C. C. Everett, Essays Theol. and Lit., 186-218, on The Devil: “If the supernatural powers would only hold themselves aloof and not interfere with the natural processes of the world, there would be no sickness, no death, no sorrow.... This shows a real, though perhaps unconscious, faith in the goodness and trustworthiness of nature. The world in itself is a source only of good. Here is the germ of a positive religion, though this religion when it appears, may adopt the form of supernaturalism.” If there was no Satan, then Christ’s temptations came from within, and showed a predisposition to evil on his own part. Possession is distinguished from bodily or mental disease, though such disease often accompanies possession or results from it.—The demons speak in their own persons, with supernatural knowledge, and they are directly addressed by Christ. Jesus recognizes Satanic agency in these cases of possession, and he rejoices in the casting out of demons, as a sign of Satan’s downfall. These facts render it impossible to interpret the narratives of demoniac possession as popular descriptions of abnormal physical or mental conditions. Possession may apparently be either physical, as in the case of the Gerasene demoniacs (_Mark 5:2-4_), or spiritual, as in the case of the “_maid having a spirit of divination_” (_Acts 16:16_), where the body does not seem to have been affected. It is distinguished from bodily disease: see _Mat. 17:15, 18_—“_epileptic ... the demon went out from him: and the boy was cured_”; _Mark 9:25_—“_Thou dumb and deaf spirit_”; _3:11, 12_—“_the unclean spirits ... cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And he charged them much that they should not make him known_”; _Luke 8:30, 31_—“_And Jesus asked him, What is thy name? And he said, Legion; for many demons were entered unto him. And they entreated him that he would not command them to depart into the abyss_”; _10:17, 18_—“_And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven._”