piness from Himself the Fountain of all happiness,—and they turn away and will not receive it.
Yet even such a refusal, such folly, such hard heartedness does not destroy or lessen His perfect love. He still offers and even pursues them with His gifts, entreating them to receive: truly does He manifest the God within, by being "kind even to the unthankful and to the evil." He goes about doing good, healing the sick, raising the dead, delivering poor possessed ones from the clutch of their unseen but resistless tormentors. Crowds throng to Him; all are willing enough to be delivered from bodily pains; but when He offers to them deliverance from pains infinitely worse and more lasting,—the pangs of a diseased spirit,—and holds out to them the blessings of eternal health and joy,—few understand Him, still fewer are willing to listen to Him. Many, on the contrary, even turn upon Him, and accuse and blaspheme Him, affirming, even, that He performed those good works by an evil agency, and that He "cast out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils." Instead of being incensed by such hardness and ingratitude. He calmly expostulates with them, shows them how unreasonable it is to hold that by the power of devils He casts out devils, for "if Satan be divided against Himself, how can his kingdom stand?" "But," He adds, "if I with the finger of God cast out devils, then has the kingdom of God come upon you." Had they been willing to be convinced,—by such plain reasoning they would have been convinced. But their hearts were hard, and they would not hear. When they found themselves silenced by the resistless power of the truth as uttered from His mouth,—instead of yielding, they
