Mark 3:13-21 And he goes up into a mountain, and calls to him whom he would: and they came to him.… In China, both heathen and Christian agree in marking off certain cases, which occur not infrequently, as distinctly cases of "spiritual possession." The Chinese have names for insanity, and for the various forms of nervous and mental disease, and they distinguish sharply between all these and another very different condition in which the patient is said to be "possessed of devils." Miss Cumming tells us "the symptoms are so precisely those which were thus described in Biblical times, that foreigners, after vainly seeking for some medical term to express the condition of the victim, are fain to accept the Chinese solution. They find a being apparently mad, foaming at the mouth, tearing off every shred of raiment, and wildly appealing to God to let her (or him) alone." These poor afflicted ones are brought to the Taoist and Buddhist priests, who perform tedious and expensive exorcisms, which are continued indeed until the paroxysm abates, and are renewed after the same fashion when it returns. Miss Cumming says, "In a considerable number of cases such as these, the native Christians have been appealed to by their heathen neighbours to see whether they could do anything to help them; and these, remembering how of old those who had faith in the Master were enabled to 'cast out the spirits by His word,' have sought to follow in their wake, and, taking up their position beside 'him that was grievously tormented with a devil,' have thus wrestled in prayer with passionate earnestness, pleading that the true God would reveal His power in the presence of the heathen, and concluding with the apostolic words, 'In the name of Jesus Christ! command thee to come out.' Again and again their prayer has been granted, the wild tempest has been allayed, and the sufferer lulled to a condition of deep peace, whence, after a while, he has arisen to go forth 'clothed and in his right mind' to tell his heathen brethren of the marvellous way in which he has beta cured, and, in short, to become from that hour a faithful worker in the Master's cause." (See "Wanderings in China," by C. F. Gordon Cumming.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.WEB: He went up into the mountain, and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him. |
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