prominent place in the history of Redemption. The impression produced in the synagogue of Capernaum is the simplest testimony to the nature of such a sign. 'What a word is this,' they said. There was the sense of One who did not charm away evils by a look or a touch. The calm divine energy with which He declared that the Kingdom of God was indeed among men— that God's power was manifesting itself as of old, in breaking fetters, in setting the captives free-this came forth in the command that the unclean spirit should depart. The evil spirit was not the man's lord. The kingdoms of the world and the glory of them were not his. Holiness was mightier.

II. The emancipation of man's spirit from these tyrants is then the first and highest manifestation of the Divine King. Were their bodies indifferent to Him? Did He care nothing for the plagues and torments which vexed them? 'And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever: and it left her; and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.'

The accomplished author of that Life of Jesus' to which I have referred before, made a curious mistake in associating the Gospel exorcism with the wilderness. That is said to have been performed in public places, in the synagogues to which the Jews most resorted. But this writer draws our attention to an important point in the history of our Lord's acts of healing. He says that they are, strangely enough, said to have taken place in private, when there were very few to examine or report them. Very strange indeed that circumstance must seem both to him and to those who

most differ with him-the collectors of Christian evidences who suppose that these wonders were chiefly done to confute deniers, and convince the crowd. But if Jesus was indeed a Redeemer-if these acts were acts of Redemption-we may understand that they were done for the sake of those who had need of the Redemption. We may believe that the King cared for His subjects, for the lowest and meanest of them, and did not care to use certain of them as examples of what He was not doing for the rest. Which kind of proceeding would be most like Him whom we read of in these books? The narrative of such manifestations of secret grace, known chiefly to those who were blessed by them, has little force as an argument. it has told all generations of a King reigning then and ever. Such evidence would have been wanting if these acts had been devised to make an impression upon bystanders.

But

This subject will come before us again next Sunday; but there is in this chapter a linking together of incidents which I cannot overlook. The passage from the synagogue to the house of Simon, illustrates the change from the public to the private revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven; as the cure of the fever succeeds the casting out of the spirit. Finally, that we may not fancy any partiality to have been shewn to a disciple, that we may not suppose the King ever to lose sight of the people, we read these words:Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying out and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew

that he was Christ. And when it was day he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.'

You may have asked yourselves sometimes in the course of this sermon, 'But if this is so, may there 'not have been exorcisms in later days?' I trust so indeed. If the King who was declared then lives now, I cannot conceive how He can ever cease to put forth this power, or we to be the better for it. 'But were 'not exorcisms in the middle ages-are they not now, ' associated with fraud and priestcraft?' Then certainly there is the mightiest need that that spirit should be cast out. The spirit of religious trickery, of priestly imposture, is the most unclean, the most devilish of all. And it is a spirit which the force of laws, the sanctions of civil judges, cannot reach. It goes beneath laws; it makes the judges impotent, or corrupts them. It flourishes wherever the belief of a present Spirit of Truth has lost its power. It never can be shattered by a scepticism which supposes anything to be possible because it holds nothing to be true. In the presence of a testimony to a real Kingdom of Heaven, it trembles and grows pale. When Christ baptises the nations with His fire, every mask which the spirit of lies has put on must be consumed. That will be the great final exorcism. But let each for himself long and pray that the evil spirits which have had dominion over him may be cast out now. Let us ask that we may become exorcists ourselves. For is not every true and loving man and woman an

exorcist? Is not every one who will yield himself to be Christ's servant, permitted to deliver his brother from some spirit which has enslaved him? Have not the weakest compelled dark spirits to cry out that there is a Holy One of God from whose light they must fly?

LECTURE VII.

POWERS AND SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their net brake.-ST. LUKE V. 6.

THIS chapter records a series of those acts which the Evangelists describe as signs or powers of the Kingdom of Heaven, which we commonly speak of as miracles or portents. Before we can know whether their title or ours is the best-which, at least, answers best to the narratives themselves-we should examine those narratives one by one.

(1) The first is known as the story of 'the miraculous draught of fishes.' I do not suppose any of us can be quite satisfied with this account of it. St. Luke brings an actual scene before us. There are two fishing-boats standing by the lake of Gennesareth. The fishermen are gone out of them, and are washing their nets. Jesus is on the shore. The people are pressing upon Him to hear the word of God. He enters one of the boats, and desires Simon, the owner of it, to thrust it a little way from the land. He sits down and speaks to the people from the boat. Then He says, 'Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.' Simon Peter says, 'Master, we have toiled all night, and caught nothing; nevertheless, at thy word, I will