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LECTURE XIV.

NATURE SITTING AT THE FEET OF JESUS.

And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again. Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath done for thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great thing Jesus had done unto him.-LUKE viii. 26–39.

THE passage which is parallel to this, and which contains in substance the same sentiment, in words little different, is in Mark v., where we read, "And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with a devil, and had the

legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. And when Jesus was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis [that is, in the city] how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel."

In my last lecture I described at length the historical portion of the very remarkable, and, in some respects, difficult miracle, the record of which I have now read. I do not here recapitulate, but proceed to notice two grand features in the close of the parable: first, the position in which the man was found; and, secondly, the duty which our Lord devolved upon him.

The position in which he was found, we are told, was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. How interesting is this spectacle! how appropriate the seat selected by the recovered demoniac! It was the place of nearness to Jesus, and intimate communion with him. From that blessed source he had received a great and unspeakable blessing, and to that Lord his love and gratitude taught him to cling and cleave closer and closer. Perhaps he selected this place also as the site of safety. The man feared that there might be a return of the evil spirits that had departed from him, and therefore he sat near to him who alone was mighty to exorcise them, and in whose presence alone he thought he would be able to prevent their ultimate return. Or perhaps his sitting at the feet of Jesus may denote that, having been delivered from the grievous curse under which he groaned, he may have now been seeking that instruction which was requisite to guide and to direct him. I need not say that sitting at the feet of one

is a Scripture phrase for becoming a pupil or scholar to one. Thus, we read that God called Abraham to his feet-that is, placed Abraham in the position and relation of a pupil to be instructed by God, the great Teacher of his family. Thus, we read that Saul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel that is, was taught by him. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus-that is, listened to him, and learned from his lips new lessons of love, responsibility, and duty. Thus the recovered Gadarene sat at the feet of Jesus, seeking, no doubt, to be instructed by him. And so far he is a precedent for us. If we have felt the power of Christ as our Deliverer from condemnation, our very first duty is to draw near to him and ask him to be our Teacher also. We need not only emancipation from the curse of sin by his most precious blood, but also direction, teaching, instruction, line upon line, from his holy and sacred lips. And if we go to him, he will teach us to count all but loss for the excellency of him who has saved us with a high hand and an outstretched arm; to prefer a day in his courts to a thousand in the gates of sin; to leave all we love, and brave all we dread, and follow him; he will teach us to rest in him, and wait patiently for him, in all time of our tribulation; to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

What occurred in the case of the demoniac is only a foreshadow of what will take place in the state of all creation. The author of that power which racks the earth is Satan, the great usurper; the cause of atrocious crimes, the source of many an evil, unholy, and awful suggestion, is the presence, not of a figment, a fiction, or a figure, as infidels imagine, but of a personal being, possessed of the archangel's wisdom, the fiend's depravity, and the archangel's power to use that wisdom and apply that depravity to mankind.

But the day comes, we are told, when Satan

shall fall like lightning from heaven; when this earth, that groans and travails, waiting to be delivered, shall be healed, and its fever laid, and the demons cast out, and holiness, and happiness, and beauty, and loyalty, and love shall overflow all, like a mighty and unfathomable sea. This demoniac recovered was an earnest of it. I explained in previous passages, that the miracles of our Lord were not simply acts of power, or expressions of beneficence, but that they were earnests, foreshadows, pledges of the grand and universal emancipation that will yet dawn upon the world. What is miracle now will be nature in the age to Our discoveries and our sciences are efforts to hasten its arrival, and to actualize the prophecies that predict it. What is medicine? It is, if I may so speak, a portion of the virtue the woman received from the skirt of Jesus' garment, left to tell us that disease is not supreme, that there are portions left of his remedial powers, that we are not to despair but to hope. There is enough in medicine to keep us from despair; there is not enough to prevent us from longing for the great Physician to come and heal all: there is just enough to be an earnest and a pledge. of that universal redemption when there shall be no more sickness, nor sorrow, nor death.

come.

Having noticed this position, which is perhaps the least important and instructive, I now proceed to examine one that, to my mind, is exceedingly beautiful and interesting. The demoniac went to Jesus, and begged of him that he might be allowed to remain with him, or to accompany him. Jesus said to him, "No, go home, and tell your family what great things God has done for you." Why did the demoniac recovered wish to be with Jesus, and so to accompany him in all his travels and his journeys? He might perhaps have recollected, not the words, because he had not been taught them, but the fact of which the words are the descrip

tion, recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chap. xii. 43. "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my own house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." The poor man expected some such recurrence as this, at least he feared it; he no doubt rejoiced in the deliverance he had felt, but he rejoiced with trembling. He was alarmed lest the spirits that had left him should return with more, and should take possession of him again, and so his last state should be worse than the first. Therefore he says, "Let me be with him that delivered me, for he alone can defend me; let me be with him that had power to expel the demons that dwelt in me, for in him. alone shall I find a sure shelter from their next desperate assault." But is there not embodied in the conduct of this poor recovered man a precedent for us? If we have obtained any thing from Christ for which we feel thankful, we shall be jealous lest we lose it. If we have received the forgiveness of our sins, the spirit of adoption for the spirit of bondage, if we have obtained joy for sorrow, and hope for despair, we shall be anxious to guard the precious and deeply valued deposit thus mercifully intrusted to our charge. What can be more natural than to flee to him who gave the blessing in his goodness, in order that he may guard it by his power in the bosom in which he has implanted it. He has little who is not alive to the defence of that little. A life that comes from Christ will ever creep close to Christ for its maintenance; and a blessing that we feel to have been derived from his hand, we shall beg of him in his goodness to preserve unimpaired, and to perpe