The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 79

eons of God co.me together o.nd presented themselves before the Lord, Satan came amon"' them o.nd put in o.n appearance too. Nor can it be reasonably doubted that he con~ tinues his custom of frequenting the place of religious assemblies still. To the present hour he is sometimes with the preacher in the pulpit, sometimes with the hearer in the pew, though in neither case to help, but, whether with preacher or auditor, to hinder and to hurt. So in the instance before us. X. THE SAVIOUR'S REFUSAL OF BUCH ACKNOWLEDGMENT. His acknowledgment of the Saviour is sternly rebuked. "Be muzzled ( ,p,µt1,9ti.,.,) and come out of him 1" was our Lord's indignant command. The acknowledgment, we therefore conclude, was either the expression of fawning fear, or rather an effort of fiendish malice to compromise the Saviour's character, as though in league with Satanic power and the spirits of evil. If so, our Lord's acceptance of such acknowledgment would have tended to discredit his mission and to damage his work. Demons knew him, for Satan, their chief, had followed him on his mission of mercy to man. He had dogged his steps as if to find out his true relationship-if indeed he was the Son of God-and to foil and frustrate, as far as practicable, his redemptive work. He had encountered him in the wilderness, and by his own defeat had learnt with certainty that he was in truth the Holy One of God. XI. A KNOWLEDGE THAT IS NOT BA VINO. Though demons knew and confessed the Son of God, they had nothing to do with him, so that they could truly say, "What have we to do with thee?" Sad thought I These lost ones had nothing to expect at his hand but further, fuller, and final destruction. Alas I that any should know Christ as these evil spirits, acknowledge him, and yet have neither part nor lot in the matter! There is a knowledge that does not save, for it lodges in the head and never touches the heart; it makes itself known by profession, but never manifests itself in practice. There is a faith that only genders fear, but never gains forgiveness nor goes the length of favour; for devils believe and tremble. Blessed be God for the truth which, brought home to the understanding and heart and conscience by the Holy Spirit, saves the soul : "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" ! XII. SATAN AND ms SERVANTS EVERMORE EVIL. The unclean spirit was coerced into obedience. When reluctantly compelled to obey, he resolved to work all the mischief possible. He tore or convulsed (=apcl(cu,) the man," threw him (~l,j,a11) in the midst," as Luke informs us, but yet bad no more that he could do, for he was obliged to come out without doing him any real or permanent bodily injury (µ116~., .13;,..d,j,av). "It is much easier," says an old divine, "to keep him (Satan) out than to cast him out." And now heaven had acknowledged the Messiah; hell, 11.S we have just seen, had to own him; while it remained for earth to confess its King.--J. J. G. Vera. 29-34. Parallel passages: Matt. viii. 14-17; Luke iv. 38--41.-The oore of Peter's wife's mother and others. I. FEVER OP A VIRULENT TYPE. That St. Peter was a married man appears not only from this mention of his mother-in-law, but also from the reference of St. Paul (1 Cor. ix. 5), "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, e.e well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?" But, nenr and dear ns Peter was to the Saviour, he was not exempted from the common lot ; hie home was visited with sickness. Nor was it a mere slight indisposition. Fever o! almost any type is a painful, wasting, and distressing malady. 'rhe present attack was one of no little severity, for St. Luke, a physician by profession, and so capable of accurate diagnosis, calls it a great or violent fever ( ,rvp<T,jj µf")'d>..'I' ). " Anon they tell him of her." The persons who did so may have been Peter and Andrew, who bad come to reside at Capernaum, and who, as St. Mark with his usual particularity here informs us, were joint-occupants of one house after they had removed from Bethsaida (" place of fishing"), their native place. Or it may have been the domestics; or rather, perhaps, the subject is left indeterminate. In any case, it was the right thing to do. At any time of sickness, and whatever be the nature of the disease, we should first go to God, theu to the physician; first have recourse to prayer, then to the use of means. Similar in spirit is the injunction, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and I.et them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." ll THE :MODE OF CURE. The cure was another manifestation of Divine power, as  76 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. MARK. [OB. t.1-45.