Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-03
AN IDOL WORSHIPER.
Father Wall Inveighs Against the
Evils of Telling Fortunes.
YOUNG PEOPLE RUINED BY SEERS,
DR.. McAliSter breaches a Sermon on Mod
ern Greed Revision.
LIVE TALKS ON TOPICS OF THE DAY

Rev. Father Wall, rector of st. PauPs
Cathedral, scored the people of his parish
yesterday, particularly the married women,
on the practice of patronizing fortune tellers
and other wizards who read the past, present
and future, as they cast one eye on your
hand and the other on your pocketbook.
The reverend gentleman denounced them,
and said he had positive knowledge that
young people had their lives ruined as the
result of consultations with fortune tellers
An effort was made to find out whom he
meant, but this could not be learned. It is
supposed that recent case told in the con-
fessional was the cause of Father Wallis re-
marks.
Father Wall began by saying that all per-
sons who visited fortune tellers for the pur-
pose of learning their fortune violated the
first commandment OF God. He said they
became idolators by so doing, and wor-
SHIPPED an idol, at whose feet they fell down
on their knees. He told the story of Moses
on Mount Sinai, who worshiped God while
Aaron and his people were worshiping a
golden calf in the valley.
MOSES WAS ANGRY.
When Moses came down and found what
the people were doing he was so angry that
he threw down the two stone tables he car
ried and broke them. The people threw all
their jewelrY, rings, ETC., at the feet of the
idol and danced around it. while the spirit
of God was on the mountain. There were
%. 900 of them, and God made law for fear
the people would fall into idolatry. Father
Wall said:
"When a person visits a fortune teller to
ascertain his fortune, he goes to find out
what God alone, and no one else, knows.
When you give to a fortune teller your
presence and make him or her believe that
they have foreknowledge of seeing the in
side view of the future, you adore him and
make him believe he has power not given to
the devil Many people believe that when
they have anything stolen or lose their
friends, the first thing they should do is to
run to fortune teller. If you think he can
peer into the future you make him the
equal of God. Therefore you have strange
gods before Him, and violate the first COM
mandment. You are guilty of a mortal SIN,
and should expect the punishment of God
for an indulgency in this practice.
IT is IDOL WORSHIP.
1--WE find youths, young girls, and es-
of this sin. If you deliberately visit a
fortune teller you are indulging in mortal
sin. If you go out of pure thoughtleSsness
it is not so bad, but it is a sin nevertheless
1t is the same thing as going to an idol and
giving your heart to it. This is idolatery of
the worst kind. would like to impress on
your mind that fortune tellers compose the
worst characters in the community. One
class of the business is fortune telling and
the other is the seduction and ruin of youth.
To my own personal knowledge l know of
persons who have been ruined by consulting
these people. warn all persons of the con-
gregation, and hope you will extend this
knowledge, that it is a mortai sin against
the first commandment. Avoid them and
their nefarious business for the designs they
have on the morality of youth
Father Wall also preached on the neces-
sity of further contributions to pay for the
decoration of the church. "Many people,"
he said, "tell me that deserve great praise
for the way the work has been done. OF
course we cannot be insensible to feeling
Of gratitude at what has been accomplished.
1 do not want your praise, but do want your
money. Thiscongregation could easily give
$40, 900 at one sitting, but instead of that we
only got little over one-fourth Of IL.