On these principles it is quite consistent with our Lord’s truthfulness to suppose that the dialogue with the demoniac of Gadara actually occurred, while He himself knew that possession was nothing but mania. Let us suppose that the man was a raving madman. He had been treated cruelly. He rushed towards Jesus and was awed by the greatness of his character. The dialogue takes place, as it is described by the Evangelist. I see no want of truthfulness on our Lord’s part, nor can I conceive any necessity for explaining to the man that he was not possessed by a multitude of demons; or if the madman requested that the demons by whom he imagined himself possessed might be allowed to go into the swine, that our Lord should explain to him that it was impossible that they should do so because the idea of the demoniac was a delusion. The case would be one of confused or double personality, and accordingly the narrator has described the demons and the man as alternately speaking, and our Lord as addressing them. In such a case the form of the narrative would be modified by the subjective impressions of the narrator. But the words which our Lord is described as addressing to the demoniac lad also require consideration. St. Mark describes them as follows. Jesus rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, “Thou deaf and dumb spirit, I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him; and the spirit cried, and rent him sore and came out of him.” Let us suppose that the disease was mania, and that our Lord knew it to be so, but that the father, as well as the maniac and the others who were present believed that it was caused by the action of an evil spirit. What was there inconsistent with veracity in addressing the maniac in terms of his own delusions? If it is urged that the belief in possession was a superstition, and that to use such language tended to confirm the belief, I reply that if we assume that our Lord was bound not to use the language which was common among his hearers in speaking of such diseases, or that He ought to have given explanations of their true causes, then we assume that his character as a revealer of Christianity rendered it necessary that in the course of his public ministry He should correct all the errors which He encountered, and never use language which had originated in them.