an adder in the path, that biteth the horses' heels, so that the rider shall fall backwards.' It is not a little remarkable that this reference to the serpent and to its biting the heel should be followed by the utterance of a heart which longed for the help of Him who should bruise the serpent's head, 'I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.'

The next appearance of the word Nachash is where it is recorded that the rod of Moses was turned into a serpent, Ex. 4. 3, and 7. 15; it has been already noticed that the word is distinct here from that which is used in Ex. 7. 9, 10, 12. The serpent is again referred to in Num. 21. 6, where it is also called fiery (Saraph). In verse 7, it is simply called Nachash; in verse 8, Saraph; in verses 9 and 10, Nachash. It is singular that the same word in a slightly different form (Nechash) signifies brass, or rather bronze, and is used here as elsewhere. Hence the serpent of brass was afterwards designated by Hezekiah nechushtan,' a piece of brass. Our Lord's reference to the lifting up of the serpent of brass as a foreshadowing of His crucifixion, and of the benefits which should be obtained therefrom, gives great importance to this whole narrative.

The serpent is also referred to in Deut. 8. 15; Job 26. 13; Ps. 58. 4 (Their poison is like the poison of a serpent'); Ps. 140. 3; Prov. 23. 32, 30. 19; Ecc. 10. 8, 11; Is. 14. 29, 27. 1 (where it is connected with the leviathan and the dragon); Is. 65. 25 (Dust shall be the serpent's meat'); Jer. 8. 17, 46. 22; Am. 5. 19, 9. 3; and Mic. 7. 17. In these passages the maliciousness, stubbornness, and final degradation of the impenitent are especially brought under notice.

It was left for our Lord and His apostles to set forth with increased clearness the real source of that venom which has made man what he is, and also the secret of that power whereby the poison may be eradicated and the poisoner

overcome.

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Tendency of the Mind to Superstition.

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CHAPTER XXVIII.

WITCH, DIVINER, FAMILIAR SPIRIT, MAGICIAN.

§ 1. The tendency of the mind to superstition and to unauthorised means of information.-§ 2. Cashaph, or the Witch.-§ 3. Kesem, or the Diviner. § 4. Ob, or the Familiar Spirit.-§ 5. The Witch of Endor.-§ 6. Id'oni, or the Wizard.-§ 7. Chartummim, or the magicians.-8. Gezar, or the Soothsayer.-§ 9. Other words of similar import.

§ 1. SUPERSTITION is the natural complement to materialism. The mind of man having once become warped in religious matters does not cling with unerring sagacity to the truth that there is a God, but goes aside into bypaths, sometimes resting in that which is material and seeking to exclude the idea of spiritual existences altogether from the mind; at other times oscillating in the direction of what is now called spiritualism, a system known in earlier days by the ruder name of witchcraft. Few things are more fascinating than the thought that the secrets of the hidden world or of the unknown future may be unfolded through dealings with the departed, or that one person may, by going through certain mysterious processes, exercise a powerful influence over the will or destiny of another. Incantations, drugs, vapours, the conjunction of the stars, the voice or flight of birds, the passage of the clouds, mesmerism, animal-magnetism, electro-biology-these and such like have been used in various ages and countries to take the place of religion, and by their means men have mimicked the supernatural dealings of God. But they are all abominable (Deut. 18. 10-12), and are to give way before the simple voice of the inspired prophet.

Accordingly, the Ephesian converts acted on a true instinct, and in plain harmony with the teaching of the Old Testament, when they discarded their curious arts,' and burnt all their books at a great sacrifice (Acts 19. 19). How dishonouring to God these practices are the prophet Isaiah plainly shows (Is. 8. 19), and how unprofitable to man our Lord teaches when he lays down that if men believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead (Luke 16. 31).

§ 2. With one exception, which will be referred to under the head of divination,' the word for witch and witchcraft throughout the Old Testament is Cashaph (). The original meaning of this word is unknown, but if we may judge from the use of cognate forms in Arabic and Syriac, it may be taken to refer to the performance of religious rites, either in the way of prayer or secret communications with another world.

Witchcraft was adopted in very early days as a method of trading upon the religious instincts and superstitions of mankind. It was largely carried on by the female sex, though not confined to it. Thus Cashaph is applied to the 'sorcerers' of Egypt in Ex. 7. 11, to Israelite sorcerers in Jer. 27. 9, and Mal. 3. 5, and to those of Chaldean origin in Dan. 2. 2. It is also used of sorcery in Is. 47. 12. That the Canaanites were well acquainted with the art is evident from the fact that they had a city (Acshaph) which must have been specially named from it (Jos. 11. 1, 12. 20, 19. 25). The word is rendered witch or witchcraft in the following passages:-Ex. 22. 18, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'; Deut. 18. 10; 2 Kin. 9. 22, where there is reference to Jezebel, who was a Zidonian by birth; 2 Chron. 33. 6, with reference to Manasseh; Micah 5. 12; Nahum 3. 4, where the case of Nineveh is referred to.

With regard to the exact nature of the art represented by

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Kesem, or the Diviner.

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this word little is known; but the general rendering of the LXX, which is papuareía, leads to the supposition that the use of drugs, probably to produce clouds of vapour, was part of the process. The art, whatever it might be, was denounced as one of the works of the flesh in Gal. 5. 20, and is referred to in Rev. 9. 21, 21. 8, 22. 15. See also Acts 19. 19.

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§3. The one exception noticed above is 1 Sam. 15. 23, where we read that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft'; but it would be better to say 'the sin of divination,' the subject next to be considered.

The word for divining is Kasam (DDP), (LXX, μavtɛúw,) in every passage except where reference is made to Joseph's divining' cup. The original meaning of the word seems to be to divide' or 'partition out.' Its first appearance is where the elders of Moab go to Balaam with the rewards of divination in their hand' (Num. 22. 7), and where the seer announces that there is no divination against Israel' (23. 23). Balaam is directly called a diviner (A. V. soothsayer) in Josh. 13. 22. We meet with it among the list of similar practices in Deut. 18. 10, and 14, where we are given to understand that it was common among the Canaanites.

The Philistines had their diviners (1 Sam. 6. 2); and the witch of Endor was asked to divine by the familiar spirit' (1 Sam. 28. 8). In the later days of Israel the people resorted to divinations (2 Kin. 17. 17). In Is. 44. 25, it is said of God that He frustrateth the significant tokens of liars (i.e. their false miracles), and maketh diviners mad'; and in Jer. 14. 14, false prophets 'prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart.' See also Jer. 27. 9, 29. 8; Ez. 12. 24, 13. 6, 7, 9, 23, 21. 29, 22. 28; Mic. 3. 6, 7; Zech. 10. 2, where they are described both as lies and as vanity or nothing

ness.

One reason why false prophets practised divination is

evident from Micah 3. 11, where we are told that they did it for money.' Some light is thrown on the nature of the practice, first, by Is. 3. 2, where the word is rendered 'prudent'; and secondly by Prov. 16. 10, where we read that a divine sentence,' i.e. a word of divination, 'is in the lips of the king; his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.' The diviners were doubtless shrewd men, well acquainted with the affairs of those whom they had to do with, and able to deliver their prognostications in oracular and enigmatical language. They prophesied out of their own heart, and had nothing but their own wits to help them, though they professed to obtain information by the interpretation of certain phenomena, which probably they arranged beforehand.

Three special modes of divination are alluded to in Ez. 21. 21, The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows (or knives) bright, he consulted with his images (or teraphim), he looked in the liver.'

The ordinary word for a diviner in the LXX is μávtis, a seer or soothsayer. This art is only once referred to in the N. T., namely, in Acts 16. 16, where we read of the Phillippian damsel that she got for her masters much gains by divining (μαντευομένη).

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§ 4. The familiar spirit is Ob (218), literally, a bottle' (see Job 32. 19, where the word is used), and hence perhaps the hollow sound which might be produced by the wind or breath in an empty bottle or skin. The LXX renders the word yyaoтpíuvos, ventriloquist; so that the process called Ob must probably have depended in some degree on the power of producing some peculiar sound which might represent the voice of the dead. This point is alluded to in Is. 8. 19, where we read of them that have familiar spirits,' together with 'wizards that peep and that mutter' (lit. that