For
several generations my family has lived near the town of Mattoon,
Illinois. Following my graduation from junior college I lived and
worked in Mattoon. Yet, I could never have imagined a time of
darkness that terrified that community in 1944 when it was
terrorized by the “Mad Gasser of Mattoon!”
In a
time before air conditioning was prevalent a mysterious figure
dressed in black would strike without warning spraying "a
paralyzing gas" in the open windows of private homes. Over a
period of two weeks twenty-four attacks were reported to local
authorities of a sweet-smelling gas being sprayed through open
windows. Some screens were slashed at the windows in questioned
and when there were witnesses seeing a fleeing suspect the
descriptions were usually consistent.
Authorities
were stumped and eventually dismissed many of the attacks as mass
hysteria. Yet, despite armed vigilantes roaming the streets the
attacks continued as did the skepticism of baffled law enforcement
(www.historicmysteries.com).
A far
more dangerous force regularly attacks the entire human race.
Unlike the Illinois case, we know this enemy and can recognize his
tactics (2 Corinthians 2:11). Also unlike whatever or whoever
terrorized Mattoon in the fall of 1944, Satan’s attacks never end
as long as life endures.
David Bragg
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