SERMON IX.

HELL ON EARTH.

"And behold the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?"-MATTHEW, VIII. 29.

THIS account of the man possessed with devils, and of his language to our Lord, of our Lord's casting the devils out of the poor sufferer, and His allowing them to enter into a herd of swine, is one that is well worth serious thought; and I think a few words on it will follow fitly after my last Sunday's sermon on Ahab and his temptations by evil spirits. In that sermon I showed you what temper of mind it was which laid a man open to the cunning of evil spirits; I wish now to show you something of what those evil spirits are. It is very little that we can know about them. We were intended to know very little, just as much as would enable us to guard against them, and no more. The accounts of them in the Scriptures are for our use, not to satisfy our curiosity. But we may find out a great

deal about them from this very chapter, from this very story, which is repeated almost word for word in three different Gospels, as if to make us more certain of so curious and important a matter, by having three distinct and independent writers to witness for its truth. I advise all those who have Bibles to look for this story in the 8th chapter of St. Matthew, and follow me as I explain it.*

Now, first, we may learn from this account, that evil spirits are real persons. There is a notion got abroad that it is only a figure of speech to talk of evil spirits, that all the Bible means by them are certain bad habits, or bad qualities, or diseases. There are many who will say when they read this story, "This poor man was only a madman. It was the fashion of the old Jews when a man was mad to say that he was possessed by evil spirits. All they meant was that the man's own spirit was

"And when He was come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And He said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters."

in an evil diseased state, or that his brain and mind were out of order."

When I hear such language-and it is very common—I cannot help thinking how pleased the devil must be to hear people talk in such a way. How can people help him better than by saying that there is no devil? A thief would be very glad to hear you say, "There are no such things as thieves; it is all an old superstition, so I may leave my house open at night without danger;" and I believe, my friends, from the very bottom of my heart, that this newfangled disbelief in evil spirits is put into men's hearts by the evil spirits themselves. As it was once said, "The devil had tried every plan to catch men's souls, and now, as the last and most cunning trick of all, he is shamming dead." These may seem homely words, but the homeliest words are very often the deepest. I advise you all to think seriously on them.

But it is impossible surely to read this story without seeing that the Bible considers evil spirits as distinct persons, just as much as each one of us is a person, and that our Lord spoke to them and treated them as persons. "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" again, "If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine?" What can show more plainly that there were some persons in that poor man, besides

And

himself, his own spirit, his own person? and that he knew it, and Jesus knew it too? and that He spoke to these spirits, these persons, who possessed that man, and not to the man himself? No doubt there was a terrible confusion in the poor madman's mind about these evil spirits, who were tormenting him, making him miserable, foul, and savage, in mind and body-a terrible confusion! We find, when Jesus asked him his name, he answers, "Legion," that is an army, a multitude, "for we are many," he says. Again, one gospel tells us that he says, "What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?" While in another Gospel we are told that he said, "What have we to do with Thee?" He seems not to have been able to distinguish between his own spirit, and these spirits who possessed him. They put the furious and despairing thoughts into his heart; they spoke through his mouth; they made a slave and a puppet of him. But though he could not distinguish between his own soul and the devils who were in it, Christ could and Christ did.

The man says to Him, or rather the devils make the man say to Him, "If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine, and drive us not out into the deep." What did Christ answer him? Christ did not answer him as our so-called wise men in these days would, "My good man, this is all a delusion, and a fancy of your own, about your having evil spirits in

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you-for you are

you more persons than one in wrong in saying we of yourself. You ought to say 'I,' as every one else does; and as for spirits going out of you, or going into a herd of swine, or any thing else, that is all a superstition and a fancy. There is nothing to come out of you, there is nothing in you except yourself. All the evil in you is your own, the disease of your own brain, and the violent passions of your own heart. Your brain must be cured by medicine, and your violent passions tamed down by care and kindness, and then you will get rid of this foolish notion, that you have evil spirits in you, and calling yourself a multitude, as if you had other persons in you besides yourself."

Any one who spoke in this manner nowadays would be thought very reasonable and very kind. Why did not our Lord speak so to this man, for there was no outward difference between this man's conduct and that of many violent mad people whom we see continually in our land? We read, that this man possessed with devils would wear no clothes; that he had extraordinary strength; that he would not keep company with other men, but abode day and night in the tombs, exceedingly fierce, crying and cutting himself with stones, trying, in blind rage, which he could not explain to himself, to hurt himself and all who came near him. And, above all, he had this notion, that evil spirits had