Evil and the devil

The moral decline of any individual may be said to arise from his habits becoming so strong as to wield the inclinations toward evil and consume the fragments of a harmonious life. Intemperate habits arouse to action the baser part of our nature or those eccentricities which in after years prove our bane and curse. It destroys that equilibrium of action necessary for an even, tranquil course and yields its victims to the impulse of the moment until stability is destroyed and we become the fluctuating, irresolute subject of circumstances; stirred by every gust of passion, abusing our faculties until reason is extinct.

We are by nature considerate. Our faculties are called out and enlarged with facility but, when clogged by excess amounting to perversion and recklessness, discord and inharmony ensue. If the tendency is downward, intemperate habits plunge it lower; if the temper is inclined to irritability and severity, it is made more so; if the leading desire is for worldly gain, it increases it; if malice tempts to deeds bordering upon crime, intemperance entices it to commit the act, one perversion feeding the other. A slight excess will often arouse some of these inclinations, which, vibrating to others, soon involves the entire individual.

What can sink us lower in the gutter of human depravity than a constant violation of the spiritual tendency towards things divine; thus calling us away from those high aspirational pursuits which fit and prepare for extended spheres of usefulness? 

Life is characterised by two phases. One is the right use of mental powers by which the mind soars to a height of wisdom and love emblematical of God and receives an influx given through the grace of God working in the heart, manifested in daily communion with others. The other phase is blackened and obscured by perversions of right and carries us down the steep and slippery descents of depravity and degradation, leaving the mind to meditate upon the probability of becoming one with the Satanic power who is thought to preside over sin.

Propensities arise from the mind and are carried into effect through the body. The spirit, after separation from the body, feels the loss of such associations and often wanders to earth in search of congenial scenes. Evil seems to predominate and those who participate in this influence are possessed with such strong inclinations to recklessness that it is said of them, the Devil tempts and they fall a victim to his wiles. Until progressed beyond these desires, this intercourse is sure to be what the spirit seeks and most enjoys, reaping satisfaction through this channel.

Evil and the devil are synonymous terms and whatever tends to create one engenders the other. Every habit formed establishes a supplement to divine rule of a demoniacal tendency. The Devil may as truly be said to possess individuals in the form as out; he exists as much here as hereafter and is a spirit in the body as well as disembodied, abiding in each heart to the extent that evil is cherished and good rooted out.