LECTURE I. Che Return of the Dispossessed Spirit. MATT. xii. 43-45. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." THIS parable has been before read to you in the second lesson of this morning's service. Its drift is much less evident than that of many of our Lord's parables; you may have often read it without attaching to it any definite meaning, or extracting from it any practical lesson. We think it well, therefore, to devote a sermon to its illustration. The words with which our Lord concludes, "Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation," sufficiently show that the parable had a special reference to the Jewish people. But before considering it under this point of view, we should like, by a few general remarks, to guide you in applying the parable to yourselves. If you are observers, even the most cursory, of character, you must be aware that there is in every man a ruling passion, a master-disposition. Each individual amongst us is tempted by nature to some one kind of sin, which, according to St. Paul's expression, is "the sin which most easily besets him." And the great difficulty which religion has, is in the grappling with the master-passion, in the overcoming the besetting sin, whether it be a sin of the flesh, or a sin of the intellect. If an individual be a real subject of grace, having been truly converted, a new master-principle has been introduced into his heart-the love of God being most strictly his ruling passion, whatever the affection to which he had beforetime been captive. But though there is the introduction of this new master-principle, we cannot say that there is a thorough casting out of the old. We do not, of course, mean that there will be two master-principles. There cannot be two things which are both greatest of their kind. But whilst the love of God is the master-principle, what had formerly been the master-principle remains within, in a subdued, though not in a dominant, state; and the great warfare of the Christian's life will result from the efforts of this principle to regain the lost ascendancy. If the voluptuous man be converted, his hardest after-task will lie in resisting the lusts of the flesh; whilst the proud man, or the envious, will find his.main battle must be waged with pride or with envy. The weak point before conversion will be the weak point after. And the devil, who once had undisputed possession of the man, and who knows therefore the quarter in which he is most assailable, will direct his temptations against the vulnerable point, and seek to make a breach where there had beforetime been the broadest highway. So that the besetting sin, whatsoever it be, must, to the end of our days, occupy our chief vigilance and prayerful ness. For we may take it as an ascertained fact, that, if we fall again under the dominion of evil, it will be through the re-entrance of that unclean spirit, which went out from its mastership, when we first knew Christ, and which, ever on the alert to recover its empire, will take advantage of our leaving the ground a moment undefended, to rush to its lost throne with a kind of sevenfold energy. In this way, the parable before us admits of a striking application to every renewed man. Conversion is virtually the casting out of a dominant passion, and the yielding up the soul to a new master-principle. But it often happens that men relax from their first strenuousness; and then the chamber, which was swept and garnished at the entrance of the new principle, becomes, in a certain sense, empty and untenanted. And thus there may be said to be given an invitation to the old ruling-passion, the unclean spirit, which the Divine word had cast out, but which has never ceased to ́ hover round its original dwelling-place. And there being, as it were, an unoccupied house, and an unguarded avenue, this unclean spirit will hurry to take possession. And forasmuch as none sin with a greater vehemence than those who yield again to a renounced passion, or an abjured lust, there will be, for the time, such an energy of tyranny in the reinstated demon, that he shall seem to have associated with himself seven others, of greater strength and more desperate wickedness. We want to make you aware of this, before we advance to the fuller explanation and application of the parable. Depend on it, the chief danger to the Christian is from the old master-passion, the sin which was his besetting sin before his conversion. He is far more likely to fall into |