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I. THE DIFFICULTY FELT BY SOME, AND EXPRESSED BY NOT A FEW, AS TO THERE BEING OR NOT BEING ANY REAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN WHAT ARE CALLED DEMONICAL POSSESSIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND MANIA, OR MALADIES OF VARIOUS SORTS AND DEGREES OF INTENSITY.

1. They are distinct and separate things (Matthew 4:24; Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:32).

2. The language of our Lord on the occasion of His casting out devils is such as to warrant us in concluding that it was an actual or literal demoniacal possession. The theory of Strauss and the Rationalistic school.

3. These demoniacs were not necessarily, or in every instance, the guiltiest of men, but they were in all instances the unhappiest of men. There was a groaning under the tyranny they endured.

4. There seemed to have been two wills in the person — the will of the victim, and the will of the spirit driving him wherever he would.

II. A FEW REASONS FOR SUPPOSING THAT DEMONIAC POSSESSIONS MAY HAVE CEASED, AND SOME REASONS FOR BELIEVING IT MAY STILL CONTINUE.

1. If demoniac possessions were in those days, how is it that demoniac possessions are not now? How is it that epidemics that existed once do not exist now? etc.

2. Why does God suffer it to be so? The answer to that difficulty is, that we know very little why evil was introduced, we know not why evil is continued, etc. Evil is not unripe good, as Emerson and others of his school allege.

3. Another reason why demoniac possessions may have ceased is, that Satan, beyond all dispute, at our Redeemer's birth, and at our Redeemer's atonement, received a blow from which he has never recovered.

4. And there remains this fact, too — whatever God does in the world, Satan always gets up something very like it, because his hope of progress is by deception.

III. THE SPECIAL AND INDIVIDUAL PORTRAIT SKETCHED IN THE TEXT.

1. The most awful specimen of demoniacal possession that we can well imagine.

2. It is very remarkable to notice the contrast in his character — the bureau in its agony, groaning to be delivered, and the fiendish in its depravity, imploring to be let alone.

3. It appears that when Jesus drew near to the man he was not delivered of the demons instantly, but underwent a tremendous paroxysm of suffering and distress.

4. The prayer of the demons occasion a great deal of difficulty and of scoffing (confer Luke 8:31). It seems to us a mystery that Christ should answer the prayer of the demons at all. If there is any other way of disposing of them, why let the demons take possession of the swine, and why let the swine be thus destroyed?

5. The Gadarenes also presented a petition to Christ; and what is that petition? (ver. 17.) Strange, startling, painful fact! And yet it is possible for us to imitate their example.

(J. Cumming, D. D.)

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KJV: And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

WEB: They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.