THUS it is predicted that Satan will work in the last days. See 2 Thess. 2:9-11. These wonders are wrought to deceive. They are not wrought by true wisdom or knowledge, but by Satanic craft, which exceeds the wisdom of earth's wisest men apart from God. Falsehood in the earth began with Satan. When God declared that disobedience would bring death (Gen. 2:17), Satan declared to our first parents, "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God;" and to perpetuate that falsehood, in order that man may not look to God for salvation, but trust in himself, Satan has, by craft, deceit, lying wonders, and falsehoods, deceived man ever since. He sends his angels in the guise of what are supposed to be the spirits or souls of the dead and deceives and continues in deception those who believe his first lie, who think that man has a conscious intelligent entity that survives the death of the body. From this doctrine we get the hero worship of old, the invocation of martyrs and saints, and finally Modern Spiritualism, whose wonders are claimed to be wrought by "the spirits of the dead." Often these wonders and marvelous tricks are wrought by sleight of hand and exposed. But there are some things which go beyond the mind of grave scientists. The last monthly World has an article on the remarkable Eusapia Paladina, the girl medium of Naples, Italy. The World article says of her:—
"Subjected to the cold, keen, wholly unsympathetic scrutiny of no less distinguished scientists than Prof. Lombroso, the Turin specialist in mental diseases; Sig. Schiaparelli, the great Italian astronomer; Baron Carl Freiherr du Prel, of Munich; Prof. Charles Richet, of Paris; Dr. Ermacora, of Padua; Prof. Gerosa, of Naples; and Prof. Broffetio, of Milan,—with all this battery of scientific scepticism trained point blank on her and alert to strike at the first move on her part that hinted of charlatanry, this remarkable young woman was able to perform feats which apparently set all known laws of nature at defiance. Not only this, but they set at defiance all efforts of the learned doctors of science to penetrate, to detect any jugglery in their execution, or even any unaccounted for movements on the part of the medium which might cover mere legerdemain."
"It was at Milan in the house of Dr. Giorgio Finzi, in the Via Monte di Pieta, that Miss Paladina performed this extraordinary feat. The experiments were directly due to the czar of Russia, who had seen the young Italian medium, was much interested in what he considered her marvelous powers, and requested her to go to Milan and show the czar's envoy and Counsellor of State, M. Aksakoff, who is a believer in Spiritualism, manifestations similar to those which had mystified the czar himself."
The account continues thus:—
"The only condition Miss Paladina required was that the room should be darkened. The medium was then seated in a chair with no less persons than Prof. Lombroso and Dr. Richet each holding one of her hands."
"After a few moments of silence sparks similar to the light of fireflies began to flicker above Eusapia's head, and at the same moment the chair, with the medium seated in it, lifted itself from the floor to a table near by. Then followed a wonderful exhibition of mysterious forces. The medium, with her eyes flashing like diamonds, made the table ascend to the ceiling and flutter about as if it were a scrap of paper, she at the same time groaning and crying, 'Dio mio! Dio mio!' When the scene was over she suffered intensely with pains in the head, back and shoulders, and was so exhausted from the effects that she was unable to appear another time during the week."
At another seance in a darkened room, where one young lady did not believe that the raps came from invisible forms, the medium "jumped up and threw open the windows and blinds, and then, with a wild, excited look, rushed towards the table, her eyes flashing like fire—the most wonderful eyes I have ever seen—spread out her hands with great force over the table, at the same time making three fierce gestures. At this the table went flying all over the room. She kept it suspended near the ceiling for fully three seconds, and when it descended it struck the floor with a bang."
The girl is ignorant, and can neither read or write, but her remarkable powers are admitted by such men as Lombroso and Schiaparelli.
The same writer tells us that Paris has "gone daft" over "palmistry, fortune-telling, and the like." In London is a fortune-teller—Mme. Foweth—"who has been employed by the entire royal household."
These are indications of the working of that power and those evil spirits which go forth to the world to turn men from God, and lead them to destruction. Of it all God has warned the people of earth in his word. Happy is he who finds there his wisdom. He will know that "the dead know not anything," and he will not be deceived.
