The subject of demoniac possession is one frequently referred to in the Scriptures, and especially in the New Testament. The phenomena of demoniac possession are manifold, and when we are sufficiently illuminated to detect and classify them, we find that all the statements in Scripture are perfectly verified. The following items will be found true.

First. The agency of demons is always brought more conspicuously into notice in proportion to the manifestation and power of God’s work among souls. When the Son of God was manifest in the flesh it called forth the activity and outspoken agency of demons more than ever before, and we often see instances in Scripture where the approach of Christ, or of a Spirit-filled apostle to some possessed person, would mightily stir the demon in him. Just as the approach of summer causes vegetation to sprout, the same heat also stirs the snakes into motion. So as God approaches men in his Son, or in his disciples, it stirs the latent demonism that otherwise lies cold and dormant; and oftentimes the more powerful the divine manifestation, the fiercer will be the demoniac exhibition.

Secondly. Demons are of a multiplied variety. They are of various types, greater in diversity than human beings, and these demons always seek to possess a person congenial to them, in some characteristic. The Bible tells us of unclean demons, deaf and dumb demons, witch-craft, and fortune-telling demons, of insanity, of drunkenness, of gluttony, of idleness, of wonder or miracle working, of various forms of sickness, despotic demons, theological demons, screeching and yelling demons. There are demons that act more particularly on the body, or some organ or appetite of the body. There are others that act more directly upon the intellect or the sensibilities and emotions and affections. There are others of a higher order that act directly on man’s spiritual nature, upon the conscience, or the spiritual perceptions. These are the ones  that act as angels of light, and side-track and delude many who are real Christians.

Third. These demons seek to fasten themselves on to human beings as parasites, like ticks in cattle, or mistletoe on a live tree. They seek out those whose make-up and temperament is most congenial to them-selves, and then seek to fasten themselves on to some part of their body, or brain, or some appetite, or some faculty of the mind, either the reason, or imagination, or perception, and when they get access they bury themselves into the very structure of the person so as to identify themselves with the personality of the one they possess. In a great many instances they do not get possession of the individual, but obtain such a hold on some part of the mind as to torment the person with periodical attacks of something strange and abnormal, out of all proportion to the general character and make-up of the individual.

Fourth. These demons feed themselves on the person with whom they are allied. There are three great realms of law—the natural and the supernatural, and between these come a strange middle realm called the perternatural. This middle realm embraces a vast range of phenomena, which cannot be definitely classified or ranged under the regular facts of nature or grace, but a strange medley, like the vast swarm of asteroids that float in space, and which, striking against the atmosphere, produce the shooting stars we see in November. This is the realm of clairvoyance, second-sight, hypnotism, mind-reading, insanity, and abnormal passions. It is in this realm that a large class of demons find their favorite hunting ground. There are allusions in Scripture, and facts gathered from experience, sufficient to prove that certain varieties of demons live on the juices in the human blood, or they absorb to themselves some of the natural affections, so that a person thus possessed will lose their natural affection for husband or wife, or children, or brothers and sisters, because the demon has absorbed that affection to himself.

We are told in the Apocrypha of a demon that desperately loved a young woman, and killed the man that she married, and repeated this several times, until he was banished of the Lord by an angel. We are told by the prophet that in the awful dark days of Jerusalem, the demon-possessed women would go into a secret chamber in the temple to mourn for Thamuz, who was a demon that had so possessed their bodies as to turn them from their husbands, and infatuate them with unnatural passions. It is absolutely certain that whisky and opium are the inventions of the devil, and through these millions of demons have fastened themselves upon poor human beings.

Fifth. There are religious demons, not holy, but nevertheless religious and filled with a devilish form of religion which is a counterfeit of true, deep spirituality. These pseudo religious demons very rarely attack young beginners, but they hover around persons who advance into deeper experiences, and seek every opportunity to fasten themselves upon the conscience, or the spiritual emotions of persons of high states of grace, and especially if they are of a vivid or energetic temperament. These are the demons that play havoc among many professors of holiness. The way they get hold of persons is as follows: A soul goes through a great struggle and is wonderfully blessed. Floods of light and emotion sweep through the being. The shore lines are all cut. The soul is launched out into a sea of extravagant experience. At such a juncture these demons hover around the soul, and make strange suggestions to the mind of something odd, or outlandish, or contrary to common sense and decent taste. They make these suggestions under the profession of being the Holy Ghost. They fan the emotions, and even produce a strange fictitious exhilaration, which is simply their bait to get into some faculty of the soul. For example, one man said that just after receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as he would lie in bed at night, a strange, wild sort of exhilaration would shoot through his mind, and a sudden impulse to jump out of bed and go screaming all over the house, which, if he had yielded to once, would likely have given the demon an access to his brain, which might have ruined him.

A very holy and useful woman says that soon after receiving the baptism of the Spirit, there came to her, one night in the church, a wild and abnormal impulse to throw the hymn-book at the preacher and to run over the church screaming, and it took all her willpower to keep her hand from throwing that book, but she had the common sense to know that the Holy Spirit was not the author of such a crazy freak. If she had yielded to that sudden feeling, it would have likely given that fanatical demon admission to her emotional nature, and ruined her life-work. She is a person who knows the mighty demonstrations of the Holy Spirit, and understands God sufficiently to know he is not the source of wild and indecent conduct.

Another good man said he felt like running around the camp-ground, and climbing every tree, but had enough discernment to “try the spirits,” and found the impulse was not of God. But another person at the same camp meeting felt the same impulse, and yielded to it, and went yelling and screaming through the woods, climbing trees, tearing his clothes, exhausting his body, and in a short time became utterly useless to the work of God. Another person said he felt like rolling on the floor, and groaning and pulling the chairs around, but he distinctly perceived that the impulse to do so had something wild in it, and a touch of self-display contrary to the gentleness and sweetness of Jesus, and as quick as he saw it was an attack of a false spirit he was delivered, and the tide of pure love flowed on through his breast. But another man had the same sudden impulse, and fell down groaning and roaring, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and the demon entered into him as an angel of light, and got him to think that his outlandish conduct was the Holy Ghost, and it became a regular habit in the meetings he attended, until he would ruin every religious meeting he was in.

It requires great humility to try these spirits and detect the false ones. The most dangerous demons in existence are those pseudo pious ones who soar around the high altitudes of the spiritual life, like eagles around great mountain tops, and seek to fasten their talons upon lofty and conspicuous prey. These are the demons of spiritual pride, of religious ambition, of false prophetic vision, of strained and far-fetched illuminations, of wild and fantastic notions, of strange and abnormal affections. These are the demons that flit over the sun-lit regions in the land of Canaan, and attack very seldom any but advanced believers.

Sixth. The effects of being possessed by this sort of demons are manifold, and plainly legible to a well-poised mind. Such possession causes people to run off into things that are odd, and foolish, and unreasonable and indecent. It leads them to adopt a peculiar voice or twang, or an unnatural shouting, or some senseless shaking of the body, or the striking of certain attitudes, or the adopting of some silly whim, such as a man’s wearing long hair, or parting it in the middle to imitate pictures of Jesus, or some other peculiar crotchet in wearing apparel, or eating, something that locates the man’s religion in the physical and not in his heart. Or such a possession is manifested by peculiar heresies in the mind, of which there is a nameless variety. It produces a certain wildness in the eye, and harshness in the voice. Such persons invariably break the law of love, and severely condemn people who do not conform to themselves. As a rule such persons lose their flesh, for demoniac possession is very wearing on the vital forces, and produces a terrible strain on the heart and nervous system.

There are many persons who are truly godly and want to live holy lives, who have failed to discern these evil spirits, and under strange impulses have allowed some kind of demon to take hold of them, and though they are still conscientious servants of God, are sufficiently influenced by evil spirits of a high order as to utterly ruin their usefulness.

How can such persons get delivered? They must frankly admit to themselves, and to God, and others, that they have been misled, and then request the saints to pray God to cast the demon out. To detect the agency of evil spirits and then to have the humility to frankly acknowledge it, is more than one-half the victory. It requires a self-abasement to make such a confession as very few persons are willing to undergo. The great skill of a demon is to hide himself under the guise of the Holy Ghost, or of another’s personality, and the greatest triumph over evil spirits is the power to detect and try them. To do this, the greatest requisite is humility—not a professed humility, but a radical, searching humility that gets into dust and ashes, with uncovered head, and scrapes itself with a potsherd, and is willing to be esteemed by any and everybody as the filth and off-scouring of all things; a humility that does not scorn to sit with Job on the ash heap, or with ragged Lazarus and the dogs, and look up from the bottom of self-abasement into the pitiful eye of God, and look to him alone for compassion and help.

This is the humility that is nauseating to a demon, and makes him fly. For the lack of this fathomless  humility is the reason why not one fanatic in a thousand ever gets delivered and restored to sanctified common sense, and to that peaceful and loving spirit which is the fountain of true usefulness.