ir first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day." Verse 6.

The evil spirits themselves know that this day is coming. When Christ
was about to cast certain of them out of one who was possessed, they
cried out, "Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Matt.
8:29.

Though the judgment of that last day was originally set for Satan and
his angels, unrepentant men will have a part in it, because they have
joined Satan in his lawless rebellion. To the wicked it will be said:

"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41.

Satan sees that the day is hastening; and the shorter the time in which
to work, the greater his fury in seeking to draw souls to perdition.

The warning comes to us in these last days:

"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is
come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath
but a short time." Rev. 12:12.

Christ's second coming ends the reign of Satan in this world. The wicked
are slain by the consuming glory of Christ's coming (2 Thess. 2:8); and
the righteous are taken to heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's arts (1
Thess. 4:16, 17). The archenemy and his angels are thus left upon an
earth devoid of human beings. Here he is chained for a thousand years,
in this pit of desolation (Rev. 20:2, 5), his only companions the angels
who fell with him, his only occupation the contemplation of the ruin he
has wrought and the destruction that still awaits him.

By the second resurrection--that of the wicked dead, after the thousand
years--Satan is again set free to ply his arts upon his subjects. As the
holy city comes down out of heaven from God, with all the saints, Satan
gathers his angels and all the forces of the lost of all the ages, to
make an assault upon the city. The result was shown to the prophet in
vision:

"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the
saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of
heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceiveth them was cast
into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:9, 10.

That is the fate awaiting the author of sin. In the account of Satan's
pride and self-exaltation, uttered by the prophet in the message to
Tyre, there occurs also this prophecy of the utter destruction that
awaits him, when he shall