which arise from our own bad passions. Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith! There is one to deliver us from "the body of death" within, from "the law of sin which is in our members." Commit yourselves to Him, "who is able to save to the uttermost." Seek of him strength against the sins that most easily beset you. He shall rebuke the winds and the waves, and there shall be a great calm and men shall marvel and say, What manner of religion is this, that the most stubborn passions, and the most rebellious lusts obey it? Even the disciple shall be a marvel to himself: that passions which had tossed him all his life, and against which he had vainly struggled, have been calmed and made to cease by the word of the Son of God.

LECTURE XXX.

EVIL SPIRITS CAST INTO A HERD OF SWINE.

MARK V. 1-20.

1. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadacenes.

2. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,'

3. Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7. And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

We have here the description of a man in a lamentable state of insanity, dangerous to himself, and dangerous to others. And this state, which we should otherwise have referred to natural causes producing disturbance of the brain, we are here taught to ascribe to an unclean, or evil spirit. This spirit recognizes the Lord Jesus, and cried with a loud voice, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

It is indeed a fearful question, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? This unclean spirit was not one of those beings whom Jesus came "to seek and to save." He is aware of this, and says, What have I to do with thee?

That which was the deep calamity of the evil

spirit, is a calamity which need belong to none of the race of mankind to whom the way of salvation is made known. But it is a state in which too many wilfully place themselves. By their careless indifference to the gospel, or by their open hostility to its commands, they seem to say, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? By stifling in the birth the suggestions of conscience, by closing the avenues at which truth might enter, by rejecting the occasional warnings which they hear, they almost seem to say, I adjure thee that thou torment me not. Suffer me to pass through the short interval which remains, in ignorance and apathy.

It was thus that our Lord complained and lamented over the Jews his countrymen, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life."

Jesus seizes the occasion, to show that he was Lord of those evil spirits which are the enemies of mankind.

11. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

14. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.

15. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

16. And they that saw it told them how it befel to him

that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.

17. And they began to pray him to depart out of their

coast.

18. And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.

19. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

20. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

The account here given, furnishes a striking illustration of the consequences which were to follow the coming of our Lord.

First, the apostle tells us that he must reign, "till he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power," that shall dare to exalt itself against him. "He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet." 2 The end, therefore, of the

swine into which the devils entered, is an emblem of that destiny which awaits all hardened and unrepenting sinners, who" are led captive by Satan at his will" is an emblem of that " final destruction from the presence of the Lord" for which the evil spirits themselves are reserved "in chains under darkness unto the great day.'

It is a warning therefore to all, that they "harden not their hearts." "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation."

Secondly, the change produced in the man who is relieved from this dominion of the unclean spirit,

2 1 Cor. xv. 24.

represents the case of the penitent, when delivered from the dominion of Satan by the influence of the Holy Ghost.

The abandoned sinner who has thrown off the allegiance which he owed to his Creator, and spurns the commandments which are intended to govern him, may be compared to the wretched creature of whom it is here said, that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces; neither could any man tame him.

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When such an one is reclaimed by the Holy Spirit acting through the word of the gospel, and convincing him " of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment," the change is like that in the miracle before us. They come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed of the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind. He no longer lives in a manner unsuited to a reasonable being, and ranges through haunts which threaten his destruction but he is found sitting at the feet of him by whom he has been " delivered from the power of darkness;" he is clothed with that " righteousness which is upon all them that believe:" he is in his right mind. He was not in his right mind, when he lived" without God in the world:" when he lived as the brute beast" which has no understanding :" when he lived as if he had no immortal soul. He is in his right mind, when " the spirit of his mind is renewed," and he begins to live as "a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." And so is the prophecy fulfilled, "Thus

3 See Col. i. 13.