(For the Little Ones.)
WHEN the Lord Jesus reached the other side of the stormy sea, the poor man we spoke about on the last occasion met him. In the fifth chapter of Mark (which you should read also in connection with the eighth of Luke), we are told that when this tormented man “saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him.” How wonderful I Could not a whole legion of devils keep the man away from the blessed Lord Jesus? No. A legion means a vast number; but great as was the number and the power of the devils that had taken up their abode in this man, they could not keep him from the gracious Saviour, who had evidently crossed the sea, through storm and calm, on purpose to deliver him. It was his gracious will which drew the wretched demoniac to his feet, and not all the will and power of the evil spirits within him could keep him back. And what an agony of fear the poor man is in as he is thus drawn by the unseen power of the Lord to meet him. What must have been his sense of his own unholy and awful state when thus constrained to face “the holy one of God!” Ah, little reader! what will it be for the sinner in his sins when the sea gives up the dead that are in it, and death and hades deliver up the dead which are in them, and he is compelled to face HIM who will then sit on the “Great white Throne!” How black by contrast, how unholy, how unclean! Where shall he hide his head? There will be no Saviour there, for the day of grace will have passed away forever and ever, and he who has refused to be saved by Christ must face the judgment. The deepest grave that man can dig, nay the deep, deep sea itself, shall not hide the guilty sinner then. You may see many a handsome monument in the churchyards, many a massive tomb whose weight of stone seems to press down the poor dust (once so rich in this world’s goods), as if it would not let It rise again. Yet it MUST come forth to judgment! even as when the Lord willed it, the poor demoniac must meet him face to face.
But this meeting was for mercy. Yes, the precious Saviour of sinners delights in mercy, and it will be the sinner’s own fault if ever he meets the Lord in judgment. Little reader, which will you choose now while you read, mercy or judgment? Think for a moment; the Lord Jesus delights in mercy. Did he not prove it when he crossed that stormy sea of Galilee to deliver one poor wretched man from a whole legion of devils? Did he not prove it more wondrously still when he went to Calvary, and there upon that dreadful cross, endured the wrath of God instead of sinners, poured out his precious blood for them, and, as he breathed out his blessed soul in death, cried, with a loud voice, “IT IS FINISHED!” And since he so delights in mercy, don’t you think it is too bad that many will not have it; but in spite of all that he has done, in spite of all the lovely ways in which he showed how dearly he delights to bless, they still go on to judgment? You will not imitate them, will you? No. Go then to Jesus now before you grow older and more hardened in sin. He will receive you and make you happy forever in his love, washing you from your sins in his own blood.
The demoniac cried out, even as he fell at Jesus’ feet, “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high, I beseech thee torment me not.” Ah! he little knew with whom he had to do. “Torment,” indeed! The gentle, loving, gracious Saviour, so “meek and lowly in heart”— “torment?” No, he came to save, unasked by any one; nor should a whole legion of evil spirits, nor all that their malice could invent, hinder him. They made the wretched man utter those strange words; but even such hard words and harder thoughts could not defeat the loving purpose of the Lord. Oh what a scene it must have been to witness, as he, the pure and spotless Jesus, the all-perfect One, full of goodness, the holy, harmless, undefiled, stood there over the prostrate sinner, a sinner wholly under the power of devils, a raging madman, groaning out the hard, bitter thoughts of a heart that naturally hates God.; how much more when stirred to its utmost depths of evil by a whole legion of devils! But mercy awaited him, such mercy as he had never dreamed of. At a word from those gracious lips, the legion is driven out, and “clothed and in his right mind,” he is found sitting at the feet of his Great Deliverer. And as he gazed upward into his face, and thought of all the pity and compassion he had shown him, how his heart must have overflowed with gratitude and praise! How he must have loved his most loving Lord! And will not the little reader love him too? Does he not deserve it?
Well might the poor man “pray him that he might be with him.” Well might he grieve to be so soon parted from one who had proved his power and love for him so wondrously; and yet how many believers are there, little and big ones, too, who, although they have had far deeper proofs of the Lord’s love than the demoniac had then (for Jesus has since died and risen again for us), can go on, day after day, “careful and troubled about many things,” and neglecting the one thing so needful to Christians — that precious privilege of “walking and talking with Jesus by the way,” which he delights to have us enjoy! When you, little Christian, read the Lord’s word, then He is talking to you, and when you pray or praise, then you are talking to him. And the daily and hourly habit of doing this, in the Spirit, is very, very important. There is nothing like it. It keeps out evil thoughts; it calms the soul; it weans the heart from earthly hopes, wishes, desires; it sets the mind on things above, where Christ sitteth; for you know Christ is risen now, and communion with him is therefore communion with a risen Christ; it is practically taking his yoke upon you and learning of him, by which you get rest to your soul, because you get more and more like him who is meek and lowly in heart; in short, it is gazing up into the glory till your whole soul becomes filled with an abiding sense of it; and “changed from glory to glory,” you grow into the same image. And all this is possible to the youngest believer that ever lived, as well as to the oldest.
But Jesus was on earth when the poor man we are speaking about wanted to be with him. If he were on earth now, he could not be always with us, for even such a place as the sea of Galilee could separate us. What a blessing it is then, that Jesus is gone to heaven, is it not? Nothing can now separate us. No. Some little readers will see these words on the other side of the broad Atlantic; yet though they are so far away, the Lord Jesus Christ is as much with them, if they are believers, as he is with any little Christian reader in London or anywhere else. But when he stood on the sea-shore of Gadara, and was going back to the other side from whence he had come, the poor man may well have trembled to think of losing sight of one whose sweet presence was not only dear to his heart, but, as he no doubt thought, necessary to his safety. The recollection of the dark and awful power of that fearful legion, must have made him shudder, and he may not have understood that the power, the wondrous power of that blessed. Deliverer, could protect him, even when he was far away over the sea. What a precious friend we, who believe, have in him Think, dear little reader, that while Jesus has
“A heart to feel your smallest woe,”
he has, at the same time, a hand, an arm, a will ALMIGHTY. This the poor man may not have understood very clearly, and so wanted to go with his precious Lord. “But Jesus suffered him not.” Why not? Well, we must consider his reason for this in our next paper. In the mean time, we will only say that his reason gives us but another instance and proof of his sweet, patient grace, his wondrous love for sinners.