The Devil - A Lecture #268576

A little while ago I delivered a lecture on Super stition, in which, among other things, I said that the Christian world could not deny the existence of the Devil; that the Devil was really the keystone of the arch, and that to take him away was to destroy the entire system. A great many clergymen answered or criticised this statement. Some of these ministers avowed their belief in the existence of his Satanic Majesty, while others actually denied his existence but some, without stating their ovvn position, said that others believed, not in the existence of a personal devil, but in the personification Of evil, and that all references to the Devil in the Scrip tures could be explained on the hypothesis that the Devil thus alluded to was simply a personification of (evil. When I read these answers I thought of this line from Heine: Christ rode on an ass, but now asses ride on Christ. Now, the questions are, first, whether the Devil does really exist; second, whether the sacred Scriptures teach the existence Of the Devil and of unclean spirits and, third, whether this belief in devils is a necessary part of what is known as orthodox Christianity.