authority of the United States will be extended over this land of abomination, and the common law enforced against these enemies of God and society.
Spirit-rapping and table-turning are the most melancholy proofs of what the human intellect may come to, when losing the light of Faith. Thousands in the United States believe, that certain persons, called "Mediums," have the power of conversing with the spirits of the departed, who answer the questions put to them by a certain number of raps on a table, and by causing the table to turn when pressed by the fingers. Numbers have become lunatic by believing and practising this superstition. The Mediums are well trained to cause the noises by muscular contractions, and the table-turning is but a clumsy juggle. It is remarkable, however, how errors repeat themselves century after century. Tertullian, in his "Apologeticus pro Christianis," mocks the table-rappers and turners of his day: "Per quos et capræ et mensæ divinare consueverunt." (Apol. c. xxiii.); and Virgil, in the second Æneid, appears to allude to it when he says:
"Troia gaza
Incensis erepta adytis, mensæque Deorum."
10. The German Catholic Church. Such was the designation adopted by a party raised up within the last few years in Germany; but the reader will perceive what little right it has to such a title, when, at the last meeting, held at Schneidemuhl, they not only rejected the Dogmas and Sacraments, which peculiarly distinguish the Catholic Church from the various Protestant sects, but openly renounced even the Apostles' Creed, denied the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, and, in fact, their whole creed now consists, we may say, of one article—to believe in the existence of God. The origin of this party was thus: In the cathedral of Treves, it is piously believed, the seamless garment worn by our Lord is preserved; it is usually called the Holy Robe of Treves. From time to time this is exhibited to the veneration of the people. The Bishop of Treves, Monsigneur Amoldi, published to the faithful of Germany and the world, that the robe would be exhibited for a few weeks. Hundreds of thousands responded to the pious invitation. From the snowy summits of the Swiss mountains, to the low lands of Holland, the people came in multitudes, to venerate the sacred relic. Ronge, an unquiet, immoral priest, who had been previously suspended by his bishop, imagined that it would be just the time to imitate Luther in his attack on Indulgences, and, accordingly, wrote a letter to the prelate Arnoldi, which was published, not alone in the German papers, but in several other parts of Europe besides. He then declared that he
