The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 240

"see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting." Ah. I there is a change, and clear evidence of it. What a subject for a pain.ting I 'l.'he madman is come to. h~s right Il:lind; the maniac is tamed; reason, that godlike faculty, is restored; lus tierceness 1s subdued. The anguish of his spirit has subsided ; his wild cries havfl ceased; his self-inflicted bodily pains-those shocking wounds-are healed. People talk of the man who could tame the most savage horses, and hold them for a ~ime as if spell-bound; they speak of menagerie-men who can tame lions and conquer bears; they )aud the poet's co~ic humour in his piece entitled 'The Taming of the Shrew;' but t~e tammg; of shrew, or hon, or bear, or horse is nothing compared with the taming of this demomac man, or of any othe! man whose fierce passions have been let loose, whose so:tl and body have been suhJected to Satan's sway, and whose wicked and wayward cru-eer has been marked with as bad, if not worse, than demoniac madness. There he sits I as though the lion had become a lamb; as thouuh 0 the tiuer had forgotten his fury, and laid aside his fierceness; as thou"h the bear had cha~ged its nature, and become a mild domestic creature--an embl:m of that better day when all men shall become such, and a foreshadow of that coming time which the prophet describes so beautifully, when "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together." 3. His posture a proof of docility. There be sits,,with the docility of the child and the guileless simplicity of the Christian. There he sits, as Saul did in the days of his youth, an apt scholar at the feet of Gamaliel. Rather, there he sits, as Mary, at the feet of the same Saviour who bestowed on her the high encomium, "One thing is needful : and Mary hath chosen the good part, that shall not be taken away from her." There he sits, with thoughtful countenance and attentive mind, and listening ear, to drink in every word that falls from the Saviour's lips. There he sits, humbly at the Saviour's feet, while his eye rests placidly on that Saviour's face, as though he said," Lord, how I love thee for all thy grace to me! Lord, what wilt thou have me to do, that I may express that warm love which glows in my breast, and exhibit the effects of that wondrous grace?" It is thus with every converted sinner. We sit at Jesus' feet, and whether he speaks himself to us in his Word, or by his servants who preach to us from that Word, or by his Spirit who applies that Word, it is all the same. Willingly we will lose no lesson, we will miss no opportunity, we will neglect no means of grace, where we expect that Jesus will manifest himself to our souls and talk to us by the way, opening to us the Scriptures. 'l'be whole of the hundred ailll. nineteenth psalm is a commentary on this teachableness of spirit, and willingness to sh at the Master's feet; vers. 33--40 inclusive may be specially read in this connection. Down to old age we will sit at the Saviour's feet, in order to learn of him. Like Simeon, like Anna, like the picture of the righteous set before ns in the ninety-second psalm, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." Now, who are they, and where are they, that flourish so? "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." And when and why do they flourish so? " They shall still bring forth fruit in old age," and " to show that 1 he Lord is upright." We are bound to make all due allowance for the decay of nature and such weakness as is incident to the decline of life; but it is distressing to fin.I at times the aged magnifying their infirmities as an excuse for absenting themselves from the house of God; worse still, perhaps, when they stay away without pretending any excuse. It is one of the worst signs; for none that ever truly followed the Lord in youth or in maturity ever forsook him in old age. Werememberwell seeing a very old man, much above ninety years of age, helped into his pew in church every sabbath; and there was the patriarchal man leaning on his staff, as he sat at Jesus' feet, a devout and venerable and earnest worshipper. Even when age may have blunted the faculties and dulled the hearing, it is still our duty to forsake not the as~ombling of ourselves with the people of God. We knew the case of a deaf man who, though he could not hear a word preached, came regularly to church, because, as he said, he could see to read the psalmB and lessons and other parts of the ~ervice, and in any case could ~el_p the attendance by his presence and example. 4. His pltice of safety was tltere. '!his demoniac sat at Je8us' feet/or safety. May we suppose that he had heard of the man, of whom we read in the parallel passage of another Gospel (Luke xi.), from whom the unclean spirit, having gone out, came back again with seven other spirits more wicked OH, V, 1-43,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 237