THE MAN POSSESSED BY DEVILS.

: New Testament Stories

One day Jesus came with His disciples in a boat to the country of the

Gadarenes, near Galilee. They landed near the tombs, that is, caverns

cut into the rock, where the dead were buried. And there met them a

man, who, for a long time, had been possessed by many unclean spirits.

He lived in the tombs and wore no clothes. He had been so fierce and

wild that his friends had been obliged to chain him up, but he had

burst h s fetters, and the devils had driven him out to the tombs.



Jesus bade the unclean spirits to come out of the man. And when the

man caught sight of Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before Him,

saying, "What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God most

high? I beseech Thee to torment me not."



And Jesus asked him his name. And he said, "Legion," because many

devils were in him. They besought Jesus that He would not make them go

into the sea, but would let them enter into a herd of swine that were

feeding on the cliffs close by. He suffered them to do so, and the

devils went out of the man and entered into the pigs, and the whole

herd ran violently over the cliff into the water and were drowned. And

when the herdsmen saw what was done, they fled into the city and told

all the people. Then the people came out to Jesus, and they saw the

man that had been possessed, clothed and in his right mind, sitting at

the feet of Jesus. And they that had seen it told them by what means

the man had been healed, and they were afraid. The man out of whom the

devils had departed, besought Him that he might stay with Jesus, but

He sent him away, saying, "Return to thy house, and show what great

things God hath done unto thee." And he went his way and published

throughout the city what great things Jesus had done unto him.