The nations whom God drove out of Canaan were steeped in its abominations and ripened under its influence for their righteous doom.――――I am not aware that even one pagan, idolatrous nation, known to history since the world began, has been free from this abomination――the arts of magic. Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, India, Africa, historic Greece and Rome; the old nations of Northern Europe, the savages of America――all come up to testify that they have been cursed by its presence and power. The latest edition, modified slightly to adjust it somewhat to an age of Christian civilization, is the “spiritism” of our day――of which I need at this point to say but two things:――(1.) That its principles and policy, its spirit and its influence, are essentially the old “_necromancy_” of the ages of all history: and (2.) That it naturally becomes the nucleus around which chrystallizes whatever elements in society are irreligious and unchristian.――――This last remark would not deny that some are attracted toward it temporarily by curiosity; but it would maintain that the animus, the soul of the system, is congenial to those who know not God, and who choose not to know him;――who therefore gladly seek a substitute for God, for his Bible, for prayer, and for trust in his providence in these new revelations from the future, unseen world. Passages in the Old Testament treating of this subject are Ex. 22: 18 and Lev. 19: 26, 31, and 20: 6, 27, and Deut. 18: 10, 11, 14, and 1 Sam. 28: 7–20, and 1 Chron. 10: 13, 14, and 2 Kings 21: 6, and 2 Chron. 33: 6, and Isa. 8: 19, 20. II. _Crimes against Parents and Rulers_; (Violations of the Fifth Command). Of crimes against parents, the statutes of Moses specify smiting and cursing (Ex. 21: 15, 17); the penalty in both cases, death. The precept forbidding to curse a parent is repeated impressively (Lev. 20: 9); “For every one that curseth father or mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.” This crime stands in the list of those that are anathematized――in Deut. 27: 16: “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother; and all the people shall say, Amen.”――――In Mat. 15: 3–6 and Mk. 7: 9–13, our Lord seems to give this law forbidding a son to curse father or mother, coupled with the fifth command, a construction broad enough to require him to give them an adequate support――of course in their years of infirmity and want.――――That God had a high regard for this filial duty toward parents is manifest in the place of priority accorded to the fifth command and in the special promise made to those who fulfill its obligations.