Jesus turned his mild, commanding eye upon the demoniac, and calmly said, “Hold thy peace, and come out of him.” The foul spirit threw the man to the ground, tore him with convulsions, and, uttering a loud, inarticulate, fiendlike cry, departed. The man rose to his feet, serene and happy, conversing with his friends in his right mind. All were seized with amazement. The strange tidings ran through the streets of the city. The fame of such marvels spread rapidly far and wide. “What new thing is this?” was the general exclamation; “for with authority he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.” The mother of Simon Peter’s wife was taken sick with a violent fever. Jesus, being informed of it, visited her bedside, took her gently by the hand, and rebuked the fever. The disease, as obedient to his command as was the foul spirit, immediately left the sufferer. The cure was instantaneous and complete. She arose from her couch, and returned at once to her household duties. It is difficult to imagine the excitement which these events must have produced. Upon the evening of that memorable day, the region around the house was thronged with the multitude, bringing unto him all that were sick with divers diseases. “And he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak; for they knew that he was Christ.”[8] It is impossible for us to comprehend the nature of the union of God and man in the person of Jesus. The sacred historian, in announcing that God “was made flesh and dwelt among us,” makes no attempt to solve this mystery. But it seems that Jesus, though possessed of these miraculous powers, was so exhausted by the labors and excitements of the day, that, long before the dawn of the morning, he rose from his bed, and, leaving the slumbering city behind him, retired to a solitary place, where, fanned by the cool breeze of the mountain and of the lake, he spent long hours in prayer. Peter and his companions, when they rose in the morning, missed Jesus. It was not until after a considerable search that he was found in his retreat. They informed him of the great excitement which pervaded the city, and that the people were looking for him in all directions. But Jesus, instead of returning to Capernaum to receive the adulation which awaited him there, said, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also. I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities; for therefore came I forth.”