conspicuous feature also Avas the homage paid by the e\il power, or by the man in spite of the evil power, to the authoritj- of Jesus (Mk 5', Lk 8^).
The case belongs to those described hy Clouston as ' states of mental exaltation or mania,' whicli includes the varieties simple, acute, delusional, chronic, ephemeral, homicidal ; and the indications all point to acute mania with delusions. The fixed idea of plural possession would lead to the medical classification 'Demonomania.'a variety of 'religions mania.'
i. Other cases. — (1) The daughter of the Syro- phcenician woman, :Mt 15-^"^, Mk 7-^--^ (2) The dumb demoniac, Mt 9^--*^, Lk 11'^ ^'\ (3) The l)lind and dumb demoniac, ISIt 12--"-^. These cases are not described except in most obscure terms. In (2) and (3) the interest of the narrator was fixed upon other elements of the occasion. And they would all be doubtfully classified as cases of lunacy. (4) Mary of Magdala (Mk 16'', Lk 8-), with whom are classed other women healed of evil spirits and in- firmities. Mary Magdalene is said to have been delivered from seven demons. The expression may be due (a) to the Evangelist's sense of the violence of the derangement to which she had been subject, or (b) to the current idea of manifold jiossession among the disciples, to which Jesus gave no sanction, or (c) to mania and delusion of manifold possession. But nothing can be determined beyond the fact that Jesus had delivered her from grievous bodilj' or mental distress, or a combination of these.
The Evangelists give full prominence to the phj'sical .side of these distressing afflictions, not because they understand the symptoms thej' de- sci-ibe, but because they testify simply and artlessly to what they had themselves witnessed, or what had become part of the common tradition from the testimonj' of eye-witnes.ses. But the plij^sical is not the only side. Even in bodily disorders it is being more fully recognized that there is the mental or psychical factor in the problem as it faces the plij'sician (see art. Cures). And the NT plainly sets forth this 2>sychical element in the cases now before us. They ascribe the trouble directly to an intangible spiritual influence which possesses the being of the sufl'erer, takes the use of the bodily organs, and controls the will. And thus emerges —
iii. The question as to possession by evil SPIRITS. — How far does the NT in attributing these disorders to demonic possession give a true account of the phenomenon ? The question is not to be determined bj" invoking authority, either that of the NT or of our Lord Jesus Christ. The authoritj- of the Gospels is of a totally differ- ent order, and moves in a higher sphere than that of writers who were ' supernaturallj' ' lifted above the current conceptions of their generation. We have no warrant for believing the Evangelists to have been granted knowledge of mental disease in advance of the scientific attainments of their own day. Nor can inquirj' be silenced by tiie apjjeal to the fact that our Lord Himself habitually spoke and acted as if He recognized the presence of evil spirits in mental disease. The Christian apologist takes unnecessarilj- jierilous ground when he de- clares that for our Lord to have been limited in knowledge invalidates His authority as Prophet and Saviour. In His condition as incarnate our Lord did share the limitations that belong to our human lot, and advanced in knowledge of human affairs and scientific problems by normal human pi'ocesses.
But it is equally important that the matter should not be dogmatized otl the roll of discussion bj' those who claim to speak in the name of science and declare that the NT explanation is ' impossible '
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LUNATIC
LUNATIC
on the ground that spirittial agencies do not exist. The question, if left oj^en, must be open on both sides ; and there are certain considerations whicli must be borne in mind wliile we examine the pos- sibility of sjiiritual agencies being concerned, as concomitants of tlie physical disease or nervous instability, in cases of mental derangement, whether in NT times or in the present day.
( 1 ) We must guard ourselves from the conception of these evil spiritual agencies as semi-sensuous beings, possessed of bodily form, appetites and passions. The conception has vitiated human thought from early Semitic times, in the NT age, through the Middle Ages down to the present, when it is even yet strangely persistent. The popular thought of Satan is grotesquely dominated by that idea, and much of the prevalent disbelief in the existence of a sjuritual adversary can be traced to that gross misconception.
(2) Kindred to this is the thought of a multi- plicity of demons being concerned in the possession of a human life. This idea has been responsible for much false conception in the case of the Gera- sene sufferer. And it cannot be too strongly emphasized that nowhere does our Lord give the least sanction to any such notion. He never speaks of more than one evil or unclean spirit (see Alexander, Demonic Possession, ch. vii. ).
(3) In place of misconceptions, a right conception needs to l)e grasped of the malignant powers that can make a prey of an otherAvise disordered human life. So far from the idea of semi-sensuous beings repre- senting the truth, it would be far truer to think of possession as akin to the condition seen in intense anger, or extreme fear. ' Anytliing is a possession that dispossesses the man of himself, from Avhatever world it comes' (Bushnell). We are yet far from being able to define the nature of mind or spirit. We believe in mind on the ground of its manifest action in the directing of our human activities, because of the things it creates and destroys. But what mind is, passes our power to conceive and define. And the same is true of spirit. But we can make no progress in understanding the Universe and our human life within it, except on the as- sumption of a Supreme and Holy Intelligence and Will behind all physical and mental phenomena. We believe in a living Personal God, and the faith illumines all life and being. Moreover, we are ourselves personalities constantly acting upon, and being acted upon by, other personalities. A moral world is inconceivable on any other terms. And is it unreasonable if we decline to admit the impos- sibilitj' of other superhuman personalities, some of them centres of benignant and others of malignant moral energy, being present and active in and upon our life here ? Who can reasonably deny that such evil agencies may conceivably take advantage of an unstable nervous system or a disordered physical constitution, and possess and control the whole being ?