request received a most remarkable answer. The whole passage is singularly instructive.
Let us observe, in the first place, that the Gadarenes besought our Lord to depart from them, and their request teas granted. We read these painfully solemn words — " He went up into the ship, and returned back again."
Now why did these unhappy'men desire the Son of God to leave them? Why, after the amazing miracle of mercy which had just been wrought among them, did they feel no wish to know more of Him who wrought it ? Why, in a word, did they become their own enemies, forsake their own mercies, and shut the door against the Gospel P — There is but one answer to these ques- tions. The Gadarenes loved the world, and the things of the world, and were determined not to give them up. They felt convinced, in their own consciences, that they could not receive Christ among them and keep their sins, and their sins they were resolved to keep. They saw, at a glance, that there was something about Jesus with which their habits of life would never agree, and having to choose between the new ways and their own old ones, they refused the new and chose the old.
And why did our Lord Jesus Christ grant the request of the Gadarenes, and leave them P He did it in judg- ment, to testify His sense of the greatness of their sin. He did it in mercy to His Church in every age, to show how great is the wickedness of those who wilfully reject the truth. It seems an eternal law of His government, that those who obstinately refuse to walk in the light shall have the light taken from them. Great is Christ's patience and longsuffering ! His mercy endureth for