JESUS
AMONG THE GADARENES.
IN our last lesson we learned how Jesus after a day of toil, launched forth in a little boat to cross the sea; and how he stilled the terrible tempest when the boat was about to sink. That same Jesus is now in heaven, and has the same power to protect his disciples that he had when he was on the earth. The disciples were likely to perish because they lacked faith; and we might have much more help from God if we trusted in him as we should.
When Jesus and his disciples came to land, they were on the southeastern side of the Sea of Galilee, in what was called the country of the Gergesenes, or Gadarenes, and not very far from the city of Gadara. Here the rocks and great hills rise hundreds of feet above the sea. On their flat tops the towns and cities were built, and in their sides great numbers of tombs were cut. These tombs were large rooms, hewn out of the solid rock, and people who had no other home often found a shelter in them, as they do to this day.
Now among the dwellers in these tomb; were two men that had evil spirits. One of them was exceedingly fierce, so that it was not safe for any one to go that way. He did not live among other people at all, but wandered among the mountains and in the tombs day and night, uttering wild cries, and cutting himself with stones. Many times he had been bound with chains, but he broke his fetters, and no man could tame him.
Now as soon as Jesus and his disciples came to shore, these wild men came running toward them, and falling down before Jesus, said, '' What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"
The unclean spirits said this because they knew that Jesus intended to make them come out of these men.
"And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go.
And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine; and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils." Then a great many people, both from the city and from the country, came out to see what was done; and when they saw the man that had been so fierce, and from whom a legion of devils had been cast, sitting by Jesus, with clothes on him, and in his right mind, they were afraid, and earnestly besought Jesus to depart from their country.