a madman. It was the fashion of the old Jews when a man was mad to
say that he was possessed by evil spirits. All they meant was that
the man's own spirit was in an evil diseased state, or that his
brain and mind were out of order.'

When I hear such language--and it is very common--I cannot help
thinking how pleased the devil must be to hear people talk in such a
way. How can people help him better than by saying that there is no
devil? A thief would be very glad to hear you say, 'There are no
such things as thieves; it is all an old superstition, so I may
leave my house open at night without danger;' and I believe, my
friends, from the very bottom of my heart, that this new-fangled
disbelief in evil spirits is put into men's hearts by the evil
spirits themselves. As it was once said, 'The devil has tried every
plan to catch men's souls, and now, as the last and most cunning
trick of all, he is shamming dead.' These may seem homely words,
but the homeliest words are very often the deepest. I advise you
all to think seriously on them.

But it is impossible surely to read this story without seeing that
the Bible considers evil spirits as distinct persons, just as much
as each one of us is a person, and that our Lord spoke to them and
treated them as persons. "What have WE to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou
Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment US before the time?"
And again, "If Thou cast US out, suffer us to go into the herd of
swine." What can shew more plainly that there were some persons in
that poor man, besides himself, his own spirit, his own person? and
that HE knew it, and Jesus knew it too? and that He spoke to these
spirits, these persons, who possessed that man, and not to the man
himself? No doubt there was a terrible confusion in the poor