We can, therefore, understand how successfully Satan can hinder—blockade the progress of righteousness wherever he chooses to concentrate his depraved energies. Volumes would be required to record the worthy enterprises in the Church of God which went down in failure, yet with no tangible explanation. Sudden reverses, turning the whole current of affairs, are daily happenings; revival efforts to reach certain communities, certain individuals, find insurmountable hindrances. It is the work of the “blockade.”
Such occurrences are generally regarded as “unfortunate coincidents” rather than a resultant of some deep-laid plans—invisible and impersonal. A baby cries at a critical moment, a dog creates an uproar, the fire-bell rings, the engine becomes disabled; landslides, swollen streams, sudden illness, and many others similar, which are never credited to the proper source or cause. The Bible concedes to Satan the dignity of being the god of this world; therefore he must of necessity control, to some extent, the physical phenomena, directing them to an advantage. We do not venture a dogmatic position as to what extent the hindrances in the physical world are due to his power; but the Bible most clearly teaches that he is an obstructionist.
There are hundreds of ways and places where moral and religious blockades obtain. It would seem that in the blaze of the last century of civilization war would be impossible. Why could not our Civil War have been averted? In the retrospect, we can see how easily it might have been settled without such horror and bloodshed. The Hague with its millions of endowment is grinding away on international troubles, yet arbitration fails more often than it succeeds. But war continues, and all efforts in that direction generally meet a “stone wall of opposition.”
Must we conclude that all these lapses, coming in direct conflict with human weal and happiness, are just “happen-sos”? Unthinkable! “Satan hindered,” declares the great apostle. “The prince of Persia withstood me twenty and one days,” says the angel.
VII
THE GREAT MAGICIAN
“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”—Ephesians vi. 11.
“For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world.”—Revelation xvi. 14.