h the Creator's purposes are subserved; and these few, man is able
to direct and utilize only through mechanical contrivance and physical
adjustment. But the earth shall yet be "renewed and receive its
paradisaical glory"; then soil, water, air, and the forces acting upon
them, shall directly respond to the command of glorified man, as now
they obey the word of the Creator.[665]

QUIETING THE DEMONS.[666]

Jesus and the disciples with Him landed on the eastern or Perean side of
the lake, in a region known as the country of the Gadarenes or
Gergesenes. The precise spot has not been identified, but it was
evidently a country district apart from the towns.[667] As the party
left the boat, two maniacs, who were sorely tormented by evil spirits,
approached. Matthew states there were two; the other writers speak of
but one; it is possible that one of the afflicted pair was in a
condition so much worse than that of his companion that to him is
accorded greater prominence in the narrative; or, one may have run away
while the other remained. The demoniac was in a pitiful plight. His
frenzy had become so violent and the physical strength incident to his
mania so great that all attempts to hold him in captivity had failed. He
had been bound in chains and fetters, but these he had broken asunder by
the aid of demon power; and he had fled to the mountains, to the caverns
that served as tombs, and there he had lived more like a wild beast than
a man. Night and day his weird, terrifying shrieks had been heard, and
through dread of meeting him people traveled by other ways rather than
pass near his haunts. He wandered about naked, and in his madness often
gashed his flesh with sharp stones.

Seeing Jesus, the poor creature ran toward Him, and, impelled by the
power of his demon control, prostrated himself before Christ, the while
crying out with a loud voice: "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of the most high God?" As Jesus commanded the evil spirits to
leave, one or more of them, through the voice of the man, pleaded to be
left alone, and with blasphemous presumption exclaimed: "I adjure thee
by God, that thou torment me not." Matthew records the further question
addressed to Jesus: "Art thou come hither to torment us before the
time?" The demons, by whom the man was possessed and controlled,
recognized the Master, whom they knew they had to obey; but they pleaded
to be left alone until the decreed time of their final