The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 155

delusive fancy that it was too soon; now he drives them to the desperate notion that it is too late. Once he flattered them with the false hope of a long and happy future, with death in the remote distance, and with means of grace not only ample but abundant, and power at pleasure to tum to God; now he tortures them with the thought that the day of graco is gone, irrevocably gone. Once he made them believe that the time to break up their fallow ground and sow to themselves ln righteousness had not yet come• now, on the contrary, he induces the belief that "the harvest is past, the summer ended' and their souls not saved. Once he deluded them with the thought that sin was only a trifle, and they were willing to lay to their soul the false unction that sin was too small a matter to incur the wrath of Heaven; now he prompts the despairing thought that their sin is too great to be forgiven, and their guilt too heinous to be ever blotted out. 4. The peace he produces. All the while he produces a sort of peace; all the while" his goods are in peace;" all the while sinners are promising themselves " peace, peace; but there is no peace," saith God, "to the wicked." Satan may promise, and even produce, a kind of peace; but that peace is perilous-it is a false peace. He may lead them into a sort of calm, but it is the lull before the storm; he may amuse them with a species of quietude, but it is the sure forerunner of the fast-approaching hurri- cane. The only true peace is that which the Spirit bestows-a." peace that passeth all understanding," a peace which the world with all its wealth cannot give, and with all its wickedness cannot take away. This peace is compared to a river: "Then shall thy peace be as a river"-a river broad and beautiful, glancing in the bright sunshine of the heaven above, and reflecting the varied beauties along its banks; a river deepening and widening at every reach, bearing health and fertility throughout its course, broadening out and expanding at last into the boundless, shoreless ocean of everlasting bliss. 5. Satan's defeat and dispossession. Though Satan be strong, there is One stronger than he-One "mighty to save," even from his grasp, and "lead captivity captive." That stronger One is the mighty Saviour, whose mission of mercy was meant to take the prey from the mighty, to bruise his head and destroy his works, and so rescue man from the thraldom of Satan and the dominion of sin. Him- self mightier than the mighty, he is "able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him." St. Luke informs us of the manner in which he effects the great emancipation. He comes upon him (i..-eMcl,v) both suddenly and by way of hostile attack. He comes upon him suddenly, and so takes him by surprise. Satan's goods are meantime in peace, and he fancies he has it all his own way, and that for ever. '!'he Saviour comes upon the heart enslaved by Satan with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word and truth of God, and immediately the chains are burst asunder and the shackles fall off. Henceforth it enjoys that freedom with which Christ makes his people free. He comes upon the sinner's soul with the power of the Spirit, con- vincing of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them to the sinner, and so the truth is brought home to the heart and conscience; not in word only, "but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." He comes upon the sinner, whose powers lay dormant, or rather "dead in trespasses and sins," and he awakens the powers that thus lay dormant, and quickens the soul, it may be long dead, into new spiritual life, and makes it "alive unto God through Christ Jesus." But with life comes light. Soon as the life-giving Spirit operates upon the mass erewhile chaotic and dead, living forces are developed, and light springs up ; the light of the glorious gospel of the grace of God shines through all that heart, however dead and dark it had been before. Every soul thus awakened, enlightened, quickened, and truly converted to God, is a victory of the Saviour over Satan-a trophy snatched from the strong one by him who thus proves himself stronger than the strong man. Every such one is evidence of Satan's defeat, and proves the destruction of his power, as also his expulsion from his usurped dominion-a. thorough and blessed dispossession of the spirit of evil. 6. Satan's armour. His offensive weapons are his snares, his devices, his wiles, his lies, his lusts; of all these we read in Scripture. Ilut he has other armour; and, as panoply has its root in 811;\.ov, or "thing moved about," as the shield, from i..-,.,, according to Donaldson, the reference may rather be to defensive armour. The parts of this armour may be reii:arded as consisting of our ignorance of God and hatred of him, our unbelief and ungodliness, hardness of heart and unrighteousness. Theophylact explains Satan's armour to be made of our  150 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. MARK. [CJJL m. l-35.