150 



W. HOSTE, B.A., ON FETICHISM — 



US against confounding modern spiritism with the spiritism 

 condemned in the Holy Scriptures, which he asserted to be more 

 akin to African fetichism ? It would have been of interest to 

 hear some proof of such a distinction. I believe had the speaker 

 more first-hand knowledge of African fetichism he wwld be 

 impressed rather with the many curious points of contact 

 between it and modern spiritism, than with their differences. 



All these forms of occultism are probably included in the 

 Holy Scriptures under the term " Sorcery," the (papfiaKeLu 

 of the Septuagint, the equivalent for in Isaiah xlvii, 9, 



and also of the words used for the " enchantments " of the 

 Egyptian magicians in Exodus vii. In verse 11 it is D'^'^n^ 

 flames, dazzlings, delusions, and in verse 22 □''I? ' from 

 t^^lS to conceal. 



All are equally condemned in the Scriptures. For instance — 

 *' There shall not be found among you anyone 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, 10-12). This list 

 covers a wide area, and to assert that modern spiritism finds 

 no place in it is as unjustifiable as hazardous. It was for the 

 practice of these and other nameless abominations that the 

 people of Canaan, those " honest peasants," as some senti- 

 mentalists describe them, were destroyed before the children of 

 Israel. It was well for the world that such a moral cesspool 

 should be thoroughly cleansed. 



There were, as we have been reminded, sorcerers in Egypt 

 in the time of Moses, the two leaders of whom, Jannes and 

 Jambres, withstood him by copying the miracles of the serpents, 

 and the plagues of the blood and frogs. It was opposition 

 by imitation. They did by Satanic energy w^hat Moses did by 

 Divine power, and so confused the issue. It is foretold that this 

 very kind of opposition will characterize the last days, and we 

 see it around us to-day in this year of Grace. 



To remind you of a little mythology, the real author of the 

 magical art was believed by the Egyptians to be Isis, the daughter 

 of Seb and Nut, earth and sky. The wise Thoth gave the goddess 

 power to raise the dead. This power she exercised, according 

 to the well-known legend, by joining together the fourteen bits 



