1 Chronicles 10:13, 14 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not… 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; and inquired not of the Lord. Consider not the many and grievous faults of Saul, but one, and that his last. In modern language, the witch of Endor was a "medium," and Saul's act simply one of those acts of consulting the dead which many believe to be at once practicable and proper. It is not part of my province to defend what some deem the severity of the Mosaic laws against all manner of witchcraft in all its forms. I only remark that a defence of the law which inflicted death upon such might be made by men of tenderest charity; that such would only need to indicate the universal tendency of magic to become "the black art" - a means of revenge, prolific in murder and in crime - to justify the severest measures necessary to repress it. It is easy for the sorcerer to destroy, difficult for him to save life. So in all ages and lands, from the astrologers of Europe, in the Middle Ages, down to the Obeamen of the West Indies to-day, the sorcerers have been the instruments of revenge, at once ready to commit and able to conceal the greatest crimes. Even the English law, with its nineteenth-century indifferentism, finds it necessary to punish the common and vulgar forms of fortune-telling. I prefer to take not the forensic but the personal side of this question; and to deal with it, not in its darker phases, in which it would appear as a superstition, enslaving the mind, tempting to by offering facilities for crime, investing life with awful horrors, but rather in the lighter form in which it seems harmless, in which a few years ago in this country and America it was somewhat fashionable, in which it might even seem to be a means of grace, furnishing some proof of the existence of the soul after death to a gainsaying and materialistic age. I would make two or three preliminary observations. 1. That in the nature of things one would expect a great deal of deception to be practised in connection with spiritualism. Even if a large substratum of fact is in it, yet there will always be a temptation to guess when the oracle provokes by its silence - a reluctance to be caught at a loss; and the tendency to eke out the oracles by guesses will be all the greater when (as usually happens) it would be impossible to convict immediately of error. 2. That we are at a loss in this matter from not knowing exactly how many senses we have. To the five commonly recognized, one has been added - a sense of heat and cold. But probably we have a great many more senses than six: powers of perception, too subtle to be tabulated, but, in some natures of fine sensibility, quite strong enough to perceive by direct and natural but subtle apprehension what lies outside of the knowledge of the five homely senses that are merely the strong, rough ones, common to us all. 3. That whatever be the explanation (and probably a simple scientific one is possible), the existence and practices of clairvoyants in every age and country, and the record of undoubted wonders done by them, make it almost impossible to doubt that some persons in some circumstances can perceive more than comes within the range of ordinary perception. From Apollonius of Tyana down to Swedenborg; from the Delphic oracle, which told what Croesus was doing on a certain day, several hundreds of miles away, to the instances of second sight still at least supposed to exist in the Scottish Highlands, - you get strange facts, too numerous to be met by a universal denial, for which we should, if possible, find some explanation consistent with natural science. But the more of truth there is in the claim of power to reveal the distant or the future, the less, in my judgment, will any wise man have to do with such practices. I therefore urge on many grounds the danger and wrong of spiritualism. Perhaps the following heads may sum up what is material on this matter: - I. WE DO NOT NEED ANY SUPERNATURAL HELP BEYOND THAT OF GOD. For ordinary life the ordinary senses and faculties of man suffice. For all work it is a mistake if the tool be too fine, as well as if it is too coarse. Finer faculties than we have would be too fine for the work of life; would be a source, not of strength, but only of pain and torment. That knowledge of the unseen and future, which we always crave for, would have been given us had it been good for us. But God has concluded that, as regards the unknowable, faith is better than sight, and, as regards the future, hope is better than foreknowledge. For common life, common sense is requisite and is sufficient, especially as we all have within reach aids of grace and enlightenment, that will make our steps safe, if it do not altogether satisfy our curiosity. If we pray to God for guidance, he will answer that prayer, not in some strange and supernatural way, but by calming our over-anxiety, by fortifying our judgment, by presenting in clear light the determining considerations which should weigh with us, by restraining the temptation that might mislead us, by ordering our circumstances so that the only open path is the path of wisdom and of duty. More than this no one needs, and the imagination that the knowledge of the concealed would benefit us is misleading and worrying. Beyond that of God we need no supernatural help or light. II. SUCH LIGHT IS USELESS AS WELL. There are some things not essential but still soothing, comforting, and helpful. But the knowledge of the concealed is not only not essential - it is useless in any shape in which it can come to us. And that for one reason - It is never capable of being verified. You are at the mercy of any "tricksy sprite" that likes to play with your solicitude. If ghosts are free to report themselves, any one of them could simulate Samuel, and, instead of the sober oracle you expect, could give you something with just that shade of error in it that would make it fatally seductive. You cannot apply rule-and-compass argument or faculty to the verification of the message. You must "trust them all or not at all." You cannot prove the spirits in any of the matters on which you seek their light. I say therefore it is valueless. Such oracles are unsigned cheques, which you cannot treat as money. Seeking to escape from the painful necessity of relying on your own judgment, you (like Roman Catholics) have still to rely on your private judgment on the most momentous question of the whole, viz. whether they are worthy to be your guides. Therefore "pick no locks;" be content to be in the dark where God has left you in the dark. It will be safer for you to travel the unknown road by God's moonlight or starlight, than to have a blazing gleam thrown round you, which comes you know not whence and leads you know not whither. III. THERE IS MANIFOLD INJURY IN HAVING RECOURSE TO SUCH 1. There is injury to the body. There are few whose nervous systems can stand either real or imaginary communion with the unseen world. Converse with fellow men and women has no exciting element; but spirits either find or leave the nerves unstrung. Fancy takes reason's throne. Man lives in two worlds, instead of in one bright with the presence of God and man. There can hardly be enjoyment of the friendship without solicitude as to the enmity of the spirits; so that calmness of nerve and that fine physical health which furthers all good growth is generally seriously impaired. 2. There is injury to the mind. The proper self-reliance which dignifies and develops man is interfered with by this reference of all things to a mysterious oracle. The faculties grow strong by being trusted. Judgment inspired and brightened by God, the more it is used the more it grows. Subordinate it to mysterious oracles, and the whole mental energy deteriorates and slackens. Above all: 3. The soul suffers. We cannot well have two guides - two oracles. We can leave God, and be guided by the dubious light which mediums may find for us; or we may leave them, and take God's light and God's darkness as he sees fit to give it; but we cannot very well have both. Even the devoutest we imagine will find the simplicity of their dependence on God somewhat impaired by resorting to other guides; and their simple acceptance of the Saviour's teaching impaired by their sitting at the feet of those whose suggestions do not always concur with his. So the writer speaks of Saul's act as of a backsliding, pointing the despair into which he had sunk. Keep your heart free of all that enfeebles it and of all that divides it from the Lord. Poor Saul got nothing but a deeper despair that drove him to his doom. Take Isaiah's exhortation, therefore, to the spiritualists of his day: "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,... should not a people seek unto their God?" (Isaiah 8:19). - G. Parallel Verses KJV: 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; |
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