n he comes
till he gets to the door, and then gently knocks. You don't hear a sound
as he stands there. At last he sees his wife at the window and he says,
"Mary!" "Why," she says, "why he speaks as he did when I first married
him; I wonder if he has got well?" So she looks out and asks: "John, is
that you?" "Yes, Mary," he replies, "it's me, don't be afraid any mare,
I'm well now." I see that mother, how she pulls back the bolts of that
door, and looks at him. The first look is sufficient, and she springs
into his arms and clings about his neck. She takes him in and asks him a
hundred questions--how it all happened--all about it. "Well, just take a
chair and I'll tell you how I got cured." The children hang back and
look amazed. He says: "I was there in the tombs, you know, cutting
myself with stones, and running about in my nakedness, when Jesus of
Nazareth came that way. Mary, did you ever hear of Him? He is the most
wonderful man; I've never seen a man like Him. He just ran in and told
those devils to leave me, and they left me. When He had cured me I
wanted to follow Him, but He told me to come home and tell you all about
it." The children by and by gather about his knee, and the elder ones
run to tell their playmates what wonderful things Jesus has done for
their father. Ah, my friends, we have got a mighty deliverer, I don't
care what affliction you have, He will deliver you from it. The Son of
God who cast out those devils can deliver you from your besetting sin.

Spurgeon's Parable.

Mr. Spurgeon, a number of years ago, made a parable. He thought he had a
right to make one, and he did it. He said: "There was once a tyrant who
ordered one of his subjects into his presence, and ordered him to make a
chain. The poor blacksmith--that was his occupation--had to go to work
and forge the chain. When it was done he brought it into the presence of
the tyrant, and he was ordered to take it away and make it twice the
length. He brought it again to the tyrant, and again he was ordered to
double it. Back he came when he had obeyed the order, and the tyrant
looked at it, and then commanded the servants to bind the man hand and
foot with the chain he had made and cast him into prison. "And," Mr.
Spurgeon said, "that is what the devil does with man." He makes them
forge their own chain, and then binds them hand and foot with it, and
casts them into outer darkness." My friends, that is just what these
drunkards, these gamb