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MR. ALCOTT. Are any of you famous? Some of you may be famous gluttons, or famous sleepers, or famous fighters; there is a bad fame as well as good. (He pursued this a little farther.)

Subject.

MR. ALCOTT. What has been the subject of conversation to day? Now don't speak of the outward facts, but find some one word that expresses the chief thought.

EMMA. Jesus' power over unclean spirits.

MR. ALCOTT. Take the subject even out of Jesus. FRANKLIN. Supernatural power over unclean spirits. LUCIA. The curing of appetites and passions. LEMUEL. The power of Good over Bad. MARTHA. The power of the Spirit over appetite. MR. ALCOTT. How many think that if you Application. would use all your faculties aright, you might escape all unclean passions, all diseases of the mind or body?

GEORGE K. I don't think I could of the body.

MR. ALCOTT. How could you escape or master?
LEMUEL. By having a mind to.

MR. ALCOTT. Or a heart rather?

EMMA. By trying to.

WELLES By loving to.

GEORGE K. By desiring to, having faith in.

MR. ALCOTT. How many think that after this they shall think of evil spirits-when they go to dinneror by markets, or by candy shops?

(Ellen betrayed uneasiness at this reflection on candy shops. A lady present said to her, aside-"you love the spirits dressed in candy." She smiled, "And would say Let us alone, why art thou come to destroy us?" She smiled consciously.) MR. ALCOTT. And when you go to the vessel of pure water in the morning to wash yourself?

LEMUEL. Water is not pure, it has living creatures in it.

MR. ALCOTT. It seems pure however. What alone is pure?

SEVERAL.

The Spirit.

(Some added.)

Of God.

Theory of
Demoniacal
Possession.

RECORDER. My sense of justice is wounded by these children going off with the idea that each individual demoniac or possessed person (which expressions, I think, are in these records precisely equivalent to a deranged person) is wicked.

MR. ALCOTT. Whatever was the fact with the individuals, who may have inherited their tendencies or diseases, and so be personally innocent, yet the remote cause was ever a violation of a physiological law.

RECORDER. But it was a practical error which is thought important enough to be opposed by the author of the book of Job, and our Saviour in the instance of the blind man, who had "not sinned, neither his parents," to ascribe the misfortunes of an individual to the sins he did not commit personally.

MR. ALCOTT. And like all popular errors, it had an Idea at the bottom, which is what we are to seek after in these conversations.

RECORDER. But surely Mark and Luke were not intending to teach the Idea in this narrative. They merely used the language of the day, and in their minds, as well as words, it was erroneous.

It

MR. ALCOTT. Suppose that it be as you say. is of small consequence to these children to appreciate Mark and Luke's degree of truth or error; but important to get the Ideas at the foundation of the circumstances, good or evil, of human life.

RECORDER. All this is perfectly true, if they only know the fact, that it is not Mark's or Luke's view that they are dwelling upon. To know that, would not interfere with their going beyond it.

MR. ALCOTT. But it is better for their minds to be possessed with the Ideas at first. And you see that they seem to apprehend these as if by a spiritual instinct. They can recur to Mark and Luke and the historical view hereafter.

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CONVERSATION XL.

SPIRITUAL INVIGORATION.

HEALING.

Healing of Peter's Wife's Mother, from the Sacred Text. Gratitude. Healing Power of Faith. Moral Influence. Functions of Spirit. Efficacy of Faith. Quickening Agency of Faith.- Ministry of Punishment. Example. - Appetites and Passions. Evil Speaking. — SelfIndulgence. Illustration of Self-Mastery. - Love and Sympathy. Subject.

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Mr. Alcott recalled the last conversation, on the casting out of the unclean spirit in the synagogue at CaperHe then read the

naum.

HEALING OF PETER'S WIFE'S MOTHER.

MATT. viii. 14-17; iv. 24. MARK i. 29-34. LUKE iv. 38-41.

Vulgar Era, 27.

Luke iv. 38.
Mark i. 29.

Spiritual
Powers.

Luke iv. 38.

Mark i. 30.
Matt. viii. 14.

Mark i. 30.

Luke iv. 38.

Mark i. 31.

Luke iv. 39

Julian Period, 4740.
Galilee.

And he arose out of the synagogue.
And forthwith, when they were come out of
the synagogue, they entered into the house

of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever,
and

lay sick;

And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, anon they tell him of her,

and they besought him for her.

And he came

and stood over her and rebuked the fever,

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Mark i. 31.

Luke iv. 39.
Mark i. 32.

Luke iv. 40.

Matt. iv. 24.

Mark i. 32.

Mark i. 33.
Luke iv. 40.
Mark i. 34.
Luke iv. 40.
Matt. viii. 16.

Matt. viii. 17.

Luke iv. 41.

Mark i. 31.
Luke iv. 41.

and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her;

and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.

And at even, when the sun did set,

was setting, all they that had any sick,
with divers diseases,

they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that
were possessed with devils:

(and all the city was gathered together at the door :)

and he laid his hands on every one of them

that were sick of divers diseases,

and healed them:

and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

* Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. And devils also came ont of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he, rebuking them, suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him, that he was Christ.

He then asked them what they thought of it?

Gratitude.

GEORGE K. I was interested in the words "And she ministered unto them." I suppose the reason was, because she was glad Jesus had cured her.

MR. ALCOTT.

But did you think the reason why she ministered to them was because Jesus had cured her

did she not always do so?

GEORGE K. I suppose she would not have done it with so much joy, as now that he had cured her. MR. ALCOTT. What principle was in this joy? GEORGE K. Love. Thankfulness.

Faith.

* Isaiah liii. 4 – 12,

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