Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

INTRODUCTION. 31Runs to each avcnuo, and shrieks for help;But shrieks in vain ! IIow wishfully she looksOn nil she's leaving, now no longer hersA little longer; yet a little longer;Oh ! might she stay to wash away her stains;And fit her for her passage! Mournful sight!Her very ej'cs weep blood, and every groauShe heaves is big with horror. But the foe,Like a stanch murderer, steady to his purpose,Pursues her close, through every lane of life,Nor misses once the track ; but presses on,Till forced at last to the tremendous verge,At once she sinks to everlasting ruin."95. But I conceive that the existence of a devil is irreconcilable withall goodness and omnipotency ;and that, were a devil created by God, theCreator would be answerable for all the acts of the being so created.Evidently,the devil could be nothing else but what omnipotence should makehim, and could do nothing but what prescience would foresee. The actsof the devil would therefore be indirectly those of his maker.96. I would inquire of those who rely on the Bible as the source oftheir opinions, how it happens that Moses makes no allusion to Satan asan agent in the events of which he is the narrator ?97. Though Milton represents that malevolent being as taking the formof the serpent, Moses, far from sanctioning that idea, makes not only theindividual snake, but the whole genus forever amenable for the partperformed.98. In his description of hell, Josephus represents an archangel as thejanitor, which is quite inconsistent with Satan's being the jailor. Is itconceivable that an archangel should be doorkeeper to the devil ?99. Moreover, in stating the reasons why the doom of the rich man(broiling to eternity) was irremediable, no allusion is made to the Satanicdespot whose inexorable malevolence would have had to be counteracted.100. It would seem to be an axiom, that whenever any event does nottake place, it must be because there is no being who has at once the j^oiverand the ivish to cause it to happen ; and when any event does ensue, therecan exist no being having at once the poicer and icish to prevent it fromhappening.Moreover, consistently, no agent can exist whose destructionis desired by another being, who, having the right, is competent by merevolition to destroy that agent.101. It follows, that if there actually docs exist any being, such as isdesignated by the words Devil, Satan, Beehehuh, to treat him as the creatureof God, would be inconsistent either with the attribute of all goodnessor of omnipotence.102. Can any act be more devilish than that of creating a devil ? "Wouldit not be blasphemous to ascribe to a beneficent Deity a measure so truly