Seeking for Unseen Guidance
In times of great calamity, the human mind instinctively reaches out to something beyond itself. The individual is made to realize his own impotence and to feel the need of superhuman help. Under such conditions, if we turn to God, we will find Him an ever present source of help; but we should not forget that there is a wily foe in the world, and that he is seeking to intrude his person and thus befog the mind and lead the individual into darkness. A dispatch from Copenhagen states that in some sections of war-stricken Europe, hundreds of superstitious prophets and fortune tellers have been exploiting the weakness of the people. Both men and women have had recourse to the mediums. Some of these astrologers and fortune tellers have made very pessimistic forecasts concerning the outcome of the war, and as a consequence the military authorities in certain localities have forbidden fortune telling and the practices of mediums and astrologers. It may not seem out of place to remark in this connection that these reports come from what we have been told were the Christian nations of Europe. And yet if those nations had been Christian in fact instead of in name merely, they would have been reading the Christian book, and in that book they would have found these words: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” Lev. 19:31. And again: “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?” Isa. 8:19. There is no concord between fortune telling, the practices of wizards and mediums, and the teaching of the Bible. They are definitely opposed to each other. The Bible exposes all sorcery, necromancy, astrology, etc., as the machinations of the evil one. And since the Bible teaches that it is the spirits of demons that “go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:14), it is not surprising to learn of the activity of the agents of demons in the war-distressed areas. But people who actually believe their Bibles, and who personally know the Lord Jesus Christ, will not be easily deceived by any such thing.