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This is the most detailed and important account given in the Gospels of demoniacal possession. Some are content to identify this phenomenon with lunacy or epilepsy, and suppose that our Lord used current phraseology upon the subject, although it expressed a popular delusion. We are slow to accept an explanation which would seem to credit him, who was always true, and himself "the Truth," with thus sanctioning error; especially as he used the same language when he was alone with his disciples, to whom he raid it was "given to know the mysteries of the kingdom" (Mark 9:28, 29). On the other hand," possession "was not identical with moral degradation. The idea that Mary Magdalene was one of peculiarly evil life, because "out of her the Lord cast seven demons," is untenable; and there is little doubt that Caiaphas, who was shrewd, callous, and self-controlled to the last, was morally worse than such sufferers. Yet a weak yielding to animal passions was possibly the primary cause of possession by evil spirits, in whose existence we cannot but believe. Good was incarnate in those days, and evil also appeared as in a special sense incarnate. Buckle shows that there have been ebb and flow in the currents of national history; and so there have been in moral history, and in the days of our Lord spiritual forces were at the flood. The more we study the works and the Word of God, the more we are convinced that the inexplicable is not to reverently thoughtful men incredible or absurd. We enter on the study of this scene not with the hope of elucidating all mystery, but with the prayer that we may gain from it some spiritual help. Depicted as it is in strong, dark colors, it may enable us to understand the nature of Christ's work in the soul. We see here -

I. A MAN UNDER BONDAGE TO evil. The expression an "unclean" spirit, and the strange willingness to enter "the swine," denote the nature of the man. By the indulgence of appetite habit had conquered will, and he had no mastery over himself. That is the essence of "possession." Modern forms of it are not difficult to find. Describe the drunkard in his downward progress. At last, although he knows that ruin is before him, if temptation is in his way, his resolutions go to the winds. He is fascinated, or "possessed. So with the gambler and others. The condition of the demoniac resembled theirs. Domestic comfort was gone; the respect of others was lost; life was laid waste. He could see fingers pointing at him, eyes glaring on him, hell yawning for him, and his foes seemed coming on him resistlessly as the advance of the dreaded Roman legion." Notice also the deranging effects of evil. He was "dwelling in the tombs" - a dreary, fearsome place, in harmony with his melancholy state. "All they that hate me, love death." The prodigal must "come to himself" before he returns to the Father. As this demoniac cut himself with stones, caring nothing for pain, so some destroy their moral sensibility; as he was a cause of misery or of terror, so is it with them; as he dreaded the near approach of a Judge he could not deceive, of a King he could not escape, so do they. Beware of tampering with sin.

II. A MAN CASTING OFF HUMAN RESTRAINTS. He was not without those who loved him. They had done their best to restrain or cure him. As they saw the growth of the evil, his parents would try to make the home attractive, inviting companions who would divert his thought; sisters would give up their innocent pleasure to fall in with his wishes; and when the outburst came, he was "bound with fetters and chains," lest he should harm himself or others. All in vain. Human restraint will never conquer moral evil. It represses it or alters its form, but does not root it out. The disorder and restlessness now seen in society portend serious issues, and indicate a breaking down of much in our boasted civilization. Education only changes Bill Sykes, the burglar, into Carker, the smooth, lying in lain. We may restrain dishonesty, drunkenness, swearing, etc., so that they are no longer in respectable homes; but though we shut our eyes to the fact, the demoniac has only slipped his chains, and is there in "the tombs" and dens of our land. Parental restraint does much, but a time comes when independence and self-assertion make themselves felt, and the father or mother can only pray. Speak to those who still remember the old home in which they were so different from what they are now.

III. A MAN MEETING HIS SAVIOUR. With his morbidly quickened sensibility he knew who Jesus was, and had a presentiment of what was coming. His abject prostration, coupled with his daring misuse of the sacred name, indicate the distraction and disorder characterizing him. Christ dealt with him wisely, firmly, lovingly. He asked, "What is thy name?" He tried to summon the man's better self, to bring about a severance in his thought between himself and the evil; he gave him time to think what need he had of help, and what hope and possibility there was of it. Then to the demons came the decisive word, "Go!" and in a short time he was to be seen "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." In each of us the dominion of sin must be broken, and Christ only can break it. Appeal to those who have long been under the dominion of sin, not to despair of themselves, on the ground that Christ does not despair of them. It was when his friends had given up this demoniac as hopeless that his redemption came. So, when self-reform has proved useless, and benefactors fail, and friends lose heart, he proves "able to save to the uttermost." Dealing pitifully with the sinner, he deals ruthlessly with his sin, and will hurl it into the depths of the sea. - A.R.

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KJV: And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

WEB: When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs.