, a "Thus saith the Lord."

2. If it is not what it claims to be, it is an _imposture_ invented by
_deceivers_ and _liars_.

3. _Good_ men would not deceive and lie; therefore they were not the ones
who invented the Bible.

4. If, therefore, it was invented by men at all, it must have been
invented by _bad_ men.

5. All liars and religious impostors are bad men; but--

6. The Bible repeatedly and most explicitly forbids lying and imposture,
under the threatening of most condign punishment.

7. Would, therefore, liars and impostors invent a book which more than any
other book ever written, denounces lying and imposture, thus condemning
themselves to the severest judgments of God, and at last to eternal death?

8. If, then, the Bible is not the invention of good men,--because such men
would not lie and deceive; nor of evil men,--because such men would not
condemn themselves; nor of good or evil angels, for the same reasons, who
else can be its author, but he who claims to be, that is, the living God?

9. If, therefore, from the very nature of the case, it must be God's book,
why not believe it, and obey it?

To return: Appeal is therefore made to the Bible; and the object is to
learn what the Bible teaches about Spiritualism. When the claim is put
forth that it is the disembodied spirits of dead men who make the
communications, the Bible reader is at once aware of a conflict of claims.
In times when the Bible was written, there were practices among men which
went under the names of "enchantment," "sorcery," "witchcraft,"
"necromancy," "divination," "consulting with familiar spirits," etc. These
practices were all more or less related, but some of them bear an
unmistakable meaning. Thus, "necromancy" is defined to mean "a pretended
communication with the dead." A "familiar spirit" was "a spirit or demon
supposed to attend on an individual, or to come at his call; the invisible
agent of a necromancer's will."--_Century Dictionary._ Spiritualists do not
deny that their intercourse with the invisible world comes under some, at
least, of these heads. But all such practices the Bible explicitly
forbids.

Deut. 18:9-12: "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 a