That the real personal devil was there, the responsible agent, is surely implied by our Lord (Jno. 8: 44): “Ye are of your father the devil; _he was a murderer from the beginning_ and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him.” So also John (1 Jno. 3: 8): “He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning,” _i. e._ ever since that first great sin in tempting our common mother. “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil”――according to that first promise――“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Paul incidentally gives his construction of this narrative: “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16: 20); and our Lord also in Luke (10: 18, 19): “I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven; and I will give you power _to tread on serpents_ and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.” In 2 Cor. 11: 3, Paul gives us a plain, historic version of this narrative――“But I fear lest by any means, _as the_ serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”――――But Satan is perhaps most sharply identified in the descriptive points made by John (Rev. 12: 9 and 20: 2): “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world.” ... “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” Our Lord, as also Paul and John, saw in this narrative a real Satan and also the veritable serpent, made his instrument. 3. That Satan should use such an instrument is manifestly within and not beyond his power. It has in certain points its analogy in the demoniacal possessions recorded by the Evangelists. As to power he is spoken of as the god and prince of this world, “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” The Scriptures attribute to holy angels great power over material agencies; and with scarcely less fullness to Satan and his legions also. In the case of demoniacal possessions, nothing can be more obvious than the manifestations of _Satanic mind_, mind speaking through human lips indeed, yet giving utterance to Satanic thought. “We know thee who Thou art.” “What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come to torment us before the time”? (Mat. 8: 29 and Mk. 5: 7 and Luke 8: 28. See also Acts 19: 15.)