Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

WHEN CHRIST APPEARED.37sacrifice and the heathen ; for as truly as one wasthe chalice of the Lord, the other was the chaliceof devils ; as one was the table of the Lord, theother was the table of devils.37A third witness is found in the unanimous testimonyof all Christian writers as to the realityof the demoniacal powers with which they werewaging war; as to their perpetual interference withhuman life ; as to the open and palpable effectswhich they produced ; as to their unwilling retirementin the face of that Stronger One who wascome upon*them. It was not merely the fervidTertullian who offered to rest the truth of Christianityand the life of any ordinary Christian uponhis power publicly to expel a demon. Athaiiasius,who weighs every word he utters, says also, " Lethim who will, try the truth of what we have said,and in the very presence of the spectral illusion ofthe demons, of the deceit of oracles and the won-ders of magic, let him use the sign of the crossderided by them, only naming the name of Christ,and he shall see how by him the demons fly, theoracles cease, and every sort of rnagic and witch-craft is annulled." No less express is S. Augustinein acknowledging the reality of these darkpowers, and the wonders worked by them. 3837 1 Cor. x. 21.38 Tertullian, Apologeticus, 23; S. Athanas. de Inc. 48; S. Aug. deCiv. Dei, xxi. 6, who says, " Ut autem demones illiciantur ab hominibus,prius eos ipsi astutissima calliditate seducunt, vel inspirando eorum cor-dibus virus occultum, vel e'tiam fallacibus amicitiis apparendo, eorumque