A great many men cannot afford to have Christ. Here is a man who is renting his buildings for the most obscene and abominable purposes in the world; his revenues depend upon lust and vice; and, if the Spirit of God comes to regenerate him, he cannot afford to have Christ with him. If he does, he must reform his whole revenue system, and lose much possession; and he beseeches Christ to depart out of his coast, he does not want Him. There are a great many men who are trafficking in intoxicating liquors in such a way that they know in their own secret consciences that they are living upon the destruction of their fellow men; and they cannot afford to give up their traffic for the sake of becoming Christians; and when the power of the Holy Ghost is upon them, they beseech Christ to depart out of their coast. They have the opportunity of reformation and rejuvenation; life, and immortality, and glory, are within their reach; but there are the swine. In order that they may sit at the feet of Christ, they must lose their herds of unclean beasts, they must lose their unjust profits and wicked pleasures; but, rather than lose these, they will sacrifice the Saviour. So it was in this case. There was no doubt as to the miracle, and its beneficence. There was a man before them in whom the power of God had been made manifest, and they began to pray Christ, through whose instrumentality this power had been made manifest, to depart out of their coast. One would suppose that they would have besought Him to remain, and go on with His works of mercy; but no, they prayed Him to depart. (H. W. Beecher.)
Regret for contempt of religion
Alas! how many will, when too late, regret their neglect of, or contempt for, religion! A few years ago, the Prime Minister of England stepped across Downing Street with a friend, who wanted some information from one of the Government officials. They entered the particular office, and on inquiring for the Head of the Department they were curtly told to “wait” by an insolent young clerk, who did not even look up from his newspaper, and presently added an order to “wait outside.” When the principal official returned, he was thunderstruck to find the Head of the Government sitting with his friend on the steps of the stone staircase! Equally surprised was the clerk, when, to his dismay, he learned by his dismissal the result of his careless insolence. In earthly things men bitterly regret “chances” lost or thrown away, and yet we treat with indifference our opportunities in the spiritual life! With slow and sorrowful steps the compassionate Saviour obeyed these requests, and departed from those souls whom He would have so gladly blessed. (W. Hardman, M. A.)
The man with an unclean spirit
In view of this narrative, which we have thus very briefly traced, I remark-
1. We are tempted to undervalue man just as much as these men were. The point of the narrative was that they were supposed to be civilized; that they believed themselves to be religious; that they beheld the miracle that Christ wrought upon this man; and that their ideas of the worth of a man were so low and so vulgar, that they were not in the slightest degree impressed with the man’s restoration. There is no point where we need the application of the grace of God more continuously than in impressing us with a sense of the Divine value of men. We believe in the value of poets; of philosophers; of orators; of men that have something pleasing to our taste, dazzling to our intellect, and stimulating to our affections; of eminent men; of men of power, that produce impressions upon us. We believe in manhood that shows itself in attractive forms. But, for man, independent of circumstances, simply as a creature of God, as an heir of immortality, and as one that has all the future in him-a future illustrious as heaven or painful as hell-for man as man, how little feeling have we! We walk the streets with contempt for this one, and with loathing for that one. We despise the poor sinners-the children of vice and crime-that we see on every side of us.
2. There are thousands of men yet that are opposed to any reformation of morals that would conflict with the physical prosperity, or the supposed physical prosperity, of the community in which they dwell. Men are numerous, in every city or section of the country, who vote for their physical welfare against their spiritual. (H. W. Beecher.)
