"And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake." (Luke 11: 14.)
Instead of a personality, it was a belief of deafness, an error of mortal sense, that our blessed Master cast out with the spiritual truth of being; namely, that the senses are mind, instead of matter; and the wrong sense and the lost sense, must yield to the right and the eternal sense of existence.
The meaning of the term "devil" needs yet to be learned. Its definition, as one individual, is too limited and contradictory. When the Scripture is understood, the spiritual signification of its terms, will contradict the interpretations that the senses give them, and be found to include the inspired meaning. In the Hebrew, devil is Abaddon; in Greek, Apollyon, serpent, liar, "the god of this world," etc. The apostle Paul, refers to this personality of evil as the god of this world, and then defines this god as "dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God deceitfully." The Hebrew embodies the meaning of the term "devil" in another term, "serpent," which the senses take in; and then defines this serpent as "more subtle than all the beasts of the field." Subsequently, the ancients changed the meaning of the term to their sense; and then a serpent became a symbol of wisdom. The Scripture in John 6: 70, refers to a wicked man as the devil. "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil." Then, according to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is more than one devil. In Mark 9:3: "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name." Here is the assertion of more than one; hence, the person, or his satanic majesty, is found—traits of error, cast out, or destroyed by truth. It can mean, by no possible interpretation, that several individuals were cast out of another individual no bigger themselves. The term employed in its plural number destroys all consistent supposition of a personal satan. Our subject, as in the text, refers to the devil as dumb. But the original texts define him as an "accuser," a "calumniator," which were impossible if he were speechless, and could only be possible to him, as a writer, or a mental malpractitioner. Let us obey St. Paul's injunction to reject fables and accept the Scriptures in their broader, more mental and practical meaning. When we speak of a good man, we do not mean that man is God, because the Hebrew for Deity was "good," and vice versa; so when referring to a liar, we do not mean that he is a devil entire, because the original text defines devil as "liar." It is of infinite importance to man's spiritual progress, and Christian demonstration of Truth casting out error, that the terms for God and devil be better understood.
