'Yes, so it appears. And, to be brief, you were found guilty, in the third case, of perjury, and sent on a second and more extended visit to Denbigh Prison?" "Yes, Sir." "So it seems. Now, Sir, tell me on your oath, have you any ill-feeling towards the prisoner?" "Well, I might as well confess I have." "That's my case, my lord," said the counsel, in a confident tone, as he sat down. The prisoner was acquitted. Why? Because all the evidence against him was given by an old fiddler with a broken character, who, withal, bore an old grudge against the accused. "Then the preacher repeated the question in a shout of triumph, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?' The devil will try, but will he succeed? Methinks that at the Last Assize of the world the great Judge of all will ask the question, and methinks I can see Satan come forward to give his evidence against them, which at the outset appears strong and overwhelming. But I see the great Advocate for the defence, whose name is 'Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God,' begin to crossexamine him." 'What is your name?" "Satan." "Yes, but you have a few aliases, have you not?" "What are they?" "The Serpent." "Again?" 66 'Devil." "Again?" 'Accuser of the brethren." "So it seems, Where do you dwell?" "Hell is the centre of my operations." "Well-" "Speak out, that heaven and earth may hear." devour." "So it appears. Were you ever in Heaven?" "Yes, there I commenced my existence." "Yes; and were you ever driven out for pride, ambition, and rebellion against the Supreme authority, for lying, and other evils?" "Well, those were the charges against me." "Yes, and proved, I believe?" "Yes, I suppose." "So it seems. Have you not done all you can against God's elect, and do you not bear them the greatest animosity on account of their allegiance to Him who has bought them?" "Well, I cannot deny that." "That is my case, my Lord," says the great Advocate. "Justified," exclaim the jury, "Justified," exclaims the great Judge. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?' The devil will try, but will he succeed? NEVER! He is an old fiddler with a broken character, and is withal a biassed witness, whose word has no weight in the Court of Heaven." "Ah, that's excellent!" said John. "It describes Satan in his true character- He is a liar and the father of it.' He is always insinuating evil things about God's children; but the Lord knows him well. Sometimes when I am assailed by the Tempter I like to read the Book of Job. Some say it is the oldest book in the Bible, and in E the world, and all agree that it refers to very, very early times. Yet one of the first things you read in that book is that when the sons of God-the angels, you know—came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan came among them the old hypocrite! One might have thought that he would have been ashamed to show his face again after having disgraced himself, and suggested the base insinuations to our first parents in Eden concerning the good Lord. But it would take more than that to shame him; there he stood among those who were his compeers before he fell, but no longer one of them, a Judas in an angelic circle! The great God soon unmasked him, and said to him, 'Whence camest thou? I did not expect to see thee here.' He was not in the least disconcerted by that, but answered, 'From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.'-A restless life enough; like the old fiddler, he seemed to live nowhere. But he did not speak the whole truth even in the Lord's presence. One might have thought from all he said that he was an angel of light still very busily engaged in his Lord's service, and not like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.' The Lord said, 'Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.' It does one good to read those words, and to think that the great God prides Himself so much on His poor children on earth; just as we, Shadrach, used to like people to look upon our little ones and notice anything worth noticing in them. God is exactly the same. 'Hast thou considered my servant Job,' said He to Satan as He would to an angel of light, in order that the old hypocrite might expose himself. Now listen to what he says. Ah, he's so pious! So anxious that the Lord shouldn't be imposed upon! He's as disinterested as he was in Eden! Listen to him-'Doth Job fear God for nought?' That question has the venom of the old Serpent in it. Angels do not speak in such terms of good men. They are too kind and good, Shadrach. Such insinuations as this come from hell; they never could come from anywhere else. It was Satan, who had become a kind of spiritual detective on his own account-Satanthat asked, 'Doth Job fear God for nought?" "Shame on him," said Shadrach. "Yes," said John, "let God Himself, or one of His pure unfallen angels, find fault, if it is to be found; it ill becomes the devil to rebuke sin. He, indeed, breathe out suspicions about the saints of God, he who has been found out himself plotting against the very God he professed to serve! How such insolence must surprise the angels, and make even God impatient! I thank God that no unfallen angel who has kept his first estate has ever tried to find fault with His poor children on earth." "Bless them, no," said Shadrach. "No, it's not like them to do that, they come to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation—that means to serve us. Oh, that's wonderful, those pure beings come to serve us! Yes, and in serving us they spread their white wings like charity over our sins, and what a large number of sins those wings cover! It is this old 'Accuser of the brethren' that comes to spy out inconsistencies, and to conjure up falsehoods against us. He is exactly like a man who came the other day to Carmarthen. He went about saying that there wasn't a single tinman worthy of the name in the whole town; he had looked round, and it was a shame, he said, that the public were saddled with inferior goods by men who had never learnt the trade, and who only consulted their own interests. He was going to settle down there, and he would see that the public should have their money's worth. A great philanthropist he was! And hadn't he a smile! You might have thought he was all sweetness, and born, as old Fortunatus Jones the astrologer would say, under the sweet influences of the fairest planet that ever shone in the sky. Well, the people began to open their eyes. What a pity they hadn't known him before; and one old fellow, who had always known how to reckon the pence, calculated what he would have saved in pots and kettles the last twenty years if he had only known this wonderful man. Well, there was some inquiry made as to where he had been living all those years, and how it was that they had not heard of him before, but he, modest man, was anxious to remain in humble obscurity. He would not have his left hand know what his right hand had done! There were some who thought he must be a wealthy man, who from pure goodwill towards the general public settled down among them; but there were a few who thought his professions were too good to be true, and who fancied they saw the play of the serpent in his smile. But one market day all doubts were set at rest when a policeman in disguise walked up to him, and, patting him patronizingly on the shoulder, said, 'Tom, you're wanted, lad;' and sure enough he was wanted, for he was a brokendown tinker, who had disappeared suddenly from his home, leaving his wife and family to the mercy of his creditors and the parish; and so the man who had settled down in the new place simply to protect the innocent people from designing men, had to return to his native town, and there in the county gaol to pass through a process of penance for neglecting his family, and forgetting his creditors, in his enthusiastic desire to expose rogues. Ah, Shadrach, there's a deal of the old broken-down tinker about Satan; and more than that, whenever you see a man |