pure hearts can find. In default of
any adverse claimant the Catholic Church must be adjudged that
authority. The worship, therefore, that the Church approves as worthy
of God is not, cannot be, superstition. And what is patently against
reason, or, in case of doubt, what she reproves and condemns in
religion is superstitious.

Leaving out of the question for the moment those species of
superstition that rise to the dignity of science, to the accidental
fame and wealth of humbugs and frauds, the evil embraces a host of
practices that are usually the result of a too prevalent psychological
malady known as softening of the brain. These poor unfortunates imagine
that the Almighty who holds the universe in the hollow of His hand,
deals with His creatures in a manner that would make a full-grown man
pass as a fool if he did the same. Dreams, luck-pieces, certain
combinations of numbers or figures, ordinary or extraordinary events
and happenings--these are the means whereby God is made to reveal to
men secrets and mysteries as absurd as the means, themselves. Surely
God must have descended from His throne of wisdom.

Strange though it appear, too little religion--and not too much--leads
to these unholy follies. There is a religious instinct in man. True
religion satisfies it fully. Quack religion, pious tomfoolery, and
doctrinal ineptitude foisted upon a God-hungry people end by driving
some from one folly to another in a pitiful attempt to get away from
the deceptions of man and near to God. Others are led on by a sinful
curiosity that outweighs their common-sense as well as their respect
for God. These are the guilty ones.

It has been said that there is more superstition--that is belief and
dabbling in these inane practices--to-day in one of our large cities
than the Dark Ages ever was afflicted with. If true, it is one sign of
the world's spiritual unrest, the decay of unbelief; and irreligion
thus assists at its own disintegration. The Church swept the pagan
world clean of superstition once; she may soon be called upon to do the
work over again.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
OCCULTISM.

SPIRITISM as a theory, a science, a practice, a religion, or--I might
add--a profitable business venture, is considered an evil thing by the
Church, and by her is condemned as superstition, that is, as a false
and unworthy homage to God, belittling His majesty and opposed to the
Dispensation of Christ, according to which alone God can be wo