that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. They twain were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came out of His mouth and all the birds were filled with their flesh." (Rev. xix. 1-8, II-21.)

"And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the monster, the old Nachash, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time.

"And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

"And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life he was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. xx. 1-4, 7-15.)

Well is it written: 66

Through envy of the devil came death into the world; and they that do hold of his side

do find it."

Thus have I endeavoured to trace through Scripture the origin and destiny of Satan, and it is humbly submitted that this solution, though very awful, is more scientific and more in accordance with the revelation of Almighty love and justice than the commonly accepted theories. It does not lessen the responsibility of mankind, but it does acknowledge sin to be a heinous power without us, as well as a foul disease within us, which can only be kept from our doors by the blood of the Paschal Lamb.

There is nothing pessimistic about it, for only those who choose Satan for their master will partake of his punishment, and we have the assured hope that the protracted patience of the All-Good will be crowned with eternal victory over sin and Satan!

The Seduction of the Eve.

Genesis iii.

Having thus fathomed the depth of the evil one, it is time to return to the garden of Eden. Forth, alone, in her lovely innocence, the mistress of the garden, all unconscious of her beauty, wended her way, and found herself in the presence of the fascinating Nachash. Accosting her, the Nachash cunningly puts to her a question which insinuates that God had needlessly restricted them in the pleasures of the palate. It is to be noted that the Nachash includes her husband in the restriction, and by putting a question has the gratification of hearing the voice of the Eve, as well as gloating on her beauty. Then, too, the question itself is con

trary to loyal faith and gratitude, and carries along with it the secret seeds of distrust and discontent. The parental prohibitions had, moreover, been conveyed to the Eve through her husband, and she probably had his word for it, and not the voice of the Lord God Himself. All these circumstances placed the woman at a disadvantage, and her husband was not by to corroborate the statement; indeed the Adam, as the keeper of the garden, and knowing that there was such a thing as evil, should have kept closer to the Eve during the early days of their honeymoon. However, her answer is given in all sincerity and so full of the truth that the Nachash is obliged to meet it by a direct lie and a blasphemous slander of their loving Creator. Prayer for parental protection could alone have saved the Eve then; but it is to be feared that, mesmerised by the eyes of the Nachash and gluttonous greed of the tree, she lost at the same time her faithful obedience and her chastity, and on handing the forbidden fruit to her husband, instead of refusing and praying for her, he partook of the same. The winsome unconsciousness and beauteous strength of virgin purity was theirs no longer. In the unprudish words of Holy Writ, "the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." I venture to think that the expression, "their eyes were opened," alludes to the lifting of the veil which hides the unseen. A cordon of good angelic spirits had, doubtless unseen by them, guarded them during their state of purity; but no sooner had they tasted

of the fruit than, with averted faces, these angelic guards left them, and their places were taken by evil spirits, whose lustful gaze met their astonished eyes, and made them self-conscious and ashamed of their nakedness. That such an interpretation is not far-fetched may, I think, the better appear by citing other portions of Scripture where the like expression is used; for instance, compare Gen. xxi. 19; 2 Kings vi. 18-21; Numbers xxii. 31; xxiv. 4, 16; 1 Sam. xiv. 27; Acts ix. 8; St. Luke xxiv. 31.

THE EFFECTS OF EATING THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT.

Genesis iii.

The holy fear of the Lord God is changed into terror, and the married pair try and hide themselves. It is the man who is first held responsible by the Lord God, and he unchivalrously shifts the blame on to the shoulders of the woman, and turns almost to reproach his Maker for having given her to him, instead of reproaching himself for having left his lovely bride alone so long. The woman then, charged, briefly, blames the Nachash.

THE DIVINE SENTENCE ON THE NACHASH.

The Nachash is the first to have sentence passed upon him, and he is treated as an intelligent and responsible agent; and the terrible curse which was inflicted upon him would seem to point to his being the head of the animal kingdom, and to his having involved the whole of that kingdom in his curse. The next part of the sentence I take to mean that, instead of being erect and eating of the fruit of trees he was organically cursed, and made to go upon

all-fours, and his sustenance for the future would be roots from the dust of the earth. Thus degraded, he would lose all the fascination of his former self. It is a remarkable coincidence that the only animal extant that would seem to have been physically transformed is the ape species with its four hands. The habits of these animals are singularly cunning and uncleanly in the consumption of their food; they must swallow more dust than most creatures. The next part of the sentence seems to be almost awfully significant, as though previous to the curse there was an attraction about the Nachash which, by the curse of the Creator Himself, should be turned to aversion. It would seem as though, by the curse, the erect, conversing, cunning Nachash would become a uminating, dumb, and mimetic creature. This erity should exist in perpetuity until the seed of the woman should succeed in inflicting a fatal blow on the head of the Nachash. It is impossible not to conclude that this victory should extend to the extermination of the evil one, who had used the body of the Nachash for his own vile purposes.

THE DIVINE SENTENCE ON THE WOMAN.

We now come to the sentence on the woman. The reader cannot fail to be struck with its significance. The justice of the Lord God had foretold that the punishment for disobedience in eating of the tree would be death, but in the following sentence we find that the guilty pair have made themselves liable to other penalties as well. We can but gather that in becoming the victims of the Nachash they had degraded themselves far more than appears upon the