punishment would
come.[668]

Jesus asked, "What is thy name?" and the demons within the man answered,
"My name is Legion, for we are many." The fact of the man's dual
consciousness or multi-personality is here apparent. So complete was his
possession by wicked spirits that he could no longer distinguish between
his individual personality and theirs. The devils implored that Jesus
would not banish them from that country; or as Luke records in words of
awful import, "that he would not command them to go out into the
deep."[669] In their wretched plight, and out of diabolical eagerness to
find abode in bodies of flesh even though of beasts, they begged that,
being compelled to leave the man they be allowed to enter a herd of hogs
feeding nearby. Jesus gave permission; the unclean demons entered the
swine; and the whole herd, numbering about two thousand, went wild,
stampeded in terror, ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and
were drowned. The swineherds were frightened, and, hastening to the
town, told what had happened to the hogs. People came out in crowds to
see for themselves; and all were astounded to behold the once wild man
of whom they had all been afraid, now clothed, and restored to a normal
state of mind, sitting quietly and reverently at the feet of Jesus. They
were afraid of One who could work such wonders, and, conscious of their
sinful unworthiness, begged Him to leave their country.[670]

The man who had been rid of the demons feared not; in his heart love and
gratitude superseded all other feelings; and as Jesus returned to the
boat he prayed that he might go also. But Jesus forbade, saying: "Go
home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done
for thee, and hath had compassion on thee." The man became a missionary,
not alone in his home town but throughout Decapolis, the region of the
ten cities; wherever he went he told of the marvelous change Jesus had
wrought on him.

The testimony of wicked and unclean spirits to the divinity of Christ as
the Son of God is not confined to this instance. We have already
considered the case of the demoniac in the synagog at Capernaum;[671]
and another instance appeared, when Jesus, withdrawing from the towns in
Galilee, betook Himself to the sea shore, and was followed by a great
multitude comprizing Galileans and Judeans, and people from Jerusalem
and Idumea, and from beyond Jordan (i.e. from Perea), and inhabitants of
Tyre and Sidon,