say, is clear from the following account of the expulsion of ev spirits from an individual who was upon the point of bein ordained. But the Mormon priest shall speak for himself : 66 "When we laid our hands upon him, the devil entered him, an tried to prevent us from ordaining him; but the power of Jes Christ in the holy priesthood," observes this rival to Rome, W stronger than the devil; and after all the endeavours of the powe of darkness to prevent us, in the name of Jesus Christ we ordain Brother Richard Currell to the office of a priest in the Church Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In consequence of what ha taken place, many came to our place in the evening, and paid gre attention. "I should tell you that when the devil found he was defeated Brother C., he entered a sister. The devils kept coming in f several hours. As fast as one lot were expelled, another lot entere At one time we counted twenty-seven come out of her. When rebuked them, they would come out, but as soon returned agai The sight was awful, but it has done us all good. I may as w say the devils told us they were sent, some by Cain, some by Ki Judas, Kilo, Kelo, Kalmonia, and Lucifer. Some of these, th informed us, were presidents over seventies in hell. The last th came, previously to our going to prison, told us he was Kilo, o of the presidents, and had six councillors. We cast them o thirty times, and had three hundred and nineteen devils, from th to thirty-seven coming out at a time." The Mormons appear have an exquisitely simple beauty in their école mutuelle for ba tizing and ordination. The following is a notice of a pair of the Mormon Aaronic prie hood, and the process pursued : "We went," says the writer, "and were baptized. I baptiz him first, and afterwards he baptized me. After which I laid hands upon his head, and ordained him to the Aaronic priesthoo afterwards he laid his hands on me, and ordained me to the sa priesthood, for so we were commanded." But holy materialities also have of themselves a sacerdo influence. Hence water is a sort of exorcist, and the Italians ma use of it as a purifying charm, and annually employ a person to over all the rooms in the houses, to sprinkle them with that eleme "The friars, those primitive instruments of superstition, are genera at hand to officiate on these occasions, which they do, muttering they proceed, Sparges me hyssopo, et mundabor' thou sh sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.'" "A similar practice prevailed among the Greeks and Romans also; most of which rites of purification were, according to Ovid, derived from that people. It is distinctly described in one of the pastorals of Theocritus : Then let pure brimstone purge the rooms, and bring The holy-water, too, is mixed with salt. "The custom of sprinkling themselves was, among the heathen, so necessary a part of their religious offices, that the method of excommunication seems to have been by prohibiting to offenders the approach and use of the holy-water. The Emperor Julian, out of spite to the Christians, used to order the victims in the market to be sprinkled with holy-water, on purpose either to starve or force them to eat what, by their own principles, they esteemed polluted. "Thus we see what contrary notions the primitive Christians and the Roman Catholics have of this ceremony. The first condemn it as superstitious, abominable, and irreconcilable with Christianity; the latter adopt it as highly edifying, and applicable to the requirements of Christian society." 2 Another mechanical instrument of exorcism is the Agnus Dei. This "puts the devils to flight, succours women in childbed, takes away the stains of past sins, and furnishes us with new grace for the future." 3 Processions of the images of the gods, in the East and the West, are to this day looked upon as especially a means of spiritually benefiting the processionists. In India, those who would take a close view of the preparatory operations, in addition to the procession itself, find that this species of material religion is as expensive as changing the rainbow-coloured altar-cloths of a Belgravian shrine. Every Friday throughout the year Vishnu is anointed with civet, musk, camphire, &c., and washed clean again with milk. The devotee desirous of viewing the operation pays ifty rupees. This ceremony of rubbing and scrubbing, and causing the god to smell sweet, is styled Poolkab. For seeing the god enrobed in a flowered garment, which ceremony takes place every Thursday, sixty rupees must be aid down.4 There are twelve vahans, or processions of the idols, and each 'Idyll xxiii. 94. 3 Devotion and Office of the Sacred Heart, p. 323. London, 1837. • Coleman, in loco. has reference to different parts of Hindoo mythology in connection with the worship of Vishnu. "On days of popular joy, the Romans were accustomed to decree to their gods a lectisternium; whereupon their statues were taken down from their pedestals, and laid upon couches before the altars, which were loaded with offerings. It is not improbable that this ceremony had been in some degree preserved in the festival of the saints, when their figures, after having been carried in procession, were afterwards deposited on a bench in the nave of their respective churches, where they remained several days, during which the people made their prayers and oblations." Again: "The familiarity with which the Romans treated the images of their gods is not less remarkable, with respect to those of our Saviour and the saints, in the present Italians and Sicilians. I have seen them expostulate with an image in a church, in a subdued whisper, with as much emphasis and expression as if an answer had been forthwith expected to issue from its lips. Caligula communed in secret with Jupiter Capitolinus; sometimes whispering, and listening in his turn; sometimes audibly, and in terms of reproach; for he was heard to threaten that he would send him about his business to Greece. It is to a custom of this kind, generally prevailing in the approaches of the Romans to their gods, that so much of the fifth satire of Persius alluded :— "It is not yours, in mercenary prayers, To ask of heaven what you would die with shame, "An Italian or a Sicilian will sometimes proceed so far as to heap reproaches, curses, and even blows, on the wax, wood, or stone which represents his tutelary saints. The same turbulent gusts of passion displayed themselves in the same way amongst the Romans, who scrupled not to accuse their gods of injustice, and to express their indignation against the faithless protectors by the most unequivocal signs. "To him who smarts beneath the heavenly rod, 1 Blunt, p. 125. 3 2 Sueton. Calig. 22. "Non tu prece poscis emaci, Quæ nisi seductis nequeas exposcere divis: Haud cuivis promptum est, murmurque humilesque susurros "Injustos rabidis pulsare querelis Calicolas, solamen erat." Augustus thought proper to take his revenge upon Neptune by not allowing his image to be carried in procession at the Circensian games. "The prodigious number of small images and household gods, which are still in existence, shows the extent to which they were adopted in the religious system of the Romans. For them in common were reserved the principal living-rooms, and I scarcely remember a single shop or house in Pompeii, in which there is not a niche for their reception. To this day, the shops and houses of Sicily and Italy are not less scrupulously prefaced with a figure or painting of a Madonna or a saint, whose good offices it is not unusual to propitiate by keeping a lamp burning before them without intermission." 1 If, again, we survey the institute of ordeal, we find it impregnated with the selfishness of Caste. "The institution of the ordeal, by which it was superstitiously supposed that the Almighty would reveal the hidden truth or falsehood of men, further tended to connect, first the pagan, and afterwards the Christian priesthood, with the administration of justice." 2 The usual medieval tests of innocence in Europe by means of ordeal are well known. In Madagascar various modes of trial are in use in different parts of the country: such as passing redhot iron over the tongue, plunging the naked arm in an iron pot full of boiling water. In either case to sustain no injury is a proof of innocence. The great practice, however, is the Tangēna. The Tangēna is literally a fruit, deriving its name from the tree, which is much about the size of the English horse-chesnut. It appears to be a most powerful poison; but if taken in small doses only, it operates as an emetic. The lust of money is at the root of this custom, since considerable wealth is gained by those who accuse and administer the poison, as a twentieth part of the property of the poisoned individual goes to these officials, if it be not bequeathed previous to the accusation. The diviners also reap a large harvest from these iniquitous practices. They attend daily for eight or ten days before and after the drinking takes place, and receive one dollar, according to the wealth of the accused. The whole system is characterized by the most heartless cruelty. The parties administering the poison have it in their power to permit the escape of any one criminally charged; and for a reward, they often exercise this partiality. The Tangena is often given to all the slaves in a family in cases 1 Blunt, in loco. 2 Kemble's "Anglo-Saxons in England." of illness occurring to any member of the family. Some one is suspected of having caused the illness by means of witchcraft; and to find out the culprit, the ordeal is put in requisition. accusers. Sometimes the Tangēna is given to two dogs, as the representatives of the accused and the accusers. The property of those convicted by the test of having bewitched another, is wholly confiscated; part falls to the sovereign, part to the judges, part to the As the accusers have an interest in the conviction, there is always a temptation with the unprincipled to make an accusation against any party, however innocent. At the time of a "general clearing," i.e. when a whole town or district is required to submit to the test, a fine of three dollars is paid to the person who is proved innocent. In this, however, he resembles many other suitors at law; for his costs are greater than the amount given him by his verdict. Payment of fees to the cursers, to the Voago, before his successful defence, amount to three times the fine paid him. The Tangēna is a scourge, and a terrible scourge to the country, perhaps its direst. It is a political engine holding in awe a people who, their rulers imagine, can, in their existing state, be held under control only through the medium of terror, superstition, and fear. A fiftieth part of the population is carried off by this most formidable instrument of destruction, which gives not much below one hundred thousand persons in every successive generation as its victims upwards of three thousand a year, and most of these persons in the prime of life."1 Here then, in civilized and savage life, it matters not which, the principle of selfishness is hatefully prominent, alike in its individual and national aspect. All the parties concerned in it avail themselves of the darkness of superstition to trade in plunder, cruelty, and revenge. The same unchristian motives actuated the medieval institutions of feudalism, of the hierarchy, and the Inquisition. There is but one empire that could have put down these selfish enormities—it is one mighty and vast-even that of CHRISTIANITY; and its law is omnipotent it is the BIBLE! 1 Ellis's "Missions to Madagascar." |