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-'-PINTERNATIONAL LESSON-FOR MARCH 12.-i+
ltuiu; 5 :1-20. GOLDEN TEXT, 1 JOHN 3:8.
Central Subject-CHRIST’S POWER OVER EVIL SPIRITS.
' BY REV. D. P.
The stilling of the tempest on the Sea
of Galilee was followed by a peaceful
voyage to the other side, which probably
occupied the remainder of the night. In
the quick succession of events we may
see how closely the time of our Lord's
brief period of public work was filled
up. After a (lay of unusual toil in teach-
ing, lIe had directed the disciples to
take Him across the lake--apparently,
that He might find rest.
His repose in the stern of the little
ship was rudely broken by the despair-
ing cry ofthe disciples, in the midst oi’ a
terrible midnight storm. But even that ‘
event gave occasion for a wonderful ex- ‘
cruise of His miraculous power, result-
ing instantly in a great calm.
In the very act of His landing on the
eastern shore-
“liiiinevliately there met Him out of the
tombs a man with an unclean spirit."
Here again was no opportunity to rest,
but an appeal to His love for humanity,
however wrecked or dcbased by evil.
THE TOMBS OF GADARA
Furnished a site sufficieiitly desolate to
suggest the idea of uninterrupted quiet.
Gaclara was not only the name of a city,
but of the district in which it was locat-
ed. The city itself was not on the shore
of the sea, but a smaller town called
Gerasa was.
These facts enable us to understand
the different terms made use of by the
different gospel historians.
Mark and Luke speak of the landing
as in the country of the Gadareues,whilc
Matthew calls it the country of the Ger-
gesene
The two former gave the name of the
region, the latter of the special locality,
near the town of Gergesa-the same as
Gorasa.
The revised version renders the words
of Mark and Luke “the country of the
Gerasenes,” but changes those of Mat-
thew into -‘ the country of the Garla-
renes. '
In both versions, therefore, the idea of
the general and special locality is kept
u
plalven in modern times, both on the
sites of Gradara aiul (icrasa, tombs are
the most decided objects of interest.
They (1 t the cliffs for a considerable dis-
tance ound the spots where broken
columns and other ruins mark the site
of the dead cities.
Besides, the whole region is perforated
with grottoes an rock chambers, ‘ill
which the remainsof the dead were laid.
The Eiiglisli traveler Buckingham ex-
plored scvcral oftlie grottoes.
The lirst two examined by him were
plain chambers hewn down to SIIUVV :1.
crpendicular front. The third tomb
had a perfect stone-door.
Another had an excavated chamber
seven feet high, thirty-six feet long am
ten broad. In one were ten sepiilclircs,
ranged along the inner wall in a line.
each having a small niche for a lamp.
One of the tombs was used asa car-
pentcr’s shop, in which the occupant
was making a low. Another was occu-
pied as a fami y dwelling, the principal
sarcophagus or rock-coflin being used
for a provision-chest.
Warburton, author of “The Crescent
and the Cross," thus records an adven-
ture in the same vicinity:
“I found myselfin a cemetery, whose
sculptured turbans showed me that the
neighboring village was Moslem. The
silence of the ight was now broken by
fierce ells and howlingzs, which 1 dis-
covere proceeded froina naked iminizic,
who was tlglitiiig with some wild iliigs
fora bone. The inoinentlio perceived
me he left his canine comrades, and
boundin;zalu..,, with rapid strides, si, not
my horse's bridle, and almost forced him ,
bankwartl over the clilf by the grip he 1
held ot'thc powerful Maineluko bitt.”
THE Di-IMONIAC.
W':irbiirton's oxperience, just quoted,
throws light upon the terrible reality of
o S(‘0Ilt‘. which confronted our Lord as
lie no out of the little ship. The very
first objr.-i,t that met His attention was
the man
KIDDER, D. D.
“who had his dwellln among the tombs;
no man could bllll lniii. no. not with
and the fetteis broken in eces, neith r
could an man rune him. And always,
niglrt an day, he was in the no ntain
and in the tombs, crying and cutting him-
self with stones.”
If spoken of merely as a description of
a raving maniac, no one would fail to see
how striking was the above portraiture.
lit the sacred narrative goes further,
and assigns denioniac possession as the
cause of the man’s madness.
Insanity is a subject difficult of com-
prehension. In some cases it is clearly
the result of disease. Yet, as one has
said, “that a man should rave in inad-
ness because some little cell or two in
the gray matter of his brain is out 0'
order, is no more in the compass of the
human understanding than the supposi-
were quick in this and in other cases to
discern in Him the “Son of the most
high God,” a glorious being, entitled to
worship and able to destroy Satanic
. l‘his recognition was coupled
with fear and obedience, injizst appre-
hension of merited chastiseinent. See-
ing Jesus from afar oli‘,
“ He ran and worshiped Ilim.
"And cried with it loud voice, and said,
Whzit have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou
Son of tlleiiiostiliigli(z'0il‘l I ndjure Thee
by God, that Thou torment me not."
THE FOUL SPIRIT ARRAIG D.
VVhat a change had been realized from
the very sight of Jesus!
ence between the raving, unc<introll:ible
deinuniac of l'oi'mer days and a worshipcr
of the Son of God! Froin that moment
Christ addressed the evil spirit as dis-
tinct from the man, saying:
“ omc out of the man, thou unclean
spirit.
" And He asked him, What is thy name‘?
And he uiisii'ered. saying, My name is Le-
gion: for we are man) J’
LEGION.
A legion, in the Roman army, was a
division einbraeing six thousand men.
In modern language, it signiiies a host-
a large, but indefinite number. In giv-
tion that an evil spirit, getting close to
the fountain of a man’s phv. c 1 "
should disturb all the goings-on 0
life. oven to the production of the most
appalling moral phenomena.‘
the most enlightened countries of
modern tiines, it. is customary to cliargo
criminals supposed be guilty of
murder with “ being moved and insti-
gated by the devil.” It seems to be suf-
ticient to allc,<,r,c the fact without point-
ing out the mode in which it is one.
There are doubtless many modes, such
as the use of strong drink and the in-
dulgence of evil lusts and passions, but
all of them involving the consent of the
individuals will given at some former
time.
In this case, there appears to have
been a double will and a double con-
sciousness, sometiines the cruel spirit
thinking and speaking in the man, and
sometimes his poor, crushed self crying
out to the . aviour for more, .
VVhile it cannot be denied that similar
struggles often agitate men at the pres-
ent time, it is safe to believe that in our
Saviour’s time the devil was allowed to
xerciso unusual power over tho souls
and bodiesof men. It was acrisal pc-
rlod in the moral history of the world.
The very rage and triumph of Satan con-
stituted a reason why (lhrist was iiiaiii-
festeii to destroy his works.
a
It . .
at’ evil should have
assaiilt upon the field of llis riivinc iii-
tervcntion.
CHRIST liF.Cl)llNl7.EI).
Iloivr-vrir slow men were to perceive
the true cliaractcrof (Jhrist,eviliipirits and other (liseascs.
in: this as his name, the demon claimed
plurality in unity, and asserted the mar-
velous accord which exi. s ictween
evil spirits. Unrler a single controlling
head, there had been a concentration of
evil personalities in this man, as if to
show to what extent a poor mortal could
have It very hell iiitcrjectctl into his soul
and life. Alas! that we should liavv
oven in modern time. ‘ ' . m.
tions of a similar possession. For when
a person’s supreme purpose heconies
bad, what an uncountcd legion of vile
passions come to swarm in his breast
and plague his life!
A STRANGE PRAYER.
St. James tells us that the “devils be-
lieve and tremble," an ere we learn
that they sometimes ray. But from the
very language use , we can see that
their prayer was a selfish one.
They (in not ask to have their nature
cliangerl, or that they may be 010 ns d
from their vilencss, but rather that thcv
may he allowed to go where they caii
indulge it to H fuller extent. '
‘Ye may understand their request not
to be sent out of the count s equiva-
lent to a. wish not to he baiiislierl from
this world, where they tlosiretl to stay
oven in the nieanest possihlc associations.
Swine, in all ages and couiitries, have
delighted in tilth, and been considered
tliolowest and most ilisgiistiiig of ani-
mals. They were the special abhor-
,n of‘ the Jews, not oiilv from their
Swinisli hnbi ,biit from the tendency
of their ilosh, when eaten hi the hot
oountrir-s oi the East, to produce leprosy
Since, therefore,
‘Vhat a ditl'er- ‘
l
these demons were no longer to be al-
lowed possession ofa human being, they
said:
“Send us into the swine,tliut we may
enter into them
Bishop Hallsuggests that in all this
there was a. purpose of evil against the
Gergesenes, by exciting them agiiiiist
Christ, and thus, in fact, “turning them
into swine by the loss of theirswine.”
Burkitt points out (1) the dcvil‘s mal-
ice-that he desires to hurt dumb beasts
rather than not liui't at all ; and (2) that
when rebuked by Christ he cannot hurt
even a pig without permission.
THE SEQUICL.
"And he gave them leave. Aiitl the un-
clmiii spirits miino ouI,and (3lli.L’l‘(3(l into
1ll(‘,S“'lll(‘: niid llu: lll'l'll iiisliml down the
sleep into the S('ll. I'll. number iibout two
tliousuiiil: uni icy nun: clicked in the
sea."
In this it may be seen that, though the
request 01' the legion was gratified, it
only resulted in their degradatioii,
and the speedy destruction of the poor
lirutes with which they had aililiated.
It is the very nature of evil thus to out-
wit itself. Stupid, blind and suicidal, it
always tends to ruin in some form.
Another element of the sequel was
that, through the tale of the herdsinen,
a multitude of people from the city and
country came
"to Jesus. and see him that was possessed
with the devil, and had the legion, sitting,
lied. and in his right mind; and
they were ufraii ."
‘Yell might tlicy, heathen though they
were, he impress " i the wonderful
power and goodness which had relieved
the distress of the man who had so long
been the terror of their whole region.
But, instead oi spiritually profiting by
His presence, they took alarm at the loss
of their swine, and besouglit llini to de-
art from their borders. In this they il-
ustrated the folly of those carnal lieiirts
who prefer their swine, or any form of
worldly pelt‘, before their Sn our; and
also of those skeptics oi’ the pi USOIII day
who, like the Gl:l‘4tSL‘l)l‘S, l'(']lll4ll:llt,‘
Jesus, because the deiiions (lL‘Sll'liy(‘Ll
the swine.
A MISSIONARY.
It was but natural that the man who
had been sowonderfully i'(>stored sliniihl
wislrto gowitlnlcsus whenlleciiiliurliud
on is return.
‘fllmvlrcit. Jnsiis SlIlTt.‘I‘c1l lilni not. but
saith unto him. Go hon ii-iomls.
nut to] UN‘ i how giwit lliiiigs llw, l.(ii'il
hullirloiic i‘ 'thee,untl hath had coinpa:a-
OH on
L
'- And he dcpiirted. niid lmgain to publish
in I)e(fu))rilis how gzrvztt i "ii rs Jv>Ii.s‘ had
done my him: umi all men um niurvcl."
It was more important for him to i'c-
rnain as a willie - for his great Dvlivorer
in the region wliore he had been so long
known, and dreaded. 'l‘hc iiiiportanco
oi his field is seen in the name of the re-
gion itself. The word Dcoapolis indi-
cated tlrat it embraced the ten cities east
of the Sea oi Galilee, of which, in addi-
tion to.Ha(lara and Gerasa, Pella, Hip-
pos, Ihon, Pliilatlclpliia and Canatha
were the principal.
<s ,
STRANGE BIBLE FACTS.
The learned Prince of lil‘illIll(llI, heir
to the $pan1sh throne, imprisoned hy
ordci- oi the Crown, for fear he niig-ht
aspire to the throiie. was kept in solitary
cpiitiiieiiieiit in the old prison at the
l al:i oi Skulls, Mzulrid.
A oi thirty-three years in this living
tmnh, death came to his release, and the
tollowing reiiiarkable rcsearclies taken
from the Bible, and marked with an old
nail on the rough walls of his cell, told
how the brain sought employment
through the weary years;
in the Bible, the word “I.ord" is found
%l3;:‘.i‘:l(:lr“(E'iu:ntl,I(: 'W()lill“‘ Julinvali,“ rims; and
“W 9”‘ "e“Se-0?lf;g;]'“l2l;g‘(illC(',lillll that in
ll: mu verse of iiiesiii chaptcrot Esther
is the Kongo. ,
John x; :35lli i. the ,i;h("'[eQf‘
<; v . .. .
8llI.‘l."illi.l‘2ri.lsl(iI‘ll(l “ms “'0 nuke‘ me
tuch vcrsc oi 1’)-illlil cxxxvicnds nllke.
o names or words of more tliun six syl.
lllllles are fouiiil in tlw lliblc.
ixxxvii Innll ll Kings xix are alike.
‘E-’H‘1 ' occurs but once, and
crsi-,.
icio tli ,‘ u 11 in both books of tlic
’l‘lile 3,536.4.) lreticrs. 773,(i93 “'0i'il .'il,ll73
:):].i‘se,s, ll cluiptcrs um! 66 boo)
""l)n'l(3HIH.lll(!llt and 27 in tho N
is'El:;lI::>:g‘plr;iiiitiful clniplci‘ in tlic lliblc
Tic four most lnsplriii
Jnlin xlv 2 2d. Jnhn V; I 37,,
xi 178th and Psalm xxxvl1:4‘tl
pronilsos are
St. Matthew
1. o. E
. ll.
;
w-‘u
(Lg; 3.;
. = ““7
so. $(9-ac-OLDEN DAYSs-er:i>- Mumm-
.-.-gr.-.