In the law of Moses it is commanded, that there should not be found among the people, any that used divination, or that was an observer of the times, or that was an enchanter: Deut. xiii. 10. In the prophecies of Malachi, the Lord has declared--_Thou shalt have no more soothsayers_: Mal. v. 12. Balaam and Balak were cursed of the Lord of Hosts; the former for using enchantments, and the latter for employing Balaam in this wicked work. _Woe to them that devise iniquity_: Micah, ii. 1. Those who employ unhappy Gipsy women, should think on the portion of the liar; Rev. xxi. 8: for the person who tempts another to utter falsehood by offering rewards, is equally guilty before God. _A companion of fools shall be destroyed_: Prov. xiii. 20. _Though hand join in hand_, in sin, _the wicked shall not go unpunished_: Prov. xvi. 5. _The destruction of the transgressors and the sinners shall be together_: Isai. i. 28. It may be safely affirmed that the sin of those persons, who trifle with Gipsy women in having their fortunes told by them, nearly resembles that of the first king of Israel; who, by consulting, in his trouble, a wicked woman, who pretended to supernatural power, filled up the measure of those sins, by which he lost the protection of heaven, his crown, and his life, and by which he involved his family in the most ruinous calamity. Reader, have you encouraged any of these people in such crimes? If you have so far forgotten yourselves, the commands of God, and the curse that awaits you and those who deceive themselves the same way; reflect, before it be too late, on the evil into which you have willingly, wilfully, and without the least reasonable excuse, fallen, and on the guilt that must of necessity attach to your consciences thereby. Should you never meet those you encouraged to sin in this world, and therefore never have an opportunity of warning them of their danger, yet must you meet at the bar of Christ; and if then loaded with the weight of the sin in question, how awful will be your condition! Yourself and a fellow creature turned out for ever from God, and heaven, and hope! You may find mercy _now_, if you, by faith in the Redeemer, _seek for it_; and who can tell but if you sincerely pray for those you led into sin, but that the mercy of which you part take, may find out them! May it even be so, to your everlasting comfort! Some have supposed that this contemptible practice was first introduced into Europe by the Gipsies: but such persons are greatly mistaken. In the dark ages of superstition, in which this wandering people came to our part of the world, prognostication and fortune-telling were carried on to an infinite extent; and so enraged were the deceivers of those days against the Gipsies, that they proclaimed they knew nothing of the _art_; that they were deceivers and impostors.