“Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. 2 Cor. xi., 14.

“And then shall that wicked be revealed.  Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. ii., 8 to 10.

By these passages it is plain that a sign or a wonder does not establish a doctrine or endorse a man as certainly being from God.  The doctrine and the man must be judged by the written word of God.

If there is ought in the doctrine that denies that Jesus is the Son of God, that derogates in the slightest degree from the merit of His atonement on the cross for our sins, or that takes the eye off from Him as the risen and coming Lord, the alone object of our faith and hope, or that dishonors in any way God’s holy word, taking from or adding to it, then the more signs and wonders and manifestations of mysterious power that there may be connected with it, then the more certainly we may know that it is of Satan and not of God.

And if, in the man who exhibits signs and wonders, there is a spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ, in his seeking honor from man, and using his power to establish a claim to such honor, “speaking of himself as some great one,” and not walking in humility as a sinner saved from hell and kept day by day by the power of God through faith in Christ, And if the purpose of his signs be to establish revelations he is receiving in any form apart from the written word, then, though his signs be as marvelous as those of the magicians in Egypt, or Simon Magnus in Samaria, he is, like them, a minister of Satan and not a minister of Jesus Christ.

The age abounds in doctrines and men of this kind.  The life of faith lays the soul open to assaults of the Devil by their agency.

“Beloved try the spirits whether they be of God.”

Let us not waver in our faith in God’s overruling providence, and in the reality of His interposition in answer to prayer for the deliverance and help of his people under any and all circumstances.  “In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let our requests be made known unto God,” but let our first request be that we be kept in a sound mind obedient to the word, and let all of our requests close with the utterance, from a sincere heart, of the words, “Thy will be done.”  If this be the attitude of our hearts our prayers shall be abundantly and graciously answered, and God shall guide us from the wiles of the Evil One for the sake of His dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord, through whose precious blood we have all grace and all blessing.  Amen.

LAKE VIEW, July 24th, 1885.

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