ABSTRACT
The story of Balaam, whatever the reason for its inclusion in the Sacred Narrative, serves one valuable purpose. Balaam, the renowned magician, is summoned from his Eastern home by the King of Moab in order that he may accomplish by his sinister arts the task of arresting Israel’s victorious progress which honest warfare has failed to achieve. Nothing loth, he consents, but he employs his wizardry in vain. Superstition could receive no more impressive rebuke than this one, uttered by the high-priest of superstition. Even the ceremonies of religion are pressed into the service of superstition. They are distorted and degraded. Instead of exalting and purifying the soul, they are used to minister to its craven fears, its ignoble yearnings. The early history of mankind is a record of superstitions. By reading Professor Frazer’s fascinating book, The Golden Bough, people will see how large a place these false beliefs occupy in the lives of existing savage tribes.
