they hold out to us. We shall give place to the devil, as the
Scripture tells us we shall; for instance, by indulging in habitual
passionate tempers, or rooted spite and malice, letting the sun go
down upon our wrath: and so a man may become more and more the
slave of his own nature, of his own lusts and passions, and
therefore of the devils, who are continually pampering and maddening
those lusts and passions, till a man may end in COMPLETE POSSESSION;
not in common madness, which may be mere disease, but as a savage
and a raging maniac, such as, thank God, are rare in Christian
countries, though they were common among our own forefathers before
they were converted to Christianity,--men like the demoniac of whom
the text speaks, tormented by devils, given up to blind rage and
malice against himself and all around, to lust and blasphemy, to
confusion of mind and misery of body, God's image gone, and the
image of the devil, the destroyer and the corrupter, arisen in its
place. Few men can arrive at this pitch of wretchedness in a
civilised country. It would not answer the evil spirit's purpose to
let them do so. It suits HIS spirits best in such a land as this to
walk about dressed up as angels of light. Few men in England would
be fools enough to indulge the gross and fierce part of their nature
till they became mere savages, like the demoniac whom Christ cured;
so it is to respectable vices that the devil mostly tempts us,--to
covetousness, to party spirit, to a hard heart and a narrow mind; to
cruelty, that shall clothe itself under the name of law; to
filthiness, which excuses itself by saying, "It is a man's nature,
he cannot help it;" to idleness, which excuses itself on the score
of wealth; to meanness and unfairness in trade, and in political and
religious disputes--these are the devils which haunt us Englishmen--
sleek, prim, respectable fiends enough; and, truly, THEIR name is
Legion! And the man who gives himself up to them, though he may not