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devils which held possession of his frame were so many, that they took to themselves the name of Legion. They addressed Christ with fear and trembling. He, in return, acknowledged their presence, and commanded them to come out; and as they were obeying his authority, they sought and obtained permission to enter into a herd of swine; which they no sooner did than they drove the herd headlong into the sea, while the man they left was restored to his right mind, and became a humble follower of Jesus. Now, taking this case as a specimen of the whole class, and regarding what it relates, for the present, as true, in the plain and literal sense, there are two points of great importance connected with the work and character of Christ, which would thereby be established and brought distinctly into view. 1. In the first place, such cases clearly proved Christ to be the enemy and conqueror of the powers of darkness which he must have been, if indeed the Messiah and Saviour of the world. To bruise the head of the serpent, was from the first the work which he was promised and expected to do in behalf of the Church. And hence, when doing the work, he is said to have spoiled principalities and powers-not as an incidental or subordinate thing, but one that entered into the very heart of his undertaking, and the doing of which carried along with it the execution of the whole work with which he was charged. For these principalities and powers held in their hands the cup of Heaven's wrath, due to the sons of men, and only by lawfully contending with, and spoiling these mighty spoilers, could Christ prevail to bring in redemption for the guilty. And it is not possible to conceive how the truth concerning him in this respect could be more impressively taught, or how his claims to the character of Messiah could be more clearly verified, than by ever and anon meeting with persons oppressed of the devil, and relieving them of their oppression. 2. But further: the same cases, supposing them to be real, render clear as day the essential difference between the character of Satan's working and that of Christ. The subtile device of his enemies to undo the impression that ought to have been produced by his miraculous deeds, was to get up the cry that these were performed, not by Divine, but by Satanic agency; and in particular, that he cast out devils by the power of the prince of the devils. Nothing more was needed to prove the fallacy of this, nothing could have so conclusively and satisfactorily proved it, as the effects of his interposition, compared with the working of the powers of darkness in the cases referred to. The hapless victim of these emissaries of hell, as in the case among the Gadarenes, was rendered a spectacle of misery and ruin; while the moment he came under the operation of Christ's hand, he was restored to perfect soundness both of body and of mind. And to put it beyond all doubt that in their case this was no accidental thing, that wherever the instruments of Satan are permitted to work, the signs and manifestations of their working will be precisely the same, they were allowed to change their abode-after leaving the rational being, in whom they had defaced the image of God, to pass into irrational creatures, whom they presently sent headlong into destruction. The evil, in such cases, was not

Christ's, but Satan's-permitted, and directed into certain channels, as all evil is, for the accomplishment of an ultimate good. The good here was, to bring out clearly and distinctly, in a manner impossible to be mistaken, the utter contrariety between His working and Satan's-to show that the one was ever exerted to heal, rectify, and restore; the other, to blight, desolate, and destroy. To mistake the one for the other, as some of the Pharisees still did, and ascribe Christ's ejection of the devils to the power of Beelzebub, was to manifest that they had lost sight of the essential distinctions between good and evil-that they confounded heaven and hell, and had reached that state of impenetrable blindness and seared obstinacy to which the grace of forgiveness is not promised; hence, it is in immediate connection with such amazing perversity that our Lord utters the awful warning concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost.-Matt. xii. 31. This, however, does not hinder but that the exercise of Christ's power on those devil-possessed persons was in itself fitted, and in all ordinary cases sufficient, to render manifest the opposition between the character of Christ's working and Satan's, and to prove that he indeed came, not to build up, but to "destroy, the works of the devil.”

Then, while we see that cases of demoniacal possession, as first existing and then cured by Christ, were fitted to disclose and verify the truth concerning two points, each of them essentially connected with the design and character of his undertaking, it is in perfect accordance with the other parts of his work on earth to suppose that these should have received the proof and confirmation we speak of; for the whole of Christ's course of action was ordered and arranged so as to bring out, on the visible field of an earthly life, what he came to do in the higher region of a spiritual and eternal life. As Messiah, he did not properly come to operate cures upon men's bodies, but to seek and save their souls. And yet we find a great part of his ministerial life spent, and nearly all his public works performed, with an immediate design of benefiting the body-works performed, therefore, not so much for their own sake, as for the signs and indications they were to give respecting the grand object of his mission into the world; so that, as he himself testified, men might "believe him for the very works' sake." They were mostly miraculous works, not simply because such were necessary to attest his divine character, but also because his work of redemption, which they were designed to throw light upon, and prepare the way for, was to be one glorious and continued miracle-changing at every step the course of nature, and reversing the order of its operations. Dark minds must, by the divine touch, be enlightened, and dull hearts aroused; therefore were the eyes of the blind opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Souls dead in trespasses and sins must be quickened, and their many spiritual disorders rectified; therefore did the grave hear his voice, and diseases of all kinds disappear at his command. So, indeed, in regard to all the great departments of his mighty work of redemption. We have only to look into the deeds of his life to see there the proof of them, and the preparation for them. And unless the two important points formerly noticed-the victorious

THE STRANGE APATHY OF PARENTS, &c.

opposition he was to make to the power of Satan, and the entire contrast between the character of his working and that of the prince of darkness-unless these were to have been made exceptions to the general rule, and no light to be thrown on them, no proof to be given of them, during our Lord's ministerial course, it was indispensable that there should have been cases in which the powers of darkness held an usurped possession, and were driven from it by the authority of Christ.

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for the reasons just mentioned in connection with the work of Christ, such cases of possession were more numerous, or more aggravated then, it is perhaps the whole length we are either called or warranted to go. The symptoms of bodily disease or mental derangement belonging to them may have been, according to the second objection specified, not materially different from certain evil affections, common to all times and ages; but who can tell how far even these may be produced by infernal agency? May not all evil, in some Besides all this, the language of Scripture on the way or another, be produced by the instrumentsubject is so plain and so decided, that no simple-ality of "spiritual wickedness ?" The blessed spirits, minded Christian can read what is written with any other impression, than that devils did actually possess the persons in question, and were actually expelled by Christ. If these devils existed only in the imaginations of the people, and the evil affections ascribed to them sprung from other and more ordinary causes, it would be impossible to avoid the conviction that both our Lord and his apostles had encouraged a weak and pernicious delusion, and sought to advance their own reputation by playing upon the credulities of men. Every pious mind will abhor the thought of this; and especially when the shallow nature of the reasons is taken into account which have sometimes been alleged for a different view of the cases in question. Of these reasons there are only two worth noticing, viz., that such possessions were so peculiar and extraordinary, that their existence should not be allowed, unless absolutely inexplicable otherwise, and that the symptoms were such as seem capable of explanation from other and more likely causes.

And

In regard to the former, we have simply to ask, Was not the time also peculiar and extraordinary must not the circumstances then existing, and the events then occurring, be suitably adapted to it? It was the time in which Heaven's great Messenger appeared, to bring in salvation for a lost world, which was so pre-eminently the work of God, that the execution of it forms the very centre of the world's his tory. "It is the greatest event in the annals of all time; the former ages had been a preparation for it, -the latter unroll from it." But if such was the character of the time, is it not reasonable to expect that peculiar circumstances would distinguish it, and that things would even be absolutely necessary, which at any other time might well have been regarded as out of place as extraordinary or incredible? The field must have been in many respects a singular one, which was properly fitted to serve the purposes and exhibit the character of an incarnate God. And if infinite wisdom needed to be at work through preceding ages, fitly arranging and ordering the time of his appearing, the same wisdom was not less needed to gather around him, when he appeared, the precise combination of circumstances and objects which might render the history of his life and death a suitable instruction for all ages. So that, if such possessions of the powers of darkness were found in no other age of the world, it would argue nothing against their existence then, when, as we have seen, the grandest purposes of God required them.

But, in reference to this supposed singularity of their occurrence at that particular time, we are not sure how far it should be allowed. If we admit that,

we are told, minister in offices of kindness to the heirs of salvation; and may not accursed spirits be even employed in offices of an opposite kind? Satan is the immediate instrument of Job's afflictions, as well as of David's fall. An evil spirit from the Lord troubles Saul, visiting him with what might fitly be called a species of madness-an angel slays the host of Assyria, as he had done, ages before, the first-born of Egypt. In fine, there is no ground for disputing the existence of demoniacal possessions in the age of our Lord, which would not equally go to discredit, in general, the agency of good and evil spirits in the divine government of this world, or their existence altogether as active beings and ministers of God. And no one, we are persuaded, can consistently deny the plain testimony of Scripture regarding demoniacal possessions, without being prepared to adopt the Sadducean creed: No angel-no spirit-no resurrection from the dead. Let us rather say with the father of the possessed: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

THE STRANGE APATHY OF PARENTS
REGARDING THE SOULS OF

THEIR CHILDREN.

How strange it is that the same parent who is so
intent on the preferment of his children, in the
world, should be so utterly listless of their pro-
spects, nor put forth one endeavour to obtain for
them preferment in heaven-that he who would
mourn over it as the sorest of his family trials,
should one of them be bereft of any of the corporeal
senses, should yet take it so easily, although none of
them have a right sense of God or a right principle
of godliness-that he who would be so sorely as-
tounded did any of his little ones perish in a confla-
gration or a storm, should be so unmoved by all the
fearful things that are reported of the region on the
other side of death, where the fury of an incensed
Lawgiver is poured upon all who have not fled to
Christ as their refuge from the tempest, and they are
made to lie down in the devouring fire, and to dwell
with everlasting burnings-that to avert from the
objects of our tenderness the calamities, or to obtain
for them the good things, of this present life, there
shall be so much of care and of busy expedient-
while not one practical measure is taken either to
avert from them that calamity which is the most
dreadful, or to secure for them that felicity which
is the most glorious!
The man whose
heart is set on the conversion of his children-the
man whose house is their school of discipline for
eternity-he it is, and we fear he only of all other

parents, who lives by faith. If you love your children, and at the same time are listless about their eternity, what other explanation can be given, than that you believe not what the Bible tells of eternity? You believe not of the wrath, and the anguish, and the tribulation that are there. Those piercing cries that here, from any one of your children, would go to your very heart and drive you frantic with the horror of its sufferings, you do not believe that there is pain there to call them forth. You do not think of the meeting-place that you are to have with them before the judgment-seat of Christ, and of the looks of anguish and the words of reproach that they will cast upon you, for having neglected, and so undone their eternity. The awful sentence of condemnation-the signal of everlasting departure to all who know not God and obey not the Gospel-the ceaseless moanings that ever and anon shall ascend from the lake of living agony-the grim and dreary imprisonment whose barriers are closed insuperably and for ever on the hopeless out-casts of vengeance;-these, ye men who wear the form of godliness, but show not the power of it in your training of families, these are not the articles of your faith. To you they are as the imaginations of a legendary fable. Else why this apathy? Why so alert to the rescue of your young from even the most trifling of calamities, and this dead indifference about their exposure to the most tremendous of all? O the secret will be out! The cause bewrayeth itself. You have not faith; and compassed about though you be with Sabbath forms, and seemly observance, and the semblance of a goodly and well-looking profession, yet if you labour not specifically and in practical earnest for the souls of your children, your doings short of this are, we fear, but the diseased and lame offerings of hypocrisy -your Christianity, we fear, is a delusion.-Dr

Chalmers.

A GOOD MOTHER.

In the vicinity of Philadelphia, there was a pious mother, who had the happiness of seeing her children, in very early life, brought to the knowledge of the

truth-all walking in the fear of the Lord, and ornaments to the Christian Church. A clergyman, who was travelling, having heard this circumstance, wished very much to see her, thinking that there might be something peculiar in her mode of giving religious

instruction which rendered it so effectual. He accordingly visited her, and inquired concerning the manner in which she discharged the duties of a mother in educating her children. The woman replied, that she did not know that she had been more faithful than any other Christian mother would be in the instruction of her children. After a little conversation, she said, "While my children were infants on my lap, as I washed them, I raised my heart to God, that he would wash them in that blood which cleanseth from all sin; as I clothed them in the morning, I asked my heavenly Father to clothe them in the robe of Christ's righteousness; as I provided them food, I prayed that God would feed their souls with the bread of heaven, and give them to drink the water of life. When I have prepared them

for the house of God, I have pled that their bodies might be fit temples for the Holy Spirit to dwell in; when they left me for the week-day school, I followed their infant footsteps with a prayer, that their path through life might be like that of the just, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day; and as I committed them to rest at night, the silent breathing of my soul has been that their heavenly Father would take them to his embrace, and fold them in his paternal arms. I have committed their way, and taught them to commit their way, to the Lord, and the Lord has cared for them. It is his doing, not mine; and what he has done for me and my children he is willing, and has promised to do, for all who seek his face.

MORNING HYMN FOR A LITTLE CHILD.
O GOD! I see the morning light,

And Thou hast kept me through the night!
I thank Thee for thy love and care,
And beg Thee hear my morning prayer.

Keep me, O God! again to-day,
And take my naughty heart away;
O make me gentle, good, and mild-
Just like the Saviour when a child!

And when to-night I fall asleep,
O come again the watch to keep!
So let my life all pass away,
With God my keeper night and day,

MERE PROFESSORS.

THERE are many professors and few Christians indeed; many that run, and few that obtain; many that go into the field against Satan, and few that come out conquerors. All have a desire to be happy, but few have courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in their way to happiness. All Israel came joyfully out of Egypt under Moses' conduct, yea, and a mixed multitude with them; but when they were a little pinched with hunger, and their greedy desires of a present Canaan deferred-yea, instead of peace and plenty, war and penury-they are ready to fly from their colours, and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt. Thus the greatest part of those who profess the Gospel, when they come to push of pike-to be tried what they will do, deny, endure for Christ-grow sick of their enterprise. Alas! their hearts fail them! they like the waters of Bethlehem; but if they must dispute their passage with so many enemies, they will even content themselves with their own cistern, and leave heaven to others that will venture more for it. O how many part with Christ at this cross-way! like Orpah-that go a furlong or two with Christ, while he goes to take them off from their worldly hopes, and bids them prepare for hardship, and then they fairly kiss and leave him; loath, indeed, to lose heaven, but more loath to buy it at so dear a rate. Like some green-heads that childishly make choice of some sweet trade, from a liquorish tooth they have to the sweetmeats it affords; but meeting with sour sauce of labour and toil that goes with them, they give in, and are weary of their service, the sweet bait of religion hath drawn many to nibble at it, who are offended with the hard service it calls to. It requires another spirit than the world can give or receive to follow Christ fully.-Gurnall.

THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

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ON PRAYER.

BY THE REV. EDWARD BICKERSTETH, WATTON, HERTS.

I AM thankful to throw my mite into the efforts | kings; you may open to him without reserve, which beloved brethren are making to convey and with the certainty of the kindest and most acceptably to the masses of society the great favourable reception, your whole heart; you truths of the Gospel. My mind has been drawn may speak with the utmost plainness, without to the subject of PRAYER as one of vast import-fear of rebuke; you may always apply to him;

ance.

The privilege, the advantage, the honour, and the glory of true prayer are unspeakable. Simple faith in God's Word, and in his many faithful promises, realizes even now much of its blessedness. There we read that the great God, who made us and all things, is a Spirit, invisible, but everywhere present, almighty, and all-wise, and infinite in goodness and love, mercy and compassion, truth and righteousness. This glorious Being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God, permits us, his sinful creatures, to have the freest access to him, and constant communion with him in prayer.

you may walk with him all the day long.

This happy standing is not unattainable. A measure of it every real Christian has attained. It is the very beginning of his spiritual life. "Behold he prayeth." Every reader of these pages may attain it. And it is the high state of the man after God's own heart: "I give myself unto prayer.”

This is the sure remedy for the many cares of this sorrowful world. Who can have lived here long without knowing that the world is full of cares and troubles? Men are burdened with them on every side, and groaning under them. It is not the possession of power, wealth, God has appointed and given to us amply knowledge, honour, or any of the good things sufficient means for our daily enjoyment of this of this world, that exempts men from many privilege. He has provided for us a Mediator cares. Those who most abound in these things and Advocate, ever living to make intercession have also with them generally the most multifor us; through whose blood we may have ac-plied cares. cess with boldness to the holiest of all. He gives, to them that ask, his Holy Spirit, to help their infirmities. He gives us many positive commands to ask of him what we need, and call upon his name. He takes the very title of the Hearer of Prayer. And He himself is gracious to lift up the light of his countenance on those who diligently seek his presence. He gives us also his word, full of the prayers of his faithful, to be the very guide and pattern for our own prayers.

Think, then, Christian reader, of the high standing you may take. You are ready to esteem it a favour if you are admitted to converse freely, even for a little time, with those much above you. If you may enjoy real intercourse with the excellent of the earth for a little time, you count it precious to be refreshed with their knowledge and kindness. Courtiers, who have access to palaces, think much of the privilege of free admission to the monarch, and to partake of the presence and dignities of royalty. But realize God's word, and you may rise to far higher honours; believe his promises, and you may daily partake of far richer privileges. You may have access to the King of No. 2.-*

God himself directs us to this remedy of prayer. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The remarks on prayer that I would now make are founded on this passage.

We have here a plain, clear, full command to all, to be without carefulness, and this in the largest terms: "Be careful for nothing." IT INCLUDES WORLDLY THINGS. All the varied scenes and occupations, the wants, and even the blessings of life, bring anxieties. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, are constant temptations. Those with large families and little means are troubled with cares for what they shall eat and what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed. Those in business are troubled by changes in trade-by losses and bad debts -by fears and disappointments. Those with bodily infirmities, groan under them. The cases are endless which occasion these cares.

IT INCLUDES ALSO SPIRITUAL THINGS. These are infinitely more important. It is our duty March 6, 1846.

to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But yet the words, "Be careful for nothing," clearly comprehend even spiritual things. The questions that cause care here are very numerous. Am I a child of God? Does God really love me? Am I among his elect? Shall I persevere in his ways? Can it possibly be that so guilty, worldly, unbelieving, cold, dead, and ungodly a creature as I have been can be saved? My relations-parents, children, brothers, and sisters-can they be saved? A thousand of such weighty questions agitate the mind.

divine command to require you to do it. The Lord of heaven and earth has issued his mandate to you. Dare you resist his will? What energy and power should this give to your feeble faith! It is not a thing in which you may indulge your natural disposition. You are charged by the Most High: "Be careful for nothing."

But this charge is not without that suitable strength which God always provides with every command given by him. It is on prayer-the free, open expression of your desires to the ever-present God, as the means of attaining obedience to this divine and most gracious command-I would now dwell. THE MOST UNRESERVED PRAYER FOR EVERYTHING YOU WANT; the most free outpouring of every desire into your heavenly Father's ears is your plain duty: "In every

The direction respecting all is, Be careful for nothing. It is not, Neglect everything; be indifferent about everything. Far different is the instruction here given. Every Christian is to attend diligently to his daily work. If anything by prayer and supplication with thanksman will not work, neither should he eat. Nor giving let your requests be made known unto are we to despise the chastening of the Lord. God." It is designed, on the one hand, that we should feel that afflictions are grievous; and on the other, that we should gratefully enjoy God's blessings. Nor are we to be wanting in foresight and providence for the future. It is necessary that we should, in entire dependence on the will of God, form our own plans and schemes. And especially about religion, the greatest earnestness becomes us : The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." "Strive to enter in at the strait gate."

It is not attention to worldly and spiritual things that is forbidden, but anxiety of mind, and doubtfulness, and "fear that has torment." You may be delivered from this distress of mind. Be not anxious. Learn not to place your happiness in this world's good. A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses; and God knows your wants, and cares for you more than a mother cares for her babe. So about your highest, your spiritual welfare, be not anxious. Do not be so filled with distressing fears, as if you had no refuge in God, and could not commit your soul to him in the peaceful confidence: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." You need not have, then, one anxious thought about body or soul, if you will follow God's directions, casting all your care on him; for he careth for you.

And that we may do this the more readily, remember that there is all the authority of a

God is accessible in this day of grace to all sinners who come to him in the name of his Son. You need not fly from God. You need not now dread his vengeance, or look upon him as your enemy. He has in Christ revealed himself as the God of all grace. He waits now on his mercy-seat to be gracious to returning sinners. He has intense love to us (John iii. 16), to be measured only by that wonderful gift, the gift of his own Son. Ah, sweet thought! Truly believed, what a heaven it lets down to our earth! There is a throne of grace to which all sinners may come, and there obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Think of this again and again; look at the crucified Redeemer, till your hard heart be melted, and the light of that love fills your soul. The Creator of all worlds, the Just and Holy One, for the sake of Christ, really loves me a sinner. Gazing on the death of Jesus, I cannot, without the blackest guilt, doubt this love to my soul.

Believe this, and then freely tell him all your wants. What a wonderful proclamation of mercy to a world of sinners is this, "LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD!" How delightful the fulness of the direction! He needs not, indeed, for his own knowledge, that we tell him our requests; for he knows always what things we have need of. But we have great need that we thus learn to pour out our hearts in the way that his infinite wisdom and love points out. Thus our faith is strengthenedthus our minds are relieved. You must, if you have passed through sorrow, have experi

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