their swine to Him who would have delivered them from both. "The whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they besought Him that He would depart out of their coasts!" But one, at least, has formed a different estimate. It is the poor creature who had been so long the object and instrument of Satan's malice and power. He is now calmly sitting at the feet of his heavenly Deliverer, clothed and in his right mind; and finding it a sweet privilege to hear the words of grace and truth that fall from his lips, he prays that he may be permitted to continue with Him. And though this request is denied, it is only because the Lord calls him to a still higher place than that of personal enjoyment, however holy; he is sent forth to his neighbours to be a witness to them of the power and goodness and grace of his Lord. Most, if not all, of the miracles of mercy wrought by the Lord Jesus, are considered as typical of the still more important deliverance which He came to achieve from spiritual maladies. He went about, healing all that were oppressed of the devil; but none of the maladies wherewith Satan is permitted to afflict the bodies of men are comparable to that dominion which he has over every soul by nature, through sin. Like the demoniac, who had his dwelling among the tombs, the sinner dwells in the doleful regions of corruption and death; like him, he is unclothed, destitute of righteousness, and therefore exposed to the wrath of God; the prey of fierce lusts A SINNER'S DELIVERANCE. 277 and passions, he breaks through the restraints of the Divine law, whose fetters cannot effectually bind him, because he is "weak through the flesh." Like the wretch who was always "crying and cutting himself," the sinner is his own enemy; he continually craves after happiness, but all his efforts only add sore to sore; "he heaps up wrath against the day of wrath," and drags out an existence ever more and more miserable. Such an one is found by Jesus; the strong one armed is driven out by a stronger than he. The happy man is a new creature; he has forsaken the place of death for a part with Him who is essential Life; he is clothed with a righteousness, perfect and without spot before God; he is now made gentle, and subject, not by the fetters of law, but by the sweet bands of grace; he sits at the feet of Jesus, finding his highest joy in communion with Him; and he is content to go forth at the heavenly bidding, furnished out of the heavenly treasury, to testify, in the very territories of Satan, to the power and grace and love, the ability and willingness to save, that characterize his Lord, of which he is himself a living witness. The ancient city of Gadara survives in the modern Arab village Om-Keiss. The hill on which it stands is covered with the remains of columns and edifices; and what is still more interesting, the sides of the mountains are perforated with caves anciently used as sepulchres. These tombs are now occupied as dwellings, not only by individuals, but by whole families. One of these, when Mr. Buckingham visited the place, was used as a carpenter's shop, in which its occupant was engaged in constructing a rude plough ; while an ancient sarcophagus, that remained within the tomb in perfect preservation, was used by the family as a provision chest. Captains Irby and Mangles have more particularly described the same interesting features of the place. "Before sunset we arrived at Om-Keiss. We were very kindly received by the sheikh of the natives. who inhabit the ancient sepulchres. The walls of the ancient Gadara are still easily discernible within them you find the pavement of the city very perfect; the traces of the chariot-wheels are still marked in the stones. We found the remains of a row of columns which lined the main street on either side; two theatres in tolerable preservation are within the walls, and without them to the northward is the necropolis; the sepulchres, which are all under ground, are hewn out of the live rock, and the doors, which are very massive, are cut out of immense blocks of stone some of these are now standing and actually working on their hinges, and used by the natives; of course the hinge is nothing but a part of the stone left projecting at each end, and let in to a socket cut in the rock; the faces of the doors were cut in the shape of panels."* * Travels, p. 297. |