benevolence, on one occasion addressing Peter, said, 66 Simon, Simon, Satan desires to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.".

For what did he pray? That Peter's faith would not yield to the temptation. And what does this imply? At least two things: that he needed help, and that help would come in answer to prayer. This is a great lesson. While it is true that no man is above temptation, it is equally true that there is aid against temptation, in answer to prayer. What is that aid? Divine, most certainly divine. None else than the Holy Spirit himself. "For the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God." And this is a part of his office. For "he maketh intercessions for the saints according to the will of God." Besides, God promises to "strengthen us by his Spirit in the inner man." But his Spirit operates by the Truth. Sometimes, too, God sends angels to our aid.

When the Lord himself was, in his human nature, assaulted by Satan through his emissaries, "an angel appeared and ministered to him." (Luke xxii. 43.) And this, too, in answer to prayer. God, also, in answer to prayer, released Peter by an angel. Many such cases, doubtless, there are.

Thus are we, step by step, led to the important conclusion, that while there are evil angels under Satan, aiding him in the work of destruction, there are good angels, as well as the Spirit of God, aiding and defending us from the wiles of the enemy.

These conclusions are not idle speculation, but matters of fact, well established and sustained by many unequivocal evidences found in the book of God, and well ascertained in Christian experience. We, therefore, pray, "Lord, abandon us not to temptation."

Thus we have the Holy Spirit and the angels of God ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to us as heirs of salvation. And while wrestling against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against evil spirits, we are not left to our own strength and resources, but have on our side strong and efficient allies and friends.

As to the modus operandi, or the manner of this operation, we are not left wholly in the dark. The doctrine of suggestion is a Bible doctrine. It is, therefore, a safe and a comfortable doctrine, and worthy of our consideration. We have reason, experience, and revelation, on our side: and although we may not comprehend, we may at least apprehend, so much of his influence as sufficeth for comfort and safety.

Nor is there, in all this, any necessity compelling the admission

that spirit acts on spirit, without any instrumentality, or any medium whatever, beyond actual contact. No moral change whatever can be effected without motive. Temptations are not contacts, but addresses through some medium adapted to our understanding, appetites, or passions. Words, looks, gestures, passions, one or all, may be made arguments, motives, or suggestions to good or evil thoughts, volitions and actions. Wicked men, as well as good men, operate upon kindred characters by looks, gestures, and other symbols, without words or secret impulsions. The Messiah once looked on Peter, and Peter wept. Paul only said, "I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee,” and a tumult ensued.

Much in nature and society is suggestive. A man may be sure that Satan or his angels are not far off, when he is inclined to evil by his lusts and passions. And as there are good and evil spirits, there are good and evil suggestions and temptations. Every man is tempted by the Devil, when he is led away by his passions and enticed to do evil; and every Christian man is led by the Spirit, when he denies the impulsions of his flesh to think, to speak, or to do evil.

They reason ill, who imagine that either the Spirit of God or the angels of God, that the Devil or his angels, are ever far from any one of us. The most puissant agents in nature are inappreciable by any one or all of our senses. No man hath at any time seen the

cholera, but in its effects. And like the pestilence that walketh in darkness secretly, or like the oxigen which we inhale, that imparts health, life, and beauty, good and evil spirits exert their influences upon us unseen, unheard, and unappreciated.

A. C.

CHRISTIAN KNOCKINGS-No.

I.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me.

The AMEN, the faithful and true WITNESS, the beginning of the creation of God.-Rev. iii. 14, 20.

AT the present moment, when "Spirit Knockings" attract so large a share of public attention, it may not be unprofitable to consider, from those points of view which popular delusion furnishes, the knockings and the calls of "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God." And this we propose to do without questioning, meanwhile, the propriety of applying the

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epithet "spiritual" to those mysterious knockings which, it is said, first saluted mortal ears in the State of New York, not far from the spot where, as is also reported, were formerly disinterred the golden plates of the Mormon Bible. We are willing to take it for granted, however palpable and contemptible the fraud, that these knockings are spiritual; but we affirm, with regard to those to which we invite attention, that they are not only spiritual, but divine. Nay, we shall proceed further, and insist that they only are divine; that they only are Christian, and that Christians should hear and respond to them alone.

It is truly a great mistake to suppose, as many seem to do, that every thing spiritual is necessarily divine. There are plenty of spirits and spiritual agencies, which are demoniacal and devilish. There are wicked spirits in terrestrial and infernal, as well as in ærial, regions. There are lying spirits, as well as truth-telling ones; spirits of the just, as of the unjust; spirits of devils and spirits of God. Alas for the ignorant credulity which will receive every response from the invisible world as an oracle of Heaven, and open the heart as readily to a messenger of darkness as to an angel of light!

Man seems to possess an unlimited capacity, as well as an earnest desire for communication with the world of spirits. His spiritual habitability, if we may so speak, is apparently unlimited. The only restriction, indeed, seems to be that his society, like the communion of a Roman Catholic layman, shall be all in one kind: so that he may be possessed with one, or seven, or a legion of spirits, provided, only, they be of similar character-all devilish or all divine. This, however, is but reasonable, and quite in accordance with the nature of things. That "a spirit has not flesh and bones," is a divine negation. It cannot be seen nor handled. It consists not of material substance, and we cannot suppose it to be subject to material jaws, nor can we connect with it ideas of impenetrability or extension. Space, then, can never enter into our calculation in regard to spiritual beings; and although a man may be figuratively regarded as a house which may be, at one time, "empty swept and garnished," and at another, the abode of one or many spirits, we can, in point of fact, set no limits to his ability to receive spiritual guests, since the capacity to receive is relative always to the dimensions of that which is to be received.

It is not to be doubted, that spirits love to dwell in bodies, and this, perhaps, not so much because they have there an abode or dwelling place, as because the body furnishes the means or instru

ments through which spirits can act or operate. The disembodied spirit in the parable, sought, but found not rest, until he returned to the person from whom he had been expelled; and when the legion of demons were to be cast out, being aware that they would not be allowed to enter again into any human being, they earnestly sought permission to go into the bodies of the swine. It may be said, however, that this power, as well as this desire to enter and possess the body, are restricted to demons, which being the souls of dead men, would naturally seek thus to re-unite themselves with the animal organization.* But it would appear that it is the desire, as it is perfectly within the power of other spiritual beings to enter into man; to assume the direction of his thoughts and actions, and to fix, if possible, his future destiny. As Satan "entered into" Judas, and longed "to have" Peter, so even does he yet "rule in the hearts of the children of disobedience," and seek to lead away the righteous from the paths of truth and holiness. On the other hand, God imparts his Holy Spirit to sanctify and to renew the human soul, and, in the language of our motto, "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God," represents himself as earnestly desiring admission to the heart. "Behold," says he, "I stand at the door and knock: if any will open to me I will come in and sup with him, and he with me."

There are, however, professors of Christianity, who, in regard to spiritual influences, have much more faith than feeling, and far more philosophy than faith and experience conjoined, and who, in entire harmony with their constitution or state of mind, endeavor to restrict all literal spiritual possessions and direct influences, to apostolic times, and seek to explain away, by the moral philosophy of the schools; by the power of motives and arguments, and the significancy of words, all the spiritual operations of modern days. They seem to think that spiritual agencies are reserved entirely for great occasions, such as we read of only in ancient story; or that spirits have become uncommonly scarce in latter days. To hear *To this rule our new-fangled catechistical spirits seem to be exceptions, since they as yet only hover around the favored individuals through whom they make responses. They are, it appears, without exception, dumb, and manifest a partiality for the female sex quite remarkable in beings not of flesh and blood, for it is through females almost exclusively, I believe, they suffer themselves to be addressed. When thus addressed, however, and suitably invoked in the name of mammon, it is found that although dumb, they are not DEAF, which is a new phenomenon in spiritual nosology. These approximate sibyls, nevertheless, would do well to take heed lest their familiar spirits should become too familiar, and, resuming their ancient custom, take up their abode in houses so agreeably garnished. Such a case would require exorcism in a namemore powerful even than that of MAMMON.

them reason upon the subject, one would almost suppose that the affairs of the world are now managed entirely by mechanical forces, and that, like some huge clock duly wound up long ago, things will continue to move on with perfect regularity, without requiring so much as a little oil to be put upon the wheels. Leaving it to these philosephers (who have such a horror of mysteries that they will believe nothing which they cannot explain,) to unfold the mysteries of matter, which will be found, perchance, as great as those of spirit; and entrusting especially to them the question of its inherent power of motion, we may also venture to inquire of those who believe in the active agency of spirits in apostolic times, what has become of all these agencies? And why is it, that when they deny to spirits the power now to have direct communication with mortals, they always make so unfortunate an exception as the devil? While awaiting these explanations, we may be suffered to believe that spirits, both good and evil, though, perhaps, less physical in their operations, may be as active, and at least as numerous, as ever; for, while none of any class have, as yet, been subjected to the "second death," must there not have been, in the nature of things, during so long a period, a vast increase in the number of demons?

As to embodied spirits, if there be a spirit in every man, as is generally admitted, they are at least as numerous as men, and as familiar to us as any thing material can be. Each one is internally conscious of its own movements. We address ourselves not to the persons, but to the spirits of others; and spiritual influences and operations are really as much matters of every-day experience, as eating and drinking. True, it may be said that cur embodied spirits must act through bodily organs. But it is not the less evident, that it is spirit which is the moving and controlling power. And there are not a few who suppose that the spirits of particular individuals can obtain entire control over those of others by the simple power of volition, and, as in mesmerism, assume complete government over their thoughts, and even over their bodily sensations.

Leaving, however, these particular questions to future development, we may here rest upon the undisputed ground of man's spiritual susceptibility. It is enough for our present purpose to know, that Satan can obtain complete mastery over the human soul and body, and that, on the other hand, a man may become a holy temple, in which God himself delights to dwell. We may, accordingly, direct our thoughts to that wonderful creation of divine power, the human nature, which is so great an object of regard to spiritual beings. How astonishing, indeed, is that interest which all ranks