the transaction, the mere circumstances of the case might have induced us readily to believe. Divine power was surely there, when a single word dispelled in a moment, in the case of two separate persons, a violent access of madness, and restored them at once to their perfect senses; and some evil power, setting in motion as it were the physical causes of madness, might well have been supposed to be present, when the words of the seeming madman, asking to be allowed to visit the swine, were so instantly answered by the event; and while they who in all appearance had spoken them were sitting quietly at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right mind, the spirit of madness had gone from them into the swine, according to its word, and as before was manifesting its presence and its power only by effects in themselves apparently natural.

But the question is asked, Why have evil spirits ceased to possess men now, if they really possessed them in the time when our Lord was on earth? It has been answered, that with so great an interposition for good as was then shown, when God became manifest upon earth in the person of Christ, an unusual interposition of the powers of evil is conceivable also; devised by them for their own cause, permitted by God for His own glory. This answer would indeed be of much weight, if we were obliged to allow the fact which the question takes for granted. But how can we be sure that evil spirits

have ceased to possess men now? The effects of evil are sufficiently visible now as in the times of our Lord; the spiritual authors of that evil were not more visible then, nor without His interposition and His revelation would they have been more known to us then, than they are at this moment. God and God's spirit still work continually for our good; not less certainly because the working is invisible, and its effects seemingly natural. How can we be sure that evil spirits are not at work as continually, with an agency as real, with a power as untraceable, with results as seemingly natural? All the difference is, that we, having no longer that gift of the spirit of power which could attack evil in a manner at its source, and destroy the effects by a direct removal of the cause, we are now compelled to combat evil in its effects only, to meet secondary causes by secondary, to imitate in short those ordinary workings of God's providence which we call natural causes, instead of those more direct manifestations of Himself which we call miraculous and divine.

There is another question sometimes asked with regard to one particular part of the story, namely, why the evil spirits were permitted to enter into the swine? I say permitted, for it is a manifest mistake to suppose that they were sent by our Lord into the swine, as His act, and not theirs. But the only answer to this question is another:

Why are evil spirits, or why is evil permitted to work at all? Why are they not all shut up at once in the abyss or deep, to use the language of the Jews: hindered, that is, from going to and fro in the earth, to the injury of our bodies and our souls? And this is one of those questions before which, as I said, a sound mind may repose as quietly as in the possession of discovered truth; for it is a question which never has been answered on earth, and never can be; the gates of paradise must be entered before the answer to it can be given us. Here there is no perplexity, but a confesssed unconquerable difficulty, which to assail in the hope of overcoming it, is madness. Let us rest contentedly before it, acknowledging this fact, and dismissing for ever the restless hauntings which might tempt us to an inquiry so fruitless. But yet, amidst the inscrutable darkness of that principle of the permission of evil which is declared to us in all nature, and with neither more nor less of obscurity in our Lord's permission to the evil spirits in the text, there is still that in their request and in His answer, which is full of warning to us all. Have we cast out any evil spirit from our own hearts, or the hearts of others? Let us be sure that the evil so expelled goes not out into the abyss; it is not so much taken for ever from the dominion of our great enemy; the evil is permitted till the great day of the restoration, still to wander about in search of

prey, sometimes to return to the place whence it was cast out, sometimes to fix its hold on some new victim. "Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come:" the work will not have been fully wrought; there will be left enough of those over whom the spirit of evil is exercising dominion, from how many hearts soever that spirit may have been driven. Not yet, then, may the disciples whom their Lord has sent out to combat the enemy, turn back in triumph as though the work were done; not yet may they enter into their rest, nor lie down secure for themselves or for their brethren. Still ascends the cry of the evil spirits, "Suffer us to enter into this new victim;" still they do enter in and dwell; and those in whom they dwell run greedily to their own destruction, and perish in the overwhelming waters.

And with regard to the whole account of these men who were possessed with evil spirits, and whom Christ delivered from their power, thus much may be at least allowed, even if we refuse to allow that any similar cases of possession occur now. The belief in the existence and active efforts of spirits of evil, is surely capable of much practical usefulness, and has no natural tendency to lead to superstition. Its practical use is to excite us to watchfulness; there are more things against us than our own natural weakness and tendencies to evil; there is a spirit who hates us, who, restless

in his efforts against us, will aggravate every bad tendency in us, and who gives us more than passive resistance to contend with. But, unless we go beyond our knowledge, there is in this no room for superstition: the enemy acts only through our own hearts, and through them alone can we resist him. By no superstitious follies can he be repelled, who assaults us only by means which we call natural. And on that ground are we to meet him; if evil thoughts and desires arise continually within us, it is by prayer, and faith, and watchfulness, that they must be repelled. The Spirit of God helps us as surely as the spirit of evil threatens us; but our part in following the one and resisting the other, is in all soberness and reason, with godly fear and godly love, not with fanatical confidence or superstitious fear.

RUGBY CHAPEL,

May 10th, 1835.

RUGBY CHURCH,

June 19th, 1836.