Page 453 - Bible History

426 CHRIST'S TEACHINGS, MIRACLES AND CHURCH
mazement and wonder lled the hearts of the people, and soon it was known all over Galilee that Jesus had the power to drive out devils.
ed The morning after Jesus had calmed the tempest on the Lake of Galilee, He and His disciples landed at :d Gergesa, which is across the lake from Capharnaum. G s When they stepped from the ship, they saw waiting
for them there on the shore a terrible looking creature. It was a man who for many years had been possessed by the devil. He wore no clothes and lived in a tomb on the hillside. Night and day he roamed about, send­ ing forth horrible screams and yells and cutting him­ self with sharp stones. Several times the people had tried to capture him and chain him down, but he would break the strongest chain in pieces.
When the possessed man saw Jesus, he fell down on the ground before Him, crying out wildly, "What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, the Son of the most high God¥ I adjure Thee by God that Thou torment me not." "What is thy name¥" Jesus asked him. And he answered, ''My name is legion, for we are many."
Jesus knew by this that the man was possessed by not only one, but by a great number of devils. The devils begged Jesus not to drive them away out of the country, but to allow them to enter into a herd of swine that was feeding on the mountain side.
Immediately Jesus gave them leave. He said, "Go." And e unclean spirits, going out, entered into the swine, and the whole herd ran madly down the steep hillside and was drowned in the sea. Altogether it numbered about two thousand swine.