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I. THEIR VARIETY. They operate —

1. Through fashion and custom. "The course of this world."

2. By continual suggestion of evil. "The power of the air."

3. Through impulse. "The spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience." The nature being corrupted, its instincts are perverted and its tendencies evil.

II. THE ADVANTAGE THEY POSSESS.

1. Illusion. They falsify the vision of the soul, distort the perspective of experience, and clothe themselves with the garb of utility, reasonableness, etc. In this way they present their suggestions as —

(1) Supreme wisdom. The collective authority of the past, and the universal opinion of the present.

(2) Free and spontaneous impulses. Deluded by them the sinner says, "I am free. I am my own master."

2. Proximity.

(1) Locally — the whisper of Satan.

(2) Temporally — "first thoughts."

3. Intangibleness. Like the pressure of the atmosphere, so universally distributed as scarcely to be felt. The first origins of evil may be apparently neutral, or even laudable.

III. THEIR OVERTHROW. "I am come," says Christ, "to destroy the works of the devil." How? By the introduction of light, to expose the works of darkness; of life, by which their spell is broken, and they are overcome.

(A. F. Muir, M. A.)

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KJV: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

WEB: in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;