These facts and considerations are sufficient to vindicate the credibility of the writers of the New Testament in their statement, that a power of exorcism was known and exercised in their time, and that its exercise was at times attended with favourable results. The statement on this subject attributed to our Lord, “If I by Satan cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges,” is plainly an _ad hominem_ argument. It amounts to no more than this; You Pharisees accuse me of casting out demons through Beelzebub. You assert that your disciples exercise a power of exorcism; and that they do this in virtue of a divine power communicated to them. On what principle of common sense can you affirm that the power which I exercise is demoniacal, and that which your disciples exercise is divine?—There is no assertion made one way or the other as to the reality of the acts in question; nor is there any difficulty in supposing that our Lord recognised that some of the influences thus exerted were genuine. I have hitherto, in treating this part of the subject, been dealing with the supposition that our Lord’s disciples mistook maniacs for demoniacs, and the consequences of such a mistake on the authenticity of the Gospel narratives. I must now address myself to the far more important question as to the consequences which follow from our Lord’s apparent recognition of the existence of demoniacal possession on the supposition that it was simple mania. The facts as they appear in the Gospels are unmistakable. It was the distinct opinion of their authors that our Lord recognised the phenomena which they have reported as the results of demoniacal possession and not of simple mania. In proof of this it will be needless to refer to every instance they have recorded. The account of the demoniac at Gadara and that of the lunatic youth are among the most remarkable, and on them the case may be allowed to rest. In the former case the words of St. Mark, whose description of the scene abounds in those details which are rarely seen except in narratives derived from direct ocular testimony, are: “And all the demons besought him, saying, Send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, &c.” In the case of the demoniac child the Evangelist describes the Apostles as asking Jesus, “Why could not we cast him out?” The following words are ascribed to our Lord: “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” It is undeniable, therefore, that the Evangelists have ascribed to Jesus a belief in the reality of demoniacal possession.