Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/217

Rh as “dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God deceitfully.” The Hebrew embodies the term “devil” In another term, serpent, — which the senses are supposed to take in, — and then defines this serpent as “more subtle than all the beasts of the field.” Subsequently, the ancients changed the meaning of the term, to their sense, and then the serpent became a symbol of wisdom.

The Scripture in John, sixth chapter and seventieth verse, refers to a wicked man as the devil: “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” According to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is more than one devil. In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty-eighth verse, it reads: “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name.” Here is an assertion indicating the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth, casts out. By no possible interpretation can this passage mean several individuals cast out of another individual no bigger than themselves. The term, being here employed in its plural number, destroys all consistent supposition of the existence of one personal devil. Again, our text refers to the devil as dumb; but the original devil was a great talker, and was supposed to have out-talked even Truth, and carried the question with Eve. Also, the original texts define him as an “accuser,” a “calumniator,” which would be impossible if he were speechless. These two opposite characters ascribed to him could only be possible as evil beliefs, as different phases of sin or disease made manifest.

Let us obey St. Paul's injunction to reject fables, and accept the Scriptures in their broader, more spiritual