AN ANTI-SPIRITUALISTIC FABLE.

The rats once assembled in a large cellar, to devise some method of safely getting the bait from a small steel trap, which lay near, having seen numbers of their friends and relations snatched from them by its merciless jaws. After many loud. speeches, and the proposal of many elaborate but fruitless plans, a happy wit standing erect, said, "It is my opinion that if with one paw we keep down the spring, we can safely take the food from the trap with the other." All the rats present loudly squeaked

assent, and snapped their tails in applause. The meeting adjourned, and the rats retired to their homes; but the devastation of the trap being by no means diminished, the rats were forced to call another "Convention." The elders had just assembled, and had commenced their deliberations, when all were startled by a faint voice, and a poor rat with only three legs, limping into the ring, stood up to speak. All were instantly silent. When stretching out the bleeding remains of his leg, he said, "My friends, I have tried the method you proposed, and see the result! Now let me suggest a plan to escape the trap-'Do not touch it.'"

CHAPTER XIX.

GOD HAS PROHIBITED SPIRITUALISM,

"Sorcerers and idolators and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the sccond death."-REV. xxi: 8.

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HAVING Shown that Spiritualism is identical with sorcery, it is easy to prove that it is prohibited by Jehovah.

The Law says: "Regard not them which have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them."-Lev. xix: 31; xx: 6,27.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."-Ex. xxii: 18.

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord."-Deut. xviii: 10, 11.

Some persons suppose that sorcery is not sinful since the Mosaic law has been superseded by the dispensation of grace. A greater mistake was never made. In all that pertains to morals the New Testament embodies what was set forth in the law. Both condemn sorcery.

When Saul returned from his conquest of the Amalekites, bringing sheep and oxen in violation of the Divine command, the prophet Samuel thus addressed him:

"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king."—1 Sam. xv : 22.

"So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it."—1 Chron. x: 13.

Thus witchcraft and idolatry were mentioned as the worst of crimes. Hence the Canaanites were destroyed for these practices in particular. "Because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee."

Spiritualists show that their fabric is "baseless" by attempting, as Mr. Brittan has done, in his review of Mr. Beecher, to justify necromancy by Isa. viii: 19, 20.

"And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the

dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

Professor Noyes, of Harvard, renders this text :

"And when they shall say to you,

'Inquire of the necromancers and wizards,

That chirp and that murmur,'

(Then say ye) should not a people inquire of their God? 'Should they inquire of the dead, for the living?'

To the word; to the revelation!

If they speak not according to this,

For them no bright morning shall arise."

We should as soon attempt to extract prusic acid from honey, as to justify intercourse with the dead by this text. It clearly shows that this work is a trespass on the prerogatives of God; that those who would tempt any person to inquire of necromancers and spirits, should be repulsed, and the fallacy of their inducements exposed upon the spot.

Spiritualists inform us that they are ready to receive truth from evil spirits, or any other source. In this respect, as in almost every other, they are unlike Christ and the apostles, for these rejected the testimony of all demons, whether false or true. When Christ was about to cast them out they cried out :

"Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art: the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace and come out of him. And devils [demons] also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ."-Luke iv: 34, 41.

When the damsel followed Paul and Silas, crying, "these men are servants of the Most High God," Paul, being grieved, cast out the spirit. The spirits in these instances told the truth; but the Master and the apostles would allow no testimony from such a source. On the same ground every consistent Christian will reject the testimony of all of these "familiar spirits." The fruit of such authorities, however fair it may appear, will prove at last to be "like the apples of Sodom by the Dead Sea's cursed shore."

If departed spirits and necromancers teach contrary to the Bible, they are servants of darkness and worse than useless. If they were to repeat the whole of that book, it would be useless; they could never be of service in inducing repentance and winning souls to Christ. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets [and the New Testament] neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."-Luke xvi: 31.

Prophets and apostles never engaged in sorcery, necromancy nor charming. Had they practiced themselves what they condemned in others, they would have been exposed. If such arts had been just and useful they would have given some example or precept to that effect.

Among the good things which King Josiah did"The workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law."-2 Kings xxiii: 24.