THE CONTROVERSIALIST 201 



than professed disciples." l And the author of Ex- 

 ploratio Evangelica says that u it is probable Jesus ac- 

 cepted the hypothesis of demoniac possession as easily 

 as He accepted the hypothesis that the sun moves 

 round the earth." 2 In the declaration that He cast 

 out devils (Luke xiii. 32), and His bestowal of the like 

 power upon His disciples (Luke ix. 1); in the story 

 of the temptation ; in the warning that the wicked 

 would depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the 

 devil and his angels (" the doctrine of eternal damna- 

 tion is a Judaistic survival of grossly immoral char- 

 acter" 3 ) no ingenuity can distort the fact that Jesus 

 shared the common demonological belief of His time 

 and people. 



And the issue which Huxley raised is as clear as it 

 is serious : — 



When such a story as that about the Gadarene 

 swine is placed before us, the importance of the de- 

 cision, whether it is to be accepted or rejected, cannot 

 be overestimated. If the demonological part of it is 

 to be accepted, the authority of Jesus is unmistakably 

 pledged to the demonological system current in Judea 

 in the first century. The belief in devils, who pos- 

 sess men and can be transferred from men to pigs, 



1 See quotation to the same effect, from Dr. Alexander's Bibl. 

 Cyclopcedia, given in Coll. Essays, v. p. 217. 



2 P. 225. 



3 A Critical History of a Future Life. By R. H. Charles, 

 D.D., p. 311. 



