We once saw a snake charm a bird; the serpent’s head was lifted several inches—eyes blazing, and red tongue flashing. The bird fluttered, gave a piteous wail, but was helplessly walking into the jaws of death. Now the question arises: what about the freedom of the will? Do we ever cease to be free agents? Certainly we do not; the hypnotic subject exercises free choice; that is never destroyed, but he acts under a compelling vis uturga—power behind.
XXVII
DEVIL POSSESSION
“As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake.”—Matthew ix. 32-33.
“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?”—Matthew xii. 34.
One characteristic, which has been prominent in the varied manifestations of Satan studied so far, is adaptability. Methods that were available in the days of our Lord cannot be used successfully now. By some secret unknown to us the Devil enters into the souls of men. This is a mystery; so is, also, the filling of the Holy Spirit a mystery. The Devil possessed King Saul, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, and many are the instances recorded in the ministry of the Saviour. Devil possession, it seemed, was very common; Christ was continually casting them out, and He also gave His Apostles power likewise to cast them out.
We do not believe the Enemy has abandoned his old profession: an evil spirit despises a disembodied state; if people are fortified and shielded against his entrance—then the swine. As cold air whistles and roars about every crack and cranny, entering in from all directions, so evil spirits—Devil and demons—press their entrance into the soul. If it is true they cannot enter except by permission,—they pry and pound until resistance is impossible, unless divine reinforcement comes to the rescue.
There are maniacs, violent, desperate, incurable, to-day as truly demon possessed as was the man who lived among the tombs. This, however, is not his modern modus operandi; desperate maniacs could then terrorize a whole community. Our great asylums have solved this problem; even the immediate family is relieved of the burden and fear. Those who do not accept the theory of demon possession should explain a case at present in one of our institutions. It is a boy, at the time it attracted attention, only twelve years of age, thin, emaciated, and by no means abnormal in any particular. This child would remain quiet for days; during this time he possessed no strength beyond one of his age. At unexpected moments he would be seized with violent contortions, frothing at the mouth, and snapping like a mad dog; and a continuous flow of the most obscene language and blasphemy while the spell lasted. This is not the strangest part: he had the strength of a giant; it required four or five men to overpower him. One man was helpless in his hands; he would literally hurl them to the floor. Compare this story with the one in the fifth chapter of Mark: “And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.”