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Title: The Wild Man
Date of first publication: 1848
Author: Favell Lee Mortimer (1802-1878)
Date first posted: July 19 2012
Date last updated: July 19 2012
Faded Page eBook #20120719
This eBook was produced by: L. Harrison & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
Images for this eBook provided courtesy Special Collections, University Libraries, Ball State University
There is one creature who hates men, and who is always trying to do them harm. He is not a man, he is a spirit, and he can go about without being seen. His name is Satan; he is very wicked. God is very angry with him, and will not [Pg 2] let him live in heaven with the good angels. Satan has a great many servants. He and his servants are called devils, and they all agree together to try to hurt us poor creatures upon earth. But God who made us can take care of us. Let us pray to him. Then all the devils can never do us harm.
A long while ago there was a man whom the devils made very miserable. The devils were in him. This man would not wear any clothes; he would not live in a house, but he went to places where dead people were buried. There were no church-yards in those days. Dead bodies were buried among the hills and rocks where no one lived. It was in those lonely places that this man liked to be. Every one was afraid of passing near the place where he was, for he was very fierce. Sometimes people got hold [Pg 3] of him, and put chains round his hands and feet; but he was so strong that he broke them and got away again, and then he cut his own flesh with sharp stones, so his body was covered with wounds and blood. It was dreadful to see him—and then to hear his cries, that was dreadful! You would have thought it was a wild beast if you had heard his howls and his screams as you were walking among the lonely hills at night. I do not believe that there is any man now in the world in such a dreadful state as this poor creature was in, for there were a great many devils in him.
No doctor could have made this man well. But there was one person in the world who could do everything,—Jesus, the Son of God, was then living in the world; he was a man like your father or your uncle, only he was quite good. [Pg 4] Jesus is a man still as well as God, but he lives in heaven now with God his Father.
It was a happy thing for that miserable man that Jesus came near the place where he was. He ran to Jesus, fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said, "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." The man answered, "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" It was the devils in the man who made him speak, for they made the man do all they pleased. These devils did not like to be sent out of the man, and they begged Jesus not to send them quite away, but to let them go into a great flock of pigs that were feeding among the hills close by; and Jesus said, "Go."
[Pg 5] As soon as the devils were in those poor pigs, a very strange thing happened. The pigs no longer fed quietly on the grass as they had done before, but they began to run violently all together down a steep hill into the water which was at the bottom, and they were all choked in that deep water and died. In a few minutes two thousand pigs were destroyed. There were some people who were paid to look after the pigs. When they saw that the poor beasts were all drowned, they were very much frightened, and ran into the town, and told everybody what had happened.
Soon there was a great crowd of people standing near Jesus, and there was one sitting at the feet of Jesus who looked gentle and harmless. Who was that man? It was the same who had once been like a wild beast, fierce, and naked, [Pg 6] and miserable. Now he was clothed, now he was quiet, now he was happy. People remembered his face, and asked how he came to be so quiet. When they heard how Jesus had told the devils to come out of him, and how the devils had gone into the pigs and destroyed them, the people were frightened. Why were they frightened? Ought they not to have been pleased? A man is worth more in God's sight than all the beasts in the world, because he has a soul, which beasts have not—because he will live for ever, which beasts will not—because he can think of God, which beasts cannot. The foolish people begged Jesus to leave them. Why did they not bring their sick children to him to be made well? Why did they not bring their blind and lame parents to be cured? They were foolish indeed. I am afraid that they [Pg 7] were too sorry at having lost their pigs, and were afraid of losing other beasts. Jesus would not stay with them, as they did not want him. He had come in a ship over the water, and he got into a ship to go away. But before he went there was a poor man who asked to go with him. You can guess who it was. But Jesus said, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them what great things the Lord hath done for thee." So the man went home, and told everybody in the town how Jesus had made him gentle and happy. I do not wonder that poor man wanted to be with the Lord Jesus, but it was better to stay behind and tell his friends about him.
Jesus will do great things for you, my child, if you ask him. He can keep you from the devil, and from going to hell to burn for ever. Jesus came into this [Pg 8] world that he might take us away from the devil. Jesus was nailed to a cross and died, that we might not be sent to hell. Satan is very angry with Jesus, and he wants nobody to love him. But if you pray to Jesus to forgive your sins, and to give you his Holy Spirit, Satan will not be able to hurt you. Would you like to live with Jesus? If you were to see him, would you do as the poor man did? Would you wish to follow Jesus, or would you do as the foolish people did? Would you beg Jesus to go away? Ask the Lord Jesus now to come into your heart; say, "Come, Lord Jesus."
This history may be found in Matt. viii. 28 to the end; Mark v. 1-20; Luke viii. 26-40.
Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.
[The end of The Wild Man by Favell Lee Mortimer]