MODERN SERMONISING.
Mr. Editor:
It is not often that I enjoy an opportunity of sitting under the pulpit ministrations of “this Reformation.” On the 5th Lord’s day afternoon of February, however, I listened to a discourse pronounced at the “Reform church” in our village by “Elder Jas. W. Goss.” The reputation of Mr. G. as a florid declaimer had drawn together an audience sufficient to fill two-thirds of the building. What do you think was the topic of the discourse to which he treated his hearers? You would hardly guess in a century—it was “the personality, the origin, nature and character of—the Devil!” Verily “this Reformation” must be “waxing old and ready to vanish away.” Only think of it! Nearly two hours devoted to an eloquent sketch of his Satanic majesty, during which the audience were gravely assured that it was a matter of the greatest importance that they should have right views of the Devil, and that it was rank infidelity not to admit his personal attributes, accomplishments, &c., and the address closed by the formal announcement, as if the “roaring lion” had not been quite fairly caged, that the subject would be resumed at night.
As the congregation dispersed I could not forbear remarking to a friend, who demanded my opinion of this “gospel discourse,” that we had often heard that faith in Christ was an indispensable condition of our salvation, but that I thought our orator deserved a medal as the first discoverer of the doctrine that faith in the Devil was equally important, for so, in effect, he had affirmed. In my simplicity I had supposed that the less we knew of the Devil the better, seeing that Christians are commanded to be “wise concerning that which is good, and simple concerning that which is evil.” Oh! the times! the manners! How many discourses do you suppose Paul ever preached on “the personality of the Devil?” What a pity that Luke, in his “Acts,” or the apostle himself, in his copious writings, has never told us! Perhaps he thought we would be satisfied—whatever we might think of the “personal” character of the Old Serpent—with the assurance he gives us, in Hebrews 2: 14-15, that Jesus will “destroy him that hath the power of death, THAT IS, THE DEVIL, and deliver them who thro’ fear of death were all their life subject to bondage.”
But to be serious, what solemn trifling is all this “speculation”—these “untaught questions?” the people are perishing for lack of knowledge of God’s Word—of the gospel of the kingdom—of the glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people—and these “apostolic and primitive Christians,” as they style themselves, can find nothing better to lay before them than dry disquisitions and barren conceits about the “personality of the Devil.” Surely such facts, of daily occurrence, afford certain proof that we are “in the latter times”—for (see 1 Timothy 4) here “the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of (or concerning) Devils,” &c. Certainly, if the Adversary be the sagacious being he has the credit for, he could not be better pleased than to have the people of God absorbed in the important enterprise of showing him up in odious colours, and thus silencing the apostolic proclamation of “Christ Jesus and him crucified.”
I hope Mr. Goss will remember this the next time he indulges his taste for “speculations.”
A. B. MAGRUDER.
Charlottesville.
