Appleton Chapel.

The Rev. P. S. Moxom, D. D., preached last night in Appleton Chapel from the text: "He that has been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. But Jesus suffered him not." St. Mark v, 18-20. Dr. Moxom spoke as follows: "All the cases of demoniacal possession mentioned in the New Testament were doubtless cases of insanity. The one mentioned in the text was especially violent, and was regarded with a kind of superstitious veneration peculiar to the East. When the man was healed of his infirmity, he wished to show his devotion to Jesus and to follow him as a disciple. He was restrained, however, and when the Gadarenes, being afraid of Christ, asked him to leave them, the convert was left behind as his witness. The man remained, and spent the rest of his life preaching the Gospel to the Gadarenes.

In the same way, when a man has been reformed from a life of evil, his first impulse is to seek a new and more congenial environment. His noblest course, however, is to stay where he is and to build up a new existence for himself. Christ detached from himself the man who needed to stand alone. So ought we all to live patiently where God has called us, and to find our resources in him. There is a kind of isolation in all profound experience, but this isolation is only temporary. All true souls meet at last. John Hall once said: "The way to attain a high place is conspicuous diligence in a low place." Such, too, is the way to the kingdom of God.