Chapter 19

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday After Trinity

(Matthew 8:28; 9:2)

TO-DAY’S Gospel is a short one, but it contains much instruction for us. The examples and lessons which are to be had from these few words are sufficient to supply those of us who will live the longest with enough thought to last us all our lives. For the present, it is our purpose to point out the most important, that which is for our spiritual good. Here we have offered to us pearls; and it is our duty to invest them in such a manner as to gain a large profit.

Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us not to cast our pearls before the swine, else we ourselves bear the consequences of our foolishness. Devils are for the swine; rather, the swine are for the devils. But pearls are for Christians. So then, what are these precious pearls we have here offered to us? They are the Word of God, faith and repentance, hope and prayer, love and good works. We must not only behave well, but we must also do good works and love disinterestedly. We must not merely hope, but hope firmly and continue in prayer. We must not have some faith, but we must have a whole faith, and we must fully believe. I have heard people say that there are no demons or devils. Some of them say that their existence is an abstraction; while others say devils are the wicked people we have about us in the world. We cannot say that such people are unbelievers, for some of them have some faith; but it pleases their whim and satisfies their conscience to formulate “their own creed,” which suits them, just as his warm bed-cover does the drowsy schoolboy on a wintry morning. Yet there are a few such people who do not believe that there are any personal spirits. But we cannot stop now to discuss the abnormal condition of those opinions, upon which they think they have a foundation for knowledge, and which, at the same time, exclude the possibility of localizing an individuality. In returning to the subject of our remarks, we affirm that, of his own will, the Devil surely will not reveal himself to people who do not believe for, should he do so, they; might believe, and that would be against his own sly, diabolical policy, as he would have all in the dark, so terrible is his enmity against the Eternal Source of Light and Treasure of Goodness — God Almighty.

Now, for the benefit of those of whom it is said that they have some faith (which, by the way, is a logical absurdity): You have the ability of your spiritual faculties; you have the means of grace for your support; you must have a whole faith — you have room for it, if faith, but only as a mustard-seed, will move a mountain!

Rouse yourselves! The world which you worship only flatters you. The heaviness of your flesh should not keep you back from— our Saviour the God of spirits and of all flesh. If you continue to drowse, you will imperceptibly fall under the influence of the evil spirits, who are anxious for the company even of swine. Be careful that you become not possessed by a devil. Yes, the two men of the Gadarenes were possessed with devils. They were not common maniacs, nor persons with a disordered function in the cerebral region, for they knew, while the inhabitants of that country did not know, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

The devils knew that a time was coming when their freedom, which they abused and made such evil use of, would be checked. The devils would not give up the darlings which so readily gratified their passions. It was torment for them when the merciful Lord liberated poor mankind. The two unfortunate ones, that were possessed by demons were exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way. If the evil spirits torment those whom they possess in such a horrible manner, then what must be the suffering of sinners in hell, where they are bound in company of the devils for all eternity? Thus it is that some who are supposed to be Christians, and who deceive themselves by thinking that they are believers, while spiritually drowsing console themselves with substitute beliefs, such as superstitious guessings of fortune, communication with the dead, or so-called spiritualistic seances; and there is yet a finer cult, which satisfies the whim of the esthetically inclined; it has an abstract philosophy, and for this reason it is difficult to name it; but nowadays it is often wrongly called theosophy. And, again, we see that there are such people, who have no faith whatever, notwithstanding the great number of miracles performed in the Church of Christ, during nearly nineteen centuries. Between Heaven, the habitation of saints, and Hades, or the lower regions, the habitation of the unbelieving sinners, who during their life have trodden underfoot the blood of the Son of God, and have done despite unto the Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10:26-30), and died in their sins unrepented, there is fixed even now an impassable gulf; the prayers of the Church, and Christ’s unbloody sacrifice of the Altar itself are of no avail for them. The land of the Gadarenes was a place favored by the legion of darkness. The people disobeyed the law of Moses, if not by using as food the flesh of swine, then by keeping swine for commerce. These people were ungrateful, malicious, and mercenary. When the Lord Jesus Christ delivered the two possessed with devils, and the people lost their herd of many swine, they did not think of the sin of breaking the law, nor did they even wonder at the pity shown by the great Miracle-Worker, but they came out, in a matter of fact way, and besought Jesus that he would depart from their borders. My dear brethren and sisters, let us look to ourselves, that for the appetites of the flesh, the pleasures of frivolous society and false philosophy, and that for gain and business, we lose not Jesus, our Saviour, and fall a prey to the adversary of our eternal salvation. Amen.