even the throttlings of a dying animal, as well as the gurglings of water swiftly poured from a bottle. These pranks, which are played off with so much dexterity, are but imitations of the ancient witches and necromancers, who infested the land of Israel, and who spread themselves through all lands, but especially the land of New-England in the days of Cotton Mather.

It was doubtless on account of the crafty manner in which they imposed upon the ignorant multitude, who were so easily beguiled by their bewitching enchantments, that God said unto his chosen people, "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them," Lev. xix, 31. And in Exod. xxii, 18, it is said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Why this strict prohibition, and this severe penalty? Doubtless because it was well known that the wizards and witches, pretending, as their name indicates, to be uncommonly wise, sported with the credulity of the uninformed multitude, gulled them out of their time and money by performing their antic trickeries, under the guise of supernatural agencies. This was their crime and their shame. They were in fact guilty of blasphemy against the true God; for in pretending to a knowledge of invisible things, and a foresight into futurity, they impiously assumed the prerogatives of the Most High, and daringly usurped a place in his government of the world. It was indeed for being so deeply involved in these wicked practices, together with other acts of idolatry, injustice, and licentiousness, that God caused the Canaanites to be destroyed, as is manifest from the following words, Deut. xviii, 10-14, "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," (one that pretends to foretell future events from the aspects of the heavens, the position of the stars, &c., like the astrologers of Egypt and Chaldea,) "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 to the Lord and because of their abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do." And if the Israelites were forbidden to pollute themselves with these abominVOL. I.-29

able idolators, and to familiarize themselves with these wicked enchanters, witches, and necromancers, how much more should Christians deprecate any connection with such vile pretenders to a knowledge of invisible things and of future events-a knowledge professedly derived from such a corrupt source, even from the infernal spirits of the invisible world!

Perhaps one of the most difficult instances to be accounted for, is that concerning Saul the fallen king of Israel and the witch of Endor, as it stands recorded in 1 Sam. xxviii, 6-25. The woman of whom this fallen and troubled king inquired concerning his fate was one who "had a familiar spirit," or who professed to have intercourse with an invisible demon, over whom she had such influence that she could evoke it at her pleasure. Now, it is certain that this vile woman was deceived herself, that the spirit on whom she called did not come forth, and therefore Samuel did not show himself at her command, but at the command of a higher power. That she was deceived in her expectation of evoking her familiar spirit, is evident from what is said in verse 12: "And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman said, Thou hast deceived me! for thou art Saul." It moreover appears, from verse 14, that this pythoness did not know Samuel, for instead of calling him by name, she said, "An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle." It was Saul, not the woman, who "perceived that it was Samuel." From the whole account, therefore, it appears undeniable that whatever power this enchantress might have had over another spirit, she had none over Samuel, for, contrary to her expectations, he came forth, doubtless at the command of God, while all her enchantments failed of their effect. Hence it is right to conclude that, however much she might have imposed upon the senses of her deluded followers under othér circumstances, she utterly failed here, and all her machinations were confounded by the interposition of a higher and holier power.

The wickedness of this woman's character is clearly depicted in the horror which she felt when the identity of King Saul was disclosed to her, and when the witchery with which she pretended to work her miracles was discomfited. Of the fearful consequence resulting to her in case she hearkened to the proposal of the disguised monarch, she was fully aware, when he came to inquire of her, "for the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what

Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, Wherefore thou layest a snare And when she found herself

and the wizards out of the land. for my life, to cause me to die." deceived by this unhappy king, and that her incantations had no effect in evoking from the invisible world the spirit with which she professed to be "familiar," she uttered a cry of fear and astonishment, and claimed the fulfilment of his promise to her, that her life should not be forfeited for complying with his request. See ver. 21.

That Samuel actually appeared to Saul, rebuked him for his folly and wickedness, and predicted his overthrow and death, is undeniable, and therefore we have an evidence here, that God has permitted and commanded disembodied spirits, for wise and benevolent purposes, to visit the earth, and to converse with men. So Moses and Elias appeared to our blessed Saviour on Mount Tabor, and conversed with him, probably assuming for the, occasion a visible vehicle for the purpose of making themselves known to the disciples who were in company with their divine Master, during the splendid exhibition of his glory. But these were very important and most extraordinary events, sufficient to justify, even in the eye of reason, such miraculous interpositions of the divine Hand, and do not furnish any precedents for those every-day appearances of ghosts with which the wild imaginations of the credulous seem to be filled and bewildered.

Allowing therefore that God has done this, and may do the like again, it furnishes no just ground for believing in those incredible stories respecting the diabolical influence which infernal spirits empower a human being, who professes to be in league with the devil, to have over other human beings, so as to torment them with pains, to transport them from one place to another, and to force their bodies into horrible writhings and contortions.

Upon a candid review of this whole subject, we are led to the conclusion, that the popular belief in witchcraft, necromancy, and fortune telling, has its foundation in an ignorant superstition* on the A poet, describing a person living in great ignorance, very aptly says of him,―

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-His judgment so untaught,

That what at evening played along the swamps,

Fantastic, clad in robes of fiery hue,

He thought the devil in disguise, and fled

With quivering heart, and winged footsteps home."

one hand, and in the cunning craftiness of hypocritical pretenders to an insight into futurity on the other. These jugglers, understanding something of those physical laws known to chimists, taking advantage of the ignorant credulity of the uninformed multitude, and of the natural bias of the human mind to a superstitious reverence for all marvelous appearances, have exerted their skill in separating and combining the elements of nature, or of controlling its laws, and of changing and modifying their own voices, so as to impose upon the understandings and inveigle the senses of their fellow men. Let any man who is unacquainted with the causes which produce the various phenomena that at times appear in the heavens, witness an eclipse of the sun or moon, the shooting of stars, the sudden appearance and falling of meteors, or the coruscations of light in the northern hemisphere, and it would be easy to make him believe that those appearances indicated the approach of some extraordinary event, and were produced by supernatural agencies-while the philosophical inquirer knows full well that they are but the effects of natural causes, always, however, under the control of His hand who rules the universe. What but a superstitious veneration for these natural phenomena has caused the untaught barbarian to suppose that every uncommon appearance on the surface of the earth, in caves and mountain chasms, in the unusual swelling of the tides, in earthquakes, burning fountains of water, and volcanic eruptions, are either indications of supernatural interpositions or symbols of invisible spirits, which ought, therefore, to be worshiped?

And if one of these untaught sons of nature were to enter the laboratory of the skilful chimist, and behold the exhibitions of his art, in the analysis and combination of the various substances of nature, by which their qualities, colors, and powers are changed -were he to witness the expansive power of the gases, or the electric shock, or even to see the power of steam propelling a boat through the water at the rate of sixteen or twenty miles an hour, without masts or sails, he would be struck with astonishment, and could easily be made to believe that the chimist was a wizard, and that the steamboat was forced through the water by an invisible hand. All these phenomena, though produced by the art of man, by his skilful control of the elements of nature, would be as mysterious and as incomprehensible to his untutored mind as were the pranks of the

New-England witches to the mind of Cotton Mather, or as would be the appearance of the meteors in the heavens to an uninstructed Hottentot, and as unaccountable as an eclipse of the sun to an American savage. Nor would the multitudinous stories respecting haunted castles, bewitched men, women, and children, were they investigated with the keenness of candid, enlightened criticism, remain any more mysterious and unaccountable, it is believed, than the marvelous adventure of the French minister of state who followed the pretended ghost into his cell, and there found him converted into a companion of a den of robbers. Many of these strange appearances are no doubt the mere effects of a frighted imagination, others the illusions of the senses, and not a few the productions of cunning and designing men, who have managed their feats of legerdemain so dextrously as to elude detection, while they succeeded in deluding their willing dupes into a belief of their supernatural powers. All these combined, have, at times, exerted an influence as unhallowed in its character as it has been mischievous in its consequences.

The apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, classes witchcraft among the "works of the flesh," and affirms that "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." That this sort of witchcraft exists and prevails extensively, we have no doubt. All those who are under the dominion of merely fleshly appetites, or are "beguiled from the simplicity of Christ," by the fascinating charms of human eloquence, the pompous show of worldly grandeur, or the more debasing sorceries of a corrupted form of Christianity, are as much bewitched as were the Galatians by the false teachers who came among them. Nor are the "works of the flesh” in modern days, as exemplified by the gallantries of voluptuous men and women, who refuse to be governed by the restraints of religion and morality, any the less worthy of being denominated witchcraft, than were those who deserved that reproach in the days of the apostle Paul.

This inspired apostle contrasts these works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit; and as he considers the former as evidence of a species of witchcraft, so he distinguishes the latter as an evidence of Christian character, declaring that those who bring forth this fruit, and who "walk in the Spirit," are no longer subject to those bewitching sorceries which beguile the soul from the purity