thern*) bottles;" for they knew that if they did, "the new wine" would "burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles" would "perish" and so both would be destroyed. Neither would he require too much in these early days from his Christian converts. Neither could he expect that those men, to whom He was teaching the better things of God's new covenant with his people, would have any taste for the teaching of the Pharisees, as no man would choose bad or new wine when he could get that which was old and good.

LUKE V. 39. "No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better." Thus Jesus taught them in parables, or in wise sayings, which were full of deep meaning.

VI.

MARK i. 21, 22. "And they (Jesus and his disciples) went into Capernaum: and straightway on the sabbath-day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they (the people) were astonished at his doctrine : for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

Here is the great difference between the word of man, and the word of God. Even the wisest and the best of men can only guide us right when they themselves are guided by the word of God. As soon as they are tempted, even in the least degree, to leave God's word and to follow their own ideas, they go astray themselves, and lead others wrong. This the Scribes and Pharisees had done. They had, for their guide, the written

* In most countries where wine is made, instead of putting it into bottles as we do, it is put into skins, which, when they are old, are apt to burst from the fermentation of new wine.

In all places in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament, where bottles of wine are spoken of, these skins are meant. 1 Sam. xxv. 18.

word of the Old Testament. They had all God's holy law, but by little and little they had added many things to it, and by explaining away its simple meaning, they had taken many things from it, till, as Christ himself declared, they had, by their traditions, or added sayings," made the commandment of God of none effect." But the Lord Jesus was come by the authority of his word to bring back the truth, and to shed a clearer light by his gospel upon God's kingdom. He was come to shew men how they might be saved, and He spoke with authority, for it was his own word he declared unto them.

MARK i. 23-26. "And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not." (Luke iv. 35.) The evil spirit could no longer hurt the man. He had heard the word of Christ, and was forced to obey.

We have read before of our Lord's casting out devils, but this is the first time that in his history we have one distinct case brought before us, and as we shall soon find that he performed wonderful cures over many that were possessed with devils, it will be well for us here to take a little time to consider what was this strange and awful thing which was called possession by the Devil. That we may understand it, let us go back to the time when, in the beginning, God told Satan that, because he had tempted Eve, the first woman, to sin against Him, "the seed of the woman" should bruise his head, and that it should destroy his power.† (Gen. iii. 15.) Satan, that evil spirit, the enemy of God and man, had been

* Matt. xv. 6.

+ See Vol. I., p. 4.

The

ever on the watch, and he now knew the time was come. seed of the woman, so long promised, had at last been born, and Satan raged more furiously. All who are obliged to be abroad early, before day-break, know that the darkest time of the night is just before the dawn, and so it was in the night of the world. At the time of the birth of the Lord Jesus, "thick darkness covered the people, and the nations sat in the shadow of death," for the knowledge that had been given them of the true God had been so changed, that in all nations, except the Jews, it had been so much corrupted as to mislead rather than guide the people. Men indeed were looking for the Messiah, but only as an earthly prince, who was to please their vanity and make their pride greater, by giving them the victory over all nations. In the spiritual life of man there was a feeling of want, and most of them were hopeless of help. In despair of any good, they rushed into every sort of sensual pleasure, that they might forget themselves and their miseries. 'The whole time was the hour and power of darkness—of a darkness which then was thickest, immediately before the dawn of the new day of Christian hope.'* And Satan, the prince of darkness, made the most of his time. His power then seems to have been at its greatest. He always has, from the beginning, and he always will, to the end, make slaves of those who willingly give way to his temptations. Those who at first allow the spirit. of evil to lead them on, from the right way, will soon find that they are driven by him into sins which they dared not at first have thought of. This is the history of Satan's power at all times; but at this time, of which we speak, just before, and for some years after the Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Devil and his angels seem to have had more open power over man than they had before, or than they have had since. They entered into the bodies of those unhappy persons who had given way to their temptations, cruelly lording it over them even

* Trench.

against their will, forcing them to do and to say many things they would not. This was not disease only. It is true that the bodies of these miserable creatures had generally some disease, which most likely had been brought on by the very sins to which the devil had tempted them, and these sins had been the beginning of their sad condition. Nor was it madness, for, in the list of the sufferers who were brought to Christ to be healed, we find that those who were possessed with devils, and those who were lunatic, or mad, are separately named, the one being distinguished from the other. Matt. iv. 24.

We know assuredly that it was not madness, for the word of God always speaks of it as of "possession by the devil;" and God is truth. It is useless to say that it is spoken of in this way because men commonly thought that such persons were possessed with the devil, though they were not really so, and it was needless to contradict them; for if we believe that Jesus was the Son of God, we cannot believe that he would speak untruly and act deceitfully. And this he would have done had he solemnly addressed himself to evil spirits, giving them his commands, and seeming to listen to their answer, when He knew no evil spirits were there. This is impossible.*

Thus the words "possessed with the devil" are simply true, and Satan had the awful power of entering into the bodies of those men who had yielded to his temptations, and of forcing them to do and to speak as he pleased. But it is quite clear that they were not his willing slaves. They tried at times to get free from this terrible master. They longed to be saved from his power, and they seem to have had a hope that they might be saved by Christ the Lord. We have just read that a man who had a spirit of an unclean devil, came to the synagogue where Christ taught. But the devil that was in him, filled with terror at the actual presence of the seed of the woman, the long-promised deliverer, forced the unhappy man to

* See Trench on the Miracles, p. 151, 152.

cry out, "Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God!" We see, in those words, the devil's fear of Christ the Lord, and that he knew well both who He was, and what He had come to do.

The Lord Jesus in answer, spoke not to the man but to the devil that was in the man,—" Hold thy peace, and come out of him." The evil spirit was forced to obey. The seed of the woman had begun to bruise his head, to destroy his power; but still he might bruise His heel; for Christ as man feels for all men as for His brothers, and suffers in their sufferings. So the unclean spirit when forced to leave the man, first did him all the harm he could, "And when he had torn him, and thrown him in the midst, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." It is added to this, "and hurt him not." His power was ended: he could not and did not hurt him more. When that dreadful convulsion was over, which, as it were, tore the man, and threw him down, he was calm, and at peace in body and in mind.

LUKE iv. 36. "They were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they

come out."

They might well be amazed, for it was clear that this Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Lord of all power and might. But let us turn from this deed of Jesus to ourselves-to the power of Satan over us, and to the power of Jesus to deliver us from him.

Blessed be God, since his holy Son died and rose again for our salvation, the power of Satan has been greatly broken. He is not now allowed to rage so furiously. But still he is always the same, always on the watch to tempt to sin; and, even when he cannot get the better, he can and does still cause much suffering. From him come those evil thoughts which often bring