and let him con- 
 sider further that fundamentally only these are 
 in evidence in this modern outbreak of Spirit- 
 ism. 
 
 In proof of this it may be mentioned that in all 
 the accounts of the angels at Mons which came 
 to our attention, not once was Jesus Christ so much 
 as named. St. George was named, and Joan of 
 Arc, and Socrates, and Swedenborg, and the Virgin 
 Mary. God was referred to a few times, but our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ never. Even the 
 private correspondence mentioned above, and from 
 a Christian source, alludes to Him but once, and 
 then indirectly, and by His human and family 
 name, Jesus. 
 
 "What place do you give to Christ in Spiritual- 
 ism?" was asked of a votary by a London editor. 
 "Is He to you the Son of God, and do you wor- 
 ship Him as such?" 
 
26 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 "Oh, no," came the reply. "He is to us simply 
 the Master Medium." 
 
 In the words of the editor, (The Life of Faith, 
 London), "that confession is fatal. No creed, no 
 cult, no religion that dethrones our Lord and 
 places Him on a level with men and mediums has 
 any right to claim a Christian connection. And 
 men and women who profess to be followers of 
 Christ are putting Him to open shame when they 
 join hands with those who would, if they could, 
 rob Him of His deity and His matchless glory." 
 
Ill 
 
 SATAN— OR SPIRITISM AT ITS SOURCE 
 
 SATAN is the source of Spiritism, and since 
 the Bible is the only place in which we can 
 learn anything reliable about him, we now 
 open its pages for that purpose. 
 
 As we are writing for Christians chiefly, it is 
 assumed that the Bible is the revelation of God 
 and not only credible as to its statements of fact 
 but an inspired record of them. The evidence of 
 this is convincing and never more so than in the 
 twentieth century, as could easily be demonstrated 
 if circumstances permitted or required it. 
 
 Even the casual reader of the Bible will recall 
 the outstanding occasions when Satan appears on 
 its scenes. First, as the "serpent" in the Garden 
 of Eden tempting and overcoming our first parents, 
 for twice in the New Testament the serpent is 
 identified with the devil and Satan (Rev. XII. 9; 
 XX. 2). Next, in the history of Job (chapters 
 I and II) ; then, later, in vision, in the Old Testa- 
 
 27 
 
28 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 merit as the accuser of Israel after their return 
 from Babylon (Zech. III). 
 
 In the New Testament he first comes before us 
 as Christ's tempter in the wilderness (Matthew IV 
 and its parallels) ; he entered into Judas to be- 
 tray Christ (John XIII. 27), arid into Ananias 
 and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost (Acts V. 3). 
 He hindered Paul in his missionary work (I Thess. 
 II. 18) ; he is said to walk about as a roaring lion 
 seeking whom he may devour (I Pet. V. 8), and 
 in the end of this age he will give his power to 
 the Lawless one to deceive, if possible, the very 
 elect (Matthew XXIV. 24; 2 Thess. II. 8-10); 
 Rev. XIII. 1, 2). 
 
 Satan has many names in Scripture, each of 
 which reveals some feature of his character. 
 "Satan" itself means the Adversary; "devil," 
 (slanderer) ; "Apollyon," (destroyer) ; "Beelze- 
 bub," (prince of the demons) ; "Belial," (low, ab- 
 ject) ; "the wicked one"; "the god of this world"; 
 "the prince of darkness"; "the dragon," "tor- 
 mentor," "accuser," "deceiver," "liar," "murder- 
 er," "he that hath the power of death." This 
 sufficiently reveals the kind of being he is and fur- 
 nishes a reason why we should beware of him. 
 
 11 
 
 As to the origin of Satan, those who class the 
 cherubim as angels, think he was one of them, and 
 
Spiritism at its Source 29 
 
 anointed probably for a position of great author- 
 ity. This authority may have been over primitive 
 creation, i.e., heaven and earth as at first created, 
 and before the earth became without form and 
 void (Gen. I. i). 
 
 He fell through pride (Isa. XIV. 12-14). 
 Some think he was then cast out of heaven accord- 
 ing to Christ's words in Luke X. 18, on which sup- 
 position, he then made the earth and the air the 
 scene of his activity (Eph. II. 2; I. Pet. V. 8). 
 
 A scriptural basis for this conjecture is in Ezek- 
 iel XXVIII. 11-15. The chapter is a rebuke of 
 the King of Tyre, but at the verses named the lan- 
 guage goes beyond him to Satan described in his 
 unfallen state. 
 
 If this interpretation is correct, the chapter 
 teaches much about Satan, which is summed up by 
 Dr. R. A. Torrey in "What the Bible Teaches," 
 thus: 
 
 1. He was the sum of created perfection, v. 12. 
 
 2. He was in the garden of God, v. 13. This 
 does not mean the Eden of Adam, but an earlier 
 one. The Eden of Adam was remarkable for 
 its vegetable glory, but this for its mineral glory. 
 Cf. Revelation XXL 10-21. 
 
 3. He was the anointed cherub that covereth, 
 v. 14. First, he was a "cherub", the highest rank 
 in the angelic world. Second, "the anointed" 
 cherub, i.e., one who was set apart for a formal 
 work. Third, the anointed cherub that "covereth" 
 
30 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 The meaning of this word is not given, though it 
 suggests Exodus XXXVII. 9. 
 
 4. He was upon the holy mountain of God, 
 v. 14, which may mean the place where God mani- 
 fested His personal glory. 
 
 5. He walked up and down in the midst of the 
 stones of fire, v. 14. This suggests Exodus XXIV. 
 
 10, 17, R.V., and Ezekiel I. 15, 22, 25, 26, R.V. 
 In the former the seventy elders saw the Lord of 
 Israel, and "there was under His feet as it were a 
 paved walk of sapphire stone", and "the appear- 
 ance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring 
 fire on the top of the mount." This may afford an 
 idea of what the "stones of fire" were, and indi- 
 cate how near Satan may have been to God. 
 
 6. His heart was lifted up because of his 
 beauty, v. 17. Cf. I Timothy III. 6 R.V. 
 
 7. He was cast out of the mountain of God, 
 and destroyed from the midst of the stones of 
 fire, v. 16. 
 
 8. He shall be cast to the earth and be made 
 a spectacle, vv. 17, 18. Cf. with 2 Thessalonians 
 
 11. 8; Revelation XII. 9, 10, and XIX. 20. 
 
 Ill 
 
 To go a little further into the nature and char- 
 acter of Satan : 
 
 (1) He is a person, i.e., he possesses self-con- 
 sciousness and free-will, because the facts stated in 
 
Spiritism at its Source 31 
 
 the preceding paragraphs could not be predicted 
 of an influence or a principle of evil. 
 
 (2) He has great dignity , since he is styled 
 the "prince," "the god of this world," and "prince 
 of the power of the air," and it is said that Michael 
 the Archangel "durst not bring against him a rail- 
 ing judgment," (John XII. 3152 Cor. IV. 4; Eph. 
 II. 2; Jude 8, 9, R.V.). 
 
 (3) He has great power, since he is able to 
 control the forces of nature, human property and 
 life, demons, the world-rulers of darkness, and 
 the whole world of men out of Christ, (Job I. 
 10-12; Luke XL 14-18; I John V. 19 R.V.; Acts 
 XXVI. 18; Eph. VI. 11, 12). 
 
 (4) He has great cunning and deceit, since he 
 transforms himself into an angel of light, uses 
 wiles and devices, signs and lying wonders (Mat- 
 thew XXIV. 24; 2 Cor. II. 11; 2 Cor. XL 14; 
 Eph. VI. 11, 12 R.V.; 2 Thess. II. 9, R.V.). 
 
 (5) He has great malignity, being called the 
 evil one, a liar, a murderer, and a sinner from 
 the beginning (Matthew V. 37; Luke VIII. 12; 
 John VIII. 44; 2 Cor. IV. 4; I John III. 8). 
 
 (6) He has great fear, for if we resist him 
 he will flee from us (James IV. 7). 
 
 IV 
 
 As to Satan's present location and his work, he 
 is referred to as being in the heavenly places, and 
 
32 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 also as going to and fro in the earth. As in the 
 age to come, Christ and His Church, though abid- 
 ing in the heavenly places, will rule an earthly 
 people, so now Satan and his hosts abiding in the 
 heavenly places are ruling an earthly people. (Job 
 I. 6, 7; Eph. VI. 11, 12; I Peter V. 8; Rev. XII. 
 
 9). 
 
 As to his work : 
 
 ( 1 ) He is the author of sin and tempts to sin 
 (Gen. III. 1-6; I Chron. XXI. i ; Matt. IV) ; 
 
 (2) He produces sickness and has the power 
 of death (Luke XIII. 16; Acts X. 38; Heb. II. 
 
 14); 
 
 (3) He lays snares for men (I Tim. III. 7) ; 
 
 (4) He takes the "Word of God out of their 
 hearts (Matt. XIII. 19) ; 
 
 (5) He puts wicked purposes into their hearts 
 (Eph. IV. 27); 
 
 (6) He blinds their minds (2 Cor. IV. 4, 
 R.V.); 
 
 (7) He harasses and accuses them (2 Cor. 
 XII. 7; Rev. XIII. 9, 10); 
 
 (8) He enters into them (John XIII. 27) ; 
 
 (9) He does all this and more by means of 
 the angelic messengers who carry on his work (2 
 Cor. XL 14, 15; Rev. III. 9). 
 
 Happily however, there are certain limitations 
 of his work and power. For example, being a 
 finite and created being he can be only in one place 
 at one time, though what is done by his agents 
 
 
Spiritism at its Source 33 
 
 being attributed to him, he is practically ubiqui- 
 tous. 
 
 In the second place, it is reassuring to know 
 that his influence over the bodies of men is en- 
 tirely subject to God's control (Job II. 7; Luke 
 XIII. 16; Acts X. 38), and that his influence over 
 the souls of men is simply moral. That is to say, 
 he may offer suggestions and deceive or persuade 
 men, but he is absolutely unable to change their 
 hearts or coerce their wills. "Every man is tempt- 
 ed, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and 
 enticed" (Jas. I. 14). 
 
 Our responsibility in regard to Satan therefore, 
 is threefold: We are to watch against him (I 
 Peter V. 8) ; to give no place to him (Eph. IV. 
 27) ; and to resist him (Jas. IV. 7). 
 
 We watch against him as the context of the 
 passage shows, by humbling ourselves under the 
 mighty hand of God and casting all our anxiety 
 upon Him. We give no place to him by restrain- 
 ing wrath and eschewing falsehood; and we resist 
 him by the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word 
 of God. 
 
 It remains to say that there are two ways in 
 which Satan is particularly manifesting himself 
 today in the lives and affairs of men. The Sunday 
 School Times recently called it "the devil's world- 
 
34 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 wide revival." One is in the form of demonism 
 and the other spiritism, though the two are closely 
 allied. 
 
 i. By demonism is meant just now the Wor- 
 ship of demons and human possession by demons. 
 We learn from the Bible that the apostate Israel- 
 ites sacrificed to demons, and that the gods of the 
 heathen were demons. Paul charged the Athen- 
 ians with being too milch addicted to demon wor- 
 ship, which is the real meaning of the word "super- 
 stitious" in Acts XVII. 22. He also adds that 
 the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacri- 
 ficed to demons and not to God. 
 
 It is true that the Bible teaching about demonia- 
 cal possession has been denied by some, who ex- 
 plain the symptoms referred to as those of physical 
 disease simply. They admit that Christ taught 
 the contrary, but meet this by saying that He con- 
 formed His language to the vulgar notions of the 
 times, the same argument as they use with refer- 
 ence to other subjects of His teaching, the Mosaic 
 authorship of the Pentateuch, for example. 
 
 Nevertheless, the New Testament puts it beyond 
 question that demoniacs were possessed by demons. 
 For example: 
 
 (1) They evinced superhuman strength and 
 Knowledge, even recognizing Jesus as the Son of 
 God, as well as His power and purpose to punish 
 the ungodly. 
 
 (2) In addressing Him, the demons distin- 
 
Spiritism at its Source 35 
 
 guished themselves from the persons they tor- 
 mented, saying in the case of the Gadarenes, 
 "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus?" and "If 
 Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the 
 deep" (Matt. VIII. 28-31). 
 
 (3) In delivering those who were possessed, 
 Christ spoke not to the persons themselves, but to 
 their tormentors, saying to the latter, "Go" or 
 "Come out". In other instances also the demons 
 are expressly distinguished from the diseases they 
 created, as when we read of Christ that they 
 brought unto Him all sick people, and those that 
 were possessed with demons, and those that were 
 lunatic. 
 
 Nor is demoniacal possession limited to the time 
 of Christ. It existed before Christ came, because 
 the Jews of His day professed to cast out demons, 
 showing that the phenomenon was not new to them ; 
 and it existed after He departed, because He com- 
 missioned His disciples to cast out demons, a com- 
 mission upon which they acted. 
 
 Early church fathers testify to the casting out 
 of demons in their day, and the Reformation 
 fathers do the same. It exists now as seen in our 
 Missionary annals, especially that recent volume, 
 Demons and Demon Possession, by Dr. Nevius, 
 and in current discussions on Theosophy and Spirit- 
 ism and Speaking with Tongues. 
 
 Finally, demoniacal possession will constitute 
 one of the awful features of the tribulation at the 
 
36 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 end of this age, as is clearly indicated, in the book 
 of Revelation. The battle of Armageddon for 
 example, is to be brought about by the spirits of 
 demons working miracles (Rev. XVI. 14). 
 
 VI 
 
 2. The other way in which Satan is manifest- 
 ing himself and is likely to do so until the end of 
 the age is in Spiritism. The dictionary defines it 
 as the belief that the spirits of the dead communi- 
 cate with and manifest their presence to men. It 
 is supposed that they usually do this through the 
 agency of a human person called a medium. As 
 was stated before, we deny that the spirits of the 
 dead do this, but we affirm that there is a counter- 
 feit materialization of the dead by demons. That 
 is, demons assume a material and bodily form to 
 deceive the living into the belief that they are com- 
 municating with the dead. 
 
 In other words, we believe that certain facts of 
 Spiritism are true. There are some things which 
 pass for facts that are not facts, for Satan has no 
 desire that his work should become too apparent, 
 but nevertheless there is a basis of fact underlying 
 the pretensions of Spiritism, which we must not 
 only admit but insist upon as a testimony against it. 
 
 The scientists bear witness that while there is 
 a large element of fraud in Spiritism, there is still 
 a residuum of facts demanding explanation. They 
 
Spiritism at its Source 37 
 
 would refer some of these to the powers of the 
 human mind, the "subliminal consciousness, " just 
 below the level of the normal waking life, but there 
 are still other manifestations for which that ex- 
 planation will not suffice, and to which such men 
 testify as Alfred Russell Wallace, Sir Wm. 
 Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge and the late Professor 
 William James of Harvard. It is Sir Wm. 
 Crookes who, in his Evidences of Spiritualism, said 
 "that certain phenomena occur under circumstances 
 in which they can not be explained by any physical 
 law at present known, is a fact of which I am as 
 certain as I am of the most elementary fact in 
 chemistry." 
 
 Coming to the Bible however, and it is upon 
 that we stand, we find God legislating for Israel, 
 and saying, "A man also, or woman, that hath a 
 familiar spirit, or one that is a wizard, shall surely 
 be put to death (Lev. XX. 27)." This means 
 those who are instructed in the art of intercourse 
 with demons, and the warning it expresses is re- 
 peated in one form or another in the Old Testa- 
 ment very frequently as we shall see. 
 
 Moreover, take such illustrations as the story of 
 Saul and the Witch of Endor, or that of Paul and 
 the Philippian damsel. The latter was what is now 
 called a medium, and according to the Greek was 
 possessed by the spirit of Pytho, the same that 
 guided the Delphic oracle. Her testimony to Paul 
 and his companions proves that the messengers of 
 
38 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 Satan sometimes speak truth, when it is to their 
 advantage to do so, but more of this later. 
 
 Finally, the Bible asserts the continuance of 
 such Satanic agency throughout this dispensation 
 (Gal. V. 20, 21 ; Rev. IX. 21 ; Rev. XVI. 14; Rev. 
 XVIII. 23; and Rev. XXI. 8). Whether it will 
 continue in the form and under the name of Spirit- 
 ism or not, it is impossible to say, but neverthe- 
 less as the end of the age approaches Satan's emis- 
 saries will act more and more without disguise, 
 and "show great signs and wonders insomuch that 
 if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect" 
 (Matt. XXIV. 24). 
 
IV 
 
 ANGELS AND DEMONS, OR SPIRITISM'S 
 PERSONNEL 
 
 ONE can not be very intelligent in Spiritism 
 without knowing something about angels 
 of which the Bible says so much. 
 
 The Old Testament or Hebrew word for angel 
 is "Malek", and the New Testament or Greek 
 word, "angellus", both of them meaning "mes- 
 senger" or "agent". The words are sometimes 
 used of men and even of God Himself, but in the 
 latter case always in the form of "The Angel of 
 the Lord", an expression signifying the presence 
 of the Deity in angelic form. The words are used 
 impersonally in some instances also, but for our 
 present purpose these need not be enumerated. 
 
 Angels are spirits, superior to men and inferior 
 to God (Ps. VIII. 4, 5 ; Heb. I. 7, 8) . They would 
 seem to have bodies of some kind (Luke XX. 36) , 
 and they have appeared in human form (always 
 as men, not women), and have eaten food and 
 lodged in houses (Gen. XVIII. 8; XIX. 3). 
 
 39 
 
40 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 The number of angels is very great (Dan. VII. 
 10; Ps. LXVIII. 17; Matt. XXVI. 53), and their 
 power likewise, whether exercised in the material 
 or spiritual world (Ps. OIL 20; 2 Kings XIX. 
 35; 2 Thess. I. 7). And yet their power and 
 knowledge are both limited (Dan. X. 13; Matt. 
 XXIV. 36; Eph. III. 9, 10). 
 
 Angels are employed both in heaven and on 
 earth. In heaven they are worshippers (Matt. 
 
 XVIII. 10; Rev. V. 11), but on earth they are 
 associated with the affairs of providence, doing 
 good to God's people and executing judgment on 
 God's enemies, the latter ministry to be intensified 
 at the end of the age (Ps. XC. 10-12; 2 Kings 
 
 XIX. 35; I Thess. IV. 17). 
 
 There appear to be graded positions and author- 
 ity among them judging by the allusions to thrones, 
 dominions, principalities and powers (Eph. I. 21), 
 and by the mention of Michael as the Archangel 
 (Dan. X. 13), and Gabriel as one who stands "in 
 the presence of God" (Luke I. 19). 
 
 There is a tendency towards speculation in con- 
 sidering these beings against which we are earn- 
 estly warned in Paul's letter to the Colossians; 
 speculation that in the case of the Roman Catholic 
 Church especially leads to superstition and their 
 voluntary worship. On the other hand however, 
 Protestantism may have thought too little about 
 them, and have thereby greatly impoverished her 
 experience of Divine providence and her sense of 
 
Angels and Demons 41 
 
 succor and comfort in times of peril and sorrow, 
 that succor and comfort which it is their office 
 under God to freely and graciously supply. 
 
 II 
 
 But up until this point we have been dealing 
 entirely with good or holy angels, while alas! 
 there is another class of them, evil as well as good. 
 
 And the evil angels are again divided into two 
 classes. One consists of those that are in chains 
 of darkness reserved unto judgment (2 Peter II. 
 4) and the other of those that are actively en- 
 gaged in evil, with Satan at their head. The latter 
 are those of which Paul speaks in Eph. VI. 11, 12, 
 where believers are exhorted to "put on the whole 
 armor of God" that they "may be able to stand 
 against the wiles of the devil," because they wrestle 
 "against principalities, against powers, against the 
 world-rulers of this darkness, and spiritual hosts 
 of wickedness in the heavenly places." (See also 
 Matthew XXV. 41 ; Rev. XII. 9). 
 
 It is these that are in evidence, it is believed, in 
 the present "spiritist invasion." Of their origin 
 we know nothing more than we do of the good 
 angels, which is simply that they were created by 
 God (Col. I. 16). 
 
 It is assumed also that all were created good, 
 but that some fell as did Satan himself, though 
 just when, or why they fell, God is not pleased to 
 
42 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 reveal. The following named Scriptures tell us 
 about all we can know of the matter, John VIII. 
 44; I Tim. III. 6, 7; 2 Peter II. 4; Jude 6, 7. 
 From these we surmise that they abode not in the 
 knowledge and worship of God, but fell into con^ 
 demnation through pride. They kept not their 
 first estate or principality, so to speak, but left 
 their proper habitation. 
 
 They are described sometimes as evil spirits 
 (Judges IX. 23; Luke VII. 21), unclean spirits 
 Matt. X. 1), and demons (Deut. XXXII. 17; 
 Matt. VII. 22). This last word is erroneously 
 rendered "devils" in the King James Version, as 
 there is but one devil, who is identical with Satan, 
 but there are many demons. So many indeed as to 
 compose a kingdom with a leader, or prince (Luke 
 VIII. 30; Matt. XII. 24-26; Eph. VI. 12). 
 
 These demons are called Satan's agents in Matt. 
 XII. 26, 27 and XXV. 41, and as such they seem 
 able to inflict physical maladies on men (Matt. 
 XII. 22; XVII. 15-18; Luke XIII. 16; and even 
 enter and control their bodies and those of beasts 
 also (Mark V. 13 ; Acts XVI. 16) ; while from the 
 moral point of view they are able to seduce men 
 from the truth and lead them into all uncleanness 
 (1 Kings XXII. 22; 1 Tim. IV. 1; 2 Peter II. 
 10-12). 
 
 It is especially important to note that these de- 
 mons maintain a conflict with Christian believers 
 (Eph. VI. 12), and that God Himself sometimes 
 
Angels and Demons 43 
 
 uses them in judgment upon unbelievers and 
 wicked men (Judges IX. 23; 1 Sam. XVI. 14). 
 They are to be used in the awful judgments upon 
 the earth in the Tribulation period (Rev. IX. 
 1-11; XVI. 13, 14) ; but their own eternal fate, 
 like that of their mighty but unholy leader, is one 
 of torment (Matt. VIII. 29; Luke VIII. 31). 
 
 A deeply interesting question, and a very prac- 
 tical one also, is that of the present abode of these 
 evil spirits or demons. Keep in mind in the reply 
 that there are two classes of them, the one re- 
 served in chains of darkness of which we shall 
 learn more by and by, and whose abode is hell or 
 "Tartarus" (Greek) ; and the other occupying 
 the air considered as one of the "heavenly places" 
 so frequently mentioned in the New Testament. 
 From this place however, they will be cast down to 
 earth prior to the Millenium, and then at length 
 go into the lake of fire and brimstone "prepared 
 for the devil and his angels" (Rev, XII. 7-9; 
 Matt. XXV. 41 ). 
 
 ill 
 
 In the preceding chapter we discussed the topic 
 of demon worship and demon possession sufficient- 
 ly for our present purpose, and only allude to it 
 again as leading up to an earnest warning and 
 appeal. 
 
 Remember that which was previously stated.. 
 
44 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 (i), that demon possession is distinct from phys- 
 ical disease; (2), that it was and is not limited 
 to the time of Christ; and (3) that it is in evidence 
 today and is predicted as one of the awful features 
 of the Tribulation at the end of this age. 
 
 Quoting from the Rev. F. B. Meyer, D.D., of 
 London, in his booklet just from the press: 
 
 "They hate to be unclothed, and would rather 
 inhabit swine than have no covering (Matt. VIII. 
 31). The nakedness of an evil spirit is torment 
 before the time (Matt VIII. 29; Mark V. 7). 
 
 "Their one object is to reduce the human race 
 and drag it to their own degraded condition. Just 
 as the Divine Spirit can only achieve His end by 
 and through our instrumentality — and therefore, 
 we are called to present our bodies to Him — so the 
 great adversary can only achieve his end by and 
 through human instruments, and therefore steals 
 gradually over the consciousness of his victims un- 
 til they are taken captive by the devil at his will 
 (2 Tim. II. 26). 
 
 "Apparently the Almighty has locked and bolted 
 our human nature against the intrusion of the 
 demon-world, and it is at our peril that we open 
 the door from within or allow it to be broken in 
 from without. The angels will not attempt to help 
 us unless at the express command of the Almighty; 
 but demon-spirits are disobedient and recalcitrant. 
 They defy the Divine prohibition; and if they fail 
 to break in by force, they can at least induce the 
 
Angels and Demons 45 
 
 human soul to connive at their entrance by open- 
 ing the door from within ; and when the door has 
 been opened once it can be opened repeatedly, and 
 each time more easily, until the power of resistance 
 is gone, and the demon can go and come at will, 
 or introduce seven companions worse than him- 
 self. 
 
 "A man of high repute told me recently that a 
 lady had come to him complaining that her life 
 was made a perfect torment by the suggestion of 
 unclean spirits, of which she could not rid herself. 
 She had been an habitue of seances, and now was 
 held by a kind of obsession. He entreated her to 
 promise to tear herself from their fatal spell, and 
 she promised to go to but one more, on the fol- 
 lowing day. But that day she became raving mad, 
 rushed in an almost nude condition into the public 
 thoroughfare, and has been for the last two years 
 in an asylum. 
 
 "If there has been any tampering with the 
 demon-world, the urgency for immediate arrest is 
 imperative, lest the current become too swift to be 
 arrested by the oarsman, though he pull against 
 it with the agony of despair." — The Modern 
 Craze of Spiritualism, pp. 10, n. 
 
SPIRITISM BEFORE THE FLOOD 
 
 THE task we have set ourselves would be 
 inadequately rendered if attention were not 
 called to the mysterious sixth chapter of 
 Genesis, whose record of the marriages of "the 
 sons of God" with "the daughters of men" and 
 the issue of the same is intended to account for 
 the catastrophe of the flood. The text follows: 
 
 "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the 
 face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 
 
 "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they 
 were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 
 
 "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with 
 man, for that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred 
 and twenty years. 
 
 "There were giants in the earth in those days ; and also after 
 that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of 
 men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty 
 men which were of old, men of renown." 
 
 The question arises, Who were these "sons of 
 God" and these "daughters of men" whose union 
 produced the powerful and wicked race the iniquity 
 
 46 
 
Spiritism Before the Flood 47 
 
 of which resulted thus and necessitated this judg- 
 ment? 
 
 We who are familiar with the use of the first- 
 named phrase in the New Testament might at first 
 interpret it to mean men of faith, true believers, 
 godly saints ; while the second would logically ap- 
 ply to women of the opposite character. 
 
 But reflection would recall that Moses was un- 
 likely to be using New Testament terms, and that 
 such phraseology would be foreign to conditions 
 ante-dating the flood. 
 
 Also, it might be asked, would godly men con- 
 tract such marriages and in such a way, inasmuch 
 as a plurality of wives and force in obtaining them 
 seem to be implied? And even if they did, what 
 would further explain the gigantic stature and 
 colossal wickedness of their offspring bringing 
 about so terrible a penalty as the flood? 
 
 In searching for a different explanation we find 
 that "sons of God" is used everywhere else in 
 the Old Testament to designate angels, and why 
 should it not be so used here? Moreover if it 
 were so used, it would carry with it a confounding 
 of two distinct orders of creatures and the pro- 
 duction of a mixed race, partly human, partly 
 super-human, which would be just such a derange- 
 ment of the Divine plan as to warrant that which 
 occurred, namely, the almost total extermination 
 of all who were upon the the earth. 
 
 Indeed this was the prevailing view of the pas- 
 
48 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 sage in the ancient synagogue of the Jews and 
 among Christian theologians for the first three or 
 four centuries of the Church. And there is reason 
 to believe it would not have changed in the latter 
 case, had it not been for certain erroneous opin- 
 ions and practices of Christendom, to which ref- 
 erence will be made later, and with which it was 
 not in harmony. 
 
 But naturally there exists a prejudice against 
 such a view. How could such intercourse be pos- 
 sible between the visible and invisible worlds, such 
 an unnatural connection between beings so widely 
 different from each other? 
 
 It is our purpose to deal with this question be- 
 fore we conclude, but a more important one pre- 
 cedes it. It is not, as Nicodemus said, u How can 
 these things be?" but rather, Is it true that they 
 are? However inconceivable or inexplicable the 
 fact may be, it is first necessary to show that it is 
 a fact. 
 
 In doing this we now address ourselves to two 
 theories that have been most persistently main- 
 tained in opposition to it. The first, a Jewish 
 interpretation which holds the "sons of God" to 
 mean men of authority or rank who married wom- 
 en of inferior station; and the second, the Church 
 interpretation already mentioned, which holds that 
 godly men, the descendants of Seth for example, 
 chose for wives women of godless life belonging 
 to the line of Cain. 
 
Spiritism Before the Flood 49 
 
 ii 
 
 The Jewish interpretation has been paraphrased 
 thus: "When men began to multiply on the earth 
 the chief men took wives of all the handsome poor 
 women they chose. They were tyrants in the 
 earth of those days. Also, after the antediluvian 
 days, powerful men had unlawful connexions with 
 the inferior women, and the children which sprang 
 from this illicit intercourse were the renowned 
 heroes of antiquity, of whom the heathen made 
 their gods." 
 
 The ground on which this interpretation was 
 founded is that the Hebrew word for God, 
 Elohim, is sometimes used in the Old Testament 
 to denote judges or princes, hence "sons of God" 
 might mean sons of judges or sons of princes. 
 And the Hebrew word for man, Adam, is occas- 
 ionally used to denote one whose station in the 
 world is lowly or poor, hence "daughters of men" 
 might mean daughters of the lowly or the poor. 
 
 It is admitted that Elohim (gods) is, in a few 
 instances, applied in the Old Testament to Israel- 
 itish magistrates acting representatively for Je- 
 hovah, but there is nothing in this passage of that 
 character. Moreover this word is not Elohim 
 simply, but Bne-ha-Elohim, a very different ex- 
 pression, which means "sons of God", and which 
 in every other instance stands, not for men of any 
 
50 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 grade or distinction, but for angels. Therefore, 
 the inference is fair that if in this place, Moses 
 had intended men however great, he would not 
 have used that word but some other, of which there 
 were several from which to choose. 
 
 It is admitted also that Adam is, in some places, 
 applied to human beings of low degree, but when 
 women of low degree are meant the word is al- 
 ways used in connection with the word Ish, which 
 is not the case here. Otherwise the word simply 
 means a man, or mankind in general, without dis- 
 tinction of class or condition. Moreover the par- 
 ticular word now under discussion is not Adam 
 simply, but Bnoth-ha-Adam, "daughters of Men," 
 which occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, 
 so that no argument can be founded upon its usage, 
 
 "In short," to quote another, "women of high 
 station as well as low are Bnoth-ha-Adam" and 
 the title simply means Adam's daughters, female 
 descendants, womankind without distinction. 
 
 Indeed it is difficult to understand how such an 
 interpretation of the passage ever found accept- 
 ance considering its extreme improbability. How 
 unlikely, to continue quoting, "that all the great 
 men of the day, or even a large proportion of them, 
 should, at the same time and with one consent, 
 contract such alliances? And how unlikely that 
 female beauty should just then have appeared, and 
 only or chiefly, in women of the lower rank; and 
 that it should have possessed such strongly attrac- 
 
Spiritism Before the Flood 51 
 
 tive power in the case of all these "sons of God" ? 
 
 And stranger still, how improbable the results 
 that followed? Why should it have come about 
 that the marriage of the judges, or princes, of that 
 age with women of low degree but of great beauty, 
 should have issued in mighty men of renown, a 
 heroic race of gigantic size, celebrated for their 
 exploits through succeeding time? 
 
 And strangest of all, the Hebrew word for 
 "giants" in verse four is Nephilim, which means 
 "fallen ones," as to whom there can be little doubt 
 that they were more than human beings and de- 
 rived their origin in part from a superhuman 
 source. 
 
 A word of explanation seems necessary before 
 leaving the Jewish interpretation, by which of 
 course is not meant that of the ancient Jewish 
 synagogue mentioned above, but that of Jewish 
 teachers of a later time, say, the early centuries of 
 the Christian era. The Jewish synagogue, as was 
 said, held to the angel interpretation. 
 
 Just what prompted the change of interpetation 
 from that of angels to that of great men is not 
 known except that it could not have been on ex- 
 egetical grounds. Fleming, from whose work on 
 The Fallen Angels and the Heroes of Mythology 
 we are quoting, thinks it may have been dogmatic 
 considerations concerning the nature of angels of 
 which we shall speak by and by; but suffice for 
 the present to re-affirm that the angelic interpeta- 
 
52 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 tion was the first which suggested itself, and that 
 it was very anciently received both by Jews and 
 Christians. 
 
 Ill 
 
 A fair and clear statement of the later Christian, 
 or Church, interpretation is given by Dr. John 
 Gill in his Exposition of the Old Testament, pub- 
 lished in the middle of the 18th century. He says: 
 "Those sons of God were not angels, because 
 angels are incorporeal beings, and can not be af- 
 fected with fleshly lusts, or marry and be given 
 in marriage, or generate and be generated. Nor 
 were they the sons of judges, magistrates and great 
 personages; but rather is the phrase to be under- 
 stood of the posterity of Seth, who from the time 
 of Enos, when men began to be called by the Name 
 of the Lord (Gen. IV. 26), had the title of 'sons 
 of God' in distinction from the children of men." 
 
 All this is pure assumption on Dn Gill's part, 
 and was to be expected, since no serious attempt 
 seems to have been made by him to ascertain the 
 real meaning of the words in their place whatever 
 the consequences might be. For example, what 
 ground outside of his own opinion, had he for 
 saying that angels are incorporeal, etc.? And 
 similarly, what ground for saying all that he does 
 say about the posterity of Seth? 
 
 However, he has plenty of company among com- 
 
Spiritism Before the Flood 53 
 
 mutators and others, including some of the poets, 
 Milton as an illustration, in Paradise Lost. And 
 yet, that great poet, in Paradise Regained Book 
 II, returns to the angel interpretation, where he 
 makes Satan, after the failure of his first tempta- 
 tion of Christ, in addressing the infernal council, 
 say to Belial : 
 
 "Before the flood, thou with thy lusty crew, 
 False titled sons of God, roaming the earth, 
 Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, 
 And coupled with them, and begot a race." 
 
 What, however, explains the abandonment of 
 the earlier angel interpretation for this of the sons 
 of Seth? The most likely answer is that of John 
 Henry Kurtz, D.D., professor of theology at Dor- 
 pat, quoted at some length by Fleming, who at- 
 tributes it to the rise of certain superstitions and 
 unwarrantable practices in the church growing out 
 of false ideas as to the nature of angels. 
 
 In other words, it was the coming in of angel 
 worship that drove it out. Angel worship raised 
 its head gradually, but its progress tended to re- 
 move everything that might shake confidence in 
 the holiness of angels, or mar the gratification 
 which their worship afforded. 
 
 There was also a second cause which was almost 
 equally influential with the first, namely the spread 
 of celibacy, or monkery, as Kurtz calls it, and the 
 reverence with which it came to be regarded in 
 
54 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 the early centuries. If Genesis VI. 1-4 taught 
 that although the angels in heaven marry not, yet 
 at one time a portion of them, seduced by the 
 beauty of women, came down to earth for the pur- 
 pose of gratifying amorous propensities, then a 
 weakness of the like kind on the part of "earthly 
 angels" might be more readily excused. As a 
 matter of fact such an apology was pleaded for 
 monkish transgressions, at the time, and it there- 
 fore became a pretext for changing angelic "sons 
 of God" into human "sons of God." 
 
 It was not until the last century that the angel 
 interpretation began again to find favor with 
 Christian theologians. And for its revival by the 
 way, we are, in a sense, indebted to the destructive 
 critics. Their attacks upon the Bible necessitated 
 a return to the old-fashioned way of studying it 
 with the aid of the grammar and lexicon. Exegesis 
 thus has been restored to its rightful place, and 
 exegesis never attempts to explain away uncommon 
 or supernatural occurrences just because it does not 
 understand them. 
 
 We have spoken of Fleming's work on The Fal- 
 len Angels, but he, in turn, is indebted to Kurtz 
 above named, and to Maitland's essays on the 
 same subject and on False Worship, as well as to 
 Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations. Following these 
 authorities he goes on to deal at length with collat- 
 eral aspects of the question for which we have not 
 the space or time except to mention them. They 
 
Spiritism Before the Flood 55 
 
 include the suppositions and assumptions that are 
 involved in the Sethite interpretation, an examina- 
 tion of Genesis IV. 26, which speaks of Seth's 
 descendants, a careful inquiry into the use of a 
 phrase analogous to "the sons of God" wherever 
 it occurs either in the Old or New Testament, and 
 the antithesis of the "sons of God" and "daughters 
 of men." 
 
 We have studied him with care, and feel con- 
 vinced that the improbabilities involved in the 
 Sethite, or as we have called it, the Church inter- 
 pretation, are so serious as to put it out of court. 
 
 IV 
 
 In the next chapter we deal with the angel in- 
 terpretation and the objections to it growing out 
 of the supposed nature of angels. But we con- 
 clude this with some general observations in antici- 
 pation of it: 
 
 1. It has already been suggested that while 
 angels are immaterial beings, yet they appear to 
 possess, or at least are able to assume, some kind 
 of an ethereal, corporeal form. At the same time 
 it is to be remembered that the human race is com- 
 posed of immaterial beings, clothed at present with 
 gross bodies akin to beasts, but hereafter, in the 
 case of the redeemed at least, to be clothed with 
 spiritual bodies not unlike that of angels. If, 
 therefore, there is in our nature a capability of 
 
56 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 becoming like angels in some degree, 13 it so cer- 
 tain that they are as dissimilar to us in all re- 
 spects as many people believe? 
 
 2. We have seen also that angels, both good 
 and bad, are interested in the affairs of men, and 
 have communicated with men. How much more 
 intimate that communication might have been had 
 not sin entered the human family, who can say? 
 And if there is a possibility of greater communica- 
 tion if God willed it so, is it unlikely that evil 
 angels, should it suit their propensities, would en- 
 deavor to make it so whether it was His will or 
 not? 
 
 "We can not hold it to be an absurd proposi- 
 tion," writes Kurtz, quoted by Fleming, u that an- 
 gels who, in their state of holiness, desire to look 
 into the deepest mystery of grace on earth (I 
 Peter I. 12), should, in their apostasy from holi- 
 ness, have desired to look into the deepest mystery 
 of nature on earth; and, transgressing the limits 
 of their own nature, participate in that mystery 
 themselves." 
 
VI 
 
 "SONS OF GOD" MARRYING THE 
 "DAUGHTERS OF MEN" 
 
 IN the preceding chapter we have seen that 
 Spiritism in one of its forms was directly re- 
 sponsible for the flood. The "sons of God" 
 who took to themselves wives of "the daughters 
 of men" (Genesis VI), were evil angels, who en- 
 tered upon that intercourse the offspring of which 
 were the "Nephilim," "the fallen ones," the 
 mighty heroes of antiquity. These in their turn, 
 presumably, furnished the ground for the stories 
 of the loves of the gods and demigods of classic 
 lore. 
 
 The proof of this being presented, as well as 
 its corroboration by the ancient Jewish synagogue 
 and the early Christian writers, it remains to more 
 fully consider objections raised against it on the 
 ground of the nature of angels as well as the 
 teaching of our Lord in Matthew XXII. 30. 
 
 It is said for example, that an angel is alto- 
 
 57 
 
58 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 gether spiritual and immaterial, and hence such 
 implied intercourse is impossible. 
 
 To this it might only be necessary to reply, 
 
 ( i ) Even if it were true, even if the angelic 
 nature were such, it could not change the fact 
 stated in the text, that "the sons of God" took 
 to themselves wives of "the daughters of men," 
 the offspring of which were as described. Nor 
 could it change the fact that "sons of God" is a 
 phrase everywhere in the Old Testament used of 
 angels, and not men. 
 
 That is to say, faith does not wait to learn the 
 possibility of a thing before it believes it. It 
 believes it on the evidence presented, assuming its 
 possibility until the opposite has been shown. 
 
 In this case, however, "impossibility never can 
 be shown until an exhaustive knowledge is pos- 
 sessed of all that is possible to angels in the line 
 of sinful degeneracy within the powers bestowed 
 upon them at creation." (Kurtz, quoted by Flem- 
 ing, p. 89.) 
 
 (2) This leads to the remark that no one is 
 qualified to say just what the angelic nature may 
 be, because no one really knows. On the other 
 hand, the implications are against the spiritual and 
 immaterial idea as shown in our former chap- 
 ters dealing with satan, angels and demons. An- 
 gels have appeared to men in human form, and 
 have been taken for men, and have partaken of 
 food like human beings. 
 
"Sons of God" 59 
 
 It may be said that these were instances where 
 God wrought miracles to produce the phenomenon, 
 and hence that they furnish no standard for judg- 
 ing of what angels in rebellion might do. 
 
 But what right have we to suppose a miracle? 
 The Bible being silent on the question of a mir- 
 acle in such instances, why should we introduce it? 
 Especially, why should we do so when we know 
 that the working of miracles on God's part is re- 
 served for great emergencies? 
 
 Moreover, angels themselves may work mir- 
 acles, as we have already seen. What about Sa- 
 tan's assumption of the body of a serpent in Eden? 
 What about the magicians withstanding Moses in 
 Egypt? What about the beast with the two horns 
 in the book of Revelation (XIII, 11-15), and 
 "the spirits of demons working miracles which go 
 forth unto the kings of the whole world to gather 
 them to the battle of that great day of God Al- 
 mighty?" (Rev. XVI, 13, 14.) 
 
 Angels do not possess power to create something 
 out of nothing, which is alone the prerogative of 
 God, but they may be able so to combine existing 
 elements as to form for themselves bodies similar 
 to the human. 
 
 (3) It may be questioned whether there is any 
 being in the universe who is simply spiritual and 
 immaterial, except the Infinite Himself, Who is 
 above and beyond all time and space. Isaac Tay- 
 lor in his Physical Theory of Another Life, takes 
 
60 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 the position that the idea of an absolutely incor- 
 poreal being is irreconcilable with that of a finite 
 creature, because anything created can subsist and 
 work only within the limits of time and space, 
 and corporeality confines the creature to such 
 limits. It is God only Who exists above and be- 
 yond these limits. 
 
 In other words, an embodied state of some 
 kind is indispensable to a finite mind, whose fac- 
 ulties can not otherwise come into play or pro- 
 duce effects. 
 
 (4) As Fleming reminds us, should all these 
 views still be unsatisfactory, there remains the 
 fact that human bodies have been possessed by 
 evil spirits, which may have been the case here. 
 Through the medium of such bodies thus pos- 
 sessed, "the sons of God" may have had the in- 
 tercourse referred to. 
 
 Indeed this has been the opinion of some of 
 the older commentators, and is suggested as early 
 as the Clementine Homilies (Horn. IX). It is 
 a very simple, and yet sufficient, solution of the 
 difficulty, for we are taught in the Gospels that 
 the powers and faculties of the human being thus 
 possessed were completely controlled, intensified 
 and directed by the demon, or else that the two na- 
 tures, in some incomprehensible manner were inter- 
 fused and the weaker overborne by the stronger. 
 
 The remarkable physical proportions, the super- 
 human strength and the evil disposition of the 
 
"Sons of God" 61 
 
 Nephilim would be the natural effects of such a 
 power imparted to human beings by fallen spirits. 
 Nor would such possession necessarily involve the 
 suffering of physical and mental evils to which 
 demoniacs of the Gospels w r ere subjected, for 
 Satan can transform himself into an angel of light, 
 and no doubt his emissaries would conduct them- 
 selves in a way to accomplish the object they had 
 in view. (The Fallen Angels, p. 95.) 
 
 (5) One more supposition is still to be con- 
 sidered, namely, that "the sons of God" in their 
 spiritual nature, or at the most in some kind of 
 subtle, ethereal body, or with the appearance of 
 a human body, might in some incomprehensible 
 way effect w r hat the text in Genesis declares to 
 have been the fact. Augustine in the City of 
 God, book 15, thinks this possible; and so also 
 does Dr. Henry More, an English divine and 
 philosopher of the seventeenth century (Mystery 
 of Godliness, book III, C. 18), and the Rev. 
 Theo. Campbell in the Irish Ecclesiastical Ga- 
 zette, 1867, all quoted by Fleming. 
 
 Of course this involves difficulties of its own, 
 and is not presented as a solution, but merely as 
 a supposition worthy of consideration. Those who 
 wish to consider it further will find a good deal 
 of information in a book easily accessible, known 
 as Earth's Earliest Ages, by G. H. Pember, pp. 
 205-213, 375-391, edition of 1885, Armstrong, 
 New York. 
 
62 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 We quote a paragraph or two from this work: 
 
 "Spiritualists teach that all will marry in the 
 next world, if they do not in this; and that true 
 marriage lasts through eternity. The natural in- 
 ference is that the true spouses of some are already 
 in the spirit-land. And to such an extent is this 
 inference followed out that many are reported to 
 be receiving visits and communications from those 
 spiritual beings with whom they are to be united 
 forever. The ceremonious marriage of a woman 
 to a demon is a thing not unknown in the United 
 States." 
 
 He mentions a book called "An Angel's Mes- 
 sage," claiming to be communications from a spirit 
 to an English lady, his destined bride for eternity. 
 The demon-lover describes himself as the spirit 
 of a man of deep religious feeling, who, during 
 his sojourn in the flesh was accustomed to visit 
 the house of the lady's father, though at that 
 time he found no attraction in her. In the course 
 of years he died, as did also the mother of the 
 lady. Soon after the decease of the latter her 
 daughter began to receive communications under- 
 stood to come from the mother, in the course of 
 svhich the demon-lorer is introduced, and there- 
 after inspires the medium, (i.e., the lady in the 
 case) himself. It is she who, under his inspira- 
 tion and control now pens the following: 
 
 "She who writes these lines is my wife more 
 than may be thought possible by those who have 
 
"Sons of God " 63 
 
 not had a similar state opened in themselves. She 
 is not so as to her natural body, but she is so as to 
 her spiritual body. For 'there is a natural body, 
 and there is a spiritual body.' The one is within 
 the other as a kernel within a shell. 
 
 "But this state can come to the outward percep- 
 tion of those only who are open to spirit-inter- 
 course. No others can perceive, during their life 
 in the world of nature, that which belongs to the 
 spirit alone. This state constitutes mediumship; 
 for she who is mine is not only a writing medium, 
 but she is also susceptible of very palpable im- 
 pressions of my presence with her. We are one; 
 and she has received the assurance of that truth 
 by other means than the merely being told so in 
 these writings." 
 
 There is much more to the same effect; but 
 that which we have quoted is sufficient to unveil 
 the danger which may be threatening many. 
 
 II 
 
 It remains to speak of our Lord's words in 
 Matthew XXII, 30, and the parallels, where in 
 rebuking the Sadducees, He says : 
 
 "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of 
 God. 
 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
 
 marriage, but are the angels of God in heaven." 
 
 Two ways of meeting this objection in harmony 
 
64 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 with the foregoing have been suggested. On« is, 
 to say that Christ is speaking of the holy angels 
 only, from which no inference is to be drawn as to 
 that of which the same beings might be capable if 
 fallen from their original state. 
 
 The other is, that He is stressing the word 
 "heaven", meaning that they do not marry in 
 heaven, but saying nothing as to what they might 
 do under other circumstances or in a different en- 
 vironment The first is the view of Kurtz the 
 theologian, and the second that of Nagelsbach, 
 the commentator, in the Lange series. 
 
 But is either hypothesis a necessity? It is true 
 that angels always appear in the Bible as mascu- 
 line, never feminine, the former being the gender 
 used of beings in whom sexual distinctions do not 
 exist; but is it inconceivable that the germ of 
 such distinction may be latent in their nature? 
 
 Man, for example, was not created to sin, and 
 yet he had in his constitution the capability of 
 sinning, a capability which came into operation in 
 his departing from the ordinance of the Creator. 
 In like manner it is thought, the germ spoken of 
 as a possibility in the angelic nature might be 
 unfolded as a result of wilful departure from the 
 original condition of existence, and the sinking 
 to a lower and unnatural state in apostasy from 
 God. 
 
 Our author quotes Paradise Lost, Book I, where 
 Milton names the chiefs of the fallen angels after 
 
"Sons of God" 65 
 
 the idols of the Canaanites and others, and of 
 some he says, they bore the names 
 
 "Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male, 
 These feminine, for spirits, when they please, 
 Can either sex assume, or both; so soft 
 And uncompounded is their essence pure." 
 
 Finally, following Kurtz again, there is an an- 
 alogy seen in the resurrection life of man. In 
 this world he has the distinction of sex, but in 
 that which is beyond, i.e., in heaven, he will neither 
 marry nor be given in marriage, but in that re- 
 spect be equal to the angels. 
 
 "Therefore, is it unlawful to infer that, in the 
 event of the angels falling, by their own wilful act, 
 from the higher to the lower sphere of existence, 
 a degradation of their nature, analogous to the ele- 
 vation in the other case, may take place, and that 
 thus might be developed that power which be- 
 longed to the lower grade, but of which the prin- 
 ciple always existed in the upper?" 
 
VII 
 ABOMINATIONS OF THE CANAANITES 
 
 IN introducing the theme of this chapter we 
 return for the moment to Genesis VI, 4, which 
 was under consideration in the two immediate- 
 ly preceding. That verse read, 
 
 "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also 
 after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters 
 of men, and they bare children to them, the same became 
 mighty men which were of old, men of renown." 
 
 We have seen that "giants" is in the Hebrew, 
 "Nephilim," which means the "fallen ones," or 
 the "fallen angels," identifying them, as we think 
 correctly, with the "sons of God." Others indeed 
 would identify them with the "mighty men," the 
 "men of renown" also mentioned in the verse as 
 the offspring of the marriages of the "sons of 
 God" with the "daughters of men." But for our 
 present purpose it is not essential which applica- 
 
 66 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 67 
 
 tion is made as we are chiefly interested in the 
 phrase, "and also, after that." 
 
 Some would limit this phrase to the antediluv- 
 ian age, and interpret it as meaning that after 
 the first irruption of the fallen angels and the 
 warning of God concerning it, others also occur- 
 red with like results during the 120 years of re- 
 spite, until it repented the Lord that He had 
 made man on the earth and He determined to 
 destroy him. 
 
 Others, however, would say that it had a post- 
 diluvian application, and that the word and the 
 fact for which it stands come to light again in the 
 history of the Canaanities whom Israel dispos- 
 sessed, as illustrated in Numbers XIII, 33. At 
 that chapter and verse some of the spies whom 
 Moses dispatched to bring a report of the land 
 returned with the story that all the people were 
 men of great stature; "and there we saw the giants 
 (Nephilim) the sons of Anak, which come of 
 the giants (Nephilim) ; and we were in our own 
 sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their 
 sight." 
 
 In this instance the same word seems to be used 
 for the "fallen ones" and their offspring both of 
 which were "giants" or "nephilim"; and the cir- 
 cumstance of their presence in that land seems to 
 account for God's command to extirpate the Ca- 
 naanites much as the greater judgment had fallen 
 upon the whole race at the flood. 
 
68 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 ii 
 
 The above, however, is merely introductory to 
 a consideration of the general teaching of the 
 Old Testament on the subject of Spiritism and its 
 related phenomena following the flood. 
 
 To quote the author of The Vital Choice : En- 
 dor or Calvary, "the existence of mediums — indi- 
 viduals who, having discovered that they had cer- 
 tain gifts, made a practice of communicating with 
 the spirit world — is taken for granted in the Bible, 
 where they are referred to as wizards, witches, 
 necromancers, etc. The details of their methods 
 are not given to any extent, but what we do know 
 about them leads us to suppose that, with the pos- 
 sible exception of automatic writing, there is no 
 material difference in their methods from those 
 now in vogue." 
 
 Indeed, even this excepton may be unnecessary. 
 For example, a certain class of the magicians both 
 in Egypt and Babylon were known as "sacred 
 scribes" (Genesis XLI, 8, margin), the root He- 
 brew word meaning a "style" or pen, and signify- 
 ing those members of the priestly caste whose 
 magic was somewhat concerned with writing. 
 
 Pember thinks they may have been identical with 
 the writing mediums of our day, whom he speaks 
 of as divided into five classes: 
 
 ( i ) Those whose passive hand is moved by the 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 69 
 
 spirit without any mental volition ©f thmr 
 own; 
 
 (2) Those into whose mind each word is sep- 
 arately insinuated at the moment of its inscrip- 
 tion ; 
 
 (3) Those who write from the dictation of 
 spirit-voices; 
 
 (4) Those who copy words and sentences pro- 
 jected before them in letters of light; and 
 
 (5) Those in whose presence spirit-hands, visi- 
 ble, or invisible, take up the pen and write the 
 words. 
 
 Of course the attitude of the Bible, or rather 
 the attitude of God, for the Bible is the revelation 
 of His mind and will, is that of absolute and un- 
 sparing condemnation of all these things, not only 
 because the glory of His Name is involved, but 
 also the highest and eternal welfare of the race 
 which He has created and redeemed. 
 
 A few illustrations of this attitude are given: 
 
 Take for example, the command at Sinai, "Thou 
 shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus XXII. 
 18). This can not be concerned with mere super- 
 stition or deception, there must be reality behind 
 it, real and wilful fellowship with the powers of 
 evil, or such a penalty would not follow. 
 
 And this suggestion is strengthened by the repe- 
 tition of the command in Leviticus (XX. 27) "A 
 man also, or a woman, that hath a familar spirit, 
 or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death; 
 
70 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 they shall stone them with stones ; their blood shall 
 be upon them." 
 
 The Hebrew word for "familiar spirit" is pro- 
 nounced "ob" or "ohv", and means the same as 
 "necromancer", one who professes to talk with the 
 dead or with Satan. This shows conclusively that 
 the inhabitation of any one with an "ohv" must 
 have been the result of voluntary acquiescence, 
 since God would not thus punish that which was 
 involuntary. 
 
 "Wizard" is a different word, but its significance 
 is not essentially dissimilar, viz., a knowing person, 
 one instructed in the art of holding intercourse 
 with demons. 
 
 It may be of interest to explain that the word 
 "ohv" originally signified a skin bottle, i.e., a skin 
 filled with wine, and hence inflated and tumid. 
 This tumidity being a characteristic of those in 
 whom a demon or an "ohv" dwelt, the word came 
 to be applied both to the person thus affected and 
 to the spirit that caused it. Parkhurst, in his He- 
 brew and Chaldee Lexicon, quotes a passage in 
 Virgil which describes the swollen and altered 
 form of the Pythoness or demon-possessed woman, 
 and adds, "this shows what the heathen meant in 
 speaking of their diviners being pleni deo, full of 
 the god." 
 
 HI 
 
 We now come to the remarkable passage in the 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 71 
 
 eighteenth of Deuteronomy which gives the title to 
 this chapter. It is part of Moses' fareweli to 
 Israel before his departure out of this life, and 
 just prior to their entrance upon Canaan, under 
 Joshua : 
 
 "When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy 
 God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abom- 
 inations of those nations. There shall not be found among 
 you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass 
 through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of 
 times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or charmer, or a consulter 
 with familiar spirits or a wizard, or a necromancer." 
 
 I. Let us study the meaning of these terms: 
 
 Passing "through the fire" has been taken by 
 some to mean the worship of Moloch referred to 
 in Leviticus XVIII. 21. Moloch was a god of 
 the Phenicians, whose worship embraced human 
 sacrifice of the most terrible nature, for example, 
 the passing of live infants through the folded arms 
 of the image heated to a white heat. 
 
 But that application in the present case is now 
 considered incorrect, and it is thought that the 
 words really mean "a sort of purification by fire, 
 or, a fire baptism, by which the worshippers were 
 consecrated to the god, and supposed to be freed 
 from the fear of a violent death," It was a 
 kind of charm or spell, and hence classed here with 
 sorcery or witchcraft. 
 
 Occasion has been taken in the earlier chap- 
 ters to warn readers against playing with the sem- 
 
72 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 blance of these wicked things because of their 
 subtle and alluring power, and another occasion 
 offers itself at this point. It is suggested in a 
 footnote of Pember's, Earth's Earliest Ages (p. 
 258), where he affirms that this practice is still 
 kept up in parts of Christendom by the midsum- 
 mer fires of St. John's eve. He quotes a Wesleyan 
 minister as saying that, at Midsummer, on many 
 of the hills of Herefordshire, England, fires were 
 burning, while the peasantry danced around them; 
 and the ceremony was not completed until some of 
 the young people had passed "through the 
 fire." 
 
 A second command is against using "divination", 
 which the Revised Version renders "practising aug- 
 ury." This, however, does not clear up the mean- 
 ing of the word very much, since "augury" is de- 
 fined as the art of foretelling by signs or omens, 
 a species of modern fortune-telling in which alas ! 
 not a few professing Christians are guilty of in- 
 dulging. 
 
 "An observer of times." The English render- 
 ing of this would indicate a diviner by the clouds, 
 but the Hebrew simply suggests such observation 
 as requires the use of the eye in minute inspection, 
 and might apply to the entrails of victims. Pem- 
 ber however finds in it the meaning of a fascinator 
 with the eyes, or in modern language, a mesmerist, 
 one who throws another into a magnetic sleep and 
 obtains oracular sayings from him. 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 73 
 
 "Enchanter" is not regarded as an accurate 
 translation of the Hebrew, which simply seems to 
 denote quick observation of some kind, either of 
 the eye or ear, and then of divining. The ob- 
 servation may be that of the singing or the flight of 
 birds or other aerial phenomena. 
 
 "Witch" or "wizard" is translated elsewhere 
 "sorcerer", and means "to pray", but its applica- 
 tion shows that the prayer is directed to false gods 
 or demons. 
 
 "Charmer", "consulter with familiar spirits", 
 "wizard", "necromancer", are the words used in 
 verse n, on which Benjamin Wills Newton, an- 
 other English author, remarks: "Comparing 
 verse n with verse 10, the last-named treats of 
 those kinds of divination in w r hich demons are 
 not immediately addressed, but consulted by the 
 intervention of signs or enchantments, while verse 
 1 1 implies a more direct appeal to evil spirits." 
 
 Thus the first word "charmer", literally means 
 to bind or join together, and applies to one who 
 by incantations and invocations seeks to bring de- 
 mons into association with himself. Some seances 
 are opened with the chanting or singing of hymns 
 for this object, which leads Mr. Newton to say, 
 very properly, "let no one who sings hymns in 
 spiritualistic seances and thus invokes demons ever 
 dare to sing unto God, for he is not a worshipper 
 of God, but of Satan." 
 
 The remainder of the words in this verse so 
 
74 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 approximate the others in meaning as to make it 
 unnecessary to enlarge upon them. 
 
 IV 
 
 II. Let us give attention to the command and 
 the warning that follow the terms used : 
 
 "For all that do these things are an abomination unto the 
 Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God 
 doth drive them out from before thee. 
 
 "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. 
 
 "For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto 
 observers of times, and unto diviners ; but as for thee, the 
 Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do." 
 
 An "abomination" is that which God detests, 
 and which He must cast away or separate from 
 Himself. Just what this meant in the mundane 
 sphere, to the nation of the Canaanites, is revealed 
 in the book of Joshua. But what it meant to 
 them as individuals in the life to come, if unre- 
 pentant, who can appreciate or describe? 
 
 But if these things were an abomination in 
 God's sight then, must they not be an abomination 
 still? Has there been any change in His nature or 
 in their nature? If He detested and cast them 
 away from Himself then, must He not detest and 
 cast them away from Himself now? 
 
 In other words, how can the Spiritist, and his 
 kind, expect God's favor either in this world or 
 that which is to come? Insanity multiplying as 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 75 
 
 one of the results of this unholy intercourse is 
 only symptomatic after all. A casting away from 
 God goes deeper and farther than that. 
 
 "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy 
 God." Perfect" in the margin reads, "upright 
 or sincere." God is addressing only His chosen 
 people, those whom He had redeemed from 
 Egypt, and who, amid the thunders and lightnings 
 of Sinai had avowed, "AH that the Lord hath 
 spoken we will do" (Exodus XIX. 8). 
 
 To be "upright or sincere" meant that they 
 should keep that vow, and to keep it was income 
 patible with the worship and service of demons. 
 Worship and service is something more than a 
 ceremonial or a prayer. It implies trust, submis- 
 sion, obedience. They who seek unto wizards, and 
 necromancers and diviners, do so for counsel and 
 advice, and for information concerning the un- 
 known which influences both character and con- 
 duct. In other words, it begets trust and confi- 
 dence in, and commands submission and obedience 
 to the false gods represented by those unhappy 
 beings. 
 
 No wonder it should be written, "As for thee, 
 the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do." 
 Israel might so do, but they must suffer for it. If 
 not in all respects as the Canaanites suffered who 
 were not His chosen, yet so as to lead them to "see 
 it to be an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast 
 forsaken the Lord thy God" (Jeremiah II. 19). 
 
76 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 III. The command and the warning is followed 
 by a promise : 
 
 "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from 
 the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye 
 shall hearken; 
 
 "According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God 
 in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear 
 again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this 
 great fire any more, that I die not. 
 
 "And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that 
 which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from 
 among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words 
 in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall 
 command him. 
 
 "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken 
 unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require 
 it of him." 
 
 When the law was given Israel at Horeb, by 
 an audible voice, so terrible was the sight that 
 even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake, " 
 and the people "entreated that the word should 
 not be spoken to them any more" (Heb. XIL 19) . 
 "Go thou near," said they to Moses, "and hear 
 all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak 
 thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak 
 unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it" (Deu- 
 teronomy V. 27). 
 
 God took them at their word, and graciously ap- 
 pointed Moses to be their mediator. And now 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 77 
 
 that he was about to be taken from them ere they 
 crossed the Jordan, a successor had already been 
 announced. Joshua was the prophet from the 
 midst of them like unto Moses whom God had 
 raised up, and unto whom they were to 
 hearken. 
 
 They need not fear to follow Joshua just as 
 they had followed Moses, and the secret of their 
 continued blessing, victory and prosperity de- 
 pended on their obeying the one as they had the 
 other. Whoso would not hearken unto Joshua's 
 words as unto Moses, words w T hich would be 
 put "in his mouth" by God, and which he would 
 speak in His Name, it would be required of 
 him. 
 
 Manifestly, Joshua was but the type of all the 
 other prophets and commanders of the people who 
 should follow him, and whom God sent to Israel 
 in the later days, "rising up early and sending 
 them," as is so often repeated in the language of 
 Jeremiah, and to whom alas ! they would not 
 listen. 
 
 But very especially is Joshua the type of Christ 
 as the New Testament so definitely declares (John 
 I. 17; Acts III. 19-26). And it is this last-men- 
 tioned fact that brings the command and the warn- 
 ing, as well as the promise, up to date. Here God 
 brings us face to face with His Son in whose mouth 
 His words are, and concerning whom it comes to 
 us with cumulative force that God will require it 
 
78 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 of any one who fails to listen to and obey what He 
 says. 
 
 But it must not be supposed that Christ's words 
 are limited to the few He spake while present with 
 us in the flesh. Christ is God. The Jesus of the 
 New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testa- 
 ment. The Incarnate Word is the inspirer of the 
 written word. Peter tells us distinctly that the 
 prophets who spake of the grace that should come 
 unto us, searched "what, or what manner of time, 
 the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify 
 when He testified beforehand" (i Peter I. 10, 
 
 ii). 
 
 Christ's words are the words of the whole Bible, 
 and it is to them we must hearken, and them that 
 we must obey. 
 
 How clear, and rich and comfortable they are, 
 satisfying every human need, every yearning and 
 every aspiration! Is it a question of guidance in 
 our daily walk? Is it the supply of our common 
 needs, what we shall eat and drink, and our body, 
 "what we shall put on"? Are we longing for 
 solace and fellowship in sorrow? Are we peering 
 into the darkness for some trace of departed foot- 
 steps, straining our ears for some echo of voices 
 that seem forever lost? 
 
 This is the answer to our need: "In nothing 
 be anxious; but in everything by prayer and sup- 
 plication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be 
 made known unto God. And the peace of God, 
 
Abominations of the Canaanites 79 
 
 which passeth all understanding, shall guard your 
 hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." (Phil- 
 ippians IV. 6, 7. R.V.) 
 
VIII 
 SPIRITISM IN ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 
 IN previous chapters it has been said that the 
 spiritistic medium does not bring back the 
 dead, but that the "familiar spirit" who con- 
 trols the medium appears able to personate the 
 dead. Satan knows very much, some would say 
 he knows all, about the life of every human being, 
 for he ever goes "about seeking whom he may 
 devour." At least information could be procured 
 with lightning speed from the demons which had 
 watched the life of the person invoked, and then 
 communicated to the "control" in any given case. 
 
 But while we say that the dead do not come 
 back, it is known to readers of the Bible that some 
 apparent exceptions must be made. Take the case 
 of the transfiguration of Christ, when "Behold, 
 two men talked with him, which were Moses and 
 Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his de- 
 cease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem" 
 (Luke IX. 30, 31).^ 
 
 Take the crucifixion, when "the graves were 
 
 80 
 
Spiritism in Israel and Judah 81 
 
 opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept 
 arose, and came out of the graves after his resur- 
 rection, and went into the holy city and appeared 
 unto many" (Matt. XXVII. 52, 53). 
 
 And then there were Lazarus and the son of 
 the widow of Nain, but these are instances of the 
 raising of the dead where there was a second oc- 
 currence of death. In the others the dead saints 
 appeared only for a little while and then immedi- 
 ately vanished, not appearing again. 
 
 With the exception of Samuel of whose case 
 this chapter treats, there is no similar record of 
 the dead returning to this world. And in no case 
 except his, did the dead speak to or in any other 
 way communicate with the living. 
 
 Moses and Elijah spake with Christ but did not 
 speak to the disciples. The saints rising at His 
 resurrection was a special testimony to that fact. 
 As another expresses it, "When Christ died, the 
 graves were opened to show that there was power 
 in His death to open the graves of believers; and 
 when three days later, He arose, they arose with 
 Him to show that there was power in His resur- 
 rection to bring them forth." 
 
 They appeared unto many, but so far as we 
 know they did not speak to a single person. 
 
 II 
 
 Samuel's case is unique. Saul, the king of Is- 
 
82 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 rael at the time, had professedly put the necro- 
 mancers out of Israel at the Divine command, be- 
 ing urged to do it doubtless, by Samuel himself. 
 
 But now the glittering helms and spears of an 
 invading army surrounded him, and his heart 
 trembled with gloomy forebodings. The Spirit 
 of the Lord no longer came upon him, and the 
 phantoms of past sins floated continually before his 
 eyes taking away rest and all steadfastness of pur- 
 pose. Samuel who had so long borne with and 
 entreated for him was dead. He tried to pray, but 
 iniquity was in his heart and the Lord would not 
 hear him. He was answered no more neither by 
 dreams, nor by Urim, nor by the prophets. No 
 voice answered to his despairing cry. 
 
 Then he yielded to the evil thought, and per- 
 haps stifling his conscience with the plea that it was 
 a prophet of the Lord with whom he would con- 
 verse, he appeals to the powers of darkness. 
 
 He asks his companions "if they knew of any 
 surviving dealer with demons." Yes, they know 
 of one, proof doubtless, that they had been in 
 the habit of consulting her themselves, and in the 
 shelter of the night Saul goes forth with two 
 of them to a slope of Mount Hermon. 
 
 Entering into the cavern, dimly lighted by a 
 fire of wood, and addressing the medium, he says: 
 "I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, 
 and bring me him up whom I shall name unto 
 thee." 
 
Spiritism in Israel and Judah 83 
 
 The medium, suspicious at first, is re-assured by 
 an oath that no harm would befall her, and being 
 requested to call up Samuel commenced her prepar- 
 ations. 
 
 But the usual procedure is cut short by a sudden 
 interference, and the medium is affrighted by her 
 discovery, communicated through the familiar 
 spirit no doubt, that her inquirer is the king; and 
 still more affrighted by the apparition of a being 
 with whom she had neither part nor lot. The ex- 
 planation of this last remark is that the real Samuel 
 had appeared instead of the personation which the 
 medium had expected, the real Samuel, whom God, 
 in wrath, had sent up as the bearer of a fearful 
 message of doom to the wicked king (i Samuel 
 XXVIII).* 
 
 The rest of the story we need not follow. The 
 words of Samuel, the despair of Saul, his return 
 to camp, his suicidal death the next day, and very 
 especially the declaration in I Chron. X. 13, that 
 he "died for his transgression which he committed 
 against the Lord, * * * and for asking coun- 
 sel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire 
 of it." 
 
 The view of Pember, thus quoted, that it was 
 indeed the real Samuel who came up, and not a 
 personated Samuel, is that of the present writer 
 
 *Pember , s, Earth's Earliest Ages. 
 
84 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 also, (Synthetic Studies page, 43, Christian Work- 
 er's Commentary, page 166). 
 
 But it is necessary to emphasize the point that 
 it was not the witch of Endor who brought up 
 Samuel. Matters got out of her hands apparently, 
 as indicated in her screams. God brought up 
 Samuel, and the fact that Saul saw and spoke di- 
 rectly to him is another feature which is uncom- 
 mon in Spiritistic lore. 
 
 The incident, therefore, is a special one, and af- 
 fords no evidence as to the genuineness of other 
 communications purporting to come from indi- 
 viduals who have left this world. It is no proof 
 whatever that the spirit of any particular indi- 
 vidual can be summoned by a medium or 'control', 
 or that the spirits which respond are those of the 
 individuals they purport to be. (The Vital Choice : 
 Endor or Calvary.) 
 
 And yet it is only right to say that there is an- 
 other view to be taken of this transaction. It is 
 one that gives no more comfort, perhaps not even 
 as much, to the votaries of Spiritism, and would 
 not be mentioned here at all, except as a matter 
 of additional interest. 
 
 The Rev. William H. Clagett in his brochure, 
 "Modern Spiritualism Exposed," presents it cog- 
 ently in speaking of the occurrence as the first 
 seance of which the world has any record. 
 
 That record plainly shows, he says, that this 
 spirit was not Samuel's. He thinks it came from 
 
Spiritism in Israel and Judah 85 
 
 the wrong direction, "up" not down. Again the 
 spirit says, "Why hast thou disquieted me?" He 
 does not think that any of God's servants could 
 be disquieted by a witch. Still further, the spirit 
 says, "Tomorrow, thou shalt be with me." Samuel 
 was a saved man, Saul a lost man, and between 
 the two a great impassable gulf was fixed. How 
 could Saul be with Samuel? 
 
 Furthermore, Dr. Clagett believes that if this 
 spirit had been Samuel he would have told Saul tq 
 repent and call upon God, instead of which he 
 makes an argument to drive Saul to despair, de- 
 claring that God had departed from him and be- 
 come his enemy, and that he would be defeated 
 and slain, etc. 
 
 Notwithstanding what Dr. Clagett says how- 
 ever, and though there are others who agree with 
 him, the simple reading of the record impresses 
 one that the real Samuel is before us. 
 
 An answer to one of Dr. Clagett's objections, 
 and the most serious one, is ready. The Jews re- 
 garded the place of the dead as composed of two 
 realms, one for the righteous and one for the 
 unrighteous. Tomorrow Saul might have been 
 with Samuel in that he was in the realm of the 
 dead, and yet not with him in the sense that he 
 was in the company of the righteous dead. 
 
 Yet omitting this particular factor, we have here 
 indeed, as Dr. Clagett says, a picture of modern 
 Spiritism drawn by the finger of God three 
 
86 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 thousand years ago. The whole thing is laid bare 
 before us, the medium and her character, the sup- 
 posed "control", the circle, Saul and two men with 
 him, the time, night, the claim, "whom shall I 
 bring up?", the supposed materialization, and the 
 same arrangement of things in the house, and the 
 same vagueness and uncanniness about the whole 
 proceeding. 
 
 Ill 
 
 After the period of Saul little is said of Spirit- 
 ism in Israel until we reach the defection of Baal- 
 worship in the time of King Ahab and the prophet 
 Elijah (i Kings XVII-XIX) ; where the sup- 
 position is a reasonable one that the false prophets 
 were mediums inspired by the agents of Satan. 
 
 For this cause, let the reader be duly impressed 
 with the awful story in I Kings XXII, especially 
 verses 20-23, where a lying spirit is permitted, in 
 Divine judgment, to seduce the king so that he is 
 led away to a disgraceful death. 
 
 Later comes the story of Naaman the leper (2 
 Kings V), who was indignant because God's serv- 
 ant Elisha did not "wave his hand over the place 
 and recover the leper." Was he thinking of the 
 mesmeric healing of the pagan priests? If so, it 
 enables us to appreciate why Elisha bade him in- 
 stead, to go "wash in Jordan seven times and thy 
 flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be 
 clean." 
 
Spiritism in Israel and Juclah 87 
 
 These are instances of the coupling of sorcery 
 and idolatry in the history of the ten tribes, but 
 the same is found in Judah too. Was it in Jotham 
 or Ahaz' day, that Israel cried to Jehovah: 
 "Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people, the 
 house of Jacob, because they be replenished from 
 the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines" 
 (II. 6)? 
 
 When a century afterwards, Manasseh is on 
 the throne, "he did that which was evil in the sight 
 of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen 
 whom the Lord cast out before the children of 
 Israel. * * * And he made his son to pass 
 through the fire, and observed times, and used 
 enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and 
 wizards" (2 Kings XXI). 
 
 In consequence of these practices there follows 
 a fearful prophecy of woe. Such evil would be 
 brought on Jerusalem and Judah as would cause 
 the ears of him that heard of it to tingle. The 
 city would be wiped "as a man wipeth a dish, wip- 
 ing it and turning it upside down." Moreover 
 Manasseh himself was permitted of God to be 
 taken in chains by the king of Assyria and carried 
 to Babylon. 
 
 Happily however, Manasseh offers an answer 
 to the question as to whether it is ever possible 
 for a soul entangled in Spiritism to be delivered 
 and restored, for we read in 2 Chronicles XXIII. 
 12, 13, that when he was in affliction he besought 
 
88 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly 
 before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto 
 Him. As a result he was heard of Him Who 
 brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom. 
 "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was 
 God." 
 
 Manasseh's godly successor, Josiah, put away 
 the abominations and removed the mediums from 
 Judah, but they soon were permitted to return 
 alas! as we judge by Jeremiah's denunciation of 
 them up to the very moment almost of the Baby- 
 lonian captivity. 
 
 "Hearken not ye to your prophets," he exclaims, 
 "nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor 
 to your mesmerizers, nor to your enchanters, which 
 speak unto you, saying, ye shall not serve the king 
 of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie unto you, 
 to remove you far from your land, and that I 
 should drive you out, and ye should perish" 
 (XXVII. 9, 10). 
 
 The Jews learned many things as the result of 
 their Babylonian captivity, but one thing they did 
 not learn, and that was to put the false prophets 
 and the diviners away from them forever. We 
 are assured of this because of the warnings they 
 receive in the post-captivity prophets. 
 
 It is clear also from the same source, that Spirit- 
 ism will prevail among them when they return in 
 unbelief to their own land in the day that is yet 
 ahead. But when their King comes a second time 
 
Spiritism in Israel and Judah 89 
 
 to Zion then will He turn ungodliness away from 
 Jacob, and they shall be freed forever from its 
 curse. "It shall come to pass in that day, saith 
 the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the name of 
 the idols out of the land, and they shall no more 
 be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets 
 and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land" 
 (Zechariah XIII. 2). 
 
IX 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE 
 BLACK ART 
 
 SO far as the Gospels are concerned, perhaps 
 as much has been said already as our pres- 
 ent treatment of the subject will permit. See 
 the preceding chapters on "Satan — His Origin, 
 History and Doom," and "Angels and Demons." 
 But there is much in the Acts and the Epistles, and 
 especially in the book of Revelation, that calls for 
 particular attention. 
 
 Conybeare and Howson, and more recently, Sir 
 William Ramsay* are good authority for saying 
 that a marked fact in the society of paganism dur- 
 ing the period covered by the Acts was the in- 
 fluence of magicians and soothsayers. 
 
 They were extraordinarily numerous the latter 
 tells us, there being but few cities in the Greeco- 
 
 *The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 90 
 
Early Christianity 91 
 
 Roman world that did not possess several of them 
 who catered to a large part of ordinary society. 
 The more educated and thoughtful of the people 
 believed them to be disreputable and maleficent 
 and they warned young people against them, but 
 this only went to prove their belief in the power 
 they could exert. 
 
 And just as today, the people in those days re- 
 sorted to magicians in the hope of procuring what 
 they were unwilling to seek, or what they could not 
 obtain, through prayer and acts of a purely re- 
 ligious character. 
 
 Religion was open and fair, but they preferred 
 darkness and secrecy. Lovers sought charms or 
 the means of enslaving the minds and possessing 
 the persons of those they desired. Others sought 
 the recovery of lost property, the cure of disease, 
 business success or any of the thousand and one 
 things that humanity covets. "There was a wide- 
 spread and deep-seated feeling in the pagan mind, 
 that the divine power was always ready and even 
 desirous to communicate its will to men," and that 
 the signs revealing that intention were visible all 
 about for those who had eyes to see, i.e., through 
 divination; or would be revealed to men through 
 prophecy, i.e., oracles located at certain places 
 which were ever ready to serve in that capacity for 
 a given fee. 
 
 There was no class of opponents, Sir William 
 assures us, with whom the earliest Christian apos- 
 
92 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 ties and missionaries were brought into collision 
 so frequently, and whose antagonism was so ob- 
 stinate and determined as the magicians. 
 
 At Samaria, at Paphos, at Philippi, and re- 
 peatedly at Ephesus, wizards of various kinds meet 
 and are overcome by Peter and Paul. They had 
 power, but the apostles are exhibited as always pos- 
 sessing more power. 
 
 Not that this is the only explanation of the at- 
 tention given to such matters by the inspired his- 
 torian, but rather is it for the purpose of refuting 
 an accusation commonly brought against the 
 Christians. The accusation was that they also, 
 like the wizards and magicians, were maleficent 
 and haters of the human race, practising secret 
 rites and abominable hidden crimes ( I Peter II. 
 12) . u There is no presbyter of the Christians that 
 is not an astrologer, a diviner and a professional 
 carer for people's physical condition," is the tes- 
 timony of the supposed letter of Emperor Had- 
 rian to a Roman Consul, A.D. 134. 
 
 We thus have a point of similarity with the way 
 in which spiritists of today compare their doings 
 and their beliefs with Christ and the Christians of 
 the first and second centuries. As we have pre- 
 viously pointed out, they commit the blasphemy 
 of speaking of Christ as a Master Medium, and 
 affirm that the phenomena of the seances are not 
 different in origin, in character and in their objec- 
 tive from the marvels which Christians know to 
 
Early Christianity 93 
 
 have been wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit 
 at the hands of the first disciples. 
 
 Whereas the authorities of that day sought to 
 dishonor those marvels by reducing them to the 
 level of unlawful arts, so the practitioners of those 
 arts today are seeking to elevate them to the plane 
 of the holy and divine religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 As we come to consider the record of the Acts, 
 let the reader refresh his recollection by a perusal 
 of the text. 
 
 Take the story of Simon Magus for example, 
 VIII. 5-24. Still following Ramsay who has an 
 original way of looking at the matter, it is to be 
 borne in mind that Simon was not an impostor or 
 a quack, just as we have seen that some, a very 
 few perhaps, of the modern mediums are not to 
 be so designated. He possessed real power, as 
 do some of these, though it may be of a different 
 kind from that which he possessed. 
 
 The Samaritans said, "This man is that power 
 of God, which is called Great" (R.V.). "Power" 
 (Greek, dunamis) was what the pagan devotees 
 worshipped as divine. "Great" also had a strong 
 religious characteristic. Hence in Simon they 
 thought they had "an epiphany of that Supreme 
 power of which even the *ods themselves are only 
 partial embodiments." 
 
94 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 But Simon saw in Philip greater and different 
 power from any that he possessed. The powers of 
 this world always recognize the true power of 
 God (James II. 19). Struck with astonishment 
 at the position and influence acquired by Philip, he 
 joined his company to learn more about it; and 
 on discovering through Peter and John that it was 
 to be procured and even passed on to others by 
 the laying on of hands, he would pay for it if it 
 could be bought. 
 
 As Ramsay carefully notes, in this first recorded 
 collision with a practiser of magic arts, the stress 
 is laid on his incapacity to understand the nature 
 and character of the Christian truth. There is an 
 essential antagonism between him and it, just as 
 there is today between the exponents and the vot- 
 aries of revived Spiritism and they who are truly 
 witnessing for Jesus Christ. We class Simon with 
 Spiritists, because "in such phenomena as that of 
 Spiritism lay the powers of such magicians." 
 
 As a matter of fact not only is Simon's proposal 
 rejected by the Apostles, and with indignation and 
 contempt, but Simon himself is rejected. 
 
 And it was necessary thus to give strong expres- 
 sion to this antagonism on the first occasion, be- 
 cause of the analogy between certain phenomena 
 of the magician and those of Christianity on some 
 occasions. Take the descent of the Holy Spirit 
 on the waiting and praying disciples, already men- 
 tioned, which took place on the day of Pentecost. 
 
Early Christianity 95 
 
 The Spiritists of today do not hesitate to class 
 that sacred scene with a modern spiritist seance — 
 the disciples together with one accord, the sound 
 of the rushing mighty wind filling the house, the 
 appearance of cloven tongues ! 
 
 It is characteristic of Luke's method of correct- 
 ing this erroneous idea in the book of Acts, that 
 he does not do so by obtruding any opinion or 
 judgment of his own, but simply by setting forth 
 the acts and words of the heaven-endued and 
 heaven-guided apostles, which speak for them- 
 selves. Happy are we if, learned in the contents 
 of Holy Writ, we are able to do the same against 
 the spiritists of today, and thus, if it please God, 
 deliver some who, without knowing it, are like 
 Simon, "in the gall of bitterness and in the bond 
 of iniquity." 
 
 Ill 
 
 From the eighth chapter of the Acts, let the 
 reader pass if he will to the thirteenth and to the 
 story of "Elymas the Sorcerer." 
 
 Following further the author we have named, 
 here is the only case in the New Testament in 
 which the natural antagonism between the Chris- 
 tian teacher and the magician is carried to a direct 
 conflict and trial of strength. Bar-Jesus (Arabic, 
 Ely mas) pits himself against Paul and forthwith 
 his strength is withered. "The power of the Holy 
 
96 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 Spirit, looking through the eyes of Paul, pierces 
 him to the soul and temporarily paralyses the ner- 
 vous system so far as vision is concerned"; or to 
 quote the inspired and less round-about language 
 of the Bible itself, "Immediately there fell on him 
 a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking 
 some one to lead him by the hand." 
 
 It is pertinent to observe that Sergius Paulus, 
 the Roman deputy or pro-consul in this case, is 
 described as u a prudent man," i.e., a man of under- 
 standing. His prudence and understanding were 
 exhibited surely, in calling for Barnabas and Saul 
 that he might hear the Word of God; and after- 
 wards in judging that the results in the case of the 
 false prophet who withstood them, were sufficient 
 to accredit the truth of their testimony. "When 
 he saw what was done, he believed, being aston- 
 ished at the doctrine of the Lord." 
 
 Would to God that some of those now coming 
 under the power of the false teaching of mod- 
 ern Spiritism were governed by a like prudence, 
 especially when we reflect that Paul, under the im- 
 pulse of the Spirit of God, rebuked this sorcerer 
 as one who was "full of all subtility and mischief," 
 a "child of the devil," and an "enemy of all right- 
 eousness" who was perverting "the right way of 
 the Lord." 
 
 It intensifies the realism of this transaction to 
 know that Sir William Ramsay has been able to 
 identify this deputy by the monuments of Asia 
 
Early Christianity 97 
 
 Minor, and also to corroborate in a most fascin- 
 ating way the allusion to his conversion to the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 IV 
 
 Leaving the story of Bar-Jesus we come to that 
 of the "damsel possessed with a spirit of divina- 
 tion" in Acts XVI. 
 
 A maid having "a spirit, a Python" is the way 
 we find it in the margin of the Revised Version. 
 The King James' Version is more of a comment 
 than a translation, and destroys the instruction 
 which the passage was intended to give. That in- 
 struction is important as proving the supernatural 
 character of the influences that formed and guided 
 Paganism. 
 
 As Benjamin Wills Newton says in "Reflections 
 on the Character and Spread of Spiritualism," this 
 "damsel" was what men now call a medium, an 
 intermediary between themselves and the powers 
 of darkness — a link connecting with hell whose 
 fires shall never be quenched (Mark IX. 43-48). 
 She had the spirit of "Pytho" that guided the Del- 
 phic oracle, and that oracle was not human, but 
 superhuman and Satanic. 
 
 "This authoritative connection of Spiritualism 
 with the ancient gods," says Pember, "is of pe- 
 culiar importance at a time when Apollo, the god 
 of Delphi, is re-appearing as a mighty angelic ex- 
 
98 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 istence in poems which claim to be demoniacally 
 inspired." 
 
 It is thus in part, that A. T. Schofield, M.D., 
 the London neurologist and author, describes this 
 scene: 
 
 "Look at the setting of the story. This was 
 the first entry of Christianity into Europe, the most 
 momentous event in its history! 
 
 "Who could discern the mighty importance of 
 the landing of these three obscure travellers? Only 
 two — God and the Prince of Darkness! Mere 
 men were busy with weightier affairs — the gossip 
 of the court at Rome, the rising influence of 
 Greece, and the like; and yet through the power 
 of the message of these three men both Empires 
 were soon to fall beneath th sway of the crucified 
 Nazarene! The Prince of Darkness was an un- 
 seen witness of the whole occurrence, and his plans 
 were soon made. 
 
 "Probably the very next day, on their way to 
 the river, his emissary, suitably disguised as an 
 'angel of light' met them, and gave the apostle a 
 most hearty and unexpected welcome. She evi- 
 dently knew all about their arrival and their gos- 
 pel, and the part in the drama she had to play. 
 
 "Ancient Spiritism was too wise to seek to dis- 
 credit the Christian gospel, after the fashion of 
 the modern variety. On the contrary, she lauded 
 it to the skies for days, declaring it to be 'the way 
 of salvation,' and thus posed as another and a 
 
Early Christianity 99 
 
 greater 'Lydia' — the true and the false were side 
 by side. And yet the apostle was not taken in! 
 (for the spiritual man 'discerneth all things' (i 
 Cor. II. 15). 
 
 "How different in these times! Nowadays, if 
 the name of God is but so much as heard at a 
 seance, even Christians feel it is all right. While, 
 if one of the 'soothsayers' lauded the tenets of the 
 Christian faith after the fashion of this maid, 
 London would ring with the news the next day as 
 proof of the godliness of Modern Spiritism! 
 
 "It is written that the apostle was 'sore 
 troubled,' and no wonder, with this perplexing 
 masterpiece of the enemy, masquerading before 
 him and undeniably preaching day after day the 
 truth of God! 
 
 "But 'in vain is the net spread in the sight of 
 any bird,' and Paul, instructed by the Holy Spirit 
 and 'discerning all things,' like his Master before 
 him (Mark I. 25, 34), refused praise from the 
 unclean source. He saw clearly the devil that 'pos- 
 sessed' this pseudo-evangelist, and said to it, 'I 
 charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come 
 out of her.' He never addressed one word to the 
 poor victim, but spoke to the real power within 
 her. 
 
 "Are not these things written for our instruc- 
 tion? And is there one single soul who reads 
 these lines so blind as not to see the parallel, or so 
 deaf as not to hear the warning?" 
 
100 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 One more incident from the Acts will suffice, 
 the story of the Dhma worshippers at Ephesus, 
 recorded in the nineteenth chapter. 
 
 Ephesus was renowned throughout the world 
 for the worship of Diana and the practice of 
 magic. Mysterious symbols engraved on the im- 
 age of the goddess were regarded as a charm when 
 pronounced, and their study was an elaborate sci- 
 ence taught in books numerous and costly. 
 
 This circumstance throws light on the peculiar 
 character of the miracles wrought by Paul in that 
 city, though we are not to suppose that the apostles 
 were always able to work miracles at will, any 
 more than we know that their miracles were not 
 always the same. 
 
 Here he was in the face of magicians like Moses 
 and Aaron in Egypt, and it is expressly said that 
 his miracles were "special" or extraordinary (Acts 
 XIX. n). 
 
 A profound effect was produced on those who 
 practised curious arts in the city, and especially 
 certain travelling exorcists who, influenced by what 
 they had seen and heard in Paul's work, and judg- 
 ing also by precedent in the case of the Diana 
 worship, supposed that the Name of Jesus acted 
 as a charm, and attempted by such means to cast 
 put evil spirits as the Apostle had done. "But He 
 
Early Christianity 101 
 
 to whom demons were subject and Who had given 
 to His servants power and authority over them 
 (Luke IX. i) had shame and terror in store for 
 those who thus presumed to take His holy Name 
 in vain." 
 
 Among those who thus presumed, "were seven 
 sons of one Sceva, a Jew," "and the man in whom 
 the evil spirit was, leaped on them so that they 
 fled out of the house naked and wounded." 
 
 The news spread, and fear fell on the people 
 "and the Name of the Lord Jesus was magnified," 
 by their confession of sin and the forsaking of 
 their evil ways, even to the extent in many cases 
 of the burning of their costly books whose loss 
 amounted to as much as ten thousand dollars of 
 our money. 
 
 "So mightily grew the Word of God and pre- 
 vailed" (XIX. 20). 
 
X 
 
 TEACHING OF THE PAULINE EPISTLES 
 
 THE previous chapter showed us something 
 of the obstinate and determined antagonism 
 of the spiritists, the sorcerers and the ma- 
 gicians toward the Christian apostles. But the 
 latter met it by their inspired writings, as well as 
 by their spoken words and the wonders and signs 
 they wrought in the power of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 One of the first in the order of the books of the 
 New Testament and one of the best known of the 
 written words of Paul, is that in the tenth chapter 
 of his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he 
 says: 
 
 "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to 
 demons and not to God; and I would not that ye should have 
 fellowship with demons. 
 
 "Ye can not drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of 
 demons; ye can not be partakers of the Lord's table, and the 
 table of demons. 
 
 "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger 
 than He?" 
 
 102 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 103 
 
 The actual existence of demons is here implied 
 if not positively stated, as well as their actual wor- 
 ship by the benighted pagans. But what is more 
 to the point so far as Christian believers are con- 
 cerned, is the temptation to affiliate w T ith such 
 worshippers, an affiliation cutting off from com- 
 munication with the true God. 
 
 And more than that, it not only severs com- 
 munion, but exposes believers to the divine chas- 
 tisement as implied in the words, "Do we provoke 
 the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?" 
 That is, will we attempt to resist His will and 
 openly bring His honor into contempt? 
 
 The words denote the strong displeasure in con- 
 sequence of adulterous love. The fiercest of all 
 human passions is used to illustrate the hatred of 
 God towards idolatry, and spiritist seances come 
 dangerously near idolatry. 
 
 There is a curious passage in the eleventh chap- 
 ter of the same epistle which has puzzled com- 
 mentators. It is where Paul is instructing women 
 how to behave themselves in the assemblies of 
 worship : 
 
 "Neither was the man created for the woman; but the 
 woman for the man. 
 
 "For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head 
 because of the angels/' 
 
 One of the commentators consulted in the 
 preparation of this chapter, added, "for some re- 
 
104 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 markable Oriental illustrations of the interpreta- 
 tion that evil angels are here meant, see Dean 
 Stanley on this verse. " 
 
 An examination of Dean Stanley, with whose 
 commentary the present writer had not previously 
 been particularly acquainted, revealed that he 
 favored the view of Kurtz, Maitland, Fleming 
 and others as to the Angel interpretation of Gen- 
 esis VI. referred to in previous chapters; and that 
 he connected this admonition of Paul with the ex- 
 traordinary event there named. 
 
 His words, in part, follow, and are given some- 
 what at length because of their bearing on what 
 has gone before: 
 
 "The apostle had dwelt on the necessity of this subordina- 
 tion, as shown in all the passages in the early chapters of 
 Genesis, where the relation of the sexes is described, viz. Gen. 
 1.26, ii. 18, 23, iii. 16. 
 
 "The mention of these passages may have carried on his 
 thoughts to the next and only kindred passage in Gen. vi. 2, 4, 
 in which those relations are described as subverted by the 
 union of the daughters of men with the sons of God, — in the 
 version of the LXX. the angels, 
 
 "In this case the sense would be 'In this subordination of 
 the woman to man, we find the reason of the custom, which, 
 in consequence of the sin of the angels, enjoins that the woman 
 ought not to part with the sign that she is subject, not to them, 
 but to her husband. The authority of the husband is, as it 
 were, enthroned visibly upon her head, in token that she belongs 
 to him alone, and that she owes no allegiance to any one 
 besides, not even to the angels who stand before the throne 
 of God/ 
 
 "The 'fall of the angels' thus spoken of is the same as that 
 indicated in Jude 6, 2 Pet. ii. 4, where the context shows that 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 105 
 
 the fall there intended is supposed to be at the time not of 
 the creation, but of the Deluge, not from pride but lust. 
 
 "It is possible that, if the words 'on account of the angels' 
 be so taken, the word 'power' might be understood, not as the 
 sign of the husband's power over the woman, but (in the 
 sense most agreeable to the usage of the word itself) as the 
 sign of the power or dignity of the woman over herself, pro- 
 jecting her from the intrusion of spirits, whether good or evil. 
 In that case compare its use in vii. 37. 
 
 "Finally, we must ask why a train of argument, otherwise 
 simple, should be thus abruptly interrupted by allusions diffi- 
 cult in themselves, and rendered still more so by their con- 
 ciseness? 
 
 "The most natural explanation seems to be that he was led 
 by a train of association familiar to his readers, but lost to us. 
 Such is the allusion in 2 Thess. ii. 5, 6, 'Remember ye not, 
 that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things ? And 
 now ye know what withholdeth/ etc. 
 
 "An argument in their letter, a conversation, a custom to 
 which he had before alluded, would account not only for the 
 introduction of the passage, but for allusions which, as ad- 
 dressed merely to a local or transitory occasion, might well 
 be couched in terms so obscure as to forbid in effect, if not 
 in design, any certain or permanent inference from them for 
 future ages. 
 
 "The difficulty of the text is, in fact, the safeguard against 
 its misuse." 
 
 This church to which it was necessary to say 
 so much about evil spirits, was one which, perhaps 
 more than any other, had abused the spiritual 
 gifts bestowed upon it by the Holy Spirit for the 
 propagation of the Gospel. Hence the large place 
 given to spiritual gifts in this epistle, covering chap- 
 ters XII-XIV. 
 
 These chapters challenge the most prayerful 
 
106 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 consideration in connection with our theme, touch- 
 ing as they do, the source of such gifts (XII. 4-6) ; 
 their nature (7-1 1) ; their object and use (12-31); 
 the cause of their abuse (XIII. 1-13) ; the prefer- 
 ence among them, and why (XIV. 1-25) ; the man- 
 ner in which they are to be publicly exercised 
 (26-35) ; and indeed everything else required for 
 their wise and holy employment in the blessing 
 of men and the extension of the knowledge of the 
 true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 Galatians comes next in order after Corinthians 
 with its warning against idolatry and sorcery (V. 
 20) placing them alongside of adultery, fornica- 
 tion and all uncleanness in the catalogue of the 
 works of the flesh. "Idolatry is the open recog- 
 nition of false gods," says Lightfoot, "and sor- 
 cery the secret tampering with the powers of evil." 
 They are like the two halves of one whole. "They 
 which do (practice R.V.) such things," the apostle 
 admonishes, "shall not inherit the Kingdom of 
 God" (21). 
 
 It is not said, "they that do such things daily," 
 for even though one does any such thing even only 
 once, voluntarily, he forfeits the the kingdom of 
 God as long as he remains under the dominion of 
 that work of the flesh. — Starke. 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 107 
 
 A plainer and more fearful notice of danger to 
 the necromancers of the present day it would be 
 impossible to put into words. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Paul's letter to the Ephesians follows with a 
 revelation of the conflict in which Christian believ- 
 ers are engaged in this matter, together with a 
 description of the protection to be taken and the 
 weapon to be used for victory and the assurance 
 of its attainment if the command be obeyed. 
 
 Beginning with the tenth verse of the sixth chap- 
 ter, he says : 
 
 "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the 
 
 power of His might. 
 
 "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to 
 stand against the wiles of the devil. 
 
 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark- 
 less of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." 
 
 "Wrestle" indicates a personal encounter, a con- 
 test of life and death. But it is not one with 
 "flesh and blood"; it is not against humanity 
 viewed in its palpable characteristics that we 
 wrestle, but with spirits high in rank and position. 
 As Dr. Eadie says, "it is no vulgar herd of fiends 
 we encounter, but such of them as are darkly emi- 
 nent in place and dignity." 
 
 Moreover they are "the rulers of the darkness 
 
108 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 of this world," those which in some way, and for 
 some reason, "have acquired a special domination 
 on earth, out of which they are loath to be dis- 
 lodged/' This "darkness," to quote him further, 
 is that "spiritual obscurity which so painfully en- 
 virons the church — that zone which surrounds an 
 unbelieving world with an ominous and lowering 
 shadow." No wonder we should take unto us 
 "the whole armour of God," not a part, but the 
 whole. 
 
 Dropping the figures which Paul uses in the 
 subsequent verses, the protection and the weapon 
 that he names and which we all need, are truth, 
 righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the "Word of 
 God and prayer. 
 
 "Truth" here is subjective, it is "the assured 
 conviction that we believe and that it is God's 
 truth that we believe." The intimate dealing of 
 truth with the soul, "the affections and judgment 
 braced up to Christ and the things of Christ." 
 
 The "righteousness" also is subjective. It is not 
 the imputed righteousness of Christ, and which is 
 presupposed as the possession of the believer, but 
 the practical every day righteousness growing out 
 of it, the "good conscience" which Peter repeatedly 
 urges upon those to whom he writes. 
 
 The same is true of "peace". It is peace as an 
 experience, the effect of maintaining a good con- 
 science. The Christian warrior moves as the bat- 
 tle shifts, and his continued preparedness for ac- 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 109 
 
 tlon, his feet shod, depends on that serenity of 
 heart which nothing perplexes or disconcerts. 
 
 "Faith" in God and His grace is needed also 
 to "guard the mind from aberration and despond- 
 ency, and ward off the assaults that are made 
 upon it." 
 
 "Salvation" in this instance means the conscious 
 possession, the knowledge of safety, the conviction 
 of pardon and sanctification. He who thus knows 
 that he has passed from death unto life is one 
 whose "head is covered in the day of battle." 
 
 As "the helmet of salvation" crowns the various 
 parts of the armor, so there comes after it no 
 reference to any further means of defence, which 
 is quite complete, but a revelation of the instru- 
 ment of offensive energy against the adversary, 
 "the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of 
 God." 
 
 And then the hidden spring of power without 
 which nothing avails, "praying always." But al- 
 ways in the Spirit, i.e. the Holy Spirit, in His ex- 
 citing and assisting influence (Romans VIII. 26, 
 Jude 20). "And watching thereunto," watching 
 for these very things thus specified to be realized 
 in us, and in "all the saints." 
 
 IV 
 
 We pause in Colossians to point out its teach- 
 ing concerning evil spirits in their relation to the 
 
110 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 Person and work of Christ in our redemption 
 (chapter II. 13-15). 
 
 We who were "dead in trespasses and sins" have 
 been quickened together with Him Who blotted 
 out the handwriting of ordinances that was against 
 us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His 
 Cross ; 
 
 "And having spoiled principalities and powers He made a 
 show of them openly, triumphing over them in it", 
 
 i.e. in His cross. 
 
 Nicholson (Oneness With Christ) renders it: 
 "Stripping off and away from Himself the prin- 
 cipalities and powers, He made a show of them 
 boldly, leading them in triumph in it." 
 
 The evil principalities and powers are here 
 meant of course, the same as in Ephesians VI. 12. 
 They seized on Christ's human nature, which, 
 though without sin, had infirmities, as we saw il- 
 lustrated in the wilderness temptation, and the 
 agony of Gethsemane as well as Calvary. But 
 His victory was complete, for the powers of evil 
 which had thus clung to Him were turned off and 
 cast away forever by His death and resurrection. 
 
 And yet there is a higher or, if you please, a 
 deeper view to be taken of this truth. The evil 
 principalities and powers attacked our Lord on 
 His spiritual side as well. 
 
 Satan did this in the wilderness, in seeking to 
 keep Him from the cross by offering Him "the 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 111 
 
 kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" if 
 he would fall down and worship him (Matthew 
 IV) . And the same temptation came to Him from 
 the same source at other times and in other ways. 
 When Peter sought to dissuade Him from going 
 up to Jerusalem to be killed was such a time (Mat- 
 thew XVI. 21), and when the Greeks desired to 
 see Him at the feast, and learning of it, He ex- 
 claimed, "Now is My soul troubled, and what shall 
 I say? Father, save me from this hour." John 
 XII. 27.) 
 
 But He was not rebellious, neither turned He 
 away backward. He set His face like a flint and 
 He knew that He should not be ashamed (Isa. L) . 
 He died, but He arose again. So pleasing to His 
 Father was the substitution of Himself for sin- 
 ners and so absolute and glorious His defeat of 
 the dire purposes of Satan, sin, death and all the 
 powers of darkness, that the cross itself became 
 the victor's car. 
 
 To quote Bishop Wilson in his Lectures on 
 Colossians, 
 
 "At the very moment when Satan and the Jews 
 conceived that they had accomplished their hellish 
 purpose; when Christ and His new religion seemed 
 crushed at a blow ; when the efforts of the evil one 
 which had succeeded against the first Adam ap- 
 peared to succeed against the Second Adam; when 
 the sun veiled in darkness might be thought to 
 symbolize the destruction of man's expectations 
 
112 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 of redemption excited during 4,000 years — at that 
 very instant, behold the triumph ! 
 
 "The law fulfilled; God's moral government 
 vindicated; death robbed of its prey; Satan de- 
 throned from his usurped position; principalities 
 and powers led in procession as captives, and a 
 show openly made of them before a rescued 
 world!" 
 
 Where, then, are the inventions and follies of 
 men? Where the worship of principalities and 
 powers? Do not spiritists see the peril of the 
 company they keep, and do not Christians rejoice 
 in the comfort and protection of that Mighty One 
 on Whom help has been laid, and under the 
 shadow of Whose wings they have come to trust? 
 
 K 
 
 In his first epistle to the Thessalonians (II. 18), 
 Paul charges the devil by name as the opposer of 
 his work, in a passage parallel to that of the in- 
 spired Chronicler u and Satan stood up against 
 Israel" (I Chron. XXI. 1). 
 
 The Apostle had endeavored to go back from 
 Athens to visit the afflicted brethren at Thessa- 
 lonica, "but Satan hindered us." The hindrance 
 exhibits itself to the reader of Acts 17 as the per- 
 secuting Jews, but the spiritually illumined Apostle 
 sees not "flesh and blood," but "the rulers of the 
 darkness of this world," Satan and the evil angels 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 113 
 
 whom he directs. He also was the tempter of 
 the Thessalonian Christians themselves, in whom, 
 because of their tribulation, there was danger that 
 Paul's labor might be in vain. 
 
 This leads up to the larger consideration of the 
 occult powers in the second epistle, where at the 
 second chapter, the writer is dealing with the apos- 
 tasy already at work in the Church, and the de- 
 velopment of that wicked or lawless one (the 
 Antichrist). 
 
 This being is identified as one 
 
 "Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all 
 power, and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivable- 
 ness of unrighteousness in them that are perishing because 
 they received not the love of the truth, that they might be 
 saved." 
 
 These "lying wonders" are so called, not be- 
 cause they are not real wonders which Satan and 
 his emissaries are able to do, but because they are 
 done in the interest of and to bolster up a lie. 
 Their seriousness lies in the fact that they are 
 wrought "with all deceit of unrighteousness." But 
 note that it is only "them that are perishing" 
 (R.V.) on whom the deceit works, them that have 
 "not the love of the truth that they might be 
 saved." 
 
 The "truth" means of course, the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, and as the present writer has sought to 
 show in his Antidote to Christian Science, there 
 
114 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 is a difference between receiving the truth and 
 receiving the love of it. A man who marries a 
 woman without loving her is soon seeking a di- 
 vorce, and he who knows the truth in his head, 
 but has never given it lodgment in his heart, is not 
 difficult to lead into error. 
 
 But the momentous feature of this is that, as 
 the subsequent verses in the chapter show, because 
 men receive not the love of the truth God sends 
 upon them as a judgment, a "working of error," 
 a "strong delusion that they should believe a lie." 
 It is not merely that God permits such a delusion 
 to come upon them, but that He sends it as the 
 mighty act of a Judge punishing evil by evil. 
 
 Not to believe the truth of the gospel is sin, and 
 not to receive the love of it after knowing it is 
 still deeper sin; but to be obliged to believe a lie 
 in consequence of it is retribution unspeakable. 
 The Greek in this case might be translated "THE 
 lie," as the idea is not merely a single lie, but the 
 entire force of lies, the entire element of the devil- 
 ish perversion of all truth (Auberlen in loco). 
 
 VI 
 
 The last of the Pauline utterances on the sub- 
 ject of which we shall now treat is in I Timothy 
 IV., and is distinguished from all the preceding 
 as a prediction of the increase of demoniacal influ- 
 ence in the latter days, upon which many students 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 115 
 
 of the Bible consider that we are now entering. 
 The passage is part of that which concludes the 
 preceding chapter, and we quote it with that con- 
 text: 
 
 "And, without controversy, great is the mystery of godli- 
 ness; God (or 'He, Who', R.V.) was manifest in the flesh, 
 justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gen- 
 tiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 
 
 "Now (or 'But', R.V.) the Spirit speaketh expressly that 
 in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
 heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons; 
 
 "Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared 
 with a hot iron; 
 
 "Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from 
 meats, which God hath created to be received with thanks- 
 giving of them which believe and know the truth." 
 
 The key to the interpretation of this remark- 
 able passage is the words, "depart from the faith." 
 The object, or more properly, the essence of the 
 faith is that great Mystery of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ spoken of in the first verse quoted, and 
 which is at once the source and the support of all 
 real godliness. 
 
 The departure from the faith, the apostasy as 
 it is described in II. Thessalonians 2, is to com- 
 mence with a waning faith in Christ, His Person 
 and His work, as set forth in the Scriptures. As 
 Pember says, "it is not necessarily a total denial 
 of Him, but it begins with incredulity as to the 
 miraculous circumstances of His past advent, and 
 so gradually obscures the only source and centre of 
 
116 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 every godly aspiration." In other words, it is pre- 
 cisely what we are witnessing today throughout 
 Christendom, and which furnishes a reason, in 
 part, for believing that these are the "latter 
 times." 
 
 The "latter times" do not mean the end of the 
 world by any means, but the end of the present 
 age, or dispensation, when God has been dealing 
 in grace with sinners, and offering them a free sal- 
 vation through His Son. 
 
 "The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter 
 times some shall depart from the faith." The 
 Holy Spirit is meant in this case, Who spoke ex- 
 pressly, or plainly, in the Old Testament prophets, 
 through Jesus Christ Himself, and also by Paul 
 (Daniel VII. 25; VIII. 23; Matthew XXIV. 11- 
 24; 2 Thess. II. 3). 
 
 What the Spirit says is that in the latter times 
 some will "depart from the faith giving heed to 
 seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." These 
 "spirits" would be working in and through the 
 heretical teachers, and their doctrine, or teaching, 
 would be that of demons, Satan's ministers. 
 
 They would speak "lies in hypocrisy" or through 
 the hypocrisy of lying teachers, the feigned sanc- 
 tity of the seducers or deceivers, "having their own 
 conscience seared." That is to say, "austerity 
 would gain for them a show of sanctity while 
 preaching false doctrine," they would professedly 
 be leading others to holiness while their own con- 
 
The Apostolic Epistles 117 
 
 science was defiled. It would be seared as witK 
 a hot iron, cauterized, the effect of which is to 
 produce insensibility. 
 
 In the words of Canon Faussett, "sensuality 
 leads to false spiritualism/' hence these hypocrit- 
 ical teachers would make moral perfection con- 
 sist in abstinence from outward things, chiefly two, 
 "forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain 
 from meats." 
 
 "From these last particulars," says Pember, 
 "many have endeavored to fasten this prophecy 
 upon the Church of Rome, because she forbids her 
 priests to marry, and has set apart days for fast- 
 ing. But Paul teaches that those of whom he 
 speaks would receive their doctrines from wander- 
 ing spirits, for the word "seducing" is capable of 
 that rendering (compare Job I. 7; II. 2; Matthew 
 
 XII. 43)-" 
 
 Moreover the prohibition of marriage in this 
 case is general, not limited to "priests" or Chris- 
 tian ministers, apparently an entire repudiation of 
 God's ordinance; while the command to abstain 
 from meats, likewise means a total, not an occa- 
 sional or periodical, abstinence from certain kinds 
 of food, of which more later on. 
 
 Meanwhile, a further remark of Canon Faus- 
 sett is pertinent, viz., that "Rome's Judaizing ele- 
 ments will ultimately be combined with the open, 
 worldly-wise anti-Christianity of the false prophet 
 or beast" (VI. 20, 21; Rev. XIII. 12-15). I n 
 
118 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 Spiritism instructing demons arc sometimes intro- 
 duced with flaming crosses in their hands, and its 
 doctrine of the seven spheres closely approaches 
 the Romish teaching about Purgatory. 
 
 Indeed Spiritism is nothing but a revival of the 
 influence which originated Paganism, while Ro- 
 manism as a system though it contains much truth, 
 is only Paganism under a veil, so that the ultimate 
 amalgamation of the two presents no insuperable 
 difficulty. 
 
 It remains to mention that Spiritism meets the 
 two-fold prediction, "forbidding to marry and 
 commanding to abstain from meats." It propa- 
 gates the first by the prohibition of marriage alto- 
 gether, and also by "strange doctrines of elective 
 affinities and spiritual alliances, which tend to an 
 utter rejection of marriage as ordained by God." 
 
 As to the second, it has always been recognized 
 that abstinence from a flesh diet is indispensable to 
 great mediumistic power, to say nothing of the 
 doctrine of transmigration of souls which, from 
 being a tenet of Theosophy, is now finding favor 
 with the Spiritistic school. 
 
 The limits of our pr.esent task forbid an en- 
 largement on these points, but the interested reader 
 is directed to Pember's Earth's Earliest Ages, 
 Spiritualism, Part III., and to the Bibliography 
 on the subject which he names. 
 
XI 
 TEACHING OF THE GENERAL EPISTLES 
 
 THERE is an added attraction to the study 
 of our subject in the General Epistles be- 
 cause they bring before us again, and from 
 a different point of view, the mystery of the fallen 
 angels dealt with earlier. 
 
 This is done in I Peter III. 19, which speaks of 
 Christ preaching to "the spirits in prison." At 
 that point the inspired writer is using the ex- 
 ample of Christ to encourage and comfort Christ- 
 ian believers in their suffering for righteousness 1 
 sake, saying: 
 
 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
 unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death as to 
 the flesh, but quickened as to the spirit: 
 
 "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in 
 prison." 
 
 The words "spirits in prison" have sometimes 
 been employed to teach the false doctrine of the 
 "second chance" or a probation after death. In 
 such cases the theory is advanced that Christ went 
 
 119 
 
120 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 into the place of the wicked dead and preached 
 the gospel to them giving them another opportunity 
 to believe and be saved. 
 
 If this were indeed the teaching of the passage, 
 every true Christian preacher surely, would wish to 
 proclaim it; but aside from the fact that it is taught 
 in no other place in the Bible it certainly is not 
 taught here. 
 
 For example, the Greek word for "preached" 
 in this instance is not that which the New Testa- 
 ment commonly employs for the preaching of the 
 Gospel, but a different word. It means to pro- 
 claim after the manner of a herald. Grimm, the 
 philologist, quoted by E. W. Bullinger, says that 
 the word is always used with a suggestion of for- 
 mality and an authority which must be listened to 
 and obeyed. 
 
 Moreover, if the subject of the proclamation is 
 not clearly implied in the context of this word 
 when it is used, then it must be distinctly stated if 
 we are to know what it is. That is to say, if it is 
 the proclamation of the Gospel that is intended, 
 then the word "Gospel" must be used to insure 
 that application, which is not the case here. 
 
 In the next place, the word "spirits" does not 
 apply to men. It is never so applied in the Bible 
 when it stands alone and without any qualifying 
 words, as it does here. A possible exception is 
 Hebrews XII. 23, but there it is expressly said 
 that "the spirits of just men" are meant, "the 
 
The General Epistles 121 
 
 spirits of just men made perfect." As Bullinger 
 says, "man was made, and up to the time of his 
 death he continues to be, a 'living soul'." It is so 
 also after death (Revelation VI. 9; XX. 4) and 
 until the resurrection, when the word "spirit" is 
 used as a brief term for man's spiritual body ( 1 
 Cor. XV. 45). 
 
 But the word "spirits" by itself and without any 
 qualifying description is used always of supernat- 
 ural beings, higher than man and lower than God. 
 When there is any doubt as to the kind of spirit 
 referred to, some defining word is employed like 
 "unclean spirits," "evil spirits," etc. The defining 
 words in this case are "spirits in prison," very evi- 
 dently therefore, evil spirits. 
 
 But do we inquire just what evil spirits are 
 meant, the nature of their offence and the time 
 of its perpetration? The information is furnished 
 in the next verse, where we are told that they 
 were those 
 
 "Which aforetime were disobedient, when once the long- 
 suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark 
 was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved 
 by water." 
 
 Very clearly this points back to the record in the 
 sixth chapter of Genesis, and recalls what was con- 
 sidered previously as to the fallen angels and the 
 "sons of God" marrying the "daughters of 
 men." 
 
122 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 There remains therefore only the inquiry as to 
 what it was that Christ went thus and proclaimed 
 to them in prison ? The answer to which is found 
 in the particular purpose of this epistle, which is 
 to comfort Christian believers under persecution 
 for righteousness 1 sake, and to encourage and 
 strengthen them in their witness bearing for Christ. 
 
 In other words, Peter is here using the example 
 of Christ in that connection. He suffered and died 
 as to His flesh, but He was quickened as to His 
 spirit, that is to say, He had a glorious resurrec- 
 tion in a spiritual body. And He had more than 
 this, He had a glorious triumph also ! God raised 
 Him from the dead and gave Him glory (I. 21). 
 
 So complete was this triumph, and so far-reach- 
 ing the proclamation of it, that it extended even 
 to the spirits in prison. He "spoiled principalities 
 and powers and made a show of them openly" 
 ( Col. II. 15). "And He is now gone into heaven, 
 and is on the right hand of God, angels and prin- 
 cipalities and powers being made subject unto 
 Him" (III. 22). 
 
 II 
 
 The thought is carried forward in Peter's second 1 
 epistle at chapter two. 
 
 False prophets are there being warned against 
 "whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not 
 and their damnation (or destruction) slumbereth 
 not." 
 
The General Epistles 123 
 
 "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
 down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to 
 be reserved unto judgment; 
 
 "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth 
 person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon 
 the world of the ungodly ; 
 
 "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes 
 condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample 
 unto those that after should live ungodly ; 
 
 "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation 
 of the wicked. 
 
 3|» *J* *J* 5f» 3f» «f» 
 
 "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of tempta- 
 tion, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be 
 punished : 
 
 "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of un- 
 cleanness, and despise government." 
 
 What angels are here referred to? Are they 
 those who fell with Satan anterior to the creation 
 of man, or those spoken of, as we before showed, 
 in Genesis VI, just prior to the flood? 
 
 If the former, why is not Satan mentioned with 
 them? As Kurtz remarks, "whenever else allusion 
 is made to the tempter and those who were asso- 
 ciated with him in his fall, mention is expressly 
 made of Satan, and for the most part, of him 
 only." 
 
 That it should be otherwise in this place is the 
 more remarkable because it is Peter's aim to show 
 that God punishes not only men who sin, like these 
 false prophets, but beings who are the most em- 
 inent in rank. If therefore he had in mind a 
 reference to the angels who fell at the first with 
 
124 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 Satan, would he not have named the latter, the 
 chief est and the leader of the apostates? 
 
 But to quote Fleming once more, a still stronger 
 argument that the angels before the flood are 
 meant, is found in the fact that they have been 
 "cast down to hell (Tartarus) and delivered into 
 chains of darkness to be reserved unto judg- 
 ment." 
 
 This is not the state of Satan and his angels 
 since the fall, for they are still permitted to move 
 through the world, and to tempt and overcome 
 those men who are not arrayed in the armor of 
 God (Job I. 7; Eph. V. 12; 1 Pet. V. 8). More- 
 over, as if to preclude all doubt upon the subject, 
 it is declared in Rev. XX. that Satan shall here- 
 after be chained, evidently therefore, he is not 
 chained now. 
 
 The argument might be pressed further; for 
 if the angels who sinned before the flood are not 
 meant, why the allusion to the flood and the sal- 
 vation of Noah in the next verse, the same as in 
 1 Pet. III. 19? 
 
 Nor should it escape the reader that there is 
 significance in the reference to Sodom and Gom- 
 orrah in verse 6, and "chiefly them that walk after 
 the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise 
 government," in verse 10. The correspondence 
 between these illustrations or examples and the 
 conduct of the angels before the flood is too strik- 
 ing to be overlooked. 
 
The General Epistles 125 
 
 in 
 
 The subject is continued in Jude verses 4-8, 
 which closely resemble those just quoted from 
 Peter, so closely indeed as to preclude "all idea of 
 entire independence. " Some commentators sup- 
 pose that Jude wrote the earlier of the two, and 
 that Peter copied from him, omitting or adding 
 under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as suited his 
 purpose. 
 
 However this may be, it is evident that both 
 writers refer to the same apostasy of angels, and 
 that it is the one identified as taking place just be- 
 fore the flood. 
 
 To the arguments above stated in proof of this, 
 might be added one founded on the use by New 
 Testament writers of the term "angels," which 
 word, when used by itself, is never employed to de- 
 note the spirits who fell at the beginning with 
 Satan. These are spoken of as "demons," just as 
 their head is spoken of as "the devil" or "Satan". 
 
 Kurtz, who uses this argument, admits that 
 there are some places which seem to contradict it, 
 but their critical examination proves otherwise. 
 It is his conclusion that "as the apostles have em- 
 ployed the naked term, neither they themselves in- 
 tended, nor would their first readers have been 
 likely to perceive, an allusion to the fall of Satan 
 and his angels." 
 
 A close exegesis of Jude confirms this opinion. 
 
126 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 His design was to guard believers against the cor- 
 rupt principles and the licentious practices of cer- 
 tain men whom he describes as u turning the grace 
 of God into lasciviousness," and, as one of the old 
 divines expresses it, "his whole discourse is point- 
 edly and especially directed against that particular 
 sin." 
 
 He therefore reminds them of the earlier in- 
 stances in which that sin had brought down divine 
 judgment. In the case of Israel for example, the 
 angels, inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and 
 those of the cities round about them. "In like 
 manner, " or "in like manner to these'' had they 
 given "themselves over to fornication going after 
 strange flesh. " 
 
 The phrase "in like manner," or "in like manner 
 to these" does not refer to the ungodly men nor 
 to Sodom and Gomorrah, as some have supposed, 
 but to the angels, for w r hich we have the strong 
 authority of Dean Alford, who says the manner of 
 the sin of these cities was similar, "because the 
 angels committed fornication w r ith another race 
 than themselves, thus also going after strange 
 flesh." He names several other Greek scholars 
 and Bible exegetes as holding the same view. 
 
 IV 
 
 We conclude this chapter with a reference to 
 I John IV. 1-3 : 
 
The General Epistles 127 
 
 "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether 
 they are of God : because many false prophets are gone out 
 into the world. 
 
 "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God : Every spirit that con- 
 f esseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : 
 
 "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is 
 come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of 
 antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and 
 even now already is it in the world." 
 
 It may be doubted whether the word "spirits" 
 in verse i has the objective application we have 
 heretofore given to it. That is, we are not sure 
 that John is now speaking of evil spirits, or de- 
 mons, with an independent existence from the ex- 
 perience or thought of the prophets, but rather of 
 the mental state, or the nature of the prophets 
 themselves. Or to express it in another way, it is 
 not a "familiar spirit" who controls the "medium" 
 that is here in mind, but the medium's own spirit. 
 
 And yet there is a close relation between the 
 two, and what the inspired apostle has to teach us 
 about the spirits of the "false prophets" is to the 
 point. 
 
 In Neander's expository lectures on this book, 
 he observes that the point of transition at chapter 
 four lies in what John had just said about the in- 
 fluence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christian 
 believers, an influence which is the pledge of con- 
 tinued fellowship with Christ. In John's day much 
 was falsely claimed to be from the Holy Spirit, just 
 as is the case today in the teaching of Spiritism, 
 
128 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 and hence the apostle directs attention to the dif- 
 ference between His operations and the deceptive 
 imitation of them. 
 
 Every spirit was not to be believed, but the 
 spirits were to be tried as to whether they were 
 of God. And the touchstone of the matter, the 
 criterion by which they were to be tried was the 
 Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Did these false spirits confess Him, i.e., did 
 they openly acknowledge and proclaim Him? Did 
 they confess Him as Jesus, the Christ? Not a 
 Christ, not one out of many, but the promised one 
 and the only one ? Did they confess Him as hav- 
 ing come in the flesh? Was He to them "the 
 Eternal Logos in His humanization? The Divine 
 Life-fountain letting itself down into human na- 
 ture and revealing itself in visible human form — 
 the Divine and the human in harmonious union?" 
 
 Note particularly the words, "is come" in verse 
 20. It is the Greek perfect, which implies not a 
 mere past historical fact, as would be the case 
 if another tense were used, but a present continu- 
 ance of the fact and its blessed effects. 
 
 "Is come in the flesh" or "clothed with flesh." 
 Christ's was not a mere seeming humanity, as some 
 have erroneously taught, but a real humanity. And 
 it is necessary to believe and confess this, in order 
 to express the truth of the atonement for sin. 
 Only by assuming our flesh could Christ die "the 
 just for the unjust," to bring us to God. "To deny 
 
The General Epistles 129 
 
 the reality of His flesh is to deny His love, and so 
 cast away the root which produces all true love on 
 the believer's part n (see verses 9-1 1 of this same 
 chapter). 
 
 Now every spirit that does not so confess Jesus 
 Christ is not of God, or as some authorities ren- 
 der verse 3, every spirit that "annulleth" Jesus 
 Christ is not of God. And that is just what Spirit- 
 ism does. It "annulleth" Jesus Christ, the Jesus 
 Christ of the Bible is Whom we mean. Spiritism 
 may speak of Jesus and of Christ, but it is not 
 "Him of whom Moses in the law, and the pro- 
 phets, did write" (John I. 45). 
 
 In proof of this, we referred in our first chap- 
 ter to Basil King's book, and now we would add 
 something from Sir A. Conan Doyle's, "The New 
 Revelation" : 
 
 "Let us look at the light we get from the spirit guides on 
 this question of Christianity," he says. "Opinion is not abso- 
 lutely uniform yonder any more than it is here, but reading a 
 number of messages upon this subject, they amount to this: 
 
 "That there are many higher spirits with our departed. 
 They vary in degree. Call them 'angels', and you are in touch 
 with the old religious thought. 
 
 "High above all these is the greatest spirit of whom they 
 have cognizance — not God, since God is so infinite that He is 
 not within their ken — but one who is nearer God and to that 
 extent represents God. This is the Christ-spirit. 
 
 "His special care is the earth. He came down upon it at 
 a time of great earthly depravity in order to give people the 
 lesson of an ideal life. Then he returned to his own high 
 station, having left an example which is still occasionally 
 followed. 
 
130 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 'That is the story of Christ as the spirits have described 
 it. There is nothing here of Atonement or Redemption. But 
 there is a perfectly feasible and reasonable scheme, which I 
 for one could readily believe." (Pp. 74, 75). 
 
 Observe that according to this teaching Christ 
 is not God, but only represents Him as being 
 nearer to Him than other spirits — the very error 
 with which Paul deals in his epistle to the Colos- 
 sians. 
 
 Observe also that Christ came down to the 
 earth not as a sacrifice for sin, in Spiritism there 
 is "nothing of atonement or redemption," but 
 simply as an example "to give people the lesson 
 of an ideal life." 
 
 "People can see no justice in a vicarious sacri- 
 fice, nor in a God Who could be placated by such 
 means," says Sir Arthur. "Never was there any 
 evidence for a fall. But if there were no fall, then 
 what became of the atonement, of redemption 
 from original sin, and of a large part of the Chris- 
 tian mystical philosophy? 
 
 "It is no uncommon thing to die for an idea," 
 he goes on to say. "Men die continually for their 
 convictions. Therefore the death of Christ, beauti- 
 ful as it is in the Gospel narrative, has assumed 
 an undue importance." 
 
 As to the life of Christ, Sir Arthur tells us it 
 was lived simply in order to afford men an ideal. 
 "Christ," he says, was "full of easy tolerance for 
 others." He occasionally lost His temper indeed, 
 
The General Epistles 131 
 
 but He was ever ready to sweep aside texts and 
 forms and "get at the spirit of religion" (p. 72). 
 What blasphemy ! 
 
 To the same purport, the transfiguration of 
 Christ, according to this same apostle of Spiritism, 
 was a "story of the materialization of the two 
 prophets upon the mountain"; and the three taber- 
 nacles suggested by Peter were three "cabinets," 
 in other words, "the ideal way of condensing 
 power and producing materializations" ! 
 
 Such is the attitude of the New Revelation 
 towards Christ, and the apostle John says that 
 "this is the spirit of Anti-Christ." The Anti- 
 Christ when he comes will be a person in human 
 flesh, a despot, political, ecclesiastical or both, who 
 will arise in Christendom, and whom men will 
 worship instead of God. But his spirit, the teach- 
 ing that prepares the way for his full development, 
 is already in the world, and Spiritism is an integral 
 part of it. 
 
 It is comforting indeed to hear John say further, 
 addressing true believers in the Lord: 
 
 "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: 
 because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the 
 world. 
 
 "They are of the world : therefore speak they of the world, 
 and the world heareth them. 
 
 "We are of God : he that knoweth God heareth us ; he that 
 is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of 
 truth, and the spirit of error." 
 
132 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 They that are of God are those who have con- 
 fessed Jesus Christ in the manner John has indi- 
 cated; and they have overcome the false prophets, 
 or the lying spirits, in that they have not been 
 brought into spiritual bondage by them. These 
 spirits are of the world, in harmony with its feel- 
 ings and opinions, therefore "the world heareth 
 them," runs after them, and fills the air with its 
 din. 
 
 But they that are of God heareth us; and here- 
 by, i.e., by their confessing or not confessing 
 Jesus Christ, know we the Spirit that comes from 
 God and teaches truth, and the spirit that comes 
 from Satan and is error. 
 
XII 
 TEACHING OF THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 IN another place the present writer has men- 
 tioned twenty-five reasons why u the man of 
 God," the true believer on Jesus Christ, should 
 read and study the Apocalypse, or the book of 
 Revelation, with avidity. 
 
 Among the reasons are these : ( i) , It describes 
 the judgments that shall be visited upon the earth 
 after the Church is translated; (2) it witnesses to 
 the deliverance of certain classes of people out 
 of those judgments; (3) it mentions particular 
 wonders which the Church and the world shall be- 
 hold in those days; (4) it traces the rise and de- 
 velopment of the anti-christ; (5) it predicts and 
 describes the battle of Armageddon; (6) it dem- 
 onstrates the overthrow of the present world sys- 
 tems; (7) it portrays the Second Coming of 
 Christ; (8) it reveals Satan's doom; (9) it gives 
 details of the last judgment; (10) it opens the 
 vista of the eternal age. 
 
 133 
 
134 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 The reader needs to make a distinction between 
 the end of the world and the end of the age. The 
 end of the world, which synchronizes with the last 
 judgment, is doubtless a long ways off. If the 
 writer's conception of the teaching of the prophets 
 is correct, a whole Millennium of peace and bless- 
 ing on the earth shall intervene before it takes 
 place. 
 
 On the other hand, the end of the present age 
 or dispensation may be very near. The Scofield 
 Reference Bible defines age or "dispensation" as u a 
 period of time during which man is tested in re- 
 spect to obedience to some specific revelation of 
 the will of God," and states that seven such dis- 
 pensations are distinguished in Scripture. 
 
 The present age or dispensation closes with the 
 Second Coming of Christ. (See the author's 
 Prophecy and the Lord's Return.) This event, 
 as we understand it, takes place in two stages, or 
 which may be represented by two scenes of a single 
 act. In the first, our Lord comes for His Church, 
 which is His mystical body (Ephesians I. 22, 23), 
 and which is translated to meet Him in the air 
 ( 1 Thess. IV. 16-18). In the second, He descends 
 out of the air into the earth, or to quote the pre- 
 cise words of Scripture, "He shall be revealed 
 from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming 
 fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, 
 and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ" (2 Thess. I. 7, 8). 
 
Teaching of the Apocalypse 135 
 
 The culmination of wickedness at the end of this 
 age, it is predicted, will be marked by an outburst 
 of demonism or spiritism just as at the culmination 
 of the ante-diluvian age. To such predictions the 
 attention of the reader has been called from time 
 to time and they approach a climax as we enter 
 on the study of the Apocalypse. 
 
 Prior to entering on that study however, it is 
 important to be persuaded that, as Pember puts 
 it, the great aim ofSatan in all the ages has not 
 been the spread of absolute skepticism, but the 
 subjugation of the world to demoniacal power. 
 His empire, in other # words, can not be completely 
 organized till men are as obedient to demons as 
 the latter are to the rebel principalities and pow- 
 ers, and these last again to their great prince. 
 "And so the denizens of darkness are not merely 
 stirring up an aimless revolt against God; but 
 would fain annex the whole of our world to their 
 orderly dominions." 
 
 Philip Mauro, in "The World and Its God," 
 puts it in another way, when he says that Satan's 
 plan is not the destruction or injury of the race, 
 but its well-being rather, that is, its well-being to 
 be achieved by the best possible results attainable 
 apart from God. He is doing his best, in other 
 words, not to drag men down, but to lift them up, 
 but according to his own standards and ideals, and 
 for the advancement of his own interests as op- 
 posed to God. 
 
136 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 Such being true, it may appear strange to read 
 of some things for which evil spirits are scheduled 
 in the history of mankind at the close of this age, 
 and in which Satan himself is to be engaged when 
 he learns that his time is short. 
 
 But the reason is that his time is short, and be- 
 cause he is tasting the bitterness of defeat. It is 
 because also of his malignity and his lack of scruple 
 in subjugating the victims of his will. Nor are 
 we to forget the plan and purpose of our right- 
 eous God, in using, or permitting the use, of these 
 wicked beings in retribution upon those who be- 
 ing reprobate, have "trodden under foot the Son 
 of God and done despite unto the Spirit of grace" 
 (Heb. X. 29). 
 
 II 
 
 Approaching the book of Revelation, we have 
 in the ninth chapter, beginning at the 13th verse, 
 an account of the sounding of the sixth trumpet 
 when the four angels are loosed "which are bound 
 at the great river Euphrates." These angels had 
 been "prepared for the hour, and day, and month 
 and year that they should kill the third part of 
 man," which seems to mean that they had been re- 
 served for a particularly appointed moment. 
 
 In other words, following Bullinger in The 
 Apocalypse, or The Day of the Lord, these 
 periods do not imply the duration of the judg- 
 
Teaching of the Apocalypse 137 
 
 ments; but point to the time when they shall take 
 place. There is but one article and one prepo- 
 sition between the four times named, which unites 
 them, whereas had they been repeated it would 
 have separated them and made a period of thir- 
 teen months. The very hour, of the very day, of 
 the very month, of the very year is thus appointed 
 by the Judge. 
 
 Bullinger also thinks that there can be no doubt 
 that these angels are of those described by Peter 
 and Jude as "delivered into chains of darkness, 
 to be reserved unto (or for) judgment." And 
 the judgment for which they have been reserved 
 he regards as that which takes place at the end 
 of this age. Not only are they themselves to be 
 judged, but they are to be the executors of God's 
 judgments upon wicked and unbelieving men. 
 These are the "spirits in prison," he believes, to 
 whom the Saviour proclaimed His triumph after 
 the resurrection (i Peter III. 19). 
 
 Why they were bound at the river Euphrates 
 we do not know, except that there may be some 
 connection between the abyss whence they arise 
 and wicked old Babylon, the mother of harlots 
 and abominations of the earth (Rev. XVII. 5). 
 Satan began his earlier activities in the earth in 
 that region, and there may be a reason for bring- 
 ing them to a climax in the same locality. (Com- 
 pare Jeremiah XLVL 4-10 R.V.) 
 
 Suddenly there appear upon the scene armies of 
 
138 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 horsemen, 200,000,000, from which it may be in- 
 ferred that they are not human beings but spirits, 
 for spirits are legion. In Isaiah XXXI. we have 
 a warning that the horses of Egypt in which Is- 
 rael would trust were "flesh and not spirit," which 
 leads to the supposition that there may be horses 
 that are spirit and not flesh. More than this con- 
 cerning them one is unable to say, but "when God 
 thus describes them nothing ought to be easier than 
 to believe what He says." 
 
 The Revelation goes on to say that by these 
 three plagues, "fire, smoke and brimstone" was 
 the third part of men killed, but that the rest of 
 the men who were not killed, "repented not of 
 the works of their hands, that they should not 
 worship demons, nor idols * * * which can 
 neither see, nor hear nor walk. 
 
 "Neither repented they of their murders, nor 
 of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor 
 of their thefts." 
 
 It is the final and full development of what is 
 called Spiritism which is here referred to, con- 
 tinues Bullinger, and which calls for the plague 
 of the Sixth Trumpet. "Sorceries of which men 
 did not repent," are the dealings of men with spirit 
 agencies. No wonder that God has so solemnly 
 warned us against them, and no wonder that such 
 awful judgments are to be visited upon them. 
 
 It is anticipating somewhat, but it may be well 
 to mention at this point that sorcerers shall have 
 
Teaching of the Apocalypse 139 
 
 their part in the lake that burneth with fire and 
 brimstone, and they shall never walk in the streets 
 of the golden city. (Rev. XXL 8 ; XXIL 15.) 
 
 in 
 
 The twelfth chapter of Revelation furnishes 
 our next illustration, which tells us at verse 7 that 
 "there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels 
 fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought 
 and his angels/' 
 
 There is more than one place spoken of as 
 heaven in Scripture. Perhaps as on earth there 
 are many countries and states, so, some think, 
 heaven may have its different spheres; and in 
 one of these mighty spiritual forces are here re- 
 vealed as set in battle array. 
 
 Michael, described elsewhere as "one of the 
 chief princes" and "the archangel," is also said 
 to be the prince which standeth for the Jewish 
 people, Israel among the nations (Dan. X. 13, 21 ; 
 XII. 1; Jude 9). In this action he takes the in- 
 itiative against the dragon, another name for 
 Satan, whose dominion covers all the powers and 
 governments of the world. 
 
 The time has now come in the Divine counsels 
 for the great historical event of the ages, and 
 Satan, who hitherto has had some kind of access 
 to the heavens (Job I. and II. ), is about to be 
 cast out, and u the kingdoms of the w r orld become 
 
140 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ, and 
 He shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation XL 
 
 15)- 
 
 But when Satan is thus cast down to the earth, 
 
 his angels are cast down with him, and they soon 
 cause men to feel the meaning of the awful utter- 
 ance that follows in the prophetic warning, "Woe 
 to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea for 
 the devil is come down unto you, having great 
 wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short 
 time." 
 
 Then not merely the demons, but the great an- 
 gels of darkness, the principalities, the powers, 
 and the spiritual rulers of the world maddened by 
 the thought that they have lost their fair realms 
 forever, and that the Lord is at hand to complete 
 their destruction, will in their rage break through 
 every restraint, and recklessly gratify their own 
 evil desires (Earth's Earliest Ages, p. 391). 
 
 IV 
 
 A single illustration further will suffice, and we 
 find it in the prediction of the battle of Armaged- 
 don in chapter XVI. beginning at verse 12. 
 
 "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon 
 the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof 
 was dried up, that the way of the kings of the 
 cast might be prepared." 
 
 This gathering of the kings of the east is in 
 
Teaching of the Apocalypse 141 
 
 order to the great battle in which the heavenly 
 and the Satanic and earthly forces are about to be 
 engaged, an infernal crusade against the Lord and 
 His Anointed (Psalm II). At the sounding of 
 the sixth trumpet we saw a vast supernatural army 
 let loose to slay a third part of men; but here a 
 vast human army is gathered together, the whole 
 of which, as the context shows, will be destroyed 
 by God. 
 
 East and West are to be reckoned from the 
 standpoint of the 'prophecy and not that of the 
 reader, which standpoint is Palestine and Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 "And I saw," says the revelator, "three unclean 
 spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the 
 dragon (Satan), and out of the mouth of the 
 beast (Antichrist), and out of the mouth of the 
 false prophet." ("For the further description and 
 identity of the false prophet, see chapter XIII. 
 11-18.) 
 
 "For they are the spirits of demons, working 
 miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the 
 earth and of the whole world, to gather them to 
 the battle of that great day of God Almighty." 
 (Compare 1 Kings XXII. 19-38; Joel III. 9-17.) 
 
 "And they gather them together to a place in 
 the Hebrew tongue Armageddon (or Har-Ma- 
 gadon)." The name means a Mount of Megiddo, 
 an eminence which rises up out of the plain Es- 
 draelon in northern Palestine, a natural battlefield, 
 
142 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels 
 
 where many a contest was fought in the history of 
 Israel; a chosen place of encampment in every con- 
 test, from Nebuchadnezzar to the recent march of 
 Allenby into Syria. Slaughter and lamentation 
 are associated with Megiddo (Zachariah XII. 
 n). In Isaiah X. 28, which describes the in- 
 vasion of Palestine by the Antichrist, the Septua- 
 gint version reads "Megiddo." 
 
 Having gathered the hosts of the enemy thither, 
 the sixth vial ends, but the description of the events 
 to take place there will be found in connection 
 with the pouring out of the 7th vial as found in 
 Chapter XIX. 11-18. 
 
 We conclude with the interjectional clause in 
 this vision, which comes in as a parenthesis. It 
 is the voice of Christ Himself, who, while the 
 demon spirits are gathering the kings and their 
 armies for the last great crisis of the age, exclaims: 
 
 "Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, 
 and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see 
 his shame." 
 
 The words are addressed not to the Church, 
 not to the true believers of this age, for, if our 
 interpretation of prophecy be correct, they will 
 ere this have been caught up to meet the Lord in 
 the air. They are addressed to those then dwell- 
 ing on the earth and passing through its tribula- 
 tion, but who have not worhsipped the beast 
 (Anti-christ) nor his image, and who have not 
 received his mark in the foreheads. 
 
Teaching of the Apocalypse 143 
 
 Christ does not come upon His ChurcH as a 
 thief. ( i Thess. V. 4; compare also Matt XXIV. 
 38-44; Luke XII. 35-40). To His Church He 
 comes as a welcome and expected guest ( 1 Cor. I. 
 7; Col. IV. 4; 1 Thess. I. 9, 10; 2 Tim. IV. 8; 
 Titus II. 13; Jas. V. 8; 1 Pet. V. 4; 1 Jno. III. 
 2, 3; Rev. XXII. 20). 
 
 "And now, little children, abide in Him; that, 
 when He shall appear we may have confidence, 
 and not be ashamed before Him at His coming" 
 (1 John II. 28). 
 
INDEX 
 
 "Abolishing of Death" 10. 
 Acts, Book of, 90-101. 
 Alford, Dean, 126. 
 Angels, good, 39-41 ; evil, 41- 
 
 Colossians, Epistle to, 109-112. 
 Conybeare and Howson, 90. 
 Cook, Miss, 20. 
 Corinthians, Epistle to, 102- 
 106. 
 45; called sons of God, 47- Crookes, Sir William, 19, 20, 
 52 ; corporeal form, 55 ; 37. 
 communication with men, 
 56; objections to interpret- D 
 
 ing Genesis VI of, 57-65 ; Daughters of men, 46-52. 
 104, 105 ; fallen, called de- Dead, return of the, 80-86. 
 mons in New Testament, Delphic oracle, 17, 18, 97. 
 
 Demonism, in Bible times, 34, 
 35, 42, 43 ; in recent times, 
 35, 36; Dr. F. B. Meyer on, 
 44, 45. 
 Deuteronomy XVIIL, 71-79. 
 Doyle, Sir A. Conan, 9, 22, 
 129, 130. 
 
 125. 
 Apocalypse, 133-143. 
 Armageddon, 36, 140, 141, 
 Auberlen, 114. 
 Augustine, 61. 
 Automatic writing, 68, 69. 
 
 B 
 
 Baal-worship, 86. 
 Bohme, Jacob, 16. 
 Books on Spiritism, inade- 
 quacy of, 9-13. 
 "Bowman, The," 22. 
 Brainerd, David, 18. 
 
 Eadie, Dr., 107. 
 
 "Earth's Earliest Ages," 61, 
 
 83, 118, 140. 
 Elymas the sorcerer, 95-97. 
 
 Bulhnger, Dr. ] , W., 120, 136, Endor> witch * of> 8] _ 86 
 
 Ephesians, Epistle to, 107, 109. 
 
 137, 138. 
 
 Campbell, Theodore, 61. 
 Canaanites, abominations of 
 
 the, 66-79. 
 "Celestial Prophets," 18. i 
 Christ, the Master Medium, 
 
 26, 92. 
 Christian Science, 13-15. 
 
 Ephesus, 100, 101. 
 
 "Fallen Angels and the 
 Heroes of Mythology/' 51, 
 54, 61. 
 Familiar spirit, 70, 80. 
 Faussett, Canon, 117. 
 "Christian Work, The," 14, 22. Fleming, Rev. John, 51, 53, 54, 
 Cicero, 18. 56, 58, 60, 104, 124. 
 
 Clagett, Rev. William H., 84- Fox family, 19. 
 85. Fraud, 20, 21, 36. 
 
 144 
 
Index 
 
 145 
 
 Galatians, Epistle to, 106, 
 
 107. 
 General Epistles, 119-132. 
 Genesis VI, 46, 54, 57, 66, 104, 
 
 121 123. 
 Gill, Dr. John, 52. 
 Gnosticism, 17. 
 Gordon, Dr. A. J., 14, 15. 
 Guyon, Madame, 16. 
 
 Homer, 17. 
 
 H 
 
 James, Professor William, 
 
 37. 
 Joan of Arc, 23, 25. 
 
 K 
 King, Basil, 9, 10, 129. 
 "King, Katie," 20. 
 Kitto, 54. 
 
 Kurtz, Dr. John Henry, 53, 
 56, 58, 64, 65, 104, 123, 125. 
 
 Lazarus, 81. 
 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, 106. 
 
 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 21, 22, 37. 
 
 Loves of the gods, 57. 
 
 Luther, 18. 
 
 Lying wonders, 113. 
 
 M 
 
 Maitland, 54, 104. 
 Manasseh, 87. 
 
 Materialization, 20, 21, 36, 86. 
 Meyer, Dr. F. B., 44. 
 Milton, 53, 64. 
 
 "Modern Craze of Spiritual- 
 ism/' 45. 
 Mons, 22, 25. 
 More, Dr. Henry, 61. 
 Moses and Elijah, 81. 
 
 N 
 Naaman, 86. 
 Nagelsbach, 64. 
 Nain, son of widow of, 81. 
 
 Neander, 127. 
 
 Nephilim, 51, 57, 66, 67. 
 
 Nevius, Dr., 35. 
 
 Newton, Benjamin Wills, 97. 
 
 Nicholson, Bishop, 110. 
 
 O 
 Ob or Ohv, 70. 
 
 Park hurst, 70. 
 Pember, 61, 68, 83, 117, 118, 
 135. 
 
 Personation, 80. 
 
 Philippian damsel, 37, 97-99. 
 
 "Physical Theory of Another 
 
 Life," 59. 
 Piper, Mrs., 20. 
 Psychical Research, Society 
 
 for, 9, 20. 
 Pythoness, 37, 70, 97. 
 
 R 
 Ramsay, Sir William, 90, 
 
 91, 94, 96. 
 Revelation, 133-143. 
 
 Samuel, 81-86. 
 
 Satan, 27-38; names, 28; ori- 
 gin, 28-30; nature and char- 
 acter, 30, 31 ; present loca- 
 tion and work, 31-33; spe- 
 cial manifestations today, 
 33-38; aim, 135. 
 
 Schofield, Dr. A. T, 98. 
 
 Shakers, 18. 
 
 Simon Magus, 93-95. 
 
 Society for Psychical Re- 
 search, 9, 20. 
 
 Sons of God, 46-55 ; Jewish 
 interpretation, 49-52 ; Church 
 interpretation, 52-55 ; mar- 
 rying the daughters of men, 
 57-65, 122. 
 
 Spiritism, books on, 9-13 ; bet- 
 ter term than spiritualism, 
 16, 17 ; from apostolic times 
 
146 
 
 Index 
 
 to Fox sisters, 17-19; scien- 
 tific epoch of, 19-21 ; cur- 
 rent revival of, 21-24 ; warn- 
 ing against, 24-26 ; Satan the 
 source of, 27, 36-38; certain 
 phenomena genuine, 36; be- 
 fore the Flood, 46-56; 
 among the Canaanites, 66- 
 75 ; in Israel and Judah, 
 80-89; in apostolic times, 
 90-101 ; in the Pauline epis- 
 tles, 102-118; prohibition of 
 marriage, 118; in the Gen- 
 eral Epistles, 119-132; in 
 the Apocalypse, 133-143. 
 
 Spirit marriages, 62, 63. 
 
 Spirit rapping, 18, 19. 
 
 Spirits in prison, 119-122. 
 
 Stanley, Dean, 104 
 
 Starke, 106. 
 
 Strabo, 17. 
 
 "Sunday School Times," 10, 
 33. 
 
 Swedenborg, 18, 25. 
 
 Tarkington, Booth, 9. 
 Taylor, Isaac, 59. 
 Theodoret, 17. 
 Theosophy, 35, 118. 
 Thessalonians, Epistle to, 112- 
 
 114. 
 Timothy, Epistles to, 114-118. 
 Tongues, speaking with, 35. 
 Torrey, Dr. R. A., 29. 
 
 Transfiguration, 80. 
 
 V 
 "Vital Choice: Endor or 
 Calvary/' 68. 
 
 W 
 
 Wallace, Alfred Russell, 
 
 37. 
 War and spiritism, 14, 21, 22. 
 Wesley family, 18. 
 Wilson, Bishop, 11. 
 Witch of Endor, 37. 
 Writing mediums, 68, 69. 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS 
 
 (The figures in parentheses refer to pages) 
 
 Ezekiel 1 :15, 22, 25, 26 (30) ; 
 28:11-18 (29, 30). 
 
 Genesis 1:1 (29) ; 1 :26 (104) ; 
 2:18, 23 (104); 3:1-6 (32); 
 3:16 (104); 4:26 (52, 55); 
 6:1-4 (46, 54, 57, 104, 123); 
 6:4 (66); 18:8 (39); 19:3 
 (39); 41:8 (68). 
 
 Exodus 19:8 (75); 22:18 J oel 3 :9 " 17 ( 141 > • 
 (69); 24:10, 17 (30); 37:9 Zechariah 
 
 Daniel 7:10 (40) ; 7:25 (116); 
 8:23 (116); 10:13 (40, 139) 
 10:21 (139); 12:1 (139). 
 
 (30). 
 
 Leviticus 20:27 (37, 69). 
 Numbers 13:33 (67). 
 Deuteronomy 5 :27 (76) ; 18 
 
 (17); 18:9-11 (71); 18:12- 
 
 14 (74); 18:15-19 (76); 
 
 32:17 (42). 
 Judges 23 (42,43). 
 I Samuel 16:14 (43); 28 (83). 
 
 I Kings 17-19 (86) ; 22 (86) ; 
 22:19-38 (141); 22:22 (42). 
 
 II Kings 5 (86) ; 19 :35 (40) ; 
 
 21 (87). 
 
 I Chronicles 21:1 (32, 112). 
 
 II Chronicles 22:9, 10 (88); 
 23:12, 13 (87). 
 
 Job 1, 2 (27, 139); 1:6, 7 
 (32); 1:7 (117, 124); 1:10- 
 12 (31); 2:2 (117); 2:7 
 (33). 
 
 Psalm 2 (141); 8:4, 5 (39); 
 68:17 (40); 90:10-12 (40); 
 103:20 (40). 
 
 Isaiah 8:19, 20 (22); 10:28 
 (142); 14:12-14 (29); 19- 
 
 22 (24); 31 (138); 50 
 (HI). 
 
 Jeremiah 2:19 (75); 46:4-10 
 (137). 
 
 3 (28) : 
 (142); 13:2 (89). 
 
 Matthew 4 (28, 32, 
 5:37 (31); " 
 31 (35) ; 
 8 :31 (44) : 
 
 12:11 
 
 147 
 
 ill); 
 
 7:22 (42) ; 8:28- 
 8:29 (43, 44); 
 10:1 (42); 12:22 
 (42); 12:24-26 (42); 12:26 
 27 (42); 12:43 (117); 13:19 
 (32); 16:21 (111); 17:15- 
 18 (42); 18:10 (40); 22:30 
 (57, 63); 24:11-24 (116); 
 24:24 (28, 31, 38); 24:36 
 (40); 24:38-44 (143); 25:41 
 (41, 42, 43); 26:53 (40); 
 28:52, 53 (81). 
 
 Mark 1:25, 34 (99); 5:7 
 (44); 5:13 (42); 9:43-48 
 (97). 
 
 Luke 1:19 (40); 7:21 (42); 
 8:12 (31); 8:30 (42); 8:31 
 (43); 9:1 (101); 9:30, 31 
 (80); 10:18 (29); 11:14-18 
 (31); 12:35-40 (143); 13:16 
 (32,33,42); 16 (25); 20:36 
 (39). 
 
 John 1:17 (72); 1:45 (129); 
 
 8:44 (31,42); 12:27 (111) ; 
 
 12:31 (31); 13:27 (28, 32). 
 Acts 3:19-26 (77); 5:3 (28); 
 
 8 (95); 8:5-24 (93); 10:38 
 
 (32, 33); 16 (97); 16:16 
 
148 
 
 Index of Texts 
 
 (42); 17 (112); 17:22 (34); 
 19:11 (100); 19:20 (101); 
 26:18 (31). 
 Romans 8:26 (109). 
 
 I Corinthians 1:7 (143); 2:15 
 (99); 7:37 (105); 10:20-22 
 (102) ; 11:9, 10 (103); 12- 
 
 14 (105); 12:4-6 (106); 
 12:7-11 (106); 12:12-31 
 (106); 13:1-13 (106); 14:1- 
 25 (106); 14:26-35 (106); 
 15:45 (122). 
 
 II Corinthians 2:11 (31); 4:4 
 (31,32); 11:14 (31); 11:14, 
 
 15 (32); 12:7 (32). 
 Galatians 4:20, 21 (106); 
 
 5:20, 21 (38). 
 Ephesians 1 :21 (40) ; 1 :22, 
 
 23 (134); 2:2 (29, 31) ; 
 
 3:9, 10 (40); 4:27 (32, 33); 
 
 5:12 (124); 6:10-12 (107); 
 
 6:11, 12 (31, 32, 41); 6:12 
 
 (42, 110). 
 Philippians 4 :6, 7 (78). 
 Colossians 1:16 (41); 2:13-15 
 
 (110); 2:15 (122); 3:22 
 
 (122); 4:4 (143). 
 
 I Thessalonians 1 :9, 10 (143) ; 
 2:18 (28, 112); 4:16-18 
 (134); 4:17 (40); 5:4 
 (143). 
 
 II Thessalonians 1 :7 (40) ; 
 1:7, 8 (134); 2 (115); 2:3 
 (116); 2:5, 6 (105); 2:8 
 (30); 2:8-10 (28); 2:9 
 (31); 2:9, 10 (113). 
 
 I Timothy 3 :6 (30) ; 3 :6, 7 
 (42); 3:7 (32); 3:16-4:3 
 (115); 4:1 (42); 6:20, 21 
 (117). 
 
 II Timothy 2:26 (44); 4:8 
 
 (143). 
 Titus 2:13 (143). 
 Hebrews 1:7, 8 (39); 2:14 
 
 (32); 10:29 (136); 12:19 
 
 (76); 12:23 (121). 
 James 1:14 (33); 2:19 (94); 
 
 4:7 (31, 33); 5:8 (143). 
 
 I Peter 1:10, 11 (78); 1:12 
 (56); 2:12 (92); 3:6 y 10, 
 
 19 (124); 3:19 (119, 137); 
 3:20 (121); 5:4 (143); 5:8 
 (28, 29, 32, 33, 124). 
 
 II Peter 2:4 (41, 42, 104); 
 2:4-7, 9, 10 (123); 2:10-12 
 (42). 
 
 I John 2:28 (143); 3:2, 3 
 (143); 3:8 (31); 4:1-3 
 (126); 4:3 (129); 4:4-6 
 (131); 4:9-11 (129); 5:19 
 (31). 
 
 Jude (4-8 (125); 6 (104); 
 6, 7 (42); 8, 9 (31); 9 
 (139). 
 
 Revelation 3:9 (32); 5:11 
 (40); 6:9 (121); 9:1-11 
 (43); 9:13 (136); 9:21 
 (38); 11:15 (140); 12:7 
 (139); 12:7-9 (43); 12:9 
 (27, 32, 41); 12:9, 10 (30); 
 13:1, 2 (28); 13:9, 10 (32); 
 13:11-15 (59); 13:11-18 
 (141); 13:12-15 (117); 
 16:12 (140); 16:13, 14 (43, 
 59, 141) ; 16:14 (36, 38); 
 16:15 (142); 16:16 (141); 
 17:5 (137); 18:23 (38); 
 19:11-18 (142); 19:20 (30); 
 
 20 (124); 20:2 (27); 20:4 
 (121); 21:8 (38); 21:10-21 
 (29); 22:20 (143). 
 
 
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