p. 17The Devil

Since the principles of secret societies lead to the destruction of Christ and His Church, were such possible, Satan, the arch-enemy of Christ, is not idle. He is today the same that he was in paradise, only having benefited by the experience of six thousand years he lays his snares and traps according to the circumstance. He is the devil still. But as Mr. Guyau (The Non-Religion of the Future, page 165), says “… in our days, belief in the devil is incontestably becoming feebler, and this enfeeblement is even especially characteristic of the present epoch; there has at no other time been anything to equal it. There is not an educated person to be found in whom the mention of a devil does not excite a smile. That, believe me, is a sign of the times, a manifest sign of the decline of dogmatic religion. Wherever the power of dogmatic religion, by an exception to the general course of things, has retained its vitality, and retained it, as in America, even to the point of giving birth to new dogmas, the fear of the devil has subsisted in its entirety, wherever, as in more enlightened regions than America, this fear no longer exists except as a symbol or a myth, the intensity and the fecundity of the religious sentiment decline inevitably in the same degree. The fate of Javeh is bound up with that of Lucifer, angels and devils go hand in hand, as in some fantastic mediaeval dance. The day when Satan and his followers shall be definitely vanquished and annihilated in the minds of the people, the celestial powers will not have long to live.”

Says O. A. Brownson (Vol. IX, pp. 77, 78): “… you seem not to have reflected that the devil, when he would seduce, can disguise himself as an angel of light. Human nature is terribly corrupt, and yet the great mass of mankind ordinarily are incapable of choosing evil, for the reason that it is evil. Evil must be presented to them in the guise of good or they will not choose it. The devil knows this, and knows the weak side of everyone, and he adapts his temptations accordingly. The weak side of our age is morbid sentimentality, a sickly philanthropy, and the devil tempts us now by appealing to our dominant weakness. He comes to us a philanthropist, and his mouth full of fine sentiments, and he proposes only what we are already prepared to approve. Were he to come as the devil in propria persona, and tell us precisely who and what he is, there are very few who would not say, ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ Nothing better serves his purpose than to have us deny his existence, to describe his influence to imagination, hallucination, to natural causes or influences, or, in fine, to good spirits, for then he throws us off our guard and can operate without being easily detected. Never was an age more under his influence than our own, and yet they who pass for its lights and chiefs have reached that last infirmity of unbelief, the denial of the existence of the devil. Possessed persons are insane, epileptic, or lunatic persons, and the wonderful phenomena they exhibit are produced by an electric, magnetic, or odic fluid, and are to be explained on natural principles, and such as can not be so explained, are boldly denied, however well attested, or ascribed to jugglery, knavery, or delusion. The marvelous answers of the ancient oracles are ascribed to knavery, as if the whole world had lost their senses, and could not detect a cheat practised before their very eyes, and so bunglingly, that we who live two thousand years or three thousand years after, ignorant of all the circumstances in the case, can detect it, and explain how it was done, without the slightest difficulty. The devil laughs at it. He would have it so.”

Instead of, as St. Peter says: “Satan going around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,” we may say that his satanic majesty goes back to his first tempting method and serpent-like injects his venom in the minds of men, and that even hell was let loose to do such a kind of work. Explain the secret societies without satanic power! It is impossible. How can they have such a hold of so many otherwise well meaning persons except by satanic influence?

Christianity asserts the existence of Satan and his intervention in human affairs, for according to it Christ was revealed from heaven and came into this world that He might destroy the devil and his works. If there was no devil, the mission of Christ had no motive, no object, and Christianity would be a fable. … The church plainly and unequivocally recognizes the existence of Satan, as may be gathered from the prayers and ceremonies of baptism, as well as from the significance of the sacrament itself; and not only his existence, but his power over the natural man, and even material objects. Thus, when the Priest, in administering the Sacrament of Baptism breathes gently three times in the face of the child, he exclaims: “Go out of him impure spirit and give place to the Holy Ghost.” The candidate before baptism is asked: “Dost thou renounce Satan … and all his works … and all his pomps?” To each of which questions the reply is made: “I do.” The whole proceeds on the belief that Satan has power over man and matter.

The difficulty of combating the satanic spirit in secret societies and convincing people of their antichristian principles is very great. The most of the people are caught by words without taking note of the meaning attached to them.

It is characteristic of this age that infidelity disguises itself in a Christian garb and utters its falsehoods and blasphemies in Christian phraseology, the language of truth. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, comes as a philanthropist, talks of humanity, professes to be a champion of science, intelligence, education, liberty, progress, amelioration and the moral, intellectual and physical elevation of the poorer and more numerous classes, all good things, when rightly understood and in their time and place.

We can not oppose him without seeming to many to oppose what is Christian duty. If we oppose false intelligence we are at once accused of being opposed to intelligence. If we oppose corrupt and baneful education we are immediately accused of being in favor of popular ignorance and lovers of darkness. If we oppose false liberty, or license presented under the name of liberty, we are charged with being the enemies of true freedom. The press opens its cries against us and the age votes us mediaeval dreamers, behind the times, relics of the past, with our eyes on the backside of our heads, outlandish, etc., and the truth is drowned in the floods of indignation; or ridicule pours out against us. The world to-day is just as inimical to Christ as it ever was, and His cause is fought against perhaps more than ever before. The only difference is that the weapons have been changed, the battle-field transferred, the tactics improved and the execution greater. The enemy deals to-day with far more subtle weapons than ever before. And as the tie that binds many to the Church is weak it is easily cut asunder. Even to many so-called Christians Christ is not more than a man, and it has been argued, and plausibly so, that in the new century, the day of advancement along all lines, the world has outgrown Christ. Satan still offers “the kingdom of the world and the glory thereof” in barter for worship paid to himself.

Well aware of the satanic power Leo XIII called on all Priests to say daily after Mass:

“Holy Michael, Archangel, defend us in the day of battle; be our safe-guard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust down to hell Satan and all wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.”