sentence is actually executed. During
such an interval a criminal is said to be under sentence awaiting his
execution, which some higher authority has decreed. This period of
sentence is that in which Satan appears in the present age; which age
had its beginning with the Cross. Execution of this sentence would have
banished him forever. That he is not banished is revealed in the fact
that he, even after his judgment in the Cross, is referred to in
Scripture as still being in authority over this world.

An illustration of Satan's present relation to this world may be taken
from the history of Saul and David. It is natural that David, the first
to occupy the Davidic throne, should be a type of Christ, the last and
most glorious occupant of that throne (Luke 1:31-33). As there was a
period between the anointing of David and the final banishment of Saul,
in which Saul reigned as a usurper, though under Divine sentence and
David was the God-appointed king: in like manner there is now a similar
period in which Satan rules as a usurper, though under sentence; and the
actual occupation of the throne by Christ is still future. In this
period Satan, the rejected monarch, still rules; hunting to the death
all those who have allied themselves with Christ, the God-anointed King.

Why Satan is thus allowed to continue his reign is perhaps but partly
revealed. The real Church which is the Bride of Christ, is to sit with
Him upon His throne (Rev. 3:21; I Cor. 6:2, 3; Matt. 19:28), and the
present age must continue until that glorious heavenly people are
gathered out from the world by regeneration. Again, it seems the course
of Divine wisdom to make a sufficient and final trial of every claim of
His adversaries; and when this age, with all its developments, shall
have passed by, every mouth will be stopped, and the whole world and
Satan will know their own failure and sin before God. They will stand
self-condemned; and nothing could accomplish this but the testing, by
actual trial, of all the self-sufficient claims of Satan and man. The
sin of man has brought him under sentence too; and grace alone withholds
his immediate execution (Jno. 3:18; Rom. 5:18, 19). Though the day of
execution is, in the purpose of God delayed; it is, nevertheless, sure;
and the time is fast approaching when an awful destruction of
self-enthroned beings will be executed; and He alone shall reign, whose
right it is to reign; "for He must reign until He hath pu