enough to abandon a creed when profit is to be made by the adoption of its rival. Our Royal Elizabeth and James were very particular about the creed of their subjects, yet they had not hesitated about changing their own, or professing to do so. Thus, this princess may have changed her faith, as I think is highly probable, because, in fact, there was very little to change. To the poor, ignorant Egyptian it would seem a great matter to abandon all his Gods, but his educated countrymen were not kept so ignorant of the deeper mysteries which Moses had learnt. They found in the Hebrew system little more than in their own; its festivals, order of priests, temples, processions, arks, tabernacles, &c., were all the same, and hence the Egyptian princess could have "changed her faith" without doing a tithe of the violence which is done to the conscience or professions of modern royal brides under similar circumstances. Of the splendour of this marriage we know nothing, but there is a fragment of poetry belonging to it which is worthy of your notice. It is called the forty-fifth Psalm, and is spoken of by many as being one of the "sweet revelations of a coming Saviour." It is extraordinary what an amount of nonsense has been written upon this Psalm, for, like the Song of Solomon, it is considered to be a spiritual poem, and that, too, in defiance of so many sentences which negative the theory. In our authorised version it bears the inscription, "To the Chief "Musician upon Shoshannim, for the Sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of Loves." Calmet believes that "Shoshannim" signifies an instrument of six strings, or a r song of rejoicing." The latter can hardly be true, because the same term is used in other places where rejoicing is not meant, and thus it most probably relates to the stringed instrument employed. The best commentators agree in treating the Psalm as an epithalamium, and it needs only to be read attentively to satisfy all parties how true is that conclusion :-- "1. My heart boils up with goodly matter. I ponder; and my verse concerns the King. 3. Gird at thy hip thy hero-sword, And forth victorious ride majestic, For truth and meekness, righteously; And let thy right hand teach thee wondrous deeds. Beneath thy feet the peoples fall; For in the heart of the king's enemies Sharp are thy arrows. 4. Thy throne divine ever and always stands : Therefore hath God, thy God anointed thee From ivory palaces the viols gladden thee. King's daughters count among thy favourites; 5. O daughter, hark! behold! and bend thy ear: 6. Right glorious is the royal damsel: In broider'd tissues to the King she is led : Her maiden-friends, behind, are brought to thee. They enter the royal palace. 7. Thy fathers by thy sons shall be replaced; As princes o'er the land shalt thou exalt them. So will I publish to all times thy name; So shall the nations praise thee, now and always."* "And The marriage over, Solomon undertook to sacrifice to God at Gibeon: "the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a "thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar." Is it not curious that another breach of the law should be so soon committed? Solomon goes to Gibeon, and sacrificed, not only without being reproved, but with approbation; but when Saul sacrificed, although he had waited several days for Samuel, and his subjects were becoming faint-hearted, he was branded as disobedient to God for daring to offer his burnt sacrifice. That lost him the confidence of the people, for Samuel, in the true priestly spirit, turned against him. Are we to believe that God had anything to do with that contradiction, or shall we say that Samuel had no successor to assert the same principle, and to raise the priesthood above royalty? To my thinking, it is clear enough, that when Solomon went forth to Gibeon te sacrifice, he was merely doing as all the other kings of the East had done, for he knew nothing of Moses, and knew only of the kingdom David had established. But here we touch upon that "grand and solemn event" in the life of Solomon which is presumed by the orthodox theologians to be the most remarkable in his whole career, and as furnishing the evidence of his wisdom being such as to transcend the wisdom of all others who have been distinguished among mankind. All that skill in rhetoric could do towards impressing us with a sense of the importance of this occurrence has been done, and were I merely to enumerate the essays and sermons directed to that single end, the entire of the time at my disposal this evening would be exhausted. The event I allude to is his asking God to endow him with wisdom, which is thus related:" In Gibeon the Lord appeared to "Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And "Solomon said, Thou hast shown unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness "of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou "hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day." It is, of course, perfectly natural that a son should say the best he could for his father; no man, in modern times, however earnest he may be in declaiming against the popular theory about the piety and purity of King David, thinks of denouncing Solomon for saying the best he could of his own parent; but still there is something peculiarly painful in reading passages of this character. If the Church were candid enough to confess that all these narratives are of human origin, the same difficulty would not be felt, for, in that case, there would be no very grave objection to the language that orthodox men could not get over The freer mind, however, would still be pained by the fact that Solomon could utter such sayings, feeling, as he must have done, that they were not true. No man would justify the son of Mullins, the murderer, going down upon his knees, and saying to God that his father had walked in truth and righteousness. If he were to do it publicly in any church or chapel in the land, it would be accounted blasphemy. Neither could we marvel at the feeling called forth against such an abuse of language. (To be continued.) * Newman's Hebrew Monarchy, p. 126. +1 Kings iii. 4. Ibid. iii. 5, 6. LONDON: PUBLIshed by M. Pattie, 31, Paternoster Row, and George GLAISHER, 470, New Oxford Street. Printed by W. Ostell, Hart-street, Bloomsbury. THE PATHFINDER, A JOURNAL OF PURE THEISM AND RELIGIOUS FREETHOUGHT, THE ORGAN OF INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS REFORM. CONDUCTED BY P. W. PERFITT. No. 112. New Series, No. 9. " OF SATAN" AS A POWER IN THE UNIVERSE. IN modern days we have so many real evils to contend against that it is almost criminal, if not wholly so, to spend time beating the air and arguing about evils which have no existence save in imagination. There are, however, some exceptions to be made. To discuss the popular theory about the "fallen angels and the "power of Satan is one of them; and, indeed, although the entire theory may be untrue, its influence is mighty, and it operates most powerfully to retard the progress of mankind. And is it not necessary to consider the question whether the "Christian "Godhead" contains four or only three persons? The Creeds declare in very precise terms that there are but three persons who make one God; but immediately they go on, although in another form, to demonstrate that there are four-God, the Father; God, the Son; God, the Holy Ghost; and God, the Devil; and, accepting the narratives they furnish, it is difficult to perceive any other meaning than this-that "God, the Devil," is considered to be, practically, the most powerful of the four. This is not said in satire, but in sorrow; it is not intended to discuss the subject in a mocking vein, but with all seriousness; neither do we aim at furnishing food for merriment, for, to our mind, the theme is one of the most painful which it is possible for any man to broach. And that it should need discussion in an enlightened age will be held by many to be a sufficient proof that the boasted enlightenment is not so much mental and religious as it is physical and commercial. Accepting the orthodox narratives of the Creation, with the early history of the world and its inhabitants, is it possible to account for the events of time without presupposing the existence of some Spiritual Power who has operated in such ways as to produce the various evils which have afflicted mankind? And if the existence of such a Being be recognised, then, must it not also be acknowledged, that he exerts far more influence over the destiny of men and nations than has ever been exerted by the Being commonly called God? If such questions be proposed to an orthodox man, he shrinks back from them with a feeling akin to horror. Whatever there may be painful about such inquiries, however, belongs not to the questions proposed, but to the popular theology, which compels men to think; although, through terror of what will be said, they may hold their peace about their thoughts. VOL. V. NEW SERIES. VOL. I. K It is from that system we learn that the Devil is the most powerful Being in the Universe. True it is, that its expounders will not state the proposition in the form we have given it, and if called upon to express their ideas, they would declare against it; yet, as a fundamental principle, the teaching furnished by them necessarily involves it. As a general truth, nothing can be clearer than that many of them rely upon it for their success. Were it not for the character they give to the Devil, and the stories they tell of his doings and power, many of them would be speedily ruined. He who cannot fill his church through dwelling upon the Majesty and Wisdom of God attains his object by dwelling upon the malignity and fierceness of the Devil; and if a congregation cannot be held together by the bond of love for God and goodness, they are kept from scattering through their fear of the Devil and his schemes of torture. More churches are filled through the fear of Hell than the love of Heaven. Not the wondrous works of God, but the fire and brimstone of Satan, are dwelt upon, and hence comes success. And the poorest in intellect can thus win support from those who otherwise would despise them; but when such men have filled the souls of their hearers with this sort of trash, how much better have they made them? It is a poor affair when men become religious, not through loving the Infinite Good, but through fearing being broiled by the Infinite Evil. Such a religion, based as it must be upon cowardice and selfishness, will not pass muster in the kingdom where the good and the true rest from their labours. The theory of our Churches, when stripped of the idle modifications and apologies, is the most astonishing product of time. None of the Buddhists, Parsees, or Tartars, although well-skilled in such matters, are able to produce a scheme equal to this of Christendom. Taken in all plainness, the theory stands thus: Originally, God was surrounded by countless millions of pure unsullied spiritual beings who ministered unto and glorified Him, and dwelt in seats of blessedness and abodes of peace. He had created them pure and holy, and as the ages rolled away there was neither sin nor the thought of sin; but, unhappily, the sinful thought and the wicked deed eventually came into being, and the blessed peace was broken. The spirit of ambition stirred in the breast of the chief among the spirits, who, resolving to usurp the supreme power, took many angelic spirits into his confidence, and eventually formed an immense party-a third of the angels joined him, and held themselves ready to promote his aims. In consequence of this there was a war in heaven, "which hung long doubtful," but eventually Satan, with the "wicked ones" who had adopted his cause, were cast out and plunged into a lake of fire and brimstone; which, in a miraculous manner, is intended to burn through all ages. The fall from heaven of Satan is supposed to be confirmed by the words of Jesus:-"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven;"* and of his companions by the passage in Jude:-"And the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting "chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of that great day."+ There are passages in "The Book of Revelation" which are supposed to confirm this view. Heaven having been so considerably depopulated, and the ranks of its ministering spirits so fearfully thinned through this revolt, Jehovah resolved upon creating a race of human beings who, in time, should grow up into powers * Luke x. 18. Jude, 6. Revelation of St. John, xii, 7-13. capable of filling the heavenly voids; to that end He began to clothe our earth with objects of beauty and usefulness. He created the various tribes of animated nature, and finally made man and woman, having previously prepared a garden of beauty in which to place them. He bade them increase and multiply and replenish the earth; gave them dominion over it, and then retired to gaze in love and tenderness upon all that which He had made. All things were for His glory; but man especially, the very crown of creation, was conceived as redounding to the glory and honour of His designing mind. All His works were fair; He pronounced them to be good, and intended they should continue to show forth His goodness and love, without either suffering pain or being subject to change and disaster. Such is the common theory of Creation. And now we must glance at the person and the process through which, according to the same theory, the Supreme was baulked in His designs. While the work of creation was proceeding, the Mighty One who had fallen was watching the process and wondering at the forms produced. Eventually, when the whole had been completed, and man stood forth clothed with reason and endowed with speech, the Arch-Deceiver perceived that the aim of his creation was to fill the void himself had made in the heavenly ranks, and resolved to defeat the plan. Pondering upon how this was to be achieved, he visited the new-born world, heard the new-made pair conversing, and saw they were weak enough to be seduced into disobeying their Maker. He perceived they had not been constituted with sufficient strength to resist the temptations to which he could expose them. When the trial was made, his conclusions proved to be quite correct; for the woman ate of the fruit of a tree which she had been forbidden to touch, and then gave unto the man, who also ate of it; after which their eyes were opened, and they saw their true condition. This act of disobedience was speedily discovered by their Maker, who cursed the deluding Spirit; but, although punishing the man and woman, He promised that when ages had elapsed He would send One who should have power to save some of their deluded descendants. The new creatures thus fell from the state of purity into the condition of sinners, so that their Maker could no longer love or treat them with respect; and from that hour Satan gained a firm hold of the mind and heart of the race which had been expressly created to defeat his purposes. The human family grew in number, and grew equally in sin; so that, when but a few centuries had passed away, the Infinite was compelled to drown the world and blot out the human race; saving only one pious man, Noah, and his family. But here again the Evil One gained a victory, for this pious man gave way to his appetite and was drunken. Ages passed, still sin increased, and the Infinite resolved to select one family from which to produce a faithful, pious nation; but when it had been established, instead of exhibiting the spirit of obedience, it rebelled and became even more perverse than those which had not been specially raised up and instructed. the Evil One had not only succeeded in destroying the peace of Heaven with the earliest hope of the new race, but had also won over to his purposes every one whom God had specially appointed to work on the side of goodness, and to produce the fruits of obedience and piety. We shall return to and complete our investigation of this subject. Thus |