The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 216

tu be e. trustworthy guide ae to events which are out of the plane or ordinary lif11. Somewhere, somehow, the work done ie reconcilable with the true nature of things, with t.he mercy o.nd the truth which o.re o.round o.ll God's po.the. Observe two point.II by wo.y of pro.ctical improvement. J. To TH.E DEM0NIA0 HIMSEl,11' THERE WAB GIVEN A TESTIMONY NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN 011' THE BIN AND MISERY ll'BOM WHICH TI.IE STRONGER THAN THE BTB0NG ONE RAD DELIVERED HIM, The effect on character, the influence which some e.ctiou or course of conduct would ho.ve in the establishment of trust in himself or in the cduco.tion of the disciple, was alwo.ys before the mind of Christ. Now, what o.n evidence-in a form which one whose shattered intellect was not yet folly restored could understand-was given of the awful waste of spiritual life, the awful force of an untrained, uneanctified nature, by the sight of that precipitate rush down the eteep place into the sea I Recollect, too, that, according to the correspondences of Scripture, tl1ese swine represent the more bestial and corrupt propensities of our nature. Pascal, in one of his most cynical sayings, speaks of man as "half-beast, half-devil." There is something of the beast in men ; and what happened that day is the token of what does happen when the lower animal is acted on by spirits of malignity or darkness-when, from some cause operating from without, that which is animal is acted on by that which is devilish. Is not that same violent rushing down steep places of poor animalized beingd, their true life checked and destroyed, witnessed every day? Do we not constantly see infatuations similar to that portrayed in the herd of swine? In England more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons die every year directly in consequence of indulgence in strong drink. If, as has been asked, there was such a destruction of cattle or swine in the country, what attention would be called to it! what a host of remedies and measures with a view to its pre- vention would be propounded! But the matter passes with little notice. Undoubtedly, the event at Gergesa is a sign of what mere carnal appetite, when fed by some exciting cause, brings about; and, being so, it is a standing witness for the blessing~ of his salvation, whose gospel is a new order as well as a new life, who controls what is lawless by the law of liberty, and at whose feet the man from whom devils are departed sits clothed and in his right mind. II. 'l'o ALL 011' US THERE IS A SAD SIGNIFICANOE IN THE CONDUCT 011' TIIE GADABENES, 'l'he two facts befure them were-the swine lost, and the man gained. Which of the two was the greater? The swine lost. That spoke to them of a fearful power in the Man who had landed on their shore. Perhaps their consciences were uneasy. If they were Jews, an!l some of them must have been, they knew that, fur the purpose of i:ain, they had broken Moses' Law. Why should he continue in their midst whose glance burnt like an oven? .Anyhow, instead of remembering what attracted and spoke of healing in the cure of the mao, they remember only what had caused them loss in the destruction of the swine. "Away!" they cry, "thou holy and terrible One! We don't wish to be disturbed in our way. Trouble us no longer!" Fearful prayer! Bnt do not more than the Gadarenes pray it? Are there not many whose secret he"rt protests, "Let us alone, Lord God I Let us make money as best we can; eat, drink, and enjoy ourselves. Away with the spiritual-with Church, with God I Give us our swine, and let heaven go I" Fearful prayer, and fearful answer I "God I\IlSWers sharp and sudden on some prayers, and flings the thing we have asked for in our face-o. gauntlet with a gift in it." " He entered into e. boat, and returned." There is only one of another spirit in the multitude. He who a few minutes before had cried, " What have I to do with thee?" now beseeches, like Ruth of old, "Entreat me not to leave thee: where thou goest I will go, and where thou dwellest I will dwell." Nay, he must remain-Christ's missionary and witness to his unbelieving countrymen. Not to luxuriate in him, but to live and work for him, is the call to the redeemed. "And he went hi11 way, publi~hing throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done fur him." Vere. 41-56.-Jairus, and what hrrppened on the way to hi~ house. A beautiful Scripture, whose beauty we feel all the more that, in this Gospel, it follows the rejection of Christ by the "witless Gadarenes." Its exact place in the history cannot wi,h ccrtaiuty be fi.x.ed; for the accounts of the three synopti,ts rMy a~ tu the timt 21f> THE G-OSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. mt. 1-G8,