"Jesus saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
And he departed, and began to publish in DECAPOLIS, how great things
Jesus had done for him; and all men did vel."-Mark v. 19, 20.

LONDON:

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.,

STATIONERS'-HALL-COURT.

PREFACE.

WHATEVER reception may await this book at the hands of the religious public, it is my consolation to know that the views which it advocates have been owned of God to the salvation of many souls.

This is my only apology for a style of expression and a manner of writing which may seem in some instances to savour of dogmatism. I have no wish to cast one unkind reflection on brethren who differ from me; to our Master we stand or fall: but I must express myself strongly, for I speak that which I know, and testify that which I have seen.

I have written for Christians. Should my remarks awaken attention, they will fall into the hands of many who have no right to that holy name. A previous question demands their notice, a question to which every other

ought to be postponed, and from which I would be among the last to divert them for one moment,—the question of the Philippian gaoler to Paul and Silas,-"What must I do to be saved?"

And who are Christians? The disciples of Christ; men who have given their hearts to God, and, on the ground of the great sacrifice for sin, have consecrated their bodies, souls, and spirits to the service and glory of their Creator and Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

To such, the following observations are addressed. Brethren! suffer the word of exhortation. Soon we must give an account of our stewardship, and, in the presence of Him who redeemed us unto God by his blood, narrate the efforts we have made to secure and extend the blessings of that atonement in the world where he laboured, and for which he died. The Lord grant that we may find mercy of the Lord in that day!

Lymington, May 29, 1840.

D. E. F.

DECAPOLIS.

CHAPTER I.

THE apostles have now rested from their labours nearly eighteen centuries. Were they to return to earth again, would they find the world, would they find even the church, in that condition in which they expected it to be eighteen hundred years after their decease?

We have no right to evade this question, or to answer it in the affirmative, on the ground of their inspiration: First, because we are not quite sure that it was given them "to know the times" or 66 the seasons," Acts i. 7; and, next, because knowledge derived from such a source, having no connexion whatever with human calculation and forethought, would not bear on the present inquiry. The question before us can only be entertained while we